11. The true Believer prays that the Love of God may be kindled in his heart

EXHORTATION.

"God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him. We love him because he first loved us."—1 John, iv. 16, 19.

God is love, and because he is love, he wills that all his children and believers should stand in true love. Love is the tie which rivets our hearts to God, but also to the hearts of our neighbor. 1. A true believer prays to God that he will fill his heart with his holy love.

2. He must not despise the means whereby the love of God can be commenced and increased in him, devout attention to, and reflection on the Word of God, and the proper use of the communion. 3. If he stands in the love of God he must prove it by a holy Christian walk, becoming speech, and works well pleasing unto God.

4. But he must be well on his guard, lest, like Demas, he come to love the world again; for who so loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. Therefore, out of love to God, he must eschew the world, which would lead him away from God again. LOVE OF GOD MAY BE KINDLED IN HIS HEART.

5. In such love he must remain till death.

6. The love of God must increase constantly with increasing years; it is a shame to spend twenty, thirty, or forty years in the pleasures and follies of the world, forgetting the love of God. O thou loving and gracious God! thou alone art amiable; thee alone I ought to love with all my heart, with all my soul. O, I bewail and acknowledge before thee with great contrition of spirits, not only that the love of thee, my loving father, of Jesus, my Redeemer and Saviour, and of the Holy Ghost, my Guide and Teacher, has been extinguished in me by original sin, but also that I have not always made room for thy calling and efficacious mercy, to light again in my heart the flame of a true love of thee. I beseeën thee to change my heart, to pluck from it all the love of the world and of sin, and to let mine ears hear the words, "Love not the world nor what is in the world, for if any one loveth the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Expel from my heart the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life, to which, alas! I am disposed by nature, and illume by thy holy Spirit, within my heart a love of thee, that I may love thee, as the highest good, for thine own THE TRUE RELIEVER FRAYS THAT THE sake alone, and may eschew all the vanities of the world. For if I would be a true child of God, the world of sin, and the love of self, must leave my heart, and thou must be loved above all things. Therefore, I come to thee, O God! and pray thee to give me thy holy Spirit, to plant this Christian virtue in my bosom, in whose power I will love thee my God, with all my heart, and constantly; my soul shall think of thee, my lips shall speak of thee, thou shalt be more dear to me than all the world and pleasures of the world, than all happiness and glory. For love of thee I will sin knowingly no longer, for love of thee I will renounce all sinful companionship, for love of thee I will begin to be truly pious, and direct my actions my thy will and example alone, thee will I honor and fear, thee serve, follow and obey. Give me courage, if I am to suffer anything for thy sake, and strengthen me then by thy mighty aid. O let me be united in the bonds of love with thee, in time and in eternity. I love thee, O my God! aye, thee, for thine own sake; nothing in this world, neither scorn nor temptation, shall damp my love; and if there were no hell or heaven to impel me to love, thou wert enough alone, to love thee and thee alone. Amen. LOVE OF GOD MAY BE KINDLED IN HIS HEART.

1. Would that to its inmost fountains,

Love of God would fill my heart:

Swelling upward high as mountains,

Heavenward drive my soul to start

O that when I walk and tarry,

What I wear and what I carry,

Heart and Spirit, mind and soul

Would the love of God control.

2. That my heart this love would sever

From the world's temptations quite,

It would only seek forever

What is pleasing in thy sight.

That the world would hate and scorn me,

And God's love alone adorn me;

Never would I do a deed.

That his spirit would forbid.

3. In such love's embrace enfolded

All my heart new made should be,

To a better image moulded,

Worthy, gracious Lord, of thee.

In the field and on the fallow

Still this love my heart should hallow.

All I do and all I seek

Should the love of thee bespeak.

4. O then to its inmost fountains,

Love of God, fill thou my heart;

Swell it upward, high as mountains,

Heavenward drive it to depart.

MORNING PRAYER FOR THURSDAY

When I walk and when I tarry,

What I wear and what I carry,

Heart and spirit, mind and soul,

Let the love of God control.

5. And when love on earth is ended

When I yield my mortal breath,

Let the heavenly love be blended

Closely with the fear of death.

Let it so pervade my very

Spirits' inmost sanctuary,

That the only change may be

From thy love, thyself to see.