footsteps. They will lead and conduct him in love, from love to love, through consideration of the creatures and their preservation.
The great work of love in the redemption of the human race is also general. If it were generally received by us children of men and believed, and we should follow the footsteps of Christ in love, we would, through the love of Christ, be fast grounded, so that we, with all the holy, could grasp the breadth and length, the depth and height, of such everlasting; love, and would also recognize and understand that it would be better to have the love of Christ than all knowledge. All Christians are called upon to follow the footsteps of Christ, and to follow them in the love of which he has left us an example, 1 Peter, ii, 21; John xiii, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and other places more. If, on the other hand, we recognize it all, but follow the footsteps of the world in the lusts of the eye and the flesh, and lead a proud life, we can hope for little growth in the love of God, let him be who he will, and entitled as he will, even if he have before the world the most Christian title. Since, if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John ii, 15.
| Diese Weltliebe ist nicht rein, |
| Sie fuehrt auch nicht in's Allgemein, |
| Sie fuehret nur in's Mein und Dein. |
| So lang das Mein und Dein geehrt. |
| So lang bleibt diese Lieb bewaehrt, |
| Kommt's Eigenlieb und Ehr zu nah, |
| So ist gleich Krieg und Aufruhr da. |
The natural sparks of love which, after the fall, God has not permitted to be entirely quenched, but has allowed to appear and be seen in reasoning and unreasoning creatures according to their natures and attributes, will also, through improper worldly love in many respects be weakened and
