“The world sits at the feet of Christ,
Unknowing, blind, and unconsoled;
It shall yet touch his garment’s fold,
And feel the heavenly Alchemist
Transmute its very dust to gold.”
Love for Christ is transforming the world. Love always transforms. Many a life is made beautiful by a pure, sweet, strong, human love. Who has not seen a young wife, with light, girlish nature, without seriousness, caring only for herself as it seemed, almost trivial, her friend’s thought, until a baby came, when all was changed? She became serious, thoughtful, and earnest. Self died, and her soul flowed out in unsparing service. She lived now for her child. The hands that heretofore had been idle became ministering hands. Too dainty before, for any toil, or any rough touch, they were now used without thought in caring for her child. Her whole being was transformed and shown now in noble beauty. Love had wrought the change. Little children are God’s angels to thousands of young mothers, sent to bless them by drawing their heart away from self. For we never learn to live until we cease to think of ourselves and begin to live for some object outside of self. Selfishness destroys the life, blights its beauty, withers up its powers, and lays a curse upon it. Love saves the life, develops its faculties, and calls out its best.
There was a childless home. Husband and wife grew up together in mutual love, but having no interest outside of their own lives; they became selfish, grasping, and covetous. Years passed, and they were growing rich, but were misery, saving every possible cent. They pinched themselves, living almost like beggars, with thin clothing, poor fare, in fire-less rooms. They gave nothing away to the relief of the need and distress about them. Appeals for God’s work met with no response. Thus time passed till they had reached mid-life. Then the breaking up of another home by the death of the parents, brought a little child into the cold, love-less dreary home. At once the child found her way into both thee withering hearts, and little by little the love awoke. Almost instantly there was a change. The home was brightened. The hoarded money was brought out and was spent more freely. The poor were remembered, God’s cause received help. The faces that were growing old and cold with the lines of greed and grasping desire became soft and warm with love’s subtle warmth. The two lives were transformed. God had saved them through a child.
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