AFFECTION.

Love is the Life of Man.--SWEDENBORG.

With the heart man believeth unto righteousness.--ST. PAUL.

The Affections are the most interior of all the attributes of man,--they

are in fact his spiritual life. The acquisitions of the Understanding

truly appertain to man only when the Affections have set their seal upon

them. We may store our memories with knowledge and wisdom gathered from

every source, but until they are grasped by the Affections they do

not belong to us; for till then they do not become part and parcel of

ourselves. So long as we merely know a thing we make no use of it. The

facts of knowledge, as they lie in the Understanding, may exhibit a rank

growth of thoughts and images; but though flowers may adorn them, they

will all perish barrenly; while, if the warmth of the Affections is

thrown upon them, the rich clusters of fruit speedily appear; not

only affording present delight, but promising to be the parents of

numerous offspring yet to come.

The Affections cannot be analyzed and comprehended with the same kind of

distinctness with which we comprehend Thought and Imagination; because

that which belongs to the Understanding can be expressed or described

in words, and in that form be passed from one to another; while the

Affections exist only in forms of emotion that cannot be distinctly

translated into words. A glance of the eye or a touch of the hand often

transfers an emotion from one mind to another with a facility and

clearness of which words are incapable. There are no things we believe

so completely as those which we _feel_ to be true, yet there are none

about which we reason so imperfectly.

The motive-power in man is Affection. What he loves he wills, and what

he wills he performs. Our Character is the complex of all that we love.

We often think we love traits of Character that we cannot possess; but

we deceive ourselves. All that we truly love we strive to attain,

and all that we strive after rightly we do attain. The cause of

self-deception on this point is, that we think we love a certain trait

of Character when we only love its reward; or that we hate other traits

when we only hate their punishment.

The passionate man perceives that his ungoverned temper causes him

trouble, and occasions him to commit acts of injustice, and to say

things for which he is afterwards ashamed; and he exclaims, "I wish I

could acquire self-control; but alas! a hasty temper is natural to me,

and I cannot overcome it." Tell such a man that he is just what he loves

to be, and he will deny it without hesitation; and yet the love of

combating and of overcoming by force are the darling loves of his heart;

and when he fancies that he is wishing to overcome these propensities,

he is thinking only of the worldly injury his temper may occasion him,

and not of the hatefulness of anger in itself. So soon as we begin to

hate anger for its own sake we begin to put it away; but while we only

hate the bad consequences of anger we cleave to its indulgence. So it is

with indolence. We know, perhaps, that we are indolent, and we perceive

that this vice stands in the way of our attaining to many things that

we desire, and we believe that we wish to become diligent, when we are

steadfastly loving a life of indolence, and wishing not for diligence,

but for its rewards. What we suppose to be dislike of indolence is only

dislike of the consequences that indolence brings in its train. So the

drunkard sometimes goes to his grave cheating himself with the idea that

the lust of the flesh binds and enslaves him; and that he really loves

the virtue of temperance, while in truth he is loving sensual indulgence

with all his heart. Possibly temperance reformers might be more

successful in reclaiming such slaves from their sin if they would talk

less of the punishments the drunkard brings upon himself in the shape

of poverty, and disease, and shame, and enlarge more upon the moral

degradation to his own soul which he fastens upon himself both for this

life and the life to come.

We are all of us perpetually liable to gross self-deception by thus

transferring in fancy our love or our hate for the consequences of vices

or virtues to the vices or virtues themselves. If we made this transfer

in fact, we should at once set about gaining the one and putting away

the other; but so long as we believe that sin dwells within us without

our consent and approval we become daily more and more the servants of

sin.

We not unfrequently see a very poor family having an intense desire for

education, and their poverty, instead of putting its acquisition out of

their reach, seems only to stimulate their ardor of pursuit. One half of

their time will perhaps be spent in the most arduous labor in order to

procure the means of obtaining the aid of books and teachers to enrich

the other half; and no self-denial in dress or physical indulgence seems

painful, when weighed against the pleasure of increasing the means of

education. Here is genuine love of learning, and the result of its

efforts will prove the truth of the old adage, "Where there is a

will there is a way." This family is acting out its life's love

understandingly and with fixed purpose.

Perhaps in the very next house to this is another family of not nearly

so small property. They too profess great love of and desire for

education; but there is no corresponding effort. They must dress with a

certain degree of gentility, and they must not make an effort to earn

money by any means that would seem to lower their standing in society;

and, moreover, they are indolent, and the effort that the denial of

physical indulgences requires seems insupportable to them. The parents

of this family will often be heard lamenting that their children cannot

have an education; and if one should venture to indicate the possibility

of their obtaining one for themselves as their neighbors are doing, they

will reply that their children have not strength to struggle along in

that way, or that they are too proud to get an education in a way that

would seem to place them in point of social rank below any of their

fellow-students. This family are acting out their life's love just as

thoroughly, though not as understandingly, as the other. They do not

desire education from love for it, but because it would give them a

certain standing in society, and not having the means of indulging

vanity in this direction, they turn to dress and idleness, as easier

signs of what is vulgarly called gentility. Still these persons would

deem you unjust and unkind if you told them they were living in

ignorance because they had no true love for education; and they would

hardly deem you sane should you tell them that the Character of every

human being is the sum and continent and expression of all that he best

loves.

We cannot truly love anything that we do not understand,--anything that

has not a distinct existence in our thoughts and imaginations; and all

of Character that we love and can clearly image to ourselves we can

bring out into life. The Affections are the children of the Will, and

if the Will be determined and steadfast, there is no limit but the

finiteness of humanity to the progress in whatever is undertaken. When

we love ardently, all effort seems light compared with the good we

expect to derive from the possession of that which we love. If we become

weary and faint by the way, it is because we lack intensity of love.

In reading the lives of distinguished men, we find that, in the pursuit

of whatever has raised them above the mass of men, they knew no

discouragement, acknowledged no impossibility. We read of travellers

who, to satisfy a burning curiosity for discovery, pass through peril

and fatigue that is fearful for us even to think of; and yet they, so

intense was their love for what they sought, encountered all with a

determination that made suffering and danger indifferent, nay, almost

acceptable to them. So the inventor labors, year after year, through

poverty and privation, compensated for all by the anticipation of the

satisfaction that will be his when his darling object is attained. So

the student, the philanthropist, the statesman, labors in like manner,

lighted by thought, cheered by imagination, warmed by love. Needful as

may be the light and the cheer, it is the warmth only that can give

life. We may know and imagine, and yet perform nothing; but when love

is wakened, performance becomes a necessity of our being; and every

sacrifice of momentary pleasure we make in order to obtain the fruition

of our desires is not only without pain, but it is sweet as self-denial

to a lover, if perchance he may give pleasure thereby to the object of

his passion. It is the merest self-delusion for any one to sit still and

say, "I love this or I love that trait of Character; but it is not in my

powder to gain it." They who love do not sit still and lament. Love is

ever up and doing and striving. They who sit still and lament, love the

indulgence of their own indolence better than aught else, and what they

love they attain. .

It is of course impossible that all should become distinguished by the

efforts they may make in life; and this is not what we should aim at

in the training of Character. To be distinguished implies something

comparative,--implies, if we aim after becoming so, that we seek to be

superior to others. This is not an aim that can be admitted in Christian

training. Character is something between us and our God, and every

thought we admit that savors of rivalry or emulation in our efforts

degrades them, and takes from them the sanctity that can alone insure

success. The moment that finds us saying, "I am glad that I am better

than my neighbor," or even, "I desire to be better than I wish to see

him," that moment finds us destitute of a true conception of Christian

charity. We cannot attain to a healthy growth of Character until,

smitten by the beauty of excellence, we worship its perfection in our

Lord and Saviour, and with hearts fixed on him, strive, trusting in his

aid, to be perfect even as he is perfect. In this effort we must shut

out from our hearts every emotion that cannot be admitted into our

prayers to him for light and strength. Are we sorrowful that our

neighbor is gaining upon the way faster than ourselves, let us remember

that this emotion is virtually a prayer that his strength may be

lessened for our sake; and let us change it as quickly as we can to a

more earnest longing after our own growth, without comparing ourselves

with any human being. Elation, if we think we have passed another in the

race, is a vice of the same character as envy at another for surpassing

us. Such envy and such elation are children of that pride of heart that

shuts the door on all brotherly love. It is that vice by which Cain

fell, and so far as we admit it into our bosoms we voluntarily become

the children of Cain.

The Lord tells us to seek first the kingdom of heaven and its

righteousness, and that all other good things shall be added unto us.

We cannot suppose he meant by this that the reward of virtue was to be

found in houses and lands, or worldly wealth of any kind, although he

enumerated these things in the promise; for we know that these are,

perhaps, as often possessed in abundance by the basest of men as by the

most virtuous. How, then, are we to understand this promise? To seek the

kingdom of heaven and its righteousness is to serve the Lord with all

the heart, and soul, and mind, and strength; and the rewards appropriate

to such service surely cannot be counted in silver and gold. These may

adorn the happiness that virtue gives; but they cannot constitute it.

He who labors simply for the love of wealth is content if he obtain

the reward he seeks; but he who labors to obtain the fully developed

character of a man,--the image and likeness of God,--if he attain

nothing beyond wealth, would feel such reward to be only a mockery

of his desires. Such labor lifts us above the happiness external

possessions can give, and bestows upon us a wealth that the world cannot

take away. He who wishes to serve God acceptably, cultivates all his

capacities to the best of his ability, in order to increase his power

of leading a useful life, and is therefore constantly adding to

himself possessions that can never leave him;--rational and spiritual

possessions which, in relation to our internal life, correspond to

worldly possessions in relation to our external life, and were therefore

signified in the parabolic language of the Lord.

When the philosopher of old lost the library he had been all his

life-long collecting, he exclaimed, "My books have done me little

service if they have not taught me to live happily without them." He had

made their contents his own by diligent study, and no power could take

this from him, and they had made him wise by their instructions, so that

he could possess his soul in patience under external losses of any kind.

The man who studies books, though he may not own a volume, makes them

his own far more completely than the bibliomaniac who spends a fortune

in filling his library with choice editions of works life is not long

enough to read. So it is with works of art. He who can most truly

appreciate them is he who really owns them. One man will fill his house

with pictures and statues and all beautiful works of art, because the

possession of such things gives distinction in society. He collects

them, not because he loves art, but because he loves himself; and

values them precisely in proportion to the sums of money they have cost

him. Those among his visitors who love art for its own sake, and have

learned to appreciate such things justly, have a pleasure incomparably

more interior and profound in gazing upon them than he who rejoices in

having paid large sums of money for them; and surely no one of such

visitors would exchange his power of appreciation for the others

external possession of them. Who, then, is the true owner, if not he who

feels most delight in contemplating them, and who has the most delicate

perception of all their shades of beauty?

In the highest of all enjoyments of the eye, that which we derive from

the contemplation of external nature, the man whose soul is most deeply

thrilled by its beauty, whose heart rises in worship as he gazes upon

the mountains in their calm sublimity, and remembers how the Lord

frequented such heights for prayer, and who wanders beneath, the shadows

of the woods, feeling that "the groves were God's first temples," this

man surely has the kingdoms of the earth in closer possession than he

who holds thousands of acres in fee.

Whatever possessions we can name, whether external or internal, whether

of the heart, the head, or the hand, it is love by which we truly hold

them. Nothing is ours that we do not love, and through love we obtain

possession of all that our hearts crave.

The love, however, that is so strong to obtain must be no superficial

sentiment, but an inward passion of the heart. So long as we live in

thought and imagination we are very apt to mistake mere sentiment for

love; but the difference will show itself so soon as we begin to act.

Sentiment is soon wearied by labor and difficulty in its pursuit of

mental attainment, soon disgusted by squalor or offended by ingratitude

in its attempts at benevolence, soon discouraged by the hardness of its

own heart when it endeavors to acquire self-control, or to gain such

virtues as seem in the abstract lovely and delightful. In short,

sentiment wants a royal road to whatever it strives to reach. Love, on

the contrary, is too much in earnest to be dismayed by any impediment.

It will not stop half-way and make excuses for its short-comings. It

rests not in its course until it has gained what it seeks; and then it

rests not long, for all true love "grows by what it feeds on," and every

height of excellence we reach does but enlarge the field of vision and

show us new countries to be won.

Admitting love to be, indeed, this intense and all-pervading power, and

the very life of our souls, the importance of training ourselves to love

only that which is pure and true at once becomes manifest. The heights

of heaven are not farther from the depths of hell than are the results

that come to us if we seek the pure and the true from those which

inevitably occur when the choice falls upon the impure and the false.

Let no one think to dwell in safety because he has not deliberately said

to himself, "I choose the impure and the false"; for if the pure and the

true be not deliberately and voluntarily chosen, the heart out of

its own inherent selfishness and worldliness will unconsciously sink

gradually, but surely, into the impure and the false. There is no

half-way resting-place for humanity between good and evil. We are always

sinking, unless we are rising; going backward, unless we are pressing

forward.

Much is said of the truth and purity of childhood, and they are very

beautiful, for the angels that care for children do continually behold

the face of the Heavenly Father,--do stand perpetually within the

sphere of absolute truth and purity. But soon the child slips the

leading-strings of its guardian spirit, and comes into its own liberty;

and now, unless it freely chooses to follow with willing and constant

step in the same path wherein it has thus far been led, it will wander

from side to side, increasing at each turning the distance that

separates it from the way of life, until at last it may wander so far

that it loses the desire and even the memory which might lead it

to return. Vicious propensities will, perhaps, begin to show

themselves; and in the hardened and shameless youth it will be hard to

recognize any trace of the innocence of infancy. But, perhaps, instead

of viciousness, carelessness is developed, and youth is brightened by

gayety, amiability, and ready generosity. Occasional derelictions from

truth and honor find ready apologists among friends, because the boy or

the girl is so "good-hearted"; but a closer inspection readily shows

that the goodness of heart is very superficial, that the left hand is

often unjust while the right is generous, that a lie is no offence to

the conscience, if it be a good-natured one, and in short that very

little dependence can be placed on the uprightness that has no firmer

base than good-heartedness. Young persons of this sort are sometimes

led away to commit some act so base that their eyes are opened to the

dangers that beset the path in which they are travelling, and in sorrow

and dismay they turn to seek the way of innocence whence they had

wandered. Too often, however, the carelessness of youth passes into the

indifference of adult life and the callousness of old age. What can be

more revolting than an old age cold, hard, and selfish? Yet this is the

natural and almost unavoidable result of a youth that does not fix its

heart in unwavering love upon truth and purity,--whose aspirations are

not for those things which cannot grow old, and which the world can

neither give nor take away. A heart filled with love for excellence can

never grow old; for it will go on increasing in all that is lovely and

gracious so long as it lives; and where there is perpetual growth of the

faculties there can be no decay. We grow old, not by wear, but by rust;

and we can never become the prey of rust while our faculties are kept

bright by the power and the exercise of earnest love. The fleshly body

must grow old and die, for it is of the earth earthy; but it is by our

own weakness and indolence if our spiritual body ever gathers a wrinkle

on its brow. When the fleshly body drops from us, what must be our

shame and our despair if we rise in a spiritual body deformed with evil

passions, or corrupt with the leprosy of sin. Too many, alas! spend all

their energies in feeding and clothing and sheltering the natural body,

leaving the spiritual body hungry and naked and cold. We sometimes hear

wonder expressed that a mind thus starved has become super-annuated and

doating, while the body still carries on its functions with vigor; but

had the body been treated with a similar neglect, it would have long

before returned to the dust. The growth of the spiritual body should be

continuous from the cradle through eternity; and seldom can any other

reason, than our own neglect, be assigned for its disease or decay. The

bread of life is perpetually offered for its support, and if it refuses

to eat, its death is on its own head.

Infants who pass into the spiritual world before they are touched by a

taint of earth are, probably, through the absence of all evil in those

who are suffered to approach them, trained into a purity of Affection

that fills their whole being with its genial warmth, descending, or

raying out, into all the imaginations of the soul and all the thoughts

of the mind. Thus they serve God in the order which the Saviour

commanded, with all the heart, and soul, and mind. They, however, who

remain long on earth, almost without exception, have the order of their

nature so reversed, that their powers must be converted to the right,

in the order of St. Paul, ascending from the lowest to the highest; or,

which is the same thing, passing from the outmost to the inmost. The

lowest and most external part of the being must be made obedient to the

laws of Divine Order, and on this as a foundation must the higher and

internal nature be built up, until it forms a sanctuary; and upon its

altar shall fire from heaven descend so often as a gift is offered.

The practice of external vice, just in proportion to its grossness,

incapacitates us for perceiving what is true or loving what is good. By

vice is not meant crime such as exposes us to punishment by the law

of the land, but sins against the laws of God, that bring their own

punishment with them, by defacing the image of God in the soul. There is

always need of searching the heart to find if we have committed crimes

against the soul; for the laws of the land deal only with the excessive

derelictions from right which we cannot ignorantly commit. We may,

however, go on unconsciously in the commission of great sins until our

hearts become hardened against all emotions of heavenly affection, and

our eyes blinded so that we cannot distinguish the difference between

darkness and light. If we would avoid this fearful condition, we must

often go to the Gospels, and place the words of the Lord, in their

various teachings, especially as they come to us from the Mount, as it

were in judgment over against us, and reading verse by verse, fathom the

depths of our hearts, and confess whether we are guilty or no. Would we

escape such guilt, we must study these instructions again and again,

until, as Moses commanded of the laws of the elder Scripture, "they

shall be with us when we sit in our homes, or walk by the way, or lie

down, or rise up. And we shall bind them for a sign upon our hands, and

they shall be as frontlets between our eyes. And we shall write them

upon the posts of our houses, and upon our gates."

When we place the words of the Lord in judgment over against us, and

feel compelled to acknowledge our unfaithfulness to their requirements,

there is danger of our falling into despair through the consciousness

that is thus forced upon us of our want of love for the law of the Lord.

The indulgence of our own wills is so sweet to us, that we cannot see

how it is possible that the yoke of the Lord can ever become easy to our

stiffened necks. We feel as though an obedience that did not spring from

true love could not be called obedience, nay, was almost a sin; for it

seems to savor of hypocrisy. In this state of mind, our only refuge is

in that faith which St. Paul tells us "is the substance of things hoped

for, the evidence of things unseen"; and then, unless this faith be

strong enough to make us obey, though not from love, yet from a simple

belief that at any rate obedience is better than disobedience, our state

is wretched indeed. Our rationality tells us that obedience is naught

unless we love to obey, but an inward conviction of the soul--may we not

call it the voice of God?--entreats us, saying, "this do, and thou shalt

live." If, in the ardor of our faith, we can forget our rationality, and

cry, "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief"; and if we force

ourselves to do that which we are commanded, though at first it may

appear to us an act purely external and dead, we shall soon find, that,

if planted in darkness, it is still a living seed, and the Lord will

water it till it shall spring into a growth of beauty that our hearts

will cleave to with delight.

The first obedience of the soul that has entered upon the way of

regeneration is hardly less ignorant than that of the little child who

obeys his parent without comprehending the use or propriety of his

commands; and, like that of the little child, it consists in abstaining

from doing that which is wrong, rather than in doing that which is

right. As the child grows older, he can look back upon those commands

and understand them; and then he is filled with gratitude and love

towards his parent for putting them upon him. So he who seeks to love

the Lord must obey first, and understand afterward,--must keep the

commandments ere he can know the doctrines,--must abstain from doing

wrong before the Lord can implant in his heart the love of doing right.

In the first stages of regenerating life we think we love the Lord,

although we know that we do not love our fellow-beings as we ought; and

we cannot comprehend the truth, that he who does not love his brother,

whom he has seen, cannot love the Lord, whom he has not seen; and we

think it is much easier to be pious towards God than to be charitable

towards men. If our faith is strong enough to induce us to obey the

external commandment of doing as we would be done by, the affection of

true brotherly love by degrees grows up within us, we know not how, for

the spirit of God has breathed upon us when we were not aware; and then

we perceive how imperfect was the love we bore to the Lord, when we had

not learned to feel that the attribute which awakens true love for him

is the perfect love he bears towards each one of us, and that we can

appreciate this love only so far as we imitate it by feeling willing to

do all the good we can to every neighbor, without distinction of person,

after the manner in which he causes the sun to shine and the rain to

fall alike upon the evil and upon the good.

To live thus in charity with all men is not to do external acts of

benevolence indiscriminately to all, without respect of person. There

is a common, but erroneous, idea in the world, that simply to give is

charity. To live what many esteem a life of charity, that is a life

of indiscriminate giving, is often to pay a bounty upon idleness and

improvidence, and to furnish the means of vicious indulgence. While

remembering the command to give to those who ask, we must not forget the

prohibition against casting pearls before swine. To give good things

to those we have reason to suppose will abuse them is as wrong as to

withhold our gifts from those who would use them. To give ignorantly,

when we know not the value of the claim upon our benevolence, is at best

but a negative virtue, and we should bear in mind that everything we

bestow upon the unworthy is so much abridged from our means of aiding

the worthy. Many persons seem to suppose that charity consists entirely

in alms-giving, while this is only its lowest form. Kind deeds and kind

words are as truly works of charity as pecuniary gifts, and we do not

lead lives of charity unless we are as ready with those in the home

circle and in our social relations as with these among the poor. God

shows his love to his children by providing them with sustenance for

the body, for the intellect, and for the affections, and if we would

resemble him, we must show our love to the neighbor by being always

ready to minister to the wants of those around us, in whatever form they

may arise.

We are told to give even as we receive, and we are also told that we are

stewards of the Lord; that is, that all our gifts are held in trust from

him; and we must use them in such a way that at his coming he may

find his own with usury. True charity never impoverishes. In outward

possessions it would be hard to find a man who has made himself poor by

acts of benevolence, for a just and wise benevolence is almost sure to

be accompanied by an orderly development of the faculties such as in our

country makes prosperity almost certain. In intellectual attainments

most persons are familiar with the fact, that there is no way by which

we can so thoroughly confirm and make clear in our own minds anything

that we know, as by imparting it to another. In all that relates to the

affectional part of our being, none can doubt that we grow by giving.

The more we love, the more we find that is lovely; and it is only in

proportion as we love that we can learn to comprehend that God is

infinitely powerful by reason of his infinite love. If we would make our

one talent two, or our five talents ten, the best way to do it is by

giving of all that we have to those who are poorer than ourselves.

Every person has within him three planes of life, which constitute his

being, and which, during the progress of regeneration, are successively

developed; viz., the natural, the spiritual, and the heavenly. With

those who lead an externally good life on the natural plane, that

is, who act more from the impulses of a kind disposition or a blind

obedience than from the light of Christian truth, charity consists

merely in supplying the natural wants of the neighbor by making him more

comfortable in his external condition; and this is well, for there is

little, if any, use in trying to improve the inner man while the outer

is bowed down with want or squalid with impurity. This is the basis

of the higher planes of charity, the first in time, though lowest in

degree. There are those who think lightly of this form of charity,

because it is lowest in degree, forgetting that it is absolutely

essential as a basis for everything that is higher. This truth may be

illustrated by the duties of the parents of a family. It is easy to

perceive that the highest duty of parents is the spiritual training

of their children, that the second is to give them an intellectual

education, while the third and lowest is to feed and clothe and shelter

their bodies. This duty towards the body, although lowest in degree, is

first in time; and ministering to the wants of the natural bodies of

their children, that they may grow up strong and healthy, is the

first duty to be performed in order to insure, so far as possible,

a trustworthy basis on which to build up their spiritual bodies. It

should, however, be distinctly kept in mind that this is only the lowest

plane of parental duty, and that to rise no higher is, as it were, to

lay a solid foundation with labor and expense, and then leave it with no

superstructure, a monument of folly.

From this class of charitable persons come those who found institutions

and lead reforms having in view the amelioration of the physical

condition of the human race. In regarding this as the lowest class, no

disrespect towards it is intended, for it is absolutely essential as a

basis to the higher; but this foundation should be recognized as such by

the founder in order that he may adapt it to the superstructure, and

not elaborate the former at the expense of the latter. The parent may

squander his means upon fine clothes and sumptuous fare until he has

nothing left for the intellectual education of his children; the State

may build palaces for the physical comfort of its paupers and criminals,

until there is nothing left in the treasury to construct schoolhouses

and colleges for the mental training of its virtuous children; the

philanthropist may so bestow his charities that the recipient will learn

to feel that it is the duty of the rich to support the poor, and so

become a pauper when he might have been a useful citizen.

With those whose brotherly love is of the second, or spiritual, degree,

charity is founded on the love of right, the love of giving to all their

just due. Those of the first class will, perhaps, deem those of the

second cold, yet a close observation will show that in the end more good

is done to society through the efforts of the latter than of the former.

Where the generosity of the first would reform the condition of a

miserable neighborhood, by giving the sufferers food and raiment and

shelter, the justice of the second would say all men should have the

means of acquiring a support for themselves, and his efforts would be

turned to providing employment, and encouraging a spirit of industry

among the poor. Where the first would build almshouses and hospitals,

the second would build factories and workshops. The first would lavish

all that he had in direct gifts to the poor, and then have nothing

more in his power to do for them, while the second, by husbanding his

resources at first, would be able presently to place them beyond the

need of aid. The first will be so generous today that it will be hard

for him to be just tomorrow, while the second, by doing only justice

now, gains power to bring about the most generous results hereafter.

This second degree of charity or brotherly love should not ignore or

contemn the first, but build itself upon it. Justice must not forget

mercy. The poor must not be suffered to starve before work can be

provided for them, or they be taught to do it. One Christian virtue does

not destroy that which lies beneath it, but rises to its true height by

standing upon it. We do not pull away the base of a structure because we

wish its top to be more elevated.

The third, or heavenly, degree of charity results from love to the

Lord. This is the highest possible form of charity, and through its

development man is brought into connection with the highest heavens. The

first form of charity comes in great measure from a love of self. We

obey its impulses because of our own personal distress at witnessing the

distress of others; and where unrestrained by higher principle,

these impulses often compel us to be unjust today because we were

over-generous yesterday. The second form of charity results from true

brotherly love, that leads us to restrain impulse because principle puts

it in our power to do so much more for those who need our aid. The third

form is the fruit of love to the Lord. It is warmer than the first and

wiser than the second. It develops the whole power of man, both rational

and affectional, by leading him to the eternal source of all power,

whence cometh down to us all capacity to think and to love. Quickened by

love to the Lord, we shall perpetually feel that we are his stewards,

and while we are filled with gratitude towards him, as the giver of

every good thing we possess, we shall equally be filled with desire to

give even as we have received, good measure, running over, and shaken

together. Then we shall feel, that, if we would lead lives of true

charity, it must be by imitating the Lord, who showed forth his love

towards his children, first by giving them the earth and all that it

contained as an inheritance; secondly, by giving them the Word of his

divine truth to teach them the way in which they should walk; and

thirdly, by coming in person to show them the reality of a divine

life. Finitely imitating this infinite example, as we advance in the

regeneration of our Affections, we shall first give of our external

possessions from the love of giving, and from a desire to make ourselves

happy by seeing others so. Next, we shall give from the knowledge of

truth that is in us, working with such wisdom as we possess, to help

others to make themselves happy. Finally, love to God will lead us to

perceive that charity in the highest degree is the leading a good life;

and that he who is pure and holy and faithful is a living form of

charity. While this state does not destroy, but fills full the two

preceding ones it will perhaps diminish rather than increase the general

action of the life upon society, because its tendency is to increase our

earnestness in the performance of the immediate duties of life that are

included in the family circle, and in all that relates to the particular

occupation of the individual. This is the natural result of an interior

love to the Lord; for this makes us feel his immediate presence in all

the circumstances of daily life, and so causes us to look upon the duty

that lies nearest as that one which the Lord wishes us to perform first;

and till that is done, prevents our seeking out duties more remote and

less apparent.

In studying the material manifestations of the Divine Love and Wisdom,

we find that the perfection of each minutest part is a type of the

perfection of the great whole. So in the material works of man, every

whole thing approaches perfection just in the degree that its several

parts are perfect; and it is vain to labor for great results while we

overlook minute details. So in life, society can never be a virtuous

and happy whole until each individual, in his special vocation, fulfils

every duty pertaining to his station. If we would perform our quota of

the great whole, we must, each in his place, fulfil the duties that lie

around us; and we must beware how we go out of our way in pursuit of

duty, unless we are confident that we are not neglecting, or perhaps

trampling upon, a duty that lies directly in our path.

There is especial danger, at the present day, that many of us may need

to be warned like the scribe of old, wearied with his task-work, not

to seek great things for ourselves. As Baruch murmured because he must

again and again write out the words of Jeremiah, so we cry out wearily

at the daily recurring duties of life, and would fain seek some great

thing whereby to show forth our devotion to the truth. This is because

our love to the Lord is not yet strong enough to regenerate our

Affections. In proportion as this is accomplished, duty will become

lovely to us, because it is what the Lord sets before us to do. We all

know how pleasant it is to do the will of those whom we most love on

earth, and so would it be supremely delightful to us to do our duty if

we had a similar love for our Father in Heaven.

As the little coral insect, obeying the blind instinct of its nature,

adds particle to particle, and builds a house for itself at the same

time that it helps to construct a continent; so we, obeying the voice of

God, in every little duty, performed not grudgingly, but with the heart,

are adding something to our eternal mansions, and helping to enlarge the

bounds of heaven.