We may daily and hourly keep ourselves in the Lord's love by obedience to, and a growing love for the principles of righteousness. And we are to rejoice in every experience of life—its trials, difficulties, sorrows, disappointments, etc., no less than in its pleasures, if by any or all of these means the Lord shall instruct us and give us clearer insight into our own deficiencies, and a still clearer insight into that perfect law of liberty and love which He has established, and to which He requires our full and loyal heart-submission.
The love of God, consisting of disinterested love for the Father and the Son with all the heart, mind, soul and strength, of disinterested love for the brethren more than to self and of disinterested love for mankind in general and even for our enemies as self, does not of itself under the present conditions remain in one's heart. Whoever does not preserve it amid the conditions that would otherwise destroy it will surely lose it. If, therefore, we have attained this love, let us seek to maintain it.
Deut. 33:3, 12; Psa. 63:3; 146:8; Isa. 38:17; Jer. 31:3; John 3:16; 14:21, 23; 16:27; 17:10, 23, 26; Rom. 5:8; 2 Cor. 13:11; Eph. 2:4; Col. 3:14; 1 John 3:1; 4:8-19; Matt. 5:43-48; 19:19; Josh. 22:5; Psa. 91:14; John 13:14, 15, 34, 35; 15:12-19.
