it will become
idolatry. Let the love on both sides _be given to God to keep_, and
however much it may grow, the source from which it springs must yet be
greater.' Perhaps I may be pardoned for giving, at the same writer's
suggestion, a quotation from _Under the Surface_ on this subject. Eleanor
says to Beatrice:--

'I tremble when I think
How much I love him; but I turn away
From thinking of it, just to love him more;--
Indeed, I fear, too much.'
'Dear Eleanor,
Do you love him as much as Christ loves us?
Let your lips answer me.'
'Why ask me, dear?
Our hearts are finite, Christ is infinite.'
'Then, till you reach the standard of that love,
Let neither fears nor well-meant warning voice
Distress you with "too much." For He hath said
_How_ much--and who shall dare to change His measure?
"_That ye should love as I have loved you._"
O sweet command, that goes so far beyond
The mightiest impulse of the tenderest heart!
A bare permission had been much; but He
Who knows our yearnings and our fearfulness,
Chose graciously to _bid_ us do the thing
That makes our earthly happiness,
A limit that we need not fear to pass,
Because we cannot. Oh, the breadth and length,
And depth and height of love that passeth knowledge!
Yet Jesus said, "As I have loved you."'
'O Beatrice, I long to feel the sunshine
That this should bring; but there are other words
Which fall in chill eclipse. 'Tis written, "Keep
Yourselves from idols." How shall I obey?'
'Oh, not by loving less, but loving more.
It is not that we love our precious ones
Too much, but God too little. As the lamp
A miner bears upon his shadowed brow
Is only dazzling in the grimy dark,
And has no glare against the summer sky,
So, set the tiny torch of our best love
In the great sunshine of the love of God,
And, though full fed and fanned, it casts no shade
And dazzles not, o'erflowed with mightier light.'

There is no love so deep and wide as that which is kept for Jesus. It
flows both fuller and farther when it flows only through Him. Then, too,
it will be a power for Him. It will always be unconsciously working for
Him. In drawing others to ourselves by it, we shall be necessarily
drawing them nearer to the fountain of our love, never drawing them away
from i