Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1868-11-20
HENRY WARD BEEcuER on LOVE.

The following Is nom recent sermon by
the pastor Of Plymouth church
On earth there Is nothing more beautiful
than the first breaking Of young, strong, new,
true love- No flower that ever blos-omed,
however fair; nor fragrance that any flower
ever emitted, however sweet; no bravery Of
the sky; no witchery of art; nothing that
man ever invented or imagined, is to be
compared with the hours of dawning love in
the young soul And it Is a shame that
men should be taught to be ashamed ofthat
whichis the prophecy Of their highest being
and glory. Alas, that it should ever perish
in the using Alas, that men should not
know that to endure it they must rise high
er, since it Is only by growing into its full
and later disclosures that it may be saved
from quick mortality. 1t must grow or die;
for that which suffces for beginning Is not
enough for all, and for all time.
Love, therefore, should be a school mas
ter, carrying It's pupils up from room tn
room. through the whole university Of the
miud. As the lower begins first, 1t ends
first. The higher, beginning latest, lasts the
longest.
Aud, hence, true affection Is strongest in
the latter periods Of being. Perhaps 1t Is
less stimulating than young love, but the
popular impression that we love strongest
when we love earliest is not found It truth
OF analogy. No one knows the whole lore
of love, that does not know how to love with
reason, the imagination and all the moral
sentiments. It is the most interior school
/ that the soul can know Men may know
I how to deal with numbers and solve prob
| lens: but that is the rarest, the inuermost,
the deepest knowledge that comes with low
ing by all the parts and faculties ofthe soul
They only can love greatly or fruitfully
who are good, since the line, the direction is
from the flesh toward the spirit It is from
the low toward the high 1t Is from the sub
stantial toward the invisible. And none
can truly love except those whose life Is the
unfolding Of their whole nature on the plan
IF Christianity
How Illliu IL Is 10 see AlGA DH4'C teu NV
/ I cannot bear to see the young gathering to-
eether and building their nests as the birds
10. On my lawn l see the larks aud other
birds building in the grass, and know that
before the young are fedged the remorse-
less mower, with revolving strokes, will
sweep the ground, and the nests viii be ut
terlv destroyed. and the young cut and vast
ed. And do | not see men building their
nests lust 50? Do l not see love beginning
TO nestle in the flowers? But the flowers
themselves are rooted in the dirt down low,
close to the foot that easily shalcrush them.
/ [ mourn when / see a mother loving her
children for time, for time only. | mourn
when I see two natures that should be etcr-
ua'ly afianced, loving each other within the
horizons Of time. There must be something
! higher than the circlings of this world No
love is fit to be called by the name Of love
that has not in it something Of the other
world, and much Of immortality. 1t must
have in it faith aud hope. 1t must be a
love that Is served by the reason, by the i'm
arination. by all that there is in the soul