pdf - Protestant Reformed Churches in America

Book Reviewsbear us victoriously through.There is a stronger passionyet,-the power most prevalentand impelling in God orman, love, which shedsthrough the faculties and affectionsof the human soul adelicious ardor absorbing thewhole nature to one purpose,and concentrati ng all itsforces on one enterprise.Faith is strong, hope is stronger,but love is the strongestin all operations ofthe Christianlife. It is the superlativeof the three degrees of heavenlygrace, the acme of theclimax by which we ascendto God. Hence, in this mostdifficult work ofour conversion,love alone is equal bydivine grace to its accomplishment,and has the largestshare in the process. God,from whom comes the divinelife which assimilates us toHimself, is love; and love toGod is so identified with thenew life, that we cannot distinguishit from the life itself....It is the perception,the persuasion, the apprehension,the bringing home toHimselfofthe love ofGod inChrist, which transforms thebeliever by an all-pervadingenergy, thrilling, subduing,exciting aJl ofhis senses intoa wiJling, happy, obedientcreature of Christ's will.(From Lecture XLI on TheNovember, 2001Nature of True Conversion,pages 387 and 388.)Every well-kept Sabbathis thus a fresh return of manto God for instruction andstrength to discharge his duty;and also a repeated anticipationof his rendering an accountat the great day of themanner in which he has dischargedhis duty. All the bindingforce that religion hasover morals, is thus concentratedand made immediatelyapplicable in a right use ofthe Sabbath. Not to rememberthe Sabbath, is not to rememberGod~ and to forget.God, is to forget the obligationof virtue. In this highsense has the Sabbath beenmade for man. As his happinessis inseparable frol11 virtue,and virtue inseparablefrom religion. the Sabbath,on which both are speciallycultivated, is a confirmationand security of man's highestgood. Hence (we mayobserve in passing) experiencehas proved that wherethe Sabbath has been bestkept, sound notions of morality,and the practice ofvirtue,personal and social, havemost prevailed, because therethe fear and love of God arethe paramount motives ofman's conduct. He only whoremembers the Sabbath dayto keep it holy, will remem-77