In the same way that a bridegroom gives his betrothed many treasures and expensive jewelry so that her heart may be moved to love him and thereby be won over to him, that’s how God conducts Himself. He calls Himself our Bridegroom and beloved Paramour. He heaps lovely spiritual gifts upon us. He woos our soul. With such kindness He eagerly desires to move us to once again love Him because He first loved us, and out of love has shown us so many benefits.—Johann Gerhard, Schola Pietatis I:39.
The sleep out of which Saint Paul seeks to awaken us here (Romans 13:11) is the spiritual sleep of sin. It is a sleep from which man must awaken daily until he dies so, in the end, he does not sink into eternal death.—C. F. W. Walther, God Grant It!, p. 17.
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