May 28

Tuesday of the First Week after Easter

And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. I S. John 5:11.

COULD a criminal really believe that he had received a full pardon from his injured king, or that the king's son had suffered to obtain his pardon, and was come to tell it him and forgive him, and not love? Might he doubt such love? But he could not believe it and not love. Faith and love would enter his soul together. So is it with children, who with simple faith believe, and place no hindrance to belief and love. Tell them of their good Father in heaven, and they together believe in and love Him. Tell them of Jesu's love, and they together believe in and love Him. Tell them of the Holy Ghost the Comforter, that He vouchsafes to dwell in them, they listen with wondering awe and love; they believe at once and love. Love is in all true faith, as light and warmth are in the ray of the sun. The sun's ray brings with it light and warmth, not light and warmth the sun's ray. Where the sun's ray is, there are light and warmth; nor can that ray be anywhere without giving light and warmth. So faith it is which brings love, not love faith; yet faith cannot come into the heart without bringing with it the glow of love, yea, and the light wherewith we see things Divine. So soon as faith is kindled in the heart, there is the glow of love; and both come from the same Sun of Righteousness, pouring in faith and love together into the heart.

O Thou great Power, in Whom I move, For Whom I live, to Whom I die, Behold me through Thy beams of love,

And cleanse my sordid soul within By Thy Christ's Blood, the bath of sin.