The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 558

:

;

LOVE

518 Moreover,

He

also implanted in

man's consciousness the sense of knowing it. On the contrary, not only does man feel the impulse of love, but this impulse is also reflected in the mirror of his soul wherein he beholds the beauty of love thus he learns to cherish love and to rise to the act of loving

The animal

love.

loves, but without

;

with

full consciousness.

Finally,

by His providence, which

the Father ordains that

with man, that in this way

For whether

him.

it

is

but an

eflfect

of creation,

man

should meet man, come into contact the sense of love may become active in

be a poor sufferer whose distress arouses

love, or a bold character that appeals to

my

sympathy, or

my

lastly a

pure and beautiful figure that attracts me irresistibly, it is always God the Father who allots me these meetings, who by His providential leadings

makes the kindling

of love possible.

This is followed, in the second place, by the work of the Son, who became flesh to reveal to us the fulness of divine Love in the flesh. Hence the manifestation of Love in the redemptive work. This is entirely different from what the Father did in creation for, altho in creation divine love was foreshadowed, its conception implanted, and its imperfect exercise made possible, yet the divine Love itself was not revealed. But it is revealed in the advent of the Son " For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him might not perish, but :

have everlasting that

He

life"; "

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but loved us, and gave us His son to be a propitiation for our

This is the "Peace on earth, good will toward men" of which the angels sang in the fields of Bethlehem; this is the mys* sins."

tery that the angels desire to look into.

Here we notice again two things Love wherewith God loved the world proven by the fact that he spares not His own Son, but delivers Him up for us all. Second, the love of Christ for the Father, whose work He finFirst, the

ished, axid/or us,

The

whom He

saved.

second \s of greatest importance to us.

In Christ,

whom we

honor as God manifest in the flesh, the divine Love is seen; in Him it appeared and scintillated with all-surpassing brightness. The reality of the divine Love appeared to men for the first time and once for all in Him " That which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have :

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