EPHESIANS III. 17-19 171
little about it. We hear, and read, and talk, but we do not think. When we hear of our Lord's wonderful doings, we do not take the thought away with us and consider it, consider what it means and what it comes to. We never turn it about in our minds as we do the ways and doings of men among whom we live.
^ Love is not a thing of enthusiastic emotion. It is a rich, strong, manly, vigorous expression of the whole round Christian character, — the Christlike nature in its fullest development. To love abundantly is to live abundantly, and to love for ever is to live for ever.^
^ The joy of heaven is the joy of love. The key to it is in Christ, who for the joy that was set before Him endured all. Christ's was the joy of self-sacrifice, of loving, of saving, of giving up His life to another. But this is no joy save to those who love.^
(3) But above everything, if we would understand and feel our Master's love, we must have something of His Spirit. — Most truly is it said that love is the key and interpreter of love. It is difficult to sympathize with and to enter into it if we are unlike it in our heart and mind. We may for a while be charmed and overcome by some great display of nobleness and unselfishness ; we may for a moment be lifted up by the admiration of it, and the wish to be like it, when we read of a man clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, tending the sick, risking his life in pestilence or shipwreck for his fellow-men. But these feelings will pass away, unless we are in reality, and not only in the moment of excitement, like those we admire. They will pass away and leave us dull, and dry, and cold, to what calls upon our love. The story of Christ's love is too old, and too well known, and too familiar, ever to make an impression on us now, unless we have it in our hearts to wish to have something of His love in us.
^ If " Christ dwell in your hearts by faith," you will be " rooted and grounded in love," and as a consequence you will be able to comprehend spiritual things. A noble passage from the Philip- pians should be quoted here : " God is my witness, how greatly I long after you all in the [motherly] affections of Christ Jesus. And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in full knowledge and in all perception ; that you may distinguish the things which transcend." Love, then, according to the Apostle, is the ground and mother of the perceptive faculty. Without
^ Henry Drummond. 2 James Hinton,
172 THE LOVE OF CHRIST
fire there can be no effulgence or radiance. As is the fire, will be the radiance. The source of mental illumination is the Son of God in the heart. It was surely inspiration which moved Paul to pray that his friends might be rooted and grounded in love in order that they might he able to comprehend the mysteries of their faith ; but it was also pure philosophy. This I pray, that more and yet more you may abound in the spirit of love ; that you may advance unto the full recognition and discernment of Heavenly things. " Love is the key which opens all the secrets of faith." ^
^ When the American civil war was going on, a mother received the news that her boy had been wounded in the battle of the Wilderness. She took the first train, and started for her boy ; although an order had gone forth from the War Department that no more women should be admitted within the hnes. But a mother's love knows nothing about orders ; so she managed by tears and entreaties to get through the lines to the Wilderness. At last she found the hospital where her boy was. Then she went to the doctor and she said : " Will you let me go to the ward and nurse my boy ? "
The doctor said : " I have just got your boy to sleep : he is in a very critical state ; and I am afraid if you wake him up the excitement will be so great that it will carry him off. You had better wait awhile, and remain without until I tell him that you have come, and break the news gradually to him." The mother looked into the doctor's face and said : " Doctor, supposing my boy does not wake up, and I should never see him alive ! Let me go and sit down by his side : I won't speak to him." " If you will not speak to him you may do so."
She crept to the cot and looked into the face of her boy. How she had longed to look at him. How her eyes seemed to be feasting as she gazed upon his countenance ! When she got near enough she could not keep her hand off; she laid that tender, loving hand upon his brow. The moment the hand touched the forehead of her boy, he, without opening his eyes, cried out : " Mother, you have come ! " He knew the touch of that loving hand. There was love and sympathy in it.^