Christ Loved Me
. . . Anyone who does not love does not know God. 1 John 4:8 The distinguishing mark of a Christian is his confidence in Christ's love for him and in the offering of his love to Christ. First, faith sets her seal upon the man by enabling the soul to say with the apostle, "Christ loved me and gave himself for me."1 Then love gives the countersign and stamps upon the heart gratitude and love to Jesus in return. "We love because he first loved us."2 In those grand old ages, which are the heroic period of the Christian religion, this double mark was clearly seen in all believers in Jesus; they were men who knew the love of Christ and rested upon it as a man leans upon a staff whose trustiness he has proved. The love that they felt toward the Lord was not a quiet emotion that they hid within themselves in the secret place of their souls and that they only spoke about in private or when they met on the first day of the week and sang hymns in honor of Chr