April 2
Daily Gleanings of the Saintly LifeTuesday after Duinquagesima Sunday
God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8.
THERE are, doubtless, spheres of love beyond the range of our nature, love peculiar to other created natures than ours: there is love in God, which no creature can ever comprehend; but all love of which humanity is capable found its truest, keenest, fullest development and exercise in Christ. If we were to specify one manifestation of humanity in Christ which we should distinguish above others, as pervading all acts and expressions, and coming perpetually forth to view in the most moving forms, we should instance this grace of love. It was the first, the readiest expression of His sacred human life. As the three first sayings from the Cross tell of love in its earliest stages, in the forgiveness of sins and the reknitting of the broken ties of human fellowship in the communion of Saints, even so the last sayings, embracing the ultimate results of the Sacrifice, carry us far away beyond this life, and tell of the blissful union of love in God, of the love between the Father and the Son, and of the love of all His true elect enclosed in their everlasting home, which is the Heart of the ever-blessed Trinity.
But more than willingly He gave His life our sinful race to save (That life resumed in realms above)— This was the triumph of His love! Christ, our bosom's living fire, The splendour of th' Eternal Sire, Within the veil of flesh we see Such as He is the Deity!