Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-06

order by doctors of divinity. The words
look like a command: "Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God." But that is only the gram
mar-and-dictionary part of the sentence.
The command is a condition. tits like
this: God wants US to inherit eternal life,
every one of us. But the inheritance can
become ours only under certain conditions.
want You to go to Philadelphia, and tell
you the way. That direction is not COM
mand. 1t is a condition. 1t lets you know
how. / want YOU to be able to enjoy good
books, to converse with the master spirits
OF the world, and. so to get your share OF
what is best In life 1 say-you must accus-
tom yourself to thinking. you must learn
attention, you must get information, you
must cultivate the sense of appreciation,
and you must live simply and purely In
order that you may see clearly out OF your
eyes. This, again, is not command
though it sounds like tit is a condition.
BY and by you will take a book of Plato
into your room, and just in proportion as
you have fulfilled the conditions, you will
get help, and inspiration, and enjoyment
out of it.
ETERNAL LIFE
is not a state of things which begins after
this transitory life is done. 1t lies all about
us like an atmosphere, it surrounds us like
the sunlight. 1t is simply the highest kind
of living, the truest way of seeing things,
the nearest approach to God. 1t is an ap-
probation of heavenly realities. He who is
living that life, heaven will not make so
very much difference with him. And
to love God and to love our neighbor are
the two eyes with which we look out into
this spiritual world. Some are blind looking
out OF neither eve. And you might as we'll
discourse with blind man about the deli
cate blue which walls the distant mountains
as TO talk with some folk about the beauties
of the life of divine love-. And none of us
have our eyes altogether wide open, and see
with perfect sight. But you understand
how love is condition. This is one of those
facts which are true not because they have
ever been set forth as laws, or ratified in
any celestial parliament, but because they
are true-essentially, inevitably and in the
nature of things true. He who had gone
about this world loving neither God much
nor his neighbor much, and should at
last by some stir OF his spiritual nature,
begin to love-it would be with him as with
one who, out of long blindness, suddenly
looked forth and saw the beauties of the
earth and sky. He who loves God and his
neighbor has revelation which no other
man is aware of, which interprets life, he
alone of all men sees.
anu tue entrance INTO tnls love is, as L
said, by Him who called Himself ''the
door" Study that life. Grow to know
Christ. And then you will love Christ.
And to love Christ is to love God.
More and more that love grows with all
who lend themselves to the blessed influ.
ences of that life. With the heart and soul;
with the strength, till it enters into every
humblest deed we do; with the mind, till it
colors every plainest thought we think, at
last with our whole being, God helping us,
we love Christ, and Him in Christ. And
we have learned the blessed secret of the
life eternal. GEORGE HODGES.