(Concluded from p. 146.)

Going on to chapter 5 we hear the call, "Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us and has given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God of a sweet smelling savor." Here we see the love of Christ as a

PATTERN LOVE

He has loved, and now we are to love. He has loved us-that is, all His own, and we are to love the same "us"-that is all His own, likewise. And His love was a love that led to the sacrifice of Himself. He gave Himself for us. As He has loved so we are to love. Thus we see that we can never love our fellow-believers enough and never can we do enough in seeking their good and profit.

A beloved and devoted servant of Christ used to say that he would "like to be a door-mat if the saints would wipe their feet upon him." He would like them to be cleansed from all that hindered them in the enjoyment of that which was theirs in Christ. This is the spirit which should mark every one of the saints of God.

It has been observed that Scripture does not call us to look for love from others but does call us to manifest love ourselves. And this is the more blessed part, a part which is seen in the whole story of our Lord's pathway, in which He said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." He has set us the pattern of love, and we are called to walk in His steps. How little we love like Him, each believer has to own. But we may take courage as we remember that we are taught of God to love one another, and that the Holy Spirit, given to us, produces "love in the Spirit," the one to the other, and that "the
fruit of the Spirit is love" and kindred graces. As we walk in the power of the ungrieved Holy Spirit so the fruit will be produced in ever-increasing measure.

We see another view of the same love of Christ in vers. 25-27 of this 5th chapter. We read of the

PERFECT LOVE

of Christ to the assembly.-

"Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it:that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish."

Here we have presented before us Christ's love to the church (or assembly), that is, to His own loved ones of this present time, looked at not as individuals (as in other passages to which we have referred), but as a whole -as one blessed company which is seen as His Body and as His Bride. Verse 25 speaks of that love as displayed in the past. He gave Himself for it. Only thus could He secure it for His own. Adam fell into a deep sleep, that from his side might be taken the rib of which the Lord God made the woman to be his bride. And out of the deep sleep of the death of Christ the Church has been formed for Him. And He gave Himself that it might be His own. It is of Himself and for Himself.
Verse 26 tells of His present service of love on behalf of that assembly. Having sanctified it, having set it apart to Himself, He washes it with the water of the Word. He uses the truth unfolded in the Scriptures to cleanse it from any defilement contracted on its heavenly, homeward way, for He would have it even now more and more according to His own thoughts, as in a coming day He will have His Bride in perfect conformity to Himself.

Finally, in verse 26, we see that same love in its future action. He will present the Church to Himself a glorious assembly without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. It will be like Himself, holy and without blemish, fitted to be displayed before wondering worlds as His Bride, His companion, for the day of His glory.

One more passage is to occupy us for a little. I will speak of it as the

PROVOKING LOVE

of Christ. It is found in 2 Cor. 5:14:

"For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge that if one died for all, then were all dead:and that He died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto Him which died for them and rose again."

As the truth of the love of Christ fills our hearts it must produce an effect. It will create a response. In some little way we shall seek to answer to His wondrous love to us. And His love impels us in this direction. He died for us. We now live through and in Him. His love claims our life. Not henceforth to ourselves are we to live, but unto Him, the Risen One who died.

Our whole life before our conversion swung round ourselves. "I," "self," was the center which dominated our whole being. It was our pleasure we sought. It was our profit we aimed at. It was our glory we labored to effect It was "I, I, I," each day and every day, and each year and every year. In the death of Christ that life of sin and self was brought to its end, as we have seen, and now ours is the happy lot of living unto Him who died to give us the liberty which is ours.

The great musical composer Gounod is said to have remarked concerning his own productions and those of Mozart:"When I was twenty I said, Gounod. When I was thirty I said, Gounod and Mozart. When I was forty I said, Mozart and Gounod, and now that I am fifty I say, Mozart." Little by little he had been brought to think more of Mozart than of himself. And is it not thus that the Holy Spirit is working with us that we may be brought more and more to refuse ourselves and delight and live unto Him who loves us and gave Himself for us? Christ is everything to God, and God would have Him to be everything to us.

May that love which we have been considering constrain us increasingly so that His interests in the gospel and among His loved ones may be the controlling interests in our lives while we wait for Him to come and take us to His own Home, the Father's house, where His love will be our joy and delight for ever.

"Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus,

Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free:
Rolling as a mighty ocean
In its fulness over me.
Underneath me, all around me,
Is the current of Thy love;
Leading onward, leading homeward,
To my glorious rest above.

Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus,
Love of every love the best;
'Tis an ocean vast of blessing,
'Tis a haven sweet of rest.
Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus,
'Tis a Heaven of heavens to me;
And it lifts me up to glory,
For it lifts me up to THEE."

Inglis Fleming