tice, that I may enrich them that love Me, and may fill their treasures." (Prov. viii. 18 and 21.)
III. Your disposition must be to return love for love, and your love must be as extensive as you can render it. Love consists in action and not in words; hence Christ says, " If any man love Me he will keep My word," that is, My commands and counsels, and observe My admonitions. Blush for your past want of observance of these, and be particular in your observance of them for the future, in order that you may be able to say, " my Beloved to me and I to Him" (Cant. ii. 16) in willing or not willing the same thing that He loves or dislikes. There is a perfect union of wills between two persons, that love each other.
MONDAY,
Cure of the Leper.— I.
I. A certain leper came to Christ to be healed. He entreated Christ to cure him, with the most profound reverence, for "kneeling and falling on his face, he besought Him." (Mark i. 40.) He addressed Him with great faith in his power; " Lord, if Thou wilt," he says, " Thou canst make me clean." (Luke v. 12.) His resignation was exemplary; he does not present an absolute, but a conditional petition; " if Thou wilt," he says, if it be pleasing to Thy will, Thou canst cure me. Such ought to be the character of your prayers, humble, full of faith and resignation to the Divine will. " To whom shall I have respect," says God by the mouth of His prophet, "but to him that is poor and little, and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at My words." (Is. lxvi. 2.)
