The whole question is; "How precious is he to us now?" If we do not think much of him, then of course to give him anything at all, however small will seem to us a wicked waste. But when he is really precious to our souls nothing will be too good, nothing too costly for him; everything we have, our dearest, our most priceless treasure, we shall pour out upon him, and we shall not count it a shame to have done so.

The soul is the seat of the affections, and what a great part of our decisions and actions is influenced by these! There is nothing deliberately sinful about them, mind you. It is just that there is something in us which can go out in natural affection to another person, and which, ungoverned by the Spirit, can influence wrongly our whole course of action.

Our old history ends with the Cross; our new history begins with the resurrection.

She is doing this for Me." Real satisfaction is brought to the heart of God only when we are really, as people would think, "wasting" ourselves upon him. It seems as though we are giving too much and getting nothing—and that is the secret of pleasing God.