| The Lesson of Love |
Chapter 1 |
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Love is generous. It “envieth not.” We have learned the lesson well only when we can rejoice in the joy of others. This is quite as much a part of true love’s sympathy as it is to share the griefs of others. “Rejoice with them that rejoice; weep with them that weep.” We can do the latter more easily than the former. When we find one in misfortune or in trouble, it is not hard to sympathize with him. But when others are honoured more than we are, or prospered more, or when they win success while we fail, or are very happy while we are less so, it is as easy for us to be genuinely glad as it would be to be really sorry if they were in some kind of grief?
Love is unselfish. It “seeketh not its own.” Unselfishness is at the very heart of all true love. It is the obtruding of self into our thoughts, feelings, and acts that spoils much of our living. We love people until it would cost us something to continue to love them and then we stop short. We accept serious responsibility when we say to any one: “I will be your friend.” That is what Jesus said to His friends, and then He loved to the uttermost. That is what “seeketh not its own” means. It may cost us years of self-denial and exhausting service.
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