To cease from egotistic ambition and learn love with a humble mind is
the lesson of this verse by John G. Neehardt:
For my faith was the faith of dusk and riot,
The faith of fevered blood and selfish lust;
Until I learned that love is cool and quiet
And not akin to dust.
For once as in Apocalyptic vision,
Above my smoking altars did I see
My god’s face, veilless, ugly with derision--
The shameless, magnified; projected--_Me_!
And I have left mine ancient fanes to crumble,
And I have hurled my false gods from the sky;
I wish to grasp the joy of being humble,
To build great love an altar ere I die.
(1894)
* * * * *
Love is not merely a sentiment. It will have its material expression
if it is real. The following from Dr. W. T. Grenfell refers to the
fishermen of the North Sea Coast:
The intense cold of winter, and the inadequacy of the warm
clothes with which the men, and especially the boys, were unable
to provide themselves, claimed attention, and warm hearts of
Christian ladies told all over England were moved by the tales
of this great need. Hundreds and thousands of warm mittens,
helmets, mufflers, and guernseys have been sent out during
these past years, and have been true messages of love.
“Look ’ere,” said a grizzled skipper, pulling out three mufflers
from his pocket, to three wild friends of his whom he was
visiting, “look ’ere, will yer admit there’s love in those
mufflers? Yer see them ladies never see’d yer, nor never knowed
yer, yet they jest sent me these mufflers for you. Well, then,
how much more must Christ Jesus ’ave loved yer, when He give His
life blood to save yer.”
I have it from his own lips as well as one of theirs, that this
was the beginning of leading those three men to God; and before
he left the ship that night, they were trusting in Christ for
pardon, and for strength to live as His children.
(1895)
* * * * *
Joseph Dana Miller shows how love socializes the solitary soul:
God pity those who know not the touch of hands--
Who dwell from all their fellows far apart,
Who, isolated in unpeopled lands,
Know not a friend’s communion, heart to heart!
But pity these--oh, pity these the more,
Who of the populous town a desert make,
Pent in a solitude upon whose shore
The tides of sweet compassion never break!
These are the dread Saharas we enclose
About our lives when love we put away;
Amid life’s roses, not a scent of rose;
Amid the blossoming, nothing but decay.
But if ’tis love we search for, knowledge comes,
And love that passeth knowledge--God is there!
Who seek the love of hearts find in their homes
Peace at the threshold, angels on the stair. (Text.)
--_Munsey’s Magazine._
(1896)
* * * * *
The old fable of the bar of iron as an illustration of the superior
power of love will never be superseded.
The bar of iron lay across a log to be broken. “I can make it
yield,” boasted the hammer, but at the first blow the hammer
flew from its handle helpless to the ground. The ax followed
proudly, “I can succeed.” But after two or three strokes its
edge was dulled without leaving any impression on the iron bar.
“I, with my sharp teeth, will soon sever it,” said the saw, with
a confident air; only to have all its teeth broken in the task.
At length a quiet, warm flame said, “Let me try, it may yield
to me.” And the little flame twined itself about the iron in a
gentle, loving way, imparting an influence that finally made the
strong bar yield and fall apart.
(1897)
* * * * *
The power of love to draw out what is best in men is poetically exprest
by L. M. Montgomery:
Upon the marsh mud, dank and foul,
A golden sunbeam softly fell,
And from the noisome depths arose
A lily miracle.
Upon a dark, bemired life
A gleam of human love was flung.
And lo, from that ungenial soil
A noble deed upsprung.
(1898)
* * * * *
Upon the foundation of love a great work was done in Paris, France:
When Mr. McAll began his work he could utter but two sentences
in the tongue of those workingmen. One was “God loves you,” and
the other, “I love you”; and upon those two, as pillars, the
whole arch rests.--PIERSON, “The Miracles of Missions.”
(1899)
See PRODIGAL, THE.