The Joys of the Generous Soul

Writers of a devotional bent often speak rapturously in anticipation of the delights of heaven, chief of which is generally given to be the beatific vision--the incomprehensible joy of seeing the unveiled glory of God, which no mortal man can now bear and from which even the seraphs shade their eyes (Isaiah 6). Contemplation of this joy is part of the "foretaste of glory divine." In this section, Scougal meditates upon what he believes is the next-best thing about heaven: "That ardent charity and affection wherewith blessed souls embrace one another." Even in this life, the God-saturated soul enjoys a spiritual pleasure attendant upon the godly grace with which he regards his fellow human beings. He participates in the grace with which God treats the human race; just as it delights God to be gracious, so it delights his child who has learned to treat others with grace.

Universal Charity and Love

Apologies for the brief hiatus in blogging. It's been a busy week (still going, too).

Scougal goes slightly off the rails at this juncture in his essay. While rightly extolling a consistent application of our Lord's injunction to love our neighbor as ourselves, he almost sings rhapsodically of the regard the world will have for the Christian who exhibits such a spirit.

Yet, did not Jesus perfectly practice love for others? And what was his reception from the world? Certainly not that he was "reverenced and admired, and accounted the darling of mankind." Far from it--he was accursed, hung on a tree. I believe the Christian who follows faithfully in the way of Christ will not receive the world's plaudits. But that is not his purpose anyway. His purpose is obedience to Christ's commands and his reward will not be earthly in nature but heavenly.

Devotion to God Is Not a Chore...

...for the one who possesses authentic love for God. The man who is truly in love delights to spend his time with his beloved and will do all things necessary to that end. The man in love will go to great lengths to please the one he loves--just think how some (admittedly, not all) husbands go well out of their way to compose delightful surprises for their wives on significant dates such as anniversaries. How much more does the soul enraptured by God delight in the exercises of worship, prayer, devotion? How jealously does he guard the time set aside for these things, and how impatiently he counts the minutes until the next time of sweetness!

To my shame, I acknowledge that I am a very long way from this. Some of it may stem from my own rather dispassionate nature. But how I long to be filled with a passion for God.

Die to Self, Live to God

"My Beloved is mine. I account all His interest my own, and I am His. I am content to be anything for Him, and do not care for anything for myself but that I may serve Him."

When we give up all earthly cares and focus entirely on God, what we give up pales in comparison with what we gain. In God is all joy, all contentment, all pleasure, all rest.

A Love Without Pain

The one who loves another creature shares the other's sorrows as well as joys. When the one you love is in pain, or despairing, or in trouble, you suffer along with your love. It is not so with God. When you have set your affections upon God you share instead in his infinite joy and pleasure. There is no pain, despair, or trouble in God as God. Love for God can only lift you up.

A Love That's Never Absent

Scougal meditates on the heartache that often afflicts us when we are separated from our loved ones. How magnificent to realize, then, that we can never be separated (Romans 8:39) from the love of God when we are in Christ Jesus. God is always with us (Matthew 28:20).

Our Hearts Are Restless...

Only in love of God can the human heart find final contentment, for the human heart was made to love God. Corrupted as it is by sin and try as it might to find a substitute, only God can give it the rest Augustine and Scougal both extoll. To set this love on any lower object, which inherently is not worthy of it, is to court dissatisfaction and ultimately misery. God's love delivers us from a host of evils.

A Worthy Object for Our Love

It has been observed that the object upon which one sets his love will lend its own character to the one loving. If I love base things, I become base myself. Accordingly, if I love God in Christ, who is perfection itself and has all qualities in their most excellent and all-encompassing ways, then I myself am elevated, even made into the likeness of Christ.