It is one of the characteristics of the spiritual age that God does not always reveal to a devoted soul the progress it is making, for the very reason that if the soul knew of all its advanced steps it would often hinder the progress itself. So the Holy Spirit lovingly conceals his own work oftentimes in order that by a sense of poverty the soul may be pushed on to a swifter growth. Then there are other times when the Holy Spirit has got the believer upon some elevated point he will give him a view over the spiritual landscape, that he may see what God hath wrought and be still encouraged to higher attainments. But right amid the wear and tear of Christian life there are certain proofs which we may test ourselves by as to whether we are in a state of perfect crucifixion and in unbounded divine love. The love of Christ in us must not only be severely tested, but every advancing degree of that love will be tested. Among these proofs we may mention the following:

1. To have the love of God in a state of pure faith -- that is, to be able to discern in our spiritual nature that we love God with all our hearts, even apart from all pleasant sensations in the emotional nature. There are three kinds of emotion -- 'bodily, soulish and spiritual; and if apart from all happy, nervous conditions, and apart from all exhilarating feelings in the mental or soulish nature' we can be conscious in the deep inner spirit that we prefer God and love him above all things in the universe' we may know that we are in a state of pure love.

2. Another proof of humble love is to accept of outward poverty as a gift from God, and, in great meekness of spirit, not only be willing to be poor, but even to be the object of charity, and, if come to that, be a charity patient in a hospital -- to take the place of Lazarus at the rich man's gate, and become an object of the charity of others, even when they do not especially love us, but to be so united to God's will that we see through all secondary agents, and look to God alone, and receive the most humiliating circumstances of life as an expression of God's will and love, with meek and quiet spirit -- this is a proof that the heart is perfectly crucified and full of lowly love.

3. To have our most sacred faith denounced and treated with contempt; to have our prayers scoffed at, our deepest experiences treated with contumely â–  and scorn; to have our fellowship with the Holy Ghost ridiculed, not only by sinners but by professed Christians and ministers; to have our testimony to the precious bloodcriticized and denounced as a delusion; to have our motives impugned and grossly misrepresented even by other professing Christians; to have our faith in the great old doctrines of the Bible, of heaven and hell, of future rewards and punishments, of the three adorable persons in the Trinity, of the hope of the coming of Jesus and his reign on the earth, of the virtue of his blood, of healing diseases; to have all these dearest beliefs of the heart set at naught by chief priests and professed friends, and yet to be so thoroughly crucified as to be undisturbed and to keep in a still, patient, loving disposition, without contention, without agitation -- this is a proof of humble love.

4. Another proof of a real humble spirit is to have the natural affections cut all to pieces by harsh words, unkind treatment, or mangled by scorn and neglect, and for the soul to seek no consolation from the creature, but to give itself up to God in unlimited abandonment and seek only the solace that comes from the blessed Jesus. Unless a soul is thoroughly crucified and in a state of divine union, it will, under such circumstances, when its natural affections are bruised and disappointed, turn to some creature for comfort; it will go to old friends, or to supposed friends, to seek for help; it must unbosom its woes to somebody, for counsel and sympathy. And although such a soul may be a Christian, yet, if it is not in perfect union with God and in sweet intimacy with the Holy Spirit, where it understands how to draw all its comforts from God, it will invariably turn to some creature. But if it can quietly turn to God alone for consolation, that is a proof of its perfect humility and love.

5. There are times when the true believer passes through states of mind or experience which resemble a great western blizzard, where the wind seems to blow from every quarter at the same time, and the snow is so blinding that you cannot see your way. In such cases there will be the most contradictory vicissitudes. Good things and bad things seem terribly misplaced, as if good and evil had changed places and wore each other's faces and garments; where divine providence seems unhinged and where infinite mercy seems to be tantalizing the heart. Now, if the soul can shut its outward eyes and with the interior vision of faith look right through the tangled mass of such vicissitudes, and discern God in it all, and anchor itself to his pure will in a holy defiance of the appearance of things, and have just the same confidence in God and his word then as in fair weather, that is a proof of a state of humble love.

6. To work for God through months or years and be the instrument of accomplishing what seems to be a good work and then to have it all torn into rags and seemingly destroyed from the earth without losing heart, without getting religiously vexed, without ever charging God unkindly, but to lean back on him and keep gentle and full of peace, is a proof of self-renunciation and pure love. It is a singular trait of good people, even very religious people, even those professing full sanctification, to become wonderfully attached to their own work, and when they have accomplished something for God they unwittingly love their work and make a saintly idol of it. Then when God allows the precious thing to be torn to pieces they feel smitten to the dust, because they loved their holiness work instead of fixing all their love on the dear Lord alone. This is why divine Providence allows so much of Christian work to go to wreck, for he is determined that not even the best of things shall take his place in our love. Now, if you can work for God, and yet keep your heart entirely weaned from your work so that you can see it blow to pieces with a sweet happy spirit in God alone' that is a proof that you are dead even to your righteous self, and that Christ indeed lives in you and that you have his meek and lowly spirit.

7. To sow and have others reap is a proof of humble love, especially if you can see them reap with the same thankfulness as if you did your own reaping. It will put a Christian's love to a real test to cordially embrace this truth. To toil through summer's heat or winter's cold, to give line upon line and precept upon precept without seeming to produce adequate results; to exhaust our resources in boring a well for oil and get within one foot of the vein when the last penny is gone and then to have some one else take the well and bore only a few inches and strike a fortune of oil, and even rejoice in the other's good fortune -- this is unselfishness. Yet all we need to give us this grace is that immensity of faith to see that God owns everything; and if we toil for him without seeing the fruit, and some one else reaps the harvest -- if we really love God with pure, unbounded love we will rejoice that God is getting the harvest from some other hands just as much as if he got it from our hands.

8. Another proof of a lowly, loving heart is to receive all sorts of injuries and unkind treatment without making any reply, and even making it the occasion for the exercise of the warmest love and prayer for those who injure us. I think it is Saint Clemachas who tells us that he knew of three instances where very good men received very mean treatment and suffered much injury from their fellows, and he noted the different degrees of grace manifested by each. In the first case the good man bore meekly all the unkindnesses without any reply, but quietly hid himself in God. In the second the humble man rejoiced that he had an opportunity of suffering for Jesus and with Jesus, so that he went beyond the first case, not only meekly bearing it, but ever rejoicing for the privilege of suffering. In the third case the saint felt such a deep sorrow and sympathy for those who had injured him that he wept for them. He not only had meekness to bear it, as in the first instance, and gladness at the privilege of suffering, as in the second, but his love was so divine and fiery and unselfish that he prayed with loving tears for those who injured him. How, all of these three men manifested perfect love, but they show the different stages which there may be in the pure love of Jesus.

9. To be in a storm of distress and sorely tempted and tried in manifold ways and yet not to advertise it, but tell it all out to God in secret prayer, and keep a calm, peaceful spirit, and to walk calmly before our fellows, and give them the sunshine even when the heart is bleeding and the mind is perplexed with manifold trials -- this is proof of a truly humble, loving heart.

10. To work for God with all our strength, without waiting for happy feelings, even though our spirit may feel dry and sorrowful, but to have a lofty, pure faith that persistently keeps us going without joyful sensations, this is pleasing to God. And a still higher form of this grace is to see others being saved or getting blessed through our ministry, while we work in a dry or sorrowful state, and they are made happy through our sorrow, and well watered through our dryness, and lifted up through our humiliation, and made rich through our poverty, as if they were drawing the very juices of our soul away from us, and yet all the while to have a sweet, God-like contentment that we can spend and be spent for others, this is proof of a genuine apostolic condition of mind.

11. To have God strip us of all sensible comfort, and seem to shower his extraordinary favors upon others, and leave us, as it were, in desolation, and at the same time to load us down with many arduous labors and great responsibilities, while divesting us of what we regard as adequate joys, and yet, through it all, to steadily behold him with the eye of pure faith, and to love him with a deep, pining, quivering love beyond the expression of all words, this is a mark of genuine self-abnegation and holy love.

12. Perhaps the highest proof of humble love is to be able to rejoice when God triumphs at our cost. When we love God so much that we have a real gladness in seeing his will and honor and truth manifested, even though it be at the expense of our loss or our deep humiliation, and even our temporary degradation, this is pure love, and this is the love we must have to please God, for we must have such a deep, all-consuming preference for God that we will take sides against ourselves, despise our own interests, and be willing to tear ourselves down, and rejoice at any defeat which comes to our self-life, and, as it were, utterly desert ourselves and go over and join the victorious legions of God's attributes and make one cause with God in fighting against ourselves. This kind of love has a secret laughter every time the will of God succeeds, and especially when it succeeds against our blindness and foolishness, for we discern that the more we are conquered the deeper is our union with God.