IT is to be feared that many make a ruinous mistake on this point. They try to make themselves fit for God, as they say. They labor and work, vainly hoping to make their cold hearts love, and their proud hearts submit to God. They tell us that they feel they have a great deal to do, and their hope is, that they will be good Christians one day. They put salvation at the end, instead of the starting-point. They sometimes flatter themselves that they are better than other people; but they are withal still far from God, unwashed and un-reconciled. Into this most serious mistake they are sometimes helped by those who call themselves ministers of religion, who are deceivers, and themselves deceived; and it is only when the scriptures of truth, which testify of God's love and Christ's finished work, are received into the heart by the power of the Holy Ghost, that the snare is made manifest, and they are delivered from the power of darkness, and brought to enjoy the liberty of the children of God.
We lately read of a little girl who was thus led astray, till God in His mercy delivered her; and we quote freely from it, because it illustrates, we fear, the condition of many others. This little girl had become very anxious about her soul, and was told that God would not love her, or give her pardon, until her then. She was told, "No, not until your proud heart submits, and your cold heart loves." Accordingly, the heart had submitted to Him, and until she loved Him. Consequently, the dear child was directed to go away and pray, and struggle to get her heart to submit, and to obtain this love. After striving for some time, and finding herself no better, she came back, and 'asked if God was willing to forgive and love her poor child was almost driven to distraction, and would sometimes throw herself upon the floor of her room, and agonize in effort and in prayer to get her heart to submit, and to love God; but still she felt no change in heart, no love springing up there, after all her toiling and prayers. Unhappy child! led into the wrong road, by the false teaching to which she had listened—man's tradition, instead of God's truth. She almost suspected she was taking a wrong course; and complaining that she was no better, asked, "Must I love God first? Will He not love me and pardon me before I have love to Him?" To this she was answered, "No." "But," she rejoined most judiciously and correctly, "Is it not said, ' We love Him because He first loved us?' and if so, is not God's love first? "To this she had an unsatisfactory reply; still, she was told," No, my dear; you must first love God for what He is in Himself, and then, like other Christians, you will love Him for what He has done for you." Upon this the dear child was sent away, unsatisfied with the reply, but still supposing that her affectionate instructor could not be wrong. However, she became no better or happier.
She toiled on for months. At length, one day, she was listening to a sermon in which the love of God in providing a Savior, and in beseeching sinners to be reconciled to God, was depicted in such a glowing and lovely manner, that she could not help beginning to love God where she sat. She saw so clearly that God loved sinners BEFORE they had love to God. She felt the force of the apostle's words, " Herein is love; NOT THAT WE LOVED GOD, BUT THAT HE LOVED US;" and this at once relieved her of the difficulty so long felt, and made her rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory. Nor was it a mere transient emotion. No; she proved" love" by her works and words.
How blessed a theme is the love of God! How full of joy and gladness to a sin-convicted soul the Savior's words often prove—" God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Dear reader, are you, like many others, trying to love God first? or, like many more, intending to come to Jesus, but trying to make yourself better first so, you will find what the hymn says to be true, that,
“If you tarry till you're better,
You will never come at all.”
De you not see that all such efforts are at variance with receiving at once the gospel testimony of God's love to the world? Oh! it is His love, not yours; His goodness, not yours; His faithfulness, not yours; His righteousness, not yours, that secures the salvation of sinners like you and me. The death of Jesus on the cross shews you that God loves the sinner FIRST, and the Scripture declares, that "WE LOVE HIM BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US.”