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MarK 12:30:
30And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
Especially in the first stage, the love which a young man feels for the maiden of his choice and this maiden for the elect of her heart, is sometimes so overwhelmingly extravagant, and surpassing all reason, that one feels that there is a mysterious power at play, which sets all composure at defiance.
This is not always so with two young people who are betrothed; such eccentric tension of the mystery of love is rather the exception. And let no one think that the doting, intoxicating love which we are here considering has anything in it of sinful, sensual inclination or of unholy voluptuousness. The ecstasy of love we here refer to occurs only with those who are in love, and courses through soul and body both; but, even in our sinful life this love can well be free from every fleshly motion.
When this ecstasy flames from both sides with equal faithfulness and warmth, then the world hears nothing of it. Then only the nearest relatives are in the secret. Tragically public, on the other hand, it frequently becomes, when it glows overwhelmingly in the heart of a young maiden, but does not find response in like measure in the heart of him she loves. Hardly a day passes but here or elsewhere the papers report the case of a girl who became betrothed and who ardently loved, but presently discovered that her lover was unfaithful, so that life itself became too much for her—she preferred death to life, and sought it in self-destruction.
This ecstasy of love is an abnormal kind of affection, because it withdraws the person whom it masters from his normal existence, and transports him into a condition of soul, which without being insanity, yet shows signs that are similar to it. Therefore we began by saying that it is outside of all reason. One who is in such a state of ecstasy can not be reasoned with; and as Burger in his "Leonora" tells us so graphically, for those who so love, only one of two things is possible; either their love must be reciprocated, or they can not find rest till they find it in death.
Do not take this too ideally.
It does not follow that such a young maiden stands exceptionally high as a woman. Rather, the contrary; such ecstasy not infrequently takes hold of otherwise ordinary girls, who are at times even very egotistical. This ecstasy also passes away frequently after a certain number of years, and nothing remains save an ordinary, sometimes a very common, person.
Passion in the ordinary sense is not what overpowers such a girl, and it is best interpreted as an ardent longing, bordering on insanity, to wrap up her whole existence with that of another.
It is and will remain a remarkable phenomenon.
A flooding power in the heart which, when it suffers disappointment, makes one quickly and decisively seek death, is an expression of human life, which deserves attention from all.
The Song of Songs sketches such an ecstasy of love, and aims thereby to outline an image of the love of the soul for God.
The whole Scripture stretches the canvas on which, at length, the Song of Solomon in striking colors embroiders the figure. Wedlock on earth is an embodiment of the tie that binds God and His people—God and the individual soul together. Jehovah even calls Himself Israel's husband, and says that He has betrothed Israel in righteousness. Infidelity toward the Holy One is called a whoring in idolatry. And so it is ever again the God-given love between man and woman, which in colored imagery becomes the standing expression of the love which binds the soul to God. And though in the New Testament this is more applied to Christ, yet He, the Son of God's good pleasure, is called the bridegroom of His Church, and His Church is the bride who invokes Him.
Still farther.
When Jesus analyzes for us the great commandment of love, He thereby directs soul and senses to the Eternal Being, and defines to us his love in terms which describe the ecstasy as it is found in life. For what is it to love God with all the heart, and all the soul, and all the mind and all the strength, other than to be entirely lost in, and consumed by, a higher attraction, which makes us pass by everything else, and causes us to know, to find and to enjoy an object for our love, in which we lose ourselves altogether?
The great significance, which the love between husband and wife should always have, and sometimes has yet, is only to be explained from the fact that God Himself in this love has imaged the highest love between Himself and the soul.
This lends to this high-strung love a holy and exalted character. This brings it to pass that this love develops harmoniously and nobly, creates the purest happiness that is tasted on earth; and that in sensual degeneracy it works terrible ruin and corruption. And from this it is likewise explained how, when suddenly and unharmoniously it takes hold of a receptive mind, it wrests such a soul away from itself and throws it into semi-frenzy.
Back of all this pushes and presses the higher love which God formed in the tie between Himself and His creature, and it is only the sinful character of our earthly existence that brings it to pass that what does not belong together is united, that soul and body separate themselves, that the equilibrium of the inclinations of the soul is broken, and that thus the best and holiest corrupts itself in sensuality or frenzy.
It is like the snow-flake, which comes down from the clouds pure-white, but becomes soiled through contact with the impurity of this world.
And yet ever and anon we must go back to conjugal love, if we would understand, what our love for God should be.
In our version, Psalm 116 begins with the song "I love the Lord;" but in the original it is different, much more gripping; it only reads: "I love." We would say: " I am in love." It is an utterance of the soul, which from an inward glow perceives that, by the power of love, it has in an irresistible way been apprehended; it feels that an inner motion has been quickened in the soul, which was thus far strange to it; that now it is driven by an inward pressure which thus far it has not known, at least not in this measure. And now it knows and realizes that this is it; yes, this now is love, and therefore in ecstasy it exclaims: "I love! I love! I love!"
And as this wondrous inward motion transports the heart of the maiden, when this love directs itself to the young man of her choice, so here the selfsame irresistible pressure operates, but now in an entirely holy manner lifting the soul above every other thing, directing it solely to the Eternal Being.
With the maiden it was but the faint copy of the highest, here it is the highest itself. The eternal love which at last sets the pure tie between God and the soul into full, harmonious operation, now causes the soul to love with all the intensity to which it is disposed, all the intensity with which it can love.
This is not the mysticism of imagination. It is not knowing God by your own act of the will. Neither is it knowing God by the analysis of credal statements. It is the close approach to God with the warm, inward feeling of the thrilling, love-seeking heart.
It is to have longed and languished for what could quiet the home-sickness of the heart, to have tried everything that could be tried, and to have been disappointed with it all; and now, at length, to have found the true, the perfect, the holy Object of the love of one's heart, to receive God Himself in the soul, and in this love to be supremely happy.
You feel at once the difference between this love and what commonly passes as love for God.
Who does not love God? Every one, indeed, who is not a perfect atheist. Why should you not love God? Him in whom everything is holy, pure and exalted. In Whom there is nothing unworthy of love, and of Whom every one feels that He is worthy of the love of all men.
And so the great mass of people love their God. They are not opposed to Him. They find in God their ideal of everything that is beautiful and right and good. As they love virtue and right, so they also love God, but without the glow of a tiniest spark of personal relationship or attachment in this platonic love.
It is called love for God, but without the presence of God in the soul and in the mind, and without inclination and drawing of the heart after Him. So there is nothing in this love of that passionate thirsting after God, such as that of the hart that panteth after the water-brooks.
And therefore by the side of this cool, measured, pseudo-love of the world which has no heart in it, the Scripture puts the soul's utterance of tender piety, which sought her God, found Him, and now is aflame with warmest love for Him; can not do without Him; of herself thinks of Him, is continually busied with Him; and directs every utterance to Him and Him alone.
In this love there is a knowledge of God, such as no analysis of idea, no work of imagination, nor power of will, can bring us.
It is to love, and in this love itself to enjoy eternal life, and so know God with an intimacy, such as you would deem might not be seemly in a creature. Until, in the hereafter, the wall of separation falls away; and God in us, and we in Him, shall become the perfection of holiest love.
* * * * * * *This devotional classic offers 110 meditations on a single thought from Psalm 73: "As for me, it is good to be near to God." The author states, "The fellowship of being near unto God must become reality ... it must permeate and give color to our feeling, our perceptions, our sensations, our thinking, our imagining, our willing, our acting, our speaking. It must not stand as a foreign factor in our life, but it must be the passion that breathes throughout our whole existence."
The meditations reflect the blending of spiritual vigor with doctrinal loyalty so consistently expressed in the life of Abraham Kuyper. These are devotions with true substance, avoiding the extremes about which Kuyper adds a word of caution: "Stress in creedal confession, without drinking from the Living Fountain, runs dry in barren orthodoxy, just as truly as spiritual emotion, without clearness in confessional standards, makes one sink in the bog of sickly mysticism."
Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) was a Dutch political leader and Calvinist theologian. Elected to parliament in 1874, he became Prime Minister in 1901 and served in that capacity until 1905. As a theologian, he revived a systematic, orthodox Calvinism. He founded the Free Reformed Church and the Free University of Amsterdam. His other works include Principles of Sacred Theology, Lectures on Calvinism, and The Work of the Holy Spirit
Further information about Abraham Kuyper's life can be seen in the translator's "Biographical Note"; further information about To Be Near Unto God can be Abraham Kuyper's "Preface" to that book.
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