y
some other kind of virtuous living that joy departs from our life, and
we begin to hope for some future reward which may compensate for the
dulness of the present--as if a change of time could change the
essential conditions of life and happiness. If we are not joyful now, if
life is dreary and dull and pointless to us, so that we crave the
excitement of a speculative business, or of boisterous social meetings,
or of individual success and applause, then it should be quite plain to
us that as yet we have not found life, and have not the capacity for
eternal life quickened in us. If we are able to love one human being in
some sort as Christ loved us--that is to say, if our affection is so
fixed upon any one that we feel we could give our life for that
person--let us thank God for this; for this love of ours gives us the
key to human life, and will better instruct us in what is most essential
to know, and lead us on to what is most essential to be and to do than
any one can teach us. It is profoundly and widely true, as John says,
that every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. If we love
one human being, we at least know that a life in which love is the main
element needs no reward and looks for none. We see that God looks for no
reward, but is eternally blessed because simply God is eternally love.
Life eternal must be a life of love, of delight in our fellows, of
rejoicing in their good and seeking to increase their happiness.

Sometimes, however, we find ourselves grieving at the prosperity of the
wicked: we think that they should be unhappy, and yet they seem more
satisfied than ourselves. They pay no regard whatever to the law of life
laid down by our Lord; they never dream of living for others; they have
never once proposed to themselves to consider whether His great law,
that a man must lose his life if he is to have it eternally, has any
application to them; and yet they seem to enjoy life as much as anybody
can. Take a man who has a good constitution, and who is in easy
circumstances, and who has a good and pure nature; you will often see
such a man living with no regard to the Christian rule, and yet enjoying
life thoroughly to the very end. And of course it is just such a
spectacle, repeated everywhere throughout society, that influences men's
minds and tempts all of us to believe that such a life is best after
all, and that selfishness as well as unselfishness can be happy; or at
all events that