The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 555

"

LOVE

IN

THE TRIUNE BEING OF GOD

515

turn from his false joys. It was this very Love that " / will put said in Paradise, immediately after the breach of sin

may

that he

:

!

enmity God's children have derived from the Word deeper and richer conceptions of the divine Love, for they confess a Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one God in three Persons the Faand the Holy the Son, who is generated ther, who generates And the LoveSon. and Father both from proceeds who Spirit, :

;

;

whereby these Three mutually love each other is the Eternal Being Himself. This alone is the true and real life of Love. The entire Scripture teaches that nothing is more precious and glorious than the Love of the Father for the Son, and of the Son for the

life

Father, and of the Holy Spirit for both.

This Love

is

nameless

:

human tongue has no words

to express

no creature may iiiquisitively look into its eternal depths. It is the We listen to its music and adore great and impenetrable mystery.

it

;

but when its glory has passed through the soul the lips are still unable adequately to describe any of its features. God may loose the tongue so that it can shout and sing to the praise of eternal

it;

Love, but the intellect remains powerless. Before God created heaven and earth with

all their inhabitants,

the eternal Love of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit shone with unseen splendor in the divine Being. Love exists, not for the sake of the

when the world came into existLove remained unchanged; and if every creature were to Love disappear, it would remain just as rich and glorious as ever. exists and works in the Eternal Being apart from the creature and its radiation upon the creature is but a feeble reflection of its being. Love is not God, but God is Love; and He is sufficient to HimHe has no need of the creaself to love absolutely and forever. ture, and the exercise of His Love did not begin with the creature whom He could love, but it flows and springs eternally in the LoveGod is Love its perfection, divine beauty, life of the Triune God.

world, but for God's sake; and ence.

;

;

real dimensions,

and holiness are not found

in

men, not even

in the

best of God's children, but scintillate only around the Throne of

God.

The unity

of

Love with the Confession of the Trinity is the which we proceed to base Love independently

starting-point from

in God, absolutely independent of the creature or anything creaturely.

This

is

not to

make

the divine Trinity a philosophic de-

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