Christian Charity
“Add to brotherly kindness charity.’’’’ — 2 Pet. i. 7
Christianity here reveals itself as the religion of universal love. It tells men that it is not enough for them to be kind to those who are their brethren; they must be kind to those who are not their brethren. It is not enough for them to love those that are at one with iP MOMENTS OX THE MOUNT.
th em; they must love those that are aot at one with them. Christ’s love is like no other love; it goes down to those that are outside the pale of loveliness. Human love can only seek her own, can only love that which is like herself. Man seeks fellowship with him that has a kindred soul. He goes out to meet the heart that is already in sympathy with his heart, he gives back to his brother what his brother has given to him. But Divine love transcends the limits of its own sympathies. It seeks those that are not yet brethren; it goes forth to make brotherhood. It keeps not on the plain of its own being; it descends into the valleys to seek and to save that which is lost. It travels down into the depths to bring up that which as yet has no affinity to itself. It follows the prodigals afar off, it searches out the lepers amid the tombs, it gathers in the outcasts from the highways and the hedges; it seeks those who are not beautiful, that it may endow them with its beauty.
0 Thou Divine Love, that hast revealed to me the infinite possibilities of loving, make me a sharer in Thy life. Much of what I call my love is but disguised selfishness. I seek others because I find myself in them. My heart goes out to the hearts that go out to me, my sympathy expands to the sympathies that agree with me, my kindness is but brotherly kindness. I want more than that. I want kindness for the unbrotherly, sympathy for the erring, tenderness for the fallen, love for the lost. In Thee, in Thee alone shall I find them. Breathe into my heart the breath of Thine own life, that my life may no longer be my own. Inspire me wTith the glory of Thy Cross — the joy of bearing the burdens of the world’s weak ones. Lay upon me that yoke of Thine which is easy because it kills all selfish care — the yoke of humanity, the care for other souls. Then shall my heart be enlarged to meet the life of man. Then in the depth of Thy love shall I go down into the depths of humanity, and shall claim my brotherhood with every human soul. When I have reached the power of universal charity I shall be made divine in Thee.