November 23
Daily Gleanings of the Saintly LifeEighteenth Saturday after Trinity
Love one another. I S. John 4:7.
THE love of God constrains us that we should love all, as Christ loveth them. We must bear with those whom Christ bears with as with ourselves. We must desire that all should love Him whom He willeth to love Him; for whom with us God became man; for whom with us Christ died; whom with us Christ redeemed, to be partakers of His own joy and love. The holy Angels love us and minister to us, because Christ, Whom they love, loves us. How should not we, being so poor and mean ourselves, love the very poorest which Christ loves. The love of God is the fountain, the love of man the stream in which it flows. Both are parts of one whole, threads of one cord so intertwined that thou canst not have the one without the other, links of one chain which binds us to Almighty God, descending from Him to us, and lifting us up to His very Being, which is love. God gives us the love of our neighbour as the test of our love of Himself. The love of God is the soul of the love of our neighbour. But as we see not the soul, or might think it away when it is in the body, and present when it is away, so we might often deceive ourselves as to the love of God, thinking that we have it when we have it not, or have it not when we have it. But love to others goes forth into acts, involves self-denial, self-sacrifice.
Largely Thou givest, gracious Lord; Largely Thy gifts should be restored; Freely Thou givest, and Thy word Is, "Freely give."