A Christmas Morning Talk with Children.
I. Love is a fire that wants a great deal of keeping. "Keep yourselves in the love of God." When I am writing in my study sometimes, what do you think takes place? The bright, warm fire goes out. It dies, as you say, of its own accord. I have not poked or attended to it, and it simply goes out. It was lighted; the coals were red; but through my neglect they turned black and cold. It is not enough for you as children to feel now and then love to Jesus; you must "keep yourselves in the love of God." My young friends are to be little Christians every day, and that is the beautiful ideal of the Gospel of Christ. You are not brought to the Christian temple only on great festivals like the Passover, but every day you are to feel Jesus Christ, your Saviour, near you; you are to trust Him; you are to put your little hearts into His precious keeping; you are to realise that the fire wants keeping up.
II. There are many ways of keeping the fire in. The first is to put some coals on it. "Where there is no wood the fire goeth out." A little child cannot do without reading, and every little hymn is "wood on the fire," every remembered text is timber, every quiet counsel of father and mother is fuel on the fire; so also is every good sermon that children can understand. Feed it yourselves by thinking about Jesus Christ and quietly, when no one is with you, offering your prayer to God that your fire may grow warm and bright; for it is the fire of God.
III. "Keep yourselves in the love of God," because at Christmas-time you see especially what God's love is. Love is not a mere sentiment. Many little folks who weep the most do not feel the most. It is very nice to see a little child fling its arms round its mother's neck and say, "Oh, I do love you so." The mother says what Christ says: "I am glad, my darling; but if you love me, keep my commandments." If you are to keep yourselves in the love of God, you must try to be like Him.
IV. "Keep yourselves in the love of God," because love lasts for ever. Many things we can only keep for a little while. I shall part with my faith and hope, but "charity never faileth." Keep yourselves, then, in the love of God, in its spirit, in its beauty, in its unselfishness and sacrifice, for if God laid down His life for us, we ought also to lay down our lives for the brethren.
W. M. Statham, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxviii., p. 408.
References: Jude 1:21. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxii., No. 1285; Homilist,3rd series, vol. iii., p. 352; T. Binney, Christian World Pulpit,vol. ii., p. 24. 23. Ibid.,p. 350; Preacher's Monthly,vol. x., p. 40. 24, 25. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xi., No. 634.