April 1

Monday after Duinquagesima Sunday

Love is strong as death. CANTICLES viii. 6.

THE acuteness of sorrow depends on the sensibilities of love. Sorrow is measured by love. They who love little, know little of the sufferings of the heart. Love implies the drawing of one being to another being with a strong desire of union, and of rest in that union. But this is only one development of the inner sensibilities of the soul. There is also the feeling of benevolence, which is the large all-embracing desire to bless, without any personal emotions such as love denotes. Charity, or benevolence in act, when accompanied with a feeling of tenderness; and compassion, which arises from the excitement of sympathies and common sensations of pain or fear, are terms expressing different features or movements of the same great principle of life, but they do not represent the principle of sensibility itself: they only indicate particular developments of a sense which lies deeper and extends wider than themselves, which is so deep, so wide, that it appears to be identical with life itself, and is indeed strong as life, more precious to life than life is to itself; for love would rather surrender life than life surrender love. This inherent depth of the principle of sensibility in the heart is meant to be expressed when it is said that "love is strong as death." We therefore employ the term love, not as fully representing this inner principle of life, but as expressing one of its tenderest, purest, and most exquisite forms of development. Though inadequate, it is yet the nearest approach to a true representation of the inner vital principle itself, the central fount of the heart's sensibilities. And

Shed'st o'er life a gleam of Paradise, Lifting the earth to heaven, or bringing down the skies!