That chiefly is where men are to learn love.
How? Now, how? To make it easier, I have named a few of the
elements of love. But these are only elements. Love itself can
never be defined. Light is a something more than the sum of its
ingredients--a glowing, dazzling, tremulous ether. And love is
something more than all its elements--a palpitating, quivering,
sensitive, living thing. By synthesis of all the colors, men can
make whiteness, they cannot make light. By synthesis of all the
virtues, men can make virtue, they cannot make love. How then are
we to have this transcendent living whole conveyed into our souls?
We brace our wills to secure it. We try to copy those who have
it. We lay down rules about it. We watch. We pray. But these
things alone will not bring love into our nature. Love is an EFFECT.
And only as we fulfill the right condition can we have the effect
produced. Shall I tell you what the CAUSE is?
If you turn to the Revised Version of the First Epistle of John
you find these words: "We love because He first loved us." "We
love," not "We love HIM." That is the way the old version has
it, and it is quite wrong. "WE LOVE--because He first loved us."
Look at that word "because." It is the CAUSE of which I have
spoken.
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