Scripture: "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?"--1 Corinthians 6:19
"When the truth touches a man's heart, he feels that he can not overcome the hardness of his heart and his pride by the force of his reason. Nature becomes a torment and a burden to itself before it can willingly give up to that death through which alone it can pass into life. There is no true and real conversion from the life of sin and death, till a man comes to know and feel that nothing less than his whole nature is to be parted with, and yet finds in himself no possibility of doing it. This is the despair by which we lose all our own life, to find a new one in God. For here it is that faith and hope, and true seek¬ing to God and Christ are born. But till all is despair in ourselves, faith and hope and turning to God in prayer are only things practised by rule and method; they are not born in us, are not living qualities of a new birth, till we have done feeling any trust or confidence in ourselves.
"A man must feel that he is still within the reach of Divine Love; God created him for Himself to be a habitation of His own life and Holy Spirit. In dealing with such souls, love must be our bait; it will put its hook into the heart, and force men to know, that of all strong things nothing is so strong, so irresistible, as Divine Love.
"Ask what God is; His Name is Love; He is the Good, the Perfection of Peace, the Joy, the Glory and the Blessing of every life. Ask what Christ is. He is the universal Remedy of all evil broken forth ia nature and creatures. He is the unwearied Compassion, the long-suffering Pity, the never-ceasing Mercifulness of God to every want and infirmity of human nature.
"Let us surround and encompass men with these frames of love until they become a willing victim to their power. All religion is the Spirit of Love, all its gifts and graces are love; it has no breath, no life, but the life of love. Love is heaven revealed in the soul; it is light and truth, it is infallible. Love is the Christ of God; it is the resurrection and life of every Divine virtue, a fruitful mother of true humility, boundless benevolence, unwearied patience, and bowels of compassion."
Let us seek above everything to believe that God is love, and as such, longs intensely to fill every heart with its blessedness. As the sun shines upon the earth with the one great object of shedding on it its light and its life, do let us believe that the great God of love is shining upon us every moment of the day. If we will but give Him time and patient waiting, that love will enter our hearts with all its gifts and graces and its unspeakable blessedness. That will make us willing to part utterly with self, and to yield ourselves a continual sacrifice to the God who loves us.
