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030 - Twenty-ninth Day The Spirit of Love · Spirit of Christ

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  Speaker 1: Twenty ninth Day of the Spirit of Christ by Andrew Murray.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Twenty ninth Day.
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  Speaker 1: The Spirit of Love. The fruit of the Spirit is
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  Speaker 1: love Galatians five twenty two. I beseech you by the
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  Speaker 1: love of the Spirit Romans fifteen thirty, who also declared
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  Speaker 1: unto us your love in the Spirit Colossians one eight.
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  Speaker 1: Our subject to day leads us up into the very
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  Speaker 1: center of the inner sanctuary. We are to think of
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  Speaker 1: the love of the Spirit. We shall have to learn
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  Speaker 1: that love is not only one among others of the
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  Speaker 1: graces of the Spirit, it is not only the chief
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  Speaker 1: among them, but that the Spirit is indeed nothing less
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  Speaker 1: than the divine Love itself come down to dwell in us,
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  Speaker 1: and that we have only so much of the Spirit
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  Speaker 1: as we have of love. God is a spirit, God
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  Speaker 1: is Love. In these two words we have the only
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  Speaker 1: attempt that Scripture makes to give us in human language
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  Speaker 1: what may be called a definition of God footnote. The
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  Speaker 1: third expression of the same sort, God is light is
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  Speaker 1: a figurative one end a footnote. As a spirit, he
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  Speaker 1: has life in himself, is independent of all around him,
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  Speaker 1: and has power over all to enter into it, to
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  Speaker 1: penetrate it with his own life, to communicate himself to it.
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  Speaker 1: It is through the Spirit that God is the father
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  Speaker 1: of spirits, that he is the God of creation, that
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  Speaker 1: he is the God and redeemer of man. All life
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  Speaker 1: is owing to the Spirit of God. And it is
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  Speaker 1: so because God is love within himself. He is love,
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  Speaker 1: as seen in the Father, giving all he hath to
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  Speaker 1: the Son, and the Son seeking all his he has in
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  Speaker 1: the Father. In this life of love between the Father
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  Speaker 1: and the Son, the Spirit is the bond of fellowship.
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  Speaker 1: The Father is the loving one, the fountain, the Son
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  Speaker 1: the beloved one, the great reservoir of love, ever receiving
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  Speaker 1: and ever giving back. The Spirit, the living love that
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  Speaker 1: makes them one in him. The divine life of love
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  Speaker 1: hath its ceaseless flow and overflowing. It is that same
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  Speaker 1: love with which the Father loves the Son that rests
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  Speaker 1: on us and seeks to fill us too. And it
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  Speaker 1: is through the Spirit that this love of God is
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  Speaker 1: revealed and communicated to us. In Jesus, it was the
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  Speaker 1: spirit that led him to the work of love for
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  Speaker 1: which he was anointed to preach glad tidings to the
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  Speaker 1: poor and deliverance to the captives. Through that same spirit,
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  Speaker 1: he offered himself a sacrifice for us. The Spirit comes
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  Speaker 1: to us freighted with all the love of God and
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  Speaker 1: of Jesus. The Spirit is the love of God. And
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  Speaker 1: when that spirit enters us, his first work is the
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  Speaker 1: love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by
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  Speaker 1: the Holy Ghost, which was given unto us. What he
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  Speaker 1: gives is not only the faith or the experience of
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  Speaker 1: how greatly God loves, but something infinitely more glorious. The
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  Speaker 1: love of God, as a spiritual existence, as a living power,
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  Speaker 1: enters our hearts. It cannot be otherwise, for the love
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  Speaker 1: of God exists in the spirit. The outpouring of the
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  Speaker 1: Spirit is the impouring of love. This love now possesses
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  Speaker 1: the heart. That one, same love with which God loves
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  Speaker 1: Jesus and ourselves and all His children, and which overflows
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  Speaker 1: to all the world, is within us, and is, if
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  Speaker 1: we know it and trust it and give up to it,
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  Speaker 1: the power for us to live in two. The spirit
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  Speaker 1: is the life of the life love of God. The
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  Speaker 1: Spirit in us is the love of God taking up
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  Speaker 1: abode within us. Such is the relation between the Spirit
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  Speaker 1: and the love of God. Let us now consider the
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  Speaker 1: relation between our spirit and love. We must here again
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  Speaker 1: refer to what has been said of man's threefold nature, body, soul,
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  Speaker 1: and spirit, as constituted in creation and disorganized by the
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  Speaker 1: fall see note See we saw how the soul, as
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  Speaker 1: the seat of self consciousness, was to be subject to
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  Speaker 1: the spirit, the seat of the God consciousness, and how
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  Speaker 1: sin was simply self assertion, the soul refusing the rule
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  Speaker 1: of the spirit to gratify itself in the lust of
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  Speaker 1: the body. The fruit of that sin was that self
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  Speaker 1: ascended the throne of the soul to rule there instead
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  Speaker 1: of God. In the spirit. Selfishness thus became the ruling
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  Speaker 1: power in man's life. Self, that had refused God his right,
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  Speaker 1: at once refused fellow man his due. And the terrible
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  Speaker 1: story of sin in the world is simply the history
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  Speaker 1: of the origin, the growth, the power, the reign of self.
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  Speaker 1: And it is only when the original order is restored,
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  Speaker 1: when the soul gives the spirit the precedence it claims
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  Speaker 1: and self is denied to make way for God, that
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  Speaker 1: selfishness will be conquered, and love toward our brother flow
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  Speaker 1: from love toward God. In other words, as the renewed
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  Speaker 1: Spirit becomes the abode of the Spirit of God and
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  Speaker 1: his love. And as the regenerate man yields himself to
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  Speaker 1: let the spirit have soul sway that love will again
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  Speaker 1: become our life and our joy. To every disciple, the
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  Speaker 1: Master says, here again, let him deny self and follow me.
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  Speaker 1: Many a one has sought in vain to follow Jesus
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  Speaker 1: in his life of love, and could not because he
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  Speaker 1: neglectsd what was so indispensable. Denying self self Following Jesus
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  Speaker 1: always fails because it cannot love as he loves. If
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  Speaker 1: we understand this, we are prepared to admit the claim
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  Speaker 1: that Jesus makes, and that the world makes too, that
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  Speaker 1: our proof of discipleship is to be love. The change
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  Speaker 1: we profess to have undergone is so divine, the deliverance
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  Speaker 1: from the power of self and sin so complete, the
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  Speaker 1: indwelling of the spirit of God's love is so real
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  Speaker 1: and true, and the provision thus made to enable us
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  Speaker 1: to live so sufficient that love, or the New Commandment,
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  Speaker 1: as the fulfilling of the law, ought to be the
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  Speaker 1: natural overflow of the new life in every believer. That
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  Speaker 1: it is not so is simply another proof of how
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  Speaker 1: little believers understand their calling to walk after the Spirit,
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  Speaker 1: really to be spiritual men. All the complaints that are
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  Speaker 1: continue being made by ourselves or those around us, of
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  Speaker 1: tempers unconquered and of selfishness prevailing, of harsh judgments and
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  Speaker 1: unkind words, of the want of a christ like meekness
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  Speaker 1: and patience and gentleness of the little that is really
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  Speaker 1: being done by the majority of Christians in the way
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  Speaker 1: of self sacrifice for the social and religious needs of
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  Speaker 1: the perishing around them. All this is simply the proof
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  Speaker 1: that it has not yet been understood that to be
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  Speaker 1: a Christian just means to have the Spirit of Christ,
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  Speaker 1: just means to have His love, to have been made
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  Speaker 1: by Him, a fountain of love springing up and flowing
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  Speaker 1: out in streams of living water. We know not what
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  Speaker 1: the Spirit is meant to be in us, because we
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  Speaker 1: have not accepted him for what the Master gave. We
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  Speaker 1: are more carnal than spiritual. It was thus with the Corinthians.
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  Speaker 1: In them we see the remarkable phenomenon of a church
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  Speaker 1: in everything enriched in Christ, in all utterance and all knowledge,
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  Speaker 1: coming behind in no gift, abounding in everything in faith
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  Speaker 1: and utterance and knowledge, and yet so sadly wanting in love.
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  Speaker 1: The sad spectacle teaches us how under the first movings
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  Speaker 1: of the Holy Spirit, the natural powers of the soul, knowledge, faith,
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  Speaker 1: utterance may be mightily affected without self, yet being entirely surrendered,
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  Speaker 1: And how thus many of the gifts of the Spirit
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  Speaker 1: may be seen while the chief of all love is
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  Speaker 1: sadly wanting. It teaches us how to be truly spiritual.
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  Speaker 1: It is not enough for the Spirit to take hold
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  Speaker 1: of these natural soul endowments and rouse them to exercise
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  Speaker 1: in God's service. Something more is needed. He has entered
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  Speaker 1: the soul, that through it he may obtain a fixed
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  Speaker 1: and undivided sway in soul and spirit, both that with
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  Speaker 1: Self depose, God may reign, and the token that Self
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  Speaker 1: is deposed and that God does reign will be love,
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  Speaker 1: the surrender, and the power to count nothing life but love,
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  Speaker 1: a life in the love of the Spirit. Not very
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  Speaker 1: different was the state of the Galatians, to whom the
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  Speaker 1: words the fruit of the Spirit is love were addressed,
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  Speaker 1: though their error was not that of the Corinthians, boasting
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  Speaker 1: of gifts and knowledge, but as seeking after and trusting
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  Speaker 1: in carnal observances and ordinances. The result was in both
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  Speaker 1: the same The spirit's full dominion was not accepted in
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  Speaker 1: the inner life of love, and so the flesh ruled
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  Speaker 1: in them, causing bitterness and envy and enmity. And even
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  Speaker 1: so it is still in much of what bears the
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  Speaker 1: name of the Christian Church. On the one hand, the
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  Speaker 1: trust in gifts and knowledge, in sadness of creed and
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  Speaker 1: earnestness of work. On the other, the satisfaction informs and
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  Speaker 1: sol services leaves the flesh in full vigor, not crucified
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  Speaker 1: with Christ, and so the spirit is not free to
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  Speaker 1: work out true holiness or a life in the power
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  Speaker 1: of Christ's love. Oh, do let us learn the lesson
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  Speaker 1: and pray God very fervently to teach it to his
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  Speaker 1: people that a church or a Christian professing to have
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  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit must prove it in the first place
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  Speaker 1: by the exhibition of a christ like love, both in
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  Speaker 1: its gentleness in bearing wrong, and in its life of
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  Speaker 1: self sacrifice to overcome the wrong and to save all
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  Speaker 1: who are under its power. The life of Christ must
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  Speaker 1: be repeated in his members. The Spirit is, indeed the
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  Speaker 1: love of God come down to us. Footnote see on
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  Speaker 1: the Love of Christ dwelling in us note p end
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  Speaker 1: of footnote as searching and solemn. As this truth is
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  Speaker 1: in this aspect, so comforting and encouraging is it in another?
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  Speaker 1: The Spirit is the Love of God come down to us?
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  Speaker 1: Then we have that love within our reach. It is
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  Speaker 1: indeed dwelling within us. Since the day when in believing
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  Speaker 1: we were sealed with the Holy Ghost, the love of
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  Speaker 1: God has been shed abroad in our hearts. The love
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  Speaker 1: of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts through
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  Speaker 1: the Holy Ghost, which was given unto us, though there
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  Speaker 1: may have been little to see of it in our lives,
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  Speaker 1: though we ourselves have hardly felt or known it, though
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  Speaker 1: the blessing has been unrecognized. There it was with the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit came down the Love of God into our hearts.
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  Speaker 1: The two could never be separated. And if we would
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  Speaker 1: now come to the experience of the blessing, we must
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  Speaker 1: just begin by a very simple faith in what the
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  Speaker 1: Word says. The word is spirit breathed, the divinely prepared
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  Speaker 1: organ through which the Spirit reveals what he is and does.
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  Speaker 1: As we take that word word as divine truth, the
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  Speaker 1: Spirit will make it truth in us. Let us believe
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  Speaker 1: that the Holy Spirit, possessor and bearer to us of
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  Speaker 1: all God's love, has been within our heart with all
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  Speaker 1: that love ever since we became God's children. Because the
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  Speaker 1: veil of the flesh has never been rent in us,
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  Speaker 1: the outstreaming and power of that love has been but
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  Speaker 1: feeble and hidden from our consciousness. Let us believe that
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  Speaker 1: He dwells within us to reveal within us, as the
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  Speaker 1: power of our life, the love of God. In this
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  Speaker 1: faith that the love shedding Spirit is within us, let
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  Speaker 1: us look up to the Father in earnest prayer to
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  Speaker 1: plead for his mighty working in our inner man, that
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  Speaker 1: Christ may dwell in our hearts, that we may be
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  Speaker 1: rooted and grounded in love, that our whole life may
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  Speaker 1: have its strength and nourishment in love. As the answer comes,
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  Speaker 1: the Spirit will first reveal to us the love of God,
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  Speaker 1: the love of the Father to Christ as his love
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  Speaker 1: to us, the love of Christ to us, the same
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  Speaker 1: with which the Father loved him through the same spirit.
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  Speaker 1: This love then rises and returns to its source as
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  Speaker 1: our love to God and Christ. And because that Spirit
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  Speaker 1: has revealed that same love to all God's children around us,
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  Speaker 1: our experience of it as coming from God or returning
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  Speaker 1: up to God is ever one with love to the brethren.
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  Speaker 1: Just as the water descending in rain and flowing out
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  Speaker 1: as fountains or streams, and rising up to Heaven again
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  Speaker 1: as vapor, is all one. So the love of God,
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  Speaker 1: in its threefold form, his love to us, our love
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  Speaker 1: to Him, and the love to each other as brethren.
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  Speaker 1: The love of God is within thee by the Holy Spirit.
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  Speaker 1: Believe it and rejoice in it. Yield thyself to it
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  Speaker 1: as a divine fire, consuming the sacrifice and lifting it heavenward.
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  Speaker 1: Exercise and practice it in intercourse with every one on earth.
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  Speaker 1: Then thou shalt understand and prove that the Spirit of
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  Speaker 1: God is the Love of God. Blessed Lord Jesus, in
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  Speaker 1: holy reverence. I bow before Thee as love incarnate. The
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  Speaker 1: Father's love gave thee. Thy coming was a mission of love.
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  Speaker 1: Thy whole life was love. Thy death its divine zeal.
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  Speaker 1: The one commandment thou gavest thy disciples was love. Thy
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  Speaker 1: one prayer before the throne is that thy disciples may
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  Speaker 1: be one as thou with the Father, and that His
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  Speaker 1: love may be in them. The one chief trait of
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  Speaker 1: thy likeness, thou longest to see in us is that
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  Speaker 1: we love even as Thou lovest. The one irresistible proof
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  Speaker 1: to the world of thy divine mission will be the
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  Speaker 1: love of thy disciples to each other. And the spirit
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  Speaker 1: that comes from THEE to us is the very spirit
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  Speaker 1: of thy self, sacrificing love. Teaching thy saints to live
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  Speaker 1: and die for others as thou Didst. Holy Lord Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: Look upon thy church, look upon our hearts, and wherever
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  Speaker 1: thou seest that there is not love like thine, Oh,
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  Speaker 1: make haste and deliver thy saints from all that is
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  Speaker 1: still selfish and unloving. Teach them to yield that self
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  Speaker 1: which cannot love, to thee accursed cross to await the
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  Speaker 1: fate it deserves. Teach us to believe that we can
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  Speaker 1: love because the Holy Spirit has been given us. Teach
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  Speaker 1: us to begin to love and serve, to sacrifice self
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  Speaker 1: and live for others. That love in action may learn
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  Speaker 1: its power may be increased and perfected. Oh, teach us
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  Speaker 1: to believe that because thou livest in us, thy love
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  Speaker 1: is in us too, and we can love as thou dost,
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  Speaker 1: Lord Jesus. Thou love of God, Thine own spirit is
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  Speaker 1: with its Oh, let him break through and fill our
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  Speaker 1: whole life with love our men. One the way whereby
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  Speaker 1: the Spirit worketh any grace in the believer is by
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  Speaker 1: stirring them up to act it. The Spirit of God
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  Speaker 1: doth not effectually work love or give strength to love
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  Speaker 1: until we act it. Because all inward graces are discerned
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  Speaker 1: by their acts as seed in the ground, by its springing.
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  Speaker 1: We cannot see or feel any such thing as love
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  Speaker 1: to God or Man in our hearts before we act it.
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  Speaker 1: We know not our spiritual strength except as we use
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  Speaker 1: and exercise it. Two. The love of God, the fount
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  Speaker 1: whence flows love to men, hath been shed abroad in
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  Speaker 1: our hearts through the Holy Ghost, which was given unto us.
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  Speaker 1: The love is there, but we may remain ignorant of
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  Speaker 1: it unless we begin in the faith that we have
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  Speaker 1: the power to obey the command to love God and
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  Speaker 1: Man with our whole heart. Faith and obedience ever precede
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  Speaker 1: the conscious enjoyment and experience of the Spirit's power. As
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  Speaker 1: God is love to you, be you love to all around.
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  Speaker 1: I beseech you by the love of the Spirit. Three,
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  Speaker 1: Let us now seek to keep the two sides of
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  Speaker 1: the truth in harmony. On the one hand, wait much
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  Speaker 1: in God's holy presence for the quickening of your faith
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  Speaker 1: and consciousness, that the love shedding Holy Spirit doth dwell
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  Speaker 1: in you doth fill you. On the other, give yourself
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  Speaker 1: apart from what you feel, to a wholehearted obedience to
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  Speaker 1: the command of Love, and act out in your life
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  Speaker 1: the gentleness and forbearance, the kindliness and helpfulness, the self
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  Speaker 1: sacrifice and beneficence of Christ Jesus. Live in the love
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  Speaker 1: of Jesus, and you will be a messenger of his
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  Speaker 1: love to every disciple of his you meet, to every
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  Speaker 1: one who does not yet know him. The more intimate
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  Speaker 1: your communion with Jesus and the life of Heaven is
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  Speaker 1: through the Holy Spirit, the more accurate will your translation
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  Speaker 1: of that life be into the intercourse of daily life.
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  Speaker 1: For no man hath beheld God at any time. If
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  Speaker 1: we love one another, God abideth in us. The compensation
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  Speaker 1: for not beholding God is this, we have one another
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  Speaker 1: to love. If we do this, God abideth in us,
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  Speaker 1: we have not to ask if our brother be worthy.
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  Speaker 1: God's love to us and to him is love to
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  Speaker 1: the unworthy. It is with this love, the divine love,
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  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit fills us, teaching us to love the
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  Speaker 1: brethren with it. End of twenty ninth day