What, some one will ask, when a man loves a fair face, does he love
Christ then? Ah! my friends, that is not true love, as all know well
enough if they will let their own hearts tell them truth. True love is
when two people love each other for the goodness which is in them. True
love is the love which endures after beauty has faded, and youth, and
health, and all that seems to make life worth having is gone. Have we
not seen ere now two old people, worn, crippled, diseased, yet living on
together, helping each other, nursing each other, tottering on hand in
hand to the grave, dying, perhaps, almost together,--because neither
cared to live when the other is gone before, and loving all the while as
truly and tenderly as in the days of youth? They know not why. No; but
God knows why. It is Christ in each other whom they love;--Christ, the
hope of glory. Yes, we have seen that, surely; and seen in it one of the
most beautiful, the most divine sights upon earth,--one which should
teach us, if we will look at it aright, that when we love our neighbour
truly, it is the divine part in him, the spark of eternal goodness in
him,--what St Paul says is Christ in him,--which we admire, and cling to,
and love.
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