A planet has no light except what comes from the sun. And the human heart has no true love for Jesus except what comes from Jesus himself. From this overflowing fountain of God's infinite love, all our love for God must spring. Here is the great and certain truth: we love him for no other reason than this—he first loved us. Our love for him is the fair offspring of his love for us.

Anyone can feel cold admiration when studying the works of God. But the warmth of love? That can only be kindled in the heart by God's Spirit. How great the wonder that such as we should ever be brought to love Jesus at all! How marvelous that when we had rebelled against him, he would, by a display of such amazing love, seek to draw us back. No! Never should we have had a grain of love toward God unless it had been sown in us by the sweet seed of his love to us.

So love has God's love as its parent—love shed abroad in the heart. But after it is thus divinely born, it must be divinely nourished. Love is an exotic; it is not a plant which will flourish naturally in human soil. It must be watered from above. Love for Jesus is a flower of a delicate nature, and if it received no nourishment but that which could be drawn from the rock of our hearts, it would soon wither.

As love comes from heaven, so it must feed on heavenly bread. It cannot exist in the wilderness unless it be fed by manna from on high. Love must feed on love. The very soul and life of our love to God is his love to us.

"I love you, Lord, but with no love of mine, For I have none to give; I love you, Lord, but all the love is yours, For by your love I live. I am as nothing, and rejoice to be Emptied, and lost, and swallowed up in thee."