LOVE.
The Lord preserveth all them that love Him.—Psalm xciv. 20.
Love your enemies, bless them that curse you.—Matthew, v. 44.
This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.—John, xv. 12, 14.
God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.—Romans, v. 8.
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.—I. John, iii. 1.
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.—I. John, iv. 7.
Weak though we are, to love is no hard task,
And love for love is all that Heaven does ask.
*****
’Tis with our minds as with a fertile ground;
Wanting this love, they must with weeds abound;
Unruly passions, whose effects are worse
Than thorns and briars, springing from the curse.
Waller.
Legions of angels, which He might have used,
For us resolved to perish, He refused;
While they stood ready to prevent His loss,
Love took Him up, and nailed Him to the cross.
Immortal love! which in His bowels reigned,
That we might be by such high love constrained
To make return of love; upon this pole
Our duty does, and our religion roll.
To love is to believe, to hope, to know;
’Tis an essay, a taste of Heaven below.
He to proud potentates would not be known;
Of those who loved Him, He was hid from none.
Waller.
Humble love,
And not proud science, keeps the door of Heaven;
Love finds admission where proud science fails.
Young.
Love celestial! wondrous heat!
O, beyond expression great!
What resistless charms were thine,
In thy good, thy best design!
When God was hated, sin obeyed,
And man undone, without thy aid,
From the seats of endless peace
They brought the Son, the Lord of Grace;
They taught Him to receive a birth,
To clothe in flesh, to live on earth,
And after, lifted Him on high,
And taught Him on the cross to die.
Parnell.
He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things, both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
Coleridge.
They sin who tell us love can die!
With life all other passions fly,
All others are but vanity;
In heaven ambition cannot dwell,
Nor avarice in the vaults of hell;
Earthly these passions of the earth,
They perish where they have their birth.
But love is indestructible,
Its holy flame for ever burneth,
From heaven it came, to heaven returneth:
For oft on earth a troubled guest,
At times deceived, at times oppress’d;
It here is tried and purified,
Then hath in heaven its perfect rest:
It sowest here with toil and care,
But the harvest-time of love is there.
Southey.
I must love on, O God!
This bosom must love on! but let thy breath
Touch and make pure the flame that knows not death
Bearing it up to Heaven, Love’s own abode.
Mrs. Hemans.
No mortal object did these eyes behold
When first they met the placid light of thine,
And my soul felt her destiny divine;
And hope of endless peace in me grew bold:
Heaven-born, the soul a heavenward course must hold;
Beyond the visible world she soars to seek
(For what delights the sense is false and weak)
Ideal form, the universal mould.
The wise man, I affirm, can find no rest
In that which perishes: nor will he lend
His heart to ought which doth on time depend.
’Tis sense, unbridled will, and not true love,
Which kills the soul: love betters what is best
Even here below, but more in heaven above.
Wordsworth, from Michael Angelo.
O Love! thy essence is thy purity!
Breathe one unhallowed breath upon thy flame,
And it is gone for ever, and but leaves
A sullied vase—its pure light lost in shame.
Miss Landon.
Love Thee! Oh, clad in human lowliness,—
In whom each heart its mortal kindred knows,—
Our flesh, our forms, our tears, our pains, our woes;
A fellow-wanderer o’er earth’s wilderness!
Love Thee!—whose very word but breathes to bless!
Through Thee, from long-seal’d lips, glad language flows;
The blind their eyes, that laugh with light, unclose;
And babes, unchid, Thy garment’s hem caress.
I see thee—doomed by bitterest pangs to die,
Up the sad hill, with willing footsteps move,
With scorge, and taunt, and wanton agony;
While the cross nods, in hideous gloom, above,
Though all—even there—be radiant Deity!
Speechless I gaze, and my whole soul is Love.
Milman.
They err, who deem love’s brightest hour in blooming youth is flown:
Its purest, tenderest, holiest power in after life is known,
When passions chastened and subdued, to riper years are given,
And earth, and earthly things, are viewed in light that breaks from Heaven.
Bernard Barton.
Music of the bough that waves,
As the wind plays lightly o’er;
Music of the stream that laves
Pebbly marge or rocky shore;
Sweet your melody to me,
Singing to the soul—the tone
Exceeds by far the minstrelsy
Of halls wherein bright harpers shone;
For ye attune His praise who made
The wondrous perfect frame we view,
Each hill, and plain, and leafy shade,
And yon fair canopy of blue:
Ye seem to sing,—“How great the arm
Of that high God who reigns above;
Him worship! but without alarm;
His dearest, best known name is Love.”
James Edmeston.
All things that are on earth shall wholly pass away,
Except the Love of God, which shall live and last for aye.
*****
Anon the great globe itself (so the holy writings tell,)
With the rolling firmament, where the starry armies dwell,
Shall melt with fervent heat—they all shall pass away,
Except the Love of God, which shall live and last for aye.
W. C. Bryant.
God is Love, saith the Evangel;
And our world of woe and sin
Is made light and happy only,
When a love is shining in.
J. G. Whittier.
Oh, loving and forgiving—
Ye angel words of earth
Years were not worth the living
If ye too had not birth!
Oh, loving and forbearing—
How sweet your mission here;
The grief that ye are sharing
Oh, stern and unforgiving—
Ye evil words of life,
That mock the means of living
With never-ending strife.
Oh, harsh and unrepenting
How would ye meet the grave,
If Heaven, as unrelenting,
Forbore not, nor forgave?
Oh, loving and forgiving—
Sweet sisters of the soul,
In whose celestial living
The passions find control!
Still breathe your influence o’er us
Whene’er by passion crost,
And, angel-like, restore us
The paradise we lost.
Charles Swain.
’Tis the angel Love,
He, who for ever strives with Death, and yet
Doth live! I see a form erect and motionless,
Veiled with a cloud of darkness, that no eye
Can pierce; that spectre form is Death, and there
I see Love crushed and bleeding ’neath his feet:
But still undying—still a conqueror—still
A thing that Death may wound but cannot quell.
In his warm blood a spirit still survives;
In his bright eye a soul is living yet;
In his undying heart, eternal life
Throbs fixedly. Oh strife most beautiful!
Thou crowned martyr! thou enduring Love!
How beautiful thou art!
Constantia L. Riddell.
Why should I a stranger be
In my Father’s dwelling,
While hill and river, rock and tree,
Of his love are telling?
Always heard their simple voice,
Bidding child-like hearts rejoice,
Whispers us this love is near;
What we seek in yonder sphere,
Love can find it now—and here.
Joseph Gostick.
Hail, holy love! ethereal essence, hail!
Heaven’s earliest offspring, earliest visitant
From thence to earth, here latest found to soothe
Man’s burdened heart, with pains and griefs oppressed,
(Sad fruit of disobedience,) thou, ere time
His race had yet begun, the glorious plan
Of mercy didst devise, the day of grace,
That with mild lustre dawned in Eden’s shades,
What time primeval sinners strove to hide
(Vain subterfuge!) from God’s all-piercing eye
Their guilt and shame; and thousand promises
With kindling radiance on the raptured mind
Of patriarchs, and kings, and prophets rose,
And saints expectant.
S. Stennet.
Love never fails: though knowledge cease,
Though Prophecies decay,
Love, Christian love, shall still increase,
Shall still extend her sway.
Here dimly, through life’s shadowy glass,
We strain our infant eyes;
Soon shall the earth-born vapours pass,
And light, unclouded, rise;
Then Hope shall sink in changeless doom,
Then Faith’s bright race be o’er,
But Thou, Eternal Love, shalt bloom
More glorious than before.
W. Peter.
Before the sparkling lamps on high
Were kindled up, and hung around the sky:
Before the sun led on the circling hours,
Or vital seeds produced their active powers;
Before the first intelligences strung
Their golden harps and soft preludiums sung
To Love, the mighty cause whence their existence sprung,
Th’ ineffable Divinity
His own resemblance meets in thee.
By this thy glorious lineage thou dost prove
Thy high descent—for God Himself is Love.
Mrs. Rowe.