'Voices From The Past' Vol. 1 — March 18

Converse much with Christ. Labour to be as David, continually with him. Communion with Christ will make you like him. It will engage and make you actually partakers of Christ's love. Delight to walk with him, to meet him, to view his beauty, to hear his voice, to taste his sweetness. Take all occasions to present yourselves before him. Depart not out of his presence, until he smiles and he speaks kindly, and to your heart. Stay until he reveals his presence by impressions, light, heat and enlargement. Remain until you find acceptance and peace. Enjoy his presence. Come with inflamed affections. You are unkind when you undervalue Christ: when you do not see enough value in him to take time to seek him, and show higher esteem for things of little worth; when outward enjoyments, relations and interests claim more of your thoughts and affections than Christ; when any object is more lovely, any happiness more desirable, any enjoyment more delightful than Christ's presence, and when any suffering is more fearful than Christ's absence or displeasure. When he comes will you send him away without admission? Will you refuse and weary him with denials and excuses? Are you so busily employed in the world that you cannot, or will not come? How often are we guilty of this! Love him in his person, his excellencies, his loveliness, and not just for what you can get out of him. Seeking only to get is a selfish love, and comes short of true friendship. He is not a true friend who loves you only for what he expects to get from you. His love to us counted nothing too costly, too difficult, too grievous. Let us likewise show our love to Christ: nothing too hard, or too expensive, or too hazardous, or too grievous. Let us cross our carnal inclinations to follow him in painful and costly service.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Devotional Readings 'Voices From The Past Vol.1.'
David Clarkson, Works, III:43-46
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