The Echo

“We love him because he first loved tis. Love is like an echo, it rettirneth what it receiveth: there is no echo till the sotnid is heard. Our love to God is a reflex, a reverberation, or a casting back of Gods beam and flame upo?t himself The cold wall sendeth back no reflex of heat till the sun shines upott it and warms it first; so neither do we love God till our soul is first filled with a sense of his love” Hence the impossibility of producing love while we are under a legal spirit; it will not come to order, it will only rise to the bidding of its like. Love alone begets love. Purchase price for it there is none; the bribe would be scorned.

Love is not the result of effort on our part. As the fountain rises freely in the valley, pouring forth its crystal flood with spontaneous eagerness, so doth love sparkle and flash forth in the soul. Secret reservoirs, far up in the mountains, supply the water-springs; and eternal deeps of boundless love in the everlasting hills supply the love-springs of the believer’s soul. Is it not written, “All my fresh springs are in thee “?

O my heart, take care that thou answer to the Lord like an echo! When he saith, “My love,” do thou answer with the selfsame title. Be as the rocks which glow beneath the heat of the sun, and give forth warmth themselves. Love as long as thou livest, for love is the cream of life, and all of it is due to thy Lord.