Let the reader pause for a time and consider a Being so great that He can, in a moment's time, put His love within the heart of the most obstinate sinner.  And when He does so, what a miraculous change it produces in their life and conduct.  Among a number of other things it makes them ashamed of the things in which they previously found pleasure (See Rom. 6:20-21).  It makes them love the things they once hated, and hate the things they once loved.  It actually makes them new creatures in Christ.  Old things pass away and all things become new (See II Cor. 5:17). It puts them into a condition in which sin no longer has dominion over them (See Rom. 6:14).

The love of God is not in a man's heart until the Lord puts it there.  And if a person does not have it, he does not want it, for he knows nothing about it.  Consequently he has neither desire nor ability to initiate any kind of process in which he would come to love God and His people and what they stand for.  If a person does not love God (and none do by nature), how are they to go about doing any of the things that modern religion tells them they must do in order to be a child of God?  That Arminian system tells them that they must believe on Christ from the heart, sincerely accept Him, honestly believe on Him, etc., etc.  But how can they do such things when they do not love Him?  And how can they love Him when His love has not been "shed abroad" in their heart?

We who love God, do so because He first loved us (I John 4:19).  It was because of His "great love wherewith he loved us," that "even when we were dead in sins," He quickened us together with Christ (Eph. 2:1,4,5).  And this alone is salvation by grace.  The religious theory that says we must love God in order to get Him to love us is as foreign to the Scriptures as light is to darkness.  It is just the opposite of the truth.

Elder John R. Daily expressed in very beautifully in song when he wrote: "His love from eternity fixed upon you,—Broke forth and discovered its flame,—When each with the cords of His kindness He drew,—And bro't you to love His great name. Oh had He not pitied the state you were in,—Your bosoms His love had ne'er felt;—You all would have lived, would have died too in sin,—And sunk with the load of your guilt."  Oh, may we ever praise His precious name!   —Elder Ralph Harris