Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1884-01-04
LOST LOVE.


hilated infinite love, but il has neces-
sarily lost the knowledge of it. Its
essential profession is that it simply does
not know. Was Jesus of Nazareth more
than u man? Ii does not know. Did
he really rise from the dead? 1t does
not know. Is there God in the uni
verse, being o. infinite W s;lom and
love? 1t does not know. Is another
life possible To man? 1t does not know.
Is there any near or "far-off Div ne
event, TO which the whole creation
moves as To tic solution OF the great
enigma of good and evil; any coming
triumphant vindication of the ways of
God with men-if God there he at all?
1t does not know. Infinite knowledge,
infinite wisdom, infinite love--these are
hidden from its gaze, it finds them not,
can take of them no account. They
may still exist; but TO The mind they are
as if they were not. Finite love, of
course, remains-love of kind, love of
country, love of family, love of wife
these, happily. are not necessarily nor
probably lost TO agnostics, however seri-
oJ.sly the beauty of them may be tar
hished and the zest of them abated.
Bat love at lis highest, its noblest, its
lO 1gest, its best-this is gone. The loss
is unspeakablr. The calamity is i'm
measurable. Lie can, now that in
finite love is lost, never be what it was
before. There was always before some
saving clause in the severest sentence of
doom; some mag nable reserve in the
healing resources of Providence, some
thing better 10 COM, something more
cheering 10 discover, some larger posi-
bility OF forgiving and healing mercy to
hope for, so long a. God remained, and
so long as the abiding God must needs
continue to be infinite, free, eternal
love.
No loss more serious than this can be
contemplated, SO far, at least, as the
present heal ng and help of the heart is
concerned. There is nothing SO dear to
us rs love; nothing 50 full OF soacc and
inspirat on; nothng so fruitful in true
nobility OF character; nothing SO pro-
life of strong and helpful actions.
Everything else goes down before the
ma eSty of love. Love begins life. love
ends it. Wealth, lie rning. position
Ill own the supremacy or love. Give
us sometime to love, or we break our
hearts. Strip us OF all other posses
only grant hearts to 10 us and accept
our love, and still in spite of all our
losses we are r.ch. No fat in science
is more sure than this. History attests
it. Myriads of living hearts declare its
truth. In shor', there can be no scien
tiiic account of universe so much as
hopefully attempted which does not set
human nature clear out in the front be-
fore all forms Of nature outside man,
and which does not, in measuring man,
pay supreme regard to tie dimens ons
of his love, The truest sci nee must be
that which takes most careful account
of the greatest, most fruitful, most mar
velous phenomena. Man, beyond all
question, the most wonderful natural
phenomenon which can be SUBMITTED
to phi.Osophc investie alton, is the phe-
nomenon of humen love. Whence has
it come? What its secret? What its
end? How can it be best explained?
These are questions to which AgnoSti-
cism can give little or no answer. 1t
must still declare that it simply does
not know.
But where Agnosticism fails, Chris
tian revelation succeeds. Finite love
has its roofs in Iniin tc Love; mans
love springs from Gods. There is no
breadth, no eariety, no persistence, no
tenderness, no yearning, no pure de-
light in human love which does not
find its adequate solution here. God is
lore. He made us TO love. By His
OF dainment n loveleSs existence is un-
Blessed. This resting of human love
in the Divine is a conception which
satisfies the intellect; for not only does
1T in general way assign an adequate
cause for known effect, but it finds
creative pattern to the most various and
diverse manifestations of the great
principle. Nature it is true, to the be-
licving man. is full of illustrations of
the manifold workings Of the love of
God. But in hrist the very extremes
of iove meet--its most diverse move
ments are gloriously harmonized In
Him is satisfied the ideal which claims
of rs that we reconcile outgoings of
love so diverse that they often appear
to ne conflicting. Christ loved His
enemies; He loved His friends. He
tenicrly pitied the fallen, the miser-
able, the outcast, the helpless, but He
loved the loveable, the appreciatiye,
the faithful, the helpful, with choice
affection which took delight in all that
was Divine in the human. never once
decn;ing that the gracious and the
beautiful were of no account. A more
complex conception, more perfectly
harf1onized, unified and explained than
that of Christs love at once TO the
world and to the Church can not be i'm
agined. There is, however, much more
than mere intellectual completeness
in tie position that mans love finds its
SQUIRE in Gods. Experience here has
n verdict to give. Myriads of Christ
loving souls knoo--as surely as they
know anything within the sphere of the
mind and heart-that their love in its
movements towards their fellows is I'M
dergoing continual renewal. continual
correction, coninual recovery, contin-
ual elevation and publication. because
lin tlleir faith) it has its roots in God.
They love God. therefore they love men.
Gods love wearies not, therefore theirs
does not faint Gods love leads to self
sacrifice, therefore does their own.
Their love is never wanting, never
weary, never puzzled, never baified,
never. thwartcd, but it finds refresh
mcnt, guidance, strength, ennoblement
I'm tn, more perfect love of God. This
action OF Gods love on their own is to
them n matter of experience. and as
such it is a subject of knowledge. In a
word, it is science; and to say all, there
can not be any adequate philosophic
] exposition of all the facts of human
HE which does not include the science
of love. CoRna0nsceGsh.