[Songs in the Night - October 3]
If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in his love. John 15:10
LET us, dearly beloved, be more than ever careful
respecting the Word of the Lord; let us not by negligence
give evidence of a decay of love.
Our Lord
points out that his continuance in the Father's love, as
the well beloved Son, with all which this implies, was
because of his obedience to the Father's will; and that
following the same line, he must require that we should
be obedient to him if we would abide in his love and
share his throne and glory.
Our Lord's instruction
and commandments are not intended to terrify us, nor
to deprive us of happiness.
On the contrary, "These
things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain
in you, and that your joy might be full." (John 15:11)
Those who give surest evidence of living nearest
the Lord well know that obedience to the Lord's
words, together with the privilege thus obtained of
abiding in him and his love, is the greatest joy, a joy
which wholly outweighs all the trifling pleasures which
the world has to offer.
It is the joy and peace which
"passeth all understanding," which rules in the heart,
and which brings with it the promise, the assurance,
"not only of the life which now is, but also of that
which is to come." Z'12-259 R5082:6 (Hymn 172)