Evangelists say, " Can the gospel suit a person who does not feel that he is a sinner?" It suited me! I found by it that God had given Christ, and that Christ, as a living Man-God manifest in flesh-with all human affections, occupied in heaven with me, was revealed to my heart. The first effect was to bring out a flow of affections towards Him; the rest came afterward, and I had to learn all my sinnership. But my heart was caught by the beauty of that Christ. I have not got Him yet, but God has got Him for me. Rays of light shine down from His face, but I shall not see Him as He is, till He comes to take me up. I can raise my voice and join the saints in songs of praise till I see Him face to face, and am glorified together with Him.
Where love is in activity in the heart, action precedes thought. The Father is on the prodigal's neck, and the reason is given afterward. Love leads the heart captive. The Father's eye crosses an object, and Isis heart and mind single it out at once. "There is my prodigal son."
So in John at Pathos. The Spirit knew how great the tie was between Christ and John, and gives an impulse to his heart's affections, so that it all bursts out in a moment. Christ stands before him-there He is! and John breaks forth "Unto him that loved us.... be, glory and dominion, forever and ever." Christ, in certain ways, had told of heights of love in the divine character, and of depths of misery in the objects of this love. He had let all this height and depth into the heart of poor John, and John singles Him out (Rev. 1:4, 5), and his heart is instantly put into the position of worship: " To him be glory and dominion, forever and ever, Amen."
Christ Himself is that which feeds our hearts, and His love so realized that it becomes the one object of our hearts to love Him.