February 23

Second Friday after Epiphany

Distributing to the necessity of Saints. Romans 12:13.

LOVE to God must overflow in love to man. If we love God more than ourselves, we must deny self for love of our fellow-men whom He loves. Had not the Apostles so loved God, we had been heathen still. This has been the love which has converted nations and spread the knowledge of God. This still seeks out sinners for repentance, teaches the ignorant, is patient with the wayward, bears with the contradictory, tends the young, recalls the wandering, has fellow-feeling with the worst of sinners, thinks nothing hopeless which Christ doth not cut down, unconquered by weariness, unbroken by disappointment, unmoved by ingratitude, for truly all this were we when Christ in long-suffering sought and found us. And hath He not Himself said, "Shouldest thou not have had compassion upon thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on thee?"

How wisely God hath hedged life's path below, To keep our erring footsteps lest they wander! By what we want to teach us what we owe, By what we owe to make affection fonder: Assured that we must bid farewell to bliss Were He extreme to mark what's done amiss. Our souls, provoked by lesser ills, to such Should yield the pardon we require so much, Forbearing others every hour we live, Seeking forgiveness, called on to forgive. Forgiveness—purchased and most precious gem Amid the jewels of God's diadem; Yet not too rich here sometimes to be met, By grace Divine in sainted spirits set.