222 THE AMAZING GIFT OF LOVE
and pride, with all the other evils tliat destroy humanity. Eternal life is when a man, entering upon the path of truth and nobility, renders service to humanity, his body being obedient to every known law of health, his mind entering into fellowship with the highest thoughts of eternity, and his spirit communing with the spirits of the just and good on earth and of the just and good in heaven : when a man in his own time and place according to his own temperament reproduces in himself Jesus Christ.
^ We shall behold with our inward eyes the mirror of the wisdom of God, in which shall shine and be illumined all things which have ever existed and wiiich can rejoice our hearts. And we shall hear with our outward ears the melody and the sweet songs of saints and angels, who shall praise God throughout eternity. And with our inner ears we shall hear the inborn Word of the Father ; and in this Word we shall receive all knowledge and all truth. And the sublime fragrance of the Holy Spirit shall pass before us, sweeter than all balms and precious herbs that ever were ; and this fragrance shall draw us out of ourselves, towards the eternal love of God, and we shall taste His everlasting goodness, sweeter than all honey, and it shall feed us, and enter into our soul and our body ; and we shall be ever an hungered and athirst for it, and because of our hunger and thirst, these delights and this nourishment shall remain with us for ever, ever- more renewed ; and this is eternal life.^
C 3. What response are we making, or are we prepared to make, to the love of God ? There was a book written not many years ago of which the title was : TJie Christian Life : A Response. It was a beautiful title, which put the Christian life in the true attitude — it should not be lived out of fear of hell, not lived to purchase heaven, but rather as a response to the love of God. What sort of response are we expected to make to the love of God ?
(1) Gratitude. — Perhaps you are familiar with the story of the brilliant unbeliever, Harriet Martineau. She said to a friend on some glorious morning, "Doesn't such a day make one feel grateful?" To which her friend quietly replied, "Grateful to whom, my dear ? " Some of us have been tasting this summer the joys of travel in enchanting scenery, full of grandeur and manifold loveliness, and have experienced this sense of gratitude over and over again ; but we have our answer to the question,
^ M. Maeterlinck, Ruyshroeck and the Mystics, 76.
ST. JOHN III. i6 223
" Grateful to whom ? " Shall we not love Him who gave us these delights and all the satisfactions and stimulus of our lives because He loves us ? How strange it seems to read of the late Professor Huxley, in the full career of joyful work, saying that at the end of every day he felt a strong desire to say, " Thank you " to some Power if he could only have known to whom to say it. It should not have been so difficult to say, " Thank you, God ! " ^
^ When Eobert M'Cheyne and Andrew Bonar were in the Holy Land, they went to visit the Garden of Gethsemane. Dr. Bonar thus writes : " The sun had newly risen ; few people were upon the road, and the Valley of Jehoshaphat was lonely and still. We read over all the passages of Scripture relating to Gethsemane while seated together there. It seemed nothing wonderful to read of the wanderings of these three disciples, when we remembered that they were sinful men like disciples now ; but the compassion, the unwavering love of Jesus appeared by the contrast to be infinitely amazing. For such souls as ours He rent this vale with His strong crying and tears, wetted this ground with His bloody sweat, and set His face like a flint to go forw^ard and die. * While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.' Each of us occupied part of the time alone — in private meditation — and then we joined together in prayer, putting our sins into that cup which our Master drank here, and pleading for our own souls, for our far- distant friends, and for the flocks committed to our care."
(2) Adoration. — The shepherds were quite right when they said : " 0 come let us adore him ! " The angels were right when they sang : " Glory to God in the highest ! " So we should come to the house of God and bow the head in adoring worship if we believe at all.
TI What a Sunday ! At 8 a.m. we were present at the Lutheran Mass, if I may so call it. The altar, the candles, the comings and goings of the pastor, the litanies sung with responses, all astonished me. However, it is a beautiful idea that pervades all that, and one which we have lost sight of in our Eeformed Churches, namely, adoration. We go to the preaching (au preche) and that is all.^