To love God is to love His character. For instance, God is Purity. And to be pure in thought and look, to turn away from unhallowed books and conversation, to abhor the moments in which we have not been pure, is to love God. God is Love; and to love men till private attachments have expanded into a philanthropy which embraces all,--at last even the evil and enemies with compassion,--that is to love God. God is Truth. To be true, to hate every form of falsehood, to live a brave, true, real life,--that is to love God. God is Infinite; and to love the boundless, reaching on from grace to grace, adding charity to faith, and rising upwards ever to see the Ideal still above us, and to die with it unattained, aiming insatiably to be perfect even as the Father is perfect,--that is to love God. F. W. ROBERTSON. April 22 _Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory_.--I PETER i. 8. If our love were but more simple, We should take Him at His word; And our lives would be all sunshine In the sweetness of our Lord. F. W. FABER. What would it be to love absolutely a Being absolutely lovely,--to be able to give our whole existence, every thought, every act, every desire, to that adored One,--to know that He accepts it all, and loves us in return as God alone can love? This happiness grows forever. The larger our natures become, the wider our scope of thought, the stronger our will, the more fervent our affections, the deeper must be the rapture of such God-granted prayer. Every sacrifice _resolved on_ opens wide the gate; every sacrifice _accomplished_ is a step towards the paradise within. Soon it will be no transitory glimpse, no rapture of a day, to be followed by clouds and coldness. Let us but labor, and pray, and wait, and the intervals of human frailty shall grow shorter and less dark, the days of our delight in God longer and brighter, till at last life shall be nought but His love, our eyes shall never grow dim, His smile never turn away. F. B. COBBE. April 23 _These were the potters, and those that dwelt among plants and hedges: there they dwelt with the king for his work_.--I CHRON. iv. 23. A lowlier task on them is laid, With love to make the labor light; And there their beauty they must shed On quiet homes, and lost to sight. Changed are their visions high and fair, Yet, calm and still, they labor there. HYMNS OF THE AGES.