The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 606

LOVE

566

avoiding tears, contradiction, and ill-will. When they call her "darling mother" it is sweet music to her ear; hence she never looks displeased, and rather than deny them anything she antici-

So she

pates their desires.

loves, not them, but herself.

Her aim

not their good, or the doing of God's will concerning them and herself; but to save unpleasantness and to insure to herself the is

children's affection.

But not so she who loves her children with

Love shed abroad by the Holy Ghost. Actuated by His Love, looking upon them in His light, she seeks their eternal good. To the

her each child

may

a patient in need of bitter medicine, which she

is

Her aim

not withhold.

is

not the gratification of the child's

way of life. And this causes while the indulgent mother is ever pleased with her children and ever ready to hear men praise them, the other is often wish, but his highest advantage in the conflict; for

tossed between hope and fear, saying,

" What will the end be?" Moreover, the time will come when her child, not understanding her love, will resist her, when he will think her lovely only when

she indulges him,

when he

will

reward her devotion with angry

look and voice and wilful disobedience,

comes

when

his conversation be-

when, regarding her as jealous of his pleasures, with a rebellious heart he will turn away from her love, while be-

fore

constraint,

God she

is

conscious that she seeks only his highest and holiest

interests.

There

is

another picture of suffering love.

among men one

that

had greater love than

There never arose

Christ.

In the

human

heart love never shone with brighter light, never glowed with

Without measure He had received the Holy

brighter flame.

who abode upon Him, who

filled

Him

Spirit,

with tenderest love that per-

vaded the soul and softened the heart. His love understood the secret of embracing in truest intimacy all that was hunta?i, and at the

same time

of breathing love that

every individual.

He gave Himself

opens His heart for an

old, blind

Jew

came

like a benediction to

to the whole race, and

in the gate of Jericho.

the infinite, rich, and almost omnipotent

He

Such

power of His love. It encompasses eternity, yet there is no outcast, however degraded, too low for its compassions. And what reception did the world prepare for Him? Did it offer Him love, honor, and admiration? Did it appreciate His holy love and kindle its own heart by its flame? On the contrary, the is

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