I love ; but ah ! the whole Of love is but my answer, Lord, to Thee. Lord Thou wert long beforehand with my soul, Always Thou lovedst me.
^ In his Reminiscences of Frederick Denison Maurice the late Mr. Haweis relates this incident : " I remember asking him one day, ' How are we to know when we have got hold of God ? because sometimes we seem to have got a real hold of Him, whilst at other times we can realize nothing.' He looked at me with those eyes which so often seemed to be looking into an eternity beyond, whilst he said in his deep and tremulously earnest voice, ' You have not got hold of God, but He has got hold of you.' "
^ Niagara stopped once ! Owing to an ice dam thrown across the river the waters failed, the rainbow melted, the vast music was hushed. But there has been no moment in which the love of God has failed toward the rational universe, when its eternal music has been broken, or the rainbow has ceased to span the throne. There never will be such a moment. The crystal tide flows richly, and flows for ever.^
» W. L. Watkinson
142 AN INSEPARABLE LOVE
Let me no more my comfort draw
From my frail hold of Thee; In this alone rejoice with awe, —
Thy mighty grasp of me.
Thy purpose of eternal good
Let me but surely know ; On this I'll lean, let changing mood
And feeling come and go :
Glad when Thy sunshine fills my soul,
Nor lorn when clouds o'ercast, Since Thou within Thy sure control
Of love dost hold me fast.
2. But the love of God to us carries with it our love to God. Without a response to God's love how can we be persuaded of it ? As God's love to us is rich and everlasting, surviving all varia- tions of time and circumstance, we will respond to His love with a love as like His own as it is possible for the creature to give. Mutuality is of the essence of love. We have thinkers who recommend the substitution of nature for God. They assure us that when we properly know the universe we can regard it with awe and fear, with admiration and love. Nature is infinitely interesting, infinitely beautiful; there is food for contemplation which never runs short; it gives continually exquisite pleasure, and the arresting and absorbing spectacle, so fascinating by its variety, is at the same time overwhelming by its greatness and glory. But reciprocity is surely of the essence of love ; and however we admire, love, and praise the creation, it cannot return our affection. We smile upon it, yet there is no answering flash ; we extol it, but find no sympathetic response ; appreciation passes into adoration, and still our worship is unrequited. We see the folly of falling in love with a statue, notwithstanding its beauty; and nature is that statue. "They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not; they have ears, but they hear not; noses have they, but they smell not; neither speak they through their throat." In nature-worship, as in all idol-worship, mutuality is not possible ; all thought and feeling, confidence and sacrifice are on one side. But with God in Christ fellowship becomes a fact. He declares His love to the
ROMANS viii. 38, 39 143
race most convincingly, and we love Him because He first loved us. He stretches forth His hand out of heaven, we clasp it; henceforth we are inseparable, no fortune or misfortune can unclench the grip. The love of the Eternal is one link of gold, our love to Him is another, and together they bind us to His throne for ever.
For though "The love of God is broader than The measure of man's mind," yet all in vain The broad sun shines apace for him who hath No window to his house; and human love Must make an eastern outlook for the soul Ere it can see the dawn. He cannot dream Of oceans who hath never seen a pool.^
^ Cynics speak scornfully of love; yet we may remember that it is the sublime element in our nature which most clearly reflects the Divine and Eternal. It sets at naught all the categories of time and sense, and identifies us with the infinite and timeless. It is indifferent to environment. It does not rise and fall with the fortune of the beloved, as the quicksilver in the glass responds to the weather ; it is delightfully unconscious of secular vicissitude. It is unaffected by distance :
Mountains rise and oceans roll To sever us in vain.
Duration does not weaken it. On receipt of his mother's portrait Cowper wrote : " It is fifty-two years since I saw her last, but I have never ceased to love her." Fifty-two centuries would not have chilled his affection. Death does not quench love. In Pompeii they showed me the bone of a human finger with the ring still upon it : fine symbol of the immortality of love and loyalty !
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom.