CHAPTER X LOVE 1. The world was created on the principle of love. Love is one of the attributes of the Divine Mind, and the whole universe is but an expression of this attribute. God created the world and its numerous beings in order to have more and more objects upon which to lavish His infinite love. Love, whether divine or human, must have an outlet for its expression. 2. If we look understandingly upon this world, we shall discover the touch of divine love upon everything that exists. In His love, God has created abundance for all His creatures. He has called into existence unlimited resources of sustenance, and He endowed each living being with the power to reach out and obtain its meed of that abundance.1 In his love, He supplies healing to the ailing, strength to the weak, cheer to the depressed, and hope to the despondent. He has given man the capacity for happiness, and has endowed him with the power of love, akin to His own, in order to enhance his happiness. If man would give expression to this divine gift in a full measure, as God intended him to, both his 1The fact that poverty exists, is not due to a faltering of God's love, or partiality in its bestowal, but to men's faulty distribution of the wealth that God has created for mankind. own happiness and the happiness of the entire human race would be promoted. 3. Love is not a virtue that man must struggle for in order to acquire. It is inherent in man; it resides in the depths of the human heart, it is knitted into his being. The powers and attributes manifested by God are potentially resident in man, created in His image. Love, therefore, is intertwined with the very roots of man's being. There is none so mean or so base, that he has not within him a spark of divine love, which occasion does kindle. 4. Love, however, like all other inherent powers, must be consciously cultivated and expressed; efforts must be made to call it into action; otherwise, it will remain in a potential state, finding only rare or inadequate expression. Nothing is more essential to the happiness of the human race and of the individual than the unfoldment of love. Nothing will bind heart to heart more closely than an act of kindness, which is the language of love; nothing will knit soul to soul more firmly than a word of tenderness, nothing will bring more cheer than a glance of sympathy and love. Love is a divine substance that has the power to cement the varied elements of humanity. Love stimulates love. We may admire the beautiful, but we love the loving. We may forget the impression of a great mind upon us, but we can never forget the impression of a great heart. The great of mind may teach us to think better, but the great of heart make us to feel happier. 5. There are three ways in which man may expend his love. He may lavish it upon his family; he may, in addi tion, spend it upon his friends; and, he may love the whole of mankind. The greatest number among men love the immediate members of their families. They lavish of themselves upon them, and not infrequently deny themselves necessities in order to supply their wants. Man cherishes a natural love for his kin. There are strong ties that bind him to them. He is inseparably united to them; and the union is inherent, it cannot be severed. Parents and children need not have the same interests in life in order to feel united; their lives are invisibly cemented, their feelings are knit together, they are held together by the bonds of nature; and love and devotion spring from this union. 6. The real joy of rearing a family comes from the fact that a family provides a channel for the accumulated stores of love. God has given man the treasures of love, which should be expressed. It is therefore highly desirable that man should seek to build a family and thereby create an outlet for his love and his sympathies. This is the most natural state and also the most happy one; for whatever endowment God has given to man is intended for the promotion of his happiness. The expression of love is an essential to happiness. Celibacy should therefore be discouraged, for, whatever conveniences it may temporarily afford, it must, in the end, bring great unhappiness. He who chooses to spend his life alone must pay the penalty of a reduced and shrunken personality; for when the emotions are not given natural expression, they dry up, and instead of expanding and augmenting, they narrow down to the confines of a self-cen tered heart. In the Sacred Scriptures, we read that God said: "It is not good for man to be alone." The implication is clear. Man's Man's emotions, his instincts, his thoughts, his proclivities are such, his entire personality, in fact, is so constituted that he must live a group life; and he who refuses to build a group around himself, but prefers to be alone, is seeking thereby to change his own nature a task in which he must meet with failure, for that which the Divine Mind creates, the human mind cannot alter. 7. Thus, the love for the family, in its simplest terms, is the channel through which man's most sacred emotions find expression. But man's sympathies grow broader and deeper, and often extend beyond the border line of the family circle. Love, then, reaches out to one's friends. It is as natural to love one's friends as it is to love one's kin. While the love for kin, however, is inborn and inherent, friendship is developed. Love among friends grows through the expression of mutual sympathies, mutual courtesies, mutual tenderness. Friendship is usually cultivated among those who are of an approximate age, who cherish the same ideals, who respond to the same emotions, who strive for the attainment of the same common good, who carry the same hopes, who have the same outlook upon life. Love among friends grows unconsciously; it cannot be forced; there are invisible attractions, intangible fibres that weave two hearts together. In friendship there is a spiritual affinity which needs no ties of consanguinity to make the bond firm. True friendship brings out the highest and best that is in one, |