This aged apostle cannot get away from the counsels of love. All his
mental movements circle about this "greatest thing in the world." Once he
would "call down fire upon men"; now the only fire he knows is the pure
and genial flame of love. Beautiful is it when our fires become cleaner as
we get older, when temper changes to compassion, when malice becomes
goodwill, when an ill-controlled conflagration becomes a homely fireside.
And all the love we acquire we must get from the altars of God. "We love
because He first loved us." We can find it nowhere else. "Love is of God."
Why, then, not seek it in the right place? Why seek for palms in arctic
regions, or for icebergs in the tropics? God is the country of love, and
in His deep mines there are riches "unsearchable."
And the gracious law of life is this, that every acquisition of love
increases our powers of discernment. "He that loveth knoweth...!" It is as
though every jewel we find gives us an extra lens for the discovery of
finer jewels still. And thus the love-life is a continual surprise, and
the surprise will be eternal, for the object of the wonder is the infinite
love of God.