in on the words to point out that the source
of all three lies in the Christian relation to God. They regard nothing
but God and our relation to Him; they would be all the same if there
were no other men in the world, or if there were no world. We cannot
call them duties or virtues; they are simply the results of communion
with God--the certain manifestations of the better life of the Spirit.
Love, of course, heads the list, as the foundation and moving principle
of all the rest. It is the instinctive act of the higher life and is
shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit. It is the life sap which
rises through the tree and given form to all the clusters. The remaining
two members of this triad are plainly consequences of the first. Joy is
not so much an act or a grace of character as an emotion poured into
men's lives, because in their hearts abides love to God. Jesus Christ
pledged Himself to impart His joy to remain in us, with the issue that
our joy should be full. There is only one source of permanent joy which
takes possession of and fills all the corners and crannies of the heart,
and that is a love towards God equally abiding and all-pervasive. We
have all known joys so perturbed, fragmentary and fleeting, that it is
hard to distinguish them from sorrows, but there is no need that joys
should be like green fruits hard and savourless and ready to drop from
the tree. If God is 'the gladness of our joy,' and all our delights come
from communion with Him, our joy will never pass and will fill the whole
round of our spirits as the sea laves every shore.

Peace will be built upon love and joy, if our hearts are ever turning to
God and ever blessed with the inter-communion of love between Him and
us. What can be strong enough to disturb the tranquillity that fills the
soul independent of all externals? However long and close may be the
siege, the well in the castle courtyard will be full. True peace comes
not from the absence of trouble but from the presence of God, and will
be deep and passing all understanding in the exact measure in which we
live in, and partake of, the love of God.

The second triad is long-suffering, kindness, goodness. All these three
obviously refer to the spiritual life in its manifestations to men. The
first of them--long-suffering--describes the attitude of patient
endurance towards inflictors of injury or enemies, if we come forth from
the blessed fellowship with God, where love, joy, and