To be near unto God - pagina 190

God by the acts of the will. Neither knowing God through the analytic studies

not knowing is

it

It is the close approach with the warm, tender feeling of the throbbing heart that craves to be cherished; it is to have longed and languished for what can quiet the burning desires of the heart; to have tried everything that can be tried; to have suffered disappointment with it all, and now at last to find the true, perfect and holy object of the love of the heart; to receive God himself in the soul; and in this love to be supremely happy. The difference is perceived at once between this love and what is commonly passed as loving God. Who does not love God? Every one indeed, who is not out and out an atheist. Why should he not be loved? In him everything is pure and holy and exalted. There is nothing in him why he should not be loved, and every one The feels that he is worthy of the love of all. masses in general love God. They have nothing .against him. In God they find their ideal of what is beautiful, right and good. Therefore they Even as they love virtue, •can not do otherwise. and right, so tliey also love God. But in this Platonic love glows no tiniest spark of personal relationship and attachment. It is called love for God, but God has no place in the soul or in the mind. The inclination and drawing of the heart do not go out after him. There is nothing in this love of a burning thirst after God, such as makes the heart pant after the water brooks. By the side of this cool, measured, pseudo-love of the world, which is heartless, the Scripture

of confessional standards.

to

God

186

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