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  KISS OF THE SPIRIT
  by George MacDonald
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Summary: True love is based on the truth and the image of God, and it
involves loving the very other person, not just their attributes.

Topics: "True Love", "Spiritual Unity"
Scripture References: John 13:34, 1 Corinthians 13:12, Ephesians 4:2, Colossians 3:14, 1 Peter 4:8

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DESCRIPTION
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George MacDonald preaches about the awakening of true love from beneath
the rose leaves of illusions and dreams, emphasizing the need for
genuine connection beyond surface likings and fancies. He highlights the
journey of two individuals moving from mere commonalities to a deep
unity where they see and are seen for who they truly are, ultimately
meeting in the majesty of truth and the image of God through the power
of authentic love.

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CONTENT
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"While one is yet only in love, the real person lies covered with the
rose leaves of a thousand sleepy-eyed dreams, and through them come to
the dreamer but the barest hints of the real person. A thousand fancies
fly out, approach and cross, but never meet. The man and the woman are
pleased, not with each other, but each with the fancied other. The
merest common likings are taken for signs of a wonderful sympathy, of a
radical unity. But though at a hundred points their souls seem to touch,
their contact points are the merest brushings, as of insect antennae.
The real man, the real woman, is all the time asleep under the rose
leaves. Happy is the rare fate of the true............ to wake and come
forth and meet in the majesty of the truth, in the image of God, in
their very being, in the power of that love which alone is being! They
love, not this and that about each other, but each the very other. Where
such love is, let the differences of taste, the unfitness of
temperament, be what they may, the two must by and by be thoroughly one.

George MacDonald.

"The negative and positive relation we live daily causes us to emerge
from beneath the rose leaves and penetrate each other so as to have
really seen and be seen. It takes the negative to arouse each of us from
our sleep.......But the miracle of love that comes to birth each time
forgiveness appears is truly the kiss of the spirit.

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Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/george-macdonald/kiss-of-the-spirit/
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