from heaven, the essential object of my faith, hope, and life. How can an earthly wife have a place in my heaven-filled heart? How can I divide my heart between God and man?[1] The Christian’s love to God is not an abstract or general love such as the love of truth, of justice, of science; it is a love to a subjective, personal God, and is therefore a subjective, personal love. It is an essential attribute of this love that it is an exclusive, jealous love, for its object is a personal and at the same time the highest being, to whom no other can be compared. “Keep close to Jesus [Jesus Christ is the Christian’s God], in life and in death; trust his faithfulness: he alone can help thee, when all else leaves thee. Thy beloved has this quality, that he will suffer no rival; he alone will have thy heart, will rule alone in thy soul as a king on his throne.”—“What can the world profit thee without Jesus? To be without Christ is the pain of hell; to be with Christ, heavenly sweetness.”—“Thou canst not live without a friend: but if the friendship of Christ is not more than all else to thee, thou wilt be beyond measure sad and disconsolate.”—“Love everything, for Jesus’ sake, but Jesus for his own sake. Jesus Christ alone is worthy to be loved.”—“My God, my love [my heart]: Thou art wholly mine, and I am wholly thine.”—“Love hopes and trusts ever in God, even when God is not gracious to it [or tastes bitter, non sapit]; for we cannot live in love without sorrow. . . . For the sake of the beloved, the loving one must accept all things, even the hard and bitter.”—“My God and my All. . . . In Thy presence everything is sweet to me, in Thy absence everything is distasteful. . . . Without Thee nothing can please me.”—“O when at last will that blessed, longed-for hour appear, when Thou wilt satisfy me wholly, and be all in all to me? So long as this is not granted me, my joy is only fragmentary.”—“When was it well with me without Thee? or when was it ill with me in Thy presence? I will rather be poor for Thy sake, than rich without Thee. I will rather be a pilgrim on earth with Thee, than the possessor of heaven without Thee. Where Thou art is heaven; death and hell where Thou art not. I long only for Thee.”—“Thou canst not serve God and at the same time have thy
- ↑ “Quae non nubit, soli Deo dat operam et ejus cura non dividitur; pudica autem, quae nupsit, vitam cum Deo et cum marito dividit.”—Clemens Alex. (Paedag. 1. ii.).
