The Creator and the Creature; or, The Wonders of Divine Love

THE CASE STATED BETWEEN THE CREATOR AND THE CREATURE.

A NEW FASHION OF AN OLD SENT.

“Quid ad me si quis non intelligat? Gaudeat et ipse dicens: Quid est hoc? Gaudeat etiam sic. et amet, non inveniendo inyenire potius Te, quam inveniendo non invenire Te.” S. Augustin.

LIFE is short, and it is -wearing fast away. We lose a great deal of time, and we want short roads to heaven, though the right road is in truth far shorter than we believe. It is true of most men that their light is greater than their heat, which is only saying that we practice less than we profess. Yet there are many souls, good, noble, and affectionate, who seem rather to want light than heat. They want to know more of God, more of themselves, and more of the relation in which they stand to God, and then they would love and serve Him better. There are many again who, when they read or hear of the spiritual life, or come across the ordinary maxims of Christian perfection, do not understand what is put before them. It is as if some one spoke to them in a foreign language. Either the words are without mearing, or the ideas are far-fetched and unreal. They stand off from persons who profess to teach such doctrines, or to live by them, as if they had some contagious disease which they might catch them selves. Yet they are often very little tainted by worldliness; often they are men who have made sacrifices for God, and who would lay down their lives for His Church. Their instincts are good; yet they seem to want something; and whatever it is that they lack, the absence of it appears to put them under a most mournful disability, in the way of attaining holiness. In other words, there are multitudes of men so good, that it seems inevitable that they must be much more good than they really are, and the difficulty is how so much goodness can continue to exist without more goodness.