It pays an hundred fold. Labors of
love demonstrate better than the church membership that we are in the
Master's service. This is the Master's business. Though my way
through life has often been through graveyards and through glooms, I
have loved and I have been loved, and I know that life is worth living.
Love is the fulfilling of the law; the end of the gospel commandment;
the bond of perfectness. Without it, whatever be our attainments,
professions or sacrifices, we are nothing. Love obliterates the
differences in education, wealth, station, religion, politics and
nationality. It is a promoter of peace and harmony; it cultivates the
social graces; it makes friends of strangers and brothers of
acquaintances; it softens the asperities of life; it worships at the
shrine of piety, and recognizes the omnipotence of God and the
immortality of man. It is religious not sectarian, patriotic but not
partisan. It glows by the fireside, radiant with perpetual joy. It
glorifies God in worship and in song. It blesses humanity in genial
mirth and human sympathies. It is a perennial fountain at which the
old may drink and grow strong. It is a daily benediction to its
devotees, and, like "a thing of beauty, is a joy forever." It stands
like the statue of liberty, a beacon light to the tempest-tossed and
wayfaring mariner and brother, pointing him the way to the haven of
refuge, to the right living and right doing.
Oh love, thou mightiest gift of God; thou white-winged trust in Him who
doeth all things well; thou one light over His darkest providences,
lingering to cheer when all else has passed away, thy whisper upon the
dull ear of night. But alas! this world was made to break hearts in,
while love was sent from heaven to heal them. The precious balm,
though, is so scarce that many must die for want of it. Oh, the
might-have-been! What human soul has not sung that dirge? Verily, the
winds come, howling it by like an invisible band of mourners from the
grave of all things. Alas! is anything in this life real, or are we
indeed shadows, and this world altogether a shadowy land, while the
blackened skies above give us only glimpses of a far-off better home,
better friends and better love? Alas! Heaven's loudest complaint to
mortals is ever for lack of love. Even He who sitteth upon the throne
of thrones knoweth what it is to stretch out His arms in utter
desertion of no one to love Him, no one to seek Him, and no one to fear
Him--"no, not one." Then as we may best show our love to Him by loving
one another, is it not well that we commence loving those around us at
once? Ah! yes, and like the ambitious vine, do thou reach out all thy
tendril thoughts to what is nearest, the while aspiring to the oak or
the pine of the loftier trust, even the faith of Abraham that was
accounted unto him for righteousness. Would I had some new phrase for
love, some new figure for hope! How lonely and weary must that life be
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account