The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-04-01

| yet 10 uabspire Love Is the ioy of the infinite
| and eternal heart. Before creature had broken
! the awful silence OF eternity. love was the atmo-
! sphere in which God dwelt; and where intelh-
! gent creatures, in obedience to the Divine tat
h1st ilved, tnat beginning of creature life was
! but the eXpressi on of eternal love bringing 10
| pass It's own eternal loving thought
In the Gospel we have only the same idea
amplifed. As the mould and circumstances of
the FIRST man spoke of love Divine in creation
so did the gift of Jesus in redemption, as in a
nelD creation. The free creature, welding HE
own God-givcn honors, master OF his own 'es-
tiny, cast away the gifts OF Divine love; but that
san Divine love stoops to raise him from the fail
''In the fulness OF time God sent forth His
Son." "God so loved the world that He gave
His only oegotten Som to remedy mans ruin,
and by such an exhibition of Divine love 10
draw him up out of it. "Herein Is love. not
that we loved God, but that He loved us and
gave His son TO die for us.n What is the bur
den OF the Gospel message to the world2 Is it
aught but the love of God in Christ Jesus Is
1t not that God is in Christ reconciling the
world unto HIMSELF not imputing unto them
IN tReiT T Tansglessons ~ is it not that 'the love
"ho that believeth not shall be damuedD
If it not because he refuses to believe in
the love of God, because he refuses to believe
in the very last power that could save him.
namely, Divine love, and in the very last mani
festation of that love, namely, God manifest in
the flesh, dying on the cross rising from the
dead and sitting ever at the right hand OF God
TO make lntercesslon Tor men Charity there
fore, has ITS highest example in God. He whose
image we are to bear, whether we behold Him
IN the Scriptures or out of them, is love
love when He smiles and when He trowns:
love when He blesses aud when He curses;
love when He creates beauty and when
He suffers to come blight and deformity; He is
love in His justice, truth, and holiness: these
borrow their motive impulses from love.
Charity, therefore, in man is glory borrowed
from God; divine and human, heavenly and
earthly charity are in kind one, however differ
ing in degree.
Tbot Iovo p,o i,t I,o -
seen in the tact that it constitutes the source
and blessedness of the internal Christian life.
Indeed, the same is true of the joys of all the
forms of inner life. We even fancy 1t is so
when their love is active. You hear it in the
affectionate cluck of the hen amidst her
chicks; YOU see 1T in the cherry in the mouth
OF the robin, which her heart, as much as her
beak, is bearing away to her waiting blrdlings;
you behold it and eel in almost every form OF
maternal life into which we are capable of
pryinP; and if the ostrich has become the en-
bem of all that is hard in human hears,
because without mothers instincts, the peli-
can, tabled to feed its young from its own
blood, has become the figure of the highest
loving seli-saCriBCe. But to come to our own
race, to pass by the outer forms of lite, with its
seeming joys, and TO come to the heart itself.
What is its happiness! Is it motifs love What
is the light OF Your home! Is 1t wife. or hus-
band, or children, or parents If so, why? All,
these words, if not shams and blinds, mean love
At the root of home relations IS love; that is
the hand of fire which nothing can uuench, the
tie of tenderness which holds, but not enslayes:
that is the attraction OF the family tireside;
that is the inspiration Of labor, converting its
hardest tasks INTO Joy. Oh, there is something
inehably sweet about domestic life, wnen 1t is
virtuous and happy; but the spring and inspi-
ration OF 1t is the subtle power of love, that
invisible, but mighty something which clings to
the soul, lives In the deep chambers OF the
heart; which breaks out from within like the
holy wish OF an angel; which CLEANS and swims
in the mothers eye, expresses itself in her kiss
and in the babes return OF it; which wraps
| the whole house INTO unity like charm;
| which gives its holy meaning to the word home,
| and over praires and deserts and oceans,
| and borders of strange and far-of lands,
| draws the soul back to the familiar scenes
of early days and to parental embraces. The
| whole law Of the house, the power of that law
| residing in the soul wherever it wanders, is
| written in that one word-iOUe.
Not to multiply illustrations, the same truth
| holds in the Divine life. The highest ioy-a ioy
! that flames and blazes even in trlbulation,
! springs up and abounus only when we can say,
"The love OF God is shed abroad in our hearts
by the Holy Ghost given unto u.s."
We NAV not attempt to dig out this Divine
root of all good IN us, and hold 1t up to your
view so as 10 show you the secret of its life, the
flow of its cap, and how 1t came to be planted in
the soul. There is mystery everywhere, even
in the life of the meanest insect or reptile that
! lives: we cannot even tell how grain of corn
! sprouts-what that wonderful power init is that
! moves when touched by EARTH moisture, aud
| M, v.
! So here, "the wind bloweth where it listeth,
! but thou canst not tell whence it cometh and
| whittier it goeth.n The secret of the Lord is
| with them that fear; He shows to them
! His covenant; He makes their hearts
! TO bound and to overflow; but who
! shall explain the rise of. this new and Divine
! tide IN the dead sea of the fallen soul? We only
| know that the soul believes IN God; trusts Him
| through Jesus Christ-in one Divine word, loves
! Him. Loves His blessed attributes, His glorious
! character, His righteous rule over the world
! His glorious law, His infinitely glorious person
| God has come into the soul; has made it His
temple, ard the first and greatest Of all the
| commandments is now obeYed, namely, "ThoC
shalt love the Lord thy God with ali thy heart
The great gulf is hridged, the wandering star ii
back again in its orbit, the prodlgal is agaiI
| in the arms OF his reconciIed Father
That love of God shed abroad in the
the heart is the chief part of Divine charity. i
| is the highest Joy of the saints. When they rise
| highest on the wings of closet communion witt
| God: when the soul is Wrapt ing in holy song, OF
| lost in prayer whose thoughts and feelings ar,
too great for the vent OF human language; wha
is this teryid and eNalting impulse but love
love of the Divine, love of the all-perfect, all
LOVING, notwithstanding Cod?
This is a part of Divine charity which is ou
of the worlds sight When they are told Of IT,
its possessors seem to speak In an unknown
tongue. The reason is obvious; but one of the
parties TO this Divine communion of love is
visible, and to the world only what is visible il
real With the world God is an abstraction, al
ideal being, and nothing more. Men of tht
world who walk with the veil on their hearts
and who are deaf and dead to heavenly voices
see only the second part of charity, and, indeed
only the outer and coarser half of that. By thu
second part of charity, we mean that enjoineC
in the second great commandment which Jesu
said was like unto the first; that commandment
glorious and yet terrible, is, Thou shal
love thy neighbor as thyselfn elsewhere
! into aTnAI hu NunR hot