uch kindness? I did
nothing except this: I desired with all the force of my heart and soul
and mind and body to love Him. I said, "Oh, if I could be the
warmest, tenderest lover that ever thou didst have! Teach me to be
Thy burning lover." This was my perpetual prayer. And my idea of
Heaven was and is this, that without so much as knowing, or being
known or perceived by _any save Himself,_ without even a name,
yet retaining my full consciousness of individuality, I should be with
Him for always.

What is this love for God, and how define it? For myself, I never
knew it until I was filled with it upon the hill. Many judge it to be _a
following_ of Christ and His wishes, but this is only a part of it and
the way we begin it, and often we begin from duty, fear of future
punishment, desire for salvation or spiritual pre-eminence, and
obedience; and in none of these is there the joy of love.

By such standards I might count myself to have loved Him for
twenty years; but know I did not. For ten years past I felt myself to
have so great a need of Him, I sought Him so, that for me Heaven
contained no re-met former earthly loves, much as I loved them here.
I knew that He would be my all. Nevertheless, He was not yet my
Love, but my Need.

Love is a fire, for we feel the great heat of it.

Love is a light, for we perceive the white glare of it.

Of things known, to what can we compare it? Most perhaps to
electricity, for here we have both light and heat, and the lightning
flash strikes that which already contains the most of itself (or
electricity). And the lightning of God's love strikes him whose heart
contains the most love for Himself. And He strikes when He will,
and afterwards visits when He will; and I do not count myself (for
all my earthly loves) to have so much as known the outer edge of the
meaning of the word love, till He struck me with His own upon that
hill.

Truly, fair and holy love is our warranty, our only pass for entering
into Heaven.

Brave and wilful, rapturous and insistent, love passes with bold yet
humble ecstasy into the very presence of her Lord and God; and
alone, out of all creation, is never denied the Right of Way.

* * *

I have seen it quoted, "Turn to the heights, turn to the deeps, turn
within, turn without, everywhere thou shalt find the Cross." But I
see it so: "Turn to the heights, turn to the deeps, turn within, turn
without, everywhere thou shalt find His Love." Love to help o