Not content with that, it seeks him out, as the widow the lost coin, with all the invincible constancy of a woman's love. Nay more, like the shepherd, leaving all else behind, it goes after him into the very desert of sin, and brings him back rejoicing. The Scribes and Pharisees took umbrage at seeing Our Lord consorting with publicans and sinners. Alas! what a significant contrast between divine and human charity; between the heart of man and the heart of God!
Brethren, the prophet Samuel tells us that in forming an estimate of a man's moral worth, the Lord judgeth not as a man judgeth, for men looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. Mind and heart, faith and love — both are essential elements in religion, for, as St. Augustine says, "the worship of the mind should be strictly commensurate with that of the heart." Still, in the ideal Christian, more important even than a believing mind is a loving heart. According to St. Paul, love is first for " faith," he says, " worketh through love." To love is the first commandment — the sum of them all: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all the powers of thy being, and thy neighbor as thyself for the love of God." Christ's most striking characteristic was His love for all sorts and conditions of men. As we read to-day, He ate and drank with them, becoming all things to all; He comforted and cured them; He died for them. And His teaching was the gospel of love. " This is My commandment," He says, " that you love one another. By
