proof of love." How necessary is it for you, if you really love your Saviour, to act and suffer for Him! Compassionate Him, at least, in His sufferings: offer up the fast of Lent, and whatever painful circumstances may attend it, for your past sins, and in union with His pains and torments.
THURSDAY.
Christ's Sermon after Supper.— II.
I. After having enjoined the love of God above all things, our divine Master insists on the love of our neighbor. "This is my commandment," He emphatically says, " that ye love one another, as I have loved you." (John xv. 12.) He calls this "a new commandment," and styles it " His" own, because it is peculiar to Christianity. This precept was new, as to the manner of observing it, because He requires that our love should be like His, extending to friend and foe, without respect to merit or recompense, and even with our own temporal inconvenience. "By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples," He says, " if ye have love one for another." (John xiii. 35.) Take care that you be one of His disciples, and respect what He has inculcated in such weighty terms.
II. Our divine Teacher commands us also to practise prayer. " Hitherto you have not asked anything in My name; ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." (John xvi. 24.) So friendly an invitation cannot fail to ground a great confidence. The poor and needy are invited, and even pressed to receive benefits; and the invitation comes from a Being who is both able and willing to realize His promise. We have only to pray in a proper manner, that is, in Christ's name, for such things as regard our salvation, and with perseverance.
