Part 19 (1/2)

_THE JOY OF THE LOVER_

ROMANS xii. 9-18.

Love finds her joy in seeing others crowned. Envy darkens when she sees the garland given to another. Jealousy has no festival except when she is ”Queen of the May.” But love thrills to another's exaltation. She feels the glow of another's triumph. When another basks in favour her own ”time of singing of birds is come!”

And all this is because love has wonderful chords which vibrate to the secret things in the souls of others. Indeed, the gift of love is just the gift of delicate correspondence, the power of exquisite fellow-feeling, the ability to ”rejoice with them that do rejoice, and to weep with them that weep.” When, therefore, the soul of another is exultant, and the wedding-bells are ringing, love's kindred bells ring a merry peal. When the soul of another is depressed, and a funeral dirge is wailing, love's kindred chords wail in sad communion. So love can enter another's state as though it were her own.

Our Master spake condemningly of those who have lost this exquisite gift.

They have lost their power of response. ”We have piped with you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned with you, and ye have not lamented.” They lived in selfish and loveless isolation. They have lost all power of tender communion.

APRIL The Twenty-first

_LOVE AS THE GREAT MAGICIAN_

1 JOHN ii. 1-11.

A new commandment! And yet it is an old one with a new meaning. It is the old water-pot, but its water has been changed into wine. It is the old letter with a new spirit. It is the old body with a new soul. Love makes all things new! It changes duty into delight, and statutes into songs.

What a magic difference love makes to a face. It at once becomes a face illumined. Love makes the plainest face winsome and attractive. It adds the light of heaven, and the earthly is transfigured. No cosmetics are needed when love is in possession. She will do her own beautifying work, and everybody will know her sign.

What a magic difference love makes in service! The hireling goes about his work with heavy and reluctant feet: the lover sings and dances at his toil. The hireling scamps his work: the lover is always adding another touch, and is never satisfied. Just one more touch! And just another! And so on until the good G.o.d shall say that loving ”patience has had her perfect work.”

Love lights up everything, for she is the light of life. Let her dwell in the soul, and every room in the life shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.

APRIL The Twenty-second

_SPEECH AS A SYMPTOM OF HEALTH_

”_The tongue of the wise is health._”

--PROVERBS xii. 13-22.

Our doctors often test our physical condition by the state of our tongue.

With another and deeper significance the tongue is also the register of our condition. Our words are a perfect index of our moral and spiritual health. If our words are unclean and untrue, our souls are a.s.suredly sickly and diseased. A perverse tongue is never allied with a sanctified heart. And, therefore, everyone may apply a clinical test to his own life: ”What is the character of my speech? What do my words indicate? What do they suggest as to the depths and background of the soul?” ”By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”

G.o.d delighteth in truthful lips. Right words are fruit from the tree of life. The Lord turns away from falsehood as we turn away from material corruption, only with an infinitely intenser loathing and disgust.

It is only the lips that have been purified with flame from the holy altar of G.o.d that can offer words that are pleasing unto Him.

”Take my lips and let them be Filled with messages from Thee.”