January 17Keep yourselves in the love of God — Jude 1:21.
We may daily and hourly keep ourselves in the Lord's love by obedience to, and a growing love for the principles of righteousness. And we are to rejoice in every experience of life—its trials, difficulties, sorrows, disappointments, etc., no less than in its pleasures, if by any or all of these means the Lord shall instruct us and give us clearer insight into our own deficiencies, and a still clearer insight into that perfect law of liberty and love which He has established, and to which He requires our full and loyal heart-submission—Z '02, 173 (R 3021). The love of God, consisting of disinterested love for the Father and the Son with all the heart, mind, soul and strength, of disinterested love for the brethren more than to self and of disinterested love for mankind in general and even for our enemies as self, does not of itself under the present conditions remain in one's heart. Whoever does not preserve it amid the conditions that would otherwise destroy it will surely lose it. If, therefore, we have attained this love, let us seek to maintain it—P '34, 189. Parallel passages: Deut. 33:3, 12; Psa. 63:3; 146:8; Isa. 38:17; Jer. 31:3; John 3:16; 14:21, 23; 16:27; 17:10, 23, 26; Rom. 5:8; 2 Cor. 13:11; Eph. 2:4; Col. 3:14; 1 John 3:1; 4:8-19; Matt. 5:43-48; 19:19; Josh. 22:5; Psa. 91:14; John 13:14, 15, 34, 35; 15:12-19. Hymns: 166, 95, 165, 196, 198, 267, 201. Poems of Dawn, 79: Love's Alchemy. Tower Reading: Z '02, 171 (R 3020). Questions: Have I this week kept myself in the love of God? How? Why? In what circumstances? What helped or hindered therein? With what results? |
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LOVE'S ALCHEMY
LOVE is the filling from one's own
Another's cup.
Love is a daily laying down
And taking up;
A choosing of the stony path
Through each new day
That other feet may tread with ease
A smoother way.
Love is not blind, but looks abroad
Through other eyes;
And asks not "Must I give?" but "May
I sacrifice?"
Love hides its grief, that other hearts
And lips may sing;
And burdened, walks, that other lives
May, buoyant, wing.
Brother, hast thou a love like this
Within thy soul?
'Twill change thy name to saint when thou
Dost reach thy goal.
LOVE is the filling from one's own
Another's cup.
Love is a daily laying down
And taking up;
A choosing of the stony path
Through each new day
That other feet may tread with ease
A smoother way.
Love is not blind, but looks abroad
Through other eyes;
And asks not "Must I give?" but "May
I sacrifice?"
Love hides its grief, that other hearts
And lips may sing;
And burdened, walks, that other lives
May, buoyant, wing.
Brother, hast thou a love like this
Within thy soul?
'Twill change thy name to saint when thou
Dost reach thy goal.
