八月七日

正直人愛你。（改譯）（歌1：4）

信徒愛耶穌的愛比愛一切人的愛更深。不久他們要失去他們的父母，但却不能離開基督。他們把屬世的福樂看得很輕，但却緊緊把他存在心裏。他們自動地爲他的緣故舍掉自己，但無論怎樣摧逼也不能舍掉他。一點點愛或者可以被逼迫的火燒幹，但一個真信徒的愛却像一條深邃的河流。人們曾多方致力分化信徒與主的關係，但每一次他們的企圖都歸失效，榮冠、怒杖，都不能把他們分開。這種聯繫是世界的權勢所不能分開的。無論是人或是魔鬼都不能找到一把鑰匙打開這鎖。撒但所犯的嚴重錯誤乃是想分裂這種密切的關係，經上說：“正直人愛你。”什麽也不能塗去這話。正直人的愛有多大的力量，就是自己也不能估計。我們的愛心若是不够，那才是一件可悲的事呢！願我們心中的愛日漸增加，長進。願我們能和路茲福德（Samuel Rutherford）一同說：“願我有全世界和天上所有的愛——天上的天和萬千世界的愛——都給美麗、可愛、最可愛的基督。”可惜，我們愛情的量最多不過像水桶上的一滴，哪能滿足他的乾旱呢？若我們按著自己的心願來測量我們的愛，當然顯得很多；但我們要憑主的判斷才行。願我們把衆心的愛結合起來歸于全然可愛的主！

“耶穌，我愛你名，比愛他名加增，耶穌我主。

獨你爲我永業，有你我無匱乏；無你，我多憂怯；耶穌我主。”

August 7

"The upright love Thee" -- Song of Solomon 1:4

Believers love Jesus with a deeper affection then they dare to give to any other being. They would sooner lose father and mother then part with Christ. They hold all earthly comforts with a loose hand, but they carry Him fast locked in their bosoms. They voluntarily deny themselves for His sake, but they are not to be driven to deny Him. It is scant love which the fire of persecution can dry up; the true believer's love is a deeper stream than this. Men have laboured to divide the faithful from their Master, but their attempts have been fruitless in every age. Neither crowns of honour, now frowns of anger, have untied this more than Gordian knot. This is no every-day attachment which the world's power may at length dissolve. Neither man nor devil have found a key which opens this lock. Never has the craft of Satan been more at fault than when he has exercised it in seeking to rend in sunder this union of two divinely welded hearts. It is written, and nothing can blot out the sentence, "The upright love Thee." The intensity of the love of the upright, however, is not so much to be judged by what it appears as by what the upright long for. It is our daily lament that we cannot love enough. Would that our hearts were capable of holding more, and reaching further. Like Samuel Rutherford, we sigh and cry, "Oh, for as much love as would go round about the earth, and over heaven--yea, the heaven of heavens, and ten thousand worlds--that I might let all out upon fair, fair, only fair Christ." Alas! our longest reach is but a span of love, and our affection is but as a drop of a bucket compared with His deserts. Measure our love by our intentions, and it is high indeed; 'tis thus, we trust, our Lord doth judge of it. Oh, that we could give all the love in all hearts in one great mass, a gathering together of all loves to Him who is altogether lovely!