Who has an understanding so exalted, so richly gifted, as to be able to say what love is! Should I say it is a dew, I merely describe its refreshing power. Should I say it is a star, I but describe its loveliness. Should I say it is a storm, I but describe the impossibility of restraining it. Should I say it is a ray of the sun, then I but describe its hidden source. Should I say it is produced in the utmost depths of the soul, when the breath of heaven unites with the heart’s blood of the new man, that it is the breath of the soul, still I should not have represented it, for I should but have said what it is in itself, not what it is to others. Should I say it is the light of the sun, that gives life and color to all creatures, still I should not have truly set it forth, for I should but have said what it is for others, not what it is in itself. Should I say it is a ray of the seven colors in a pure drop of water, still I should not have described it, for it is not so much a form as an odor, and a savor, in the depths of the human heart. Who has such a lofty understanding, such deep thoughts, as to be able to say what love truly is! The Scripture says—it is a flame of the Lord.[I] Yes it is a flame, steady, bright, and pure; a flame which lights up and warms, and shines through the heart into which it has entered, and then falls on other hearts, and the more light and warmth it gives to others, the brighter and stronger it burns in our breast.
But love, says the apostle, is greater than faith and hope, for beyond that limit where faith and hope depart, love still remains.… For as the door in this poor temporal life was but a little gate that did not always stand open, but was often shut by a strong gust of wind; in eternity the poor little gate will become a mighty portal, whose doors stand open night and day, which no storm-wind will ever close, through which the soul will freely pass into the heart of God and all his creatures. O, since in this life love has made us so rich, though but a little brook, which, when the sun shone fiercely, was almost dried up, how rich will it not make us when the little brook has become the stream, yea, the ocean, when it flows forth from the heart of God, in full spring-tide, and sin no more builds a barrier in the heart of the creature, and there will be a free and sacred giving and receiving between heaven and earth, and among all that is in heaven and upon earth! O, who has so exalted an understanding that he can truly say what love is!—Tholuck.[4]
FOOTNOTES
[I] Canticles, viii:6, German version.
STUDIES IN KITCHEN SCIENCE AND ART.
VI. CABBAGES, TURNIPS, CARROTS, BEETS, AND ONIONS.
BY BYRON D. HALSTED, SC. D.