“For life, with all it yields of joy and woe,
And hope and fear…
Is just our chance o’ the prize of learning love,—
How love might be, hath been indeed, and is.”
Christian love has to be learned. There is natural affection which does not need to be learned — the love of parents for children, of children for parents, of friend for friend. But it is not natural to love our enemies, to love unlovable people, to be unselfish, to return kindness for unkindness. We have to learn this love, and it is the great business of life to do it.
The lesson is written out for us in many parts of the Scriptures. We have it, for example, in Saint Paul’s wonderful chapter on love. It included patience. “Love suffereth long.” It is not easy live with all sorts of people and keep sweet always. In a letter from a friend the problem is stated thus:
“How to live victoriously when one does not feel well, has many tasks and duties, and must work with a cranky person.” That is about the problem for many good people, and it is not easy. There is only one way of solving it — by love. And natural love will not suffice. Some mothers solve it with their children. Some gentle wives solve it with exacting, thoughtless, ungentle husbands. Now and then a friend solves it with a friend to whom it is not easy to be a friend. But the Christian is to learn to solve it with every kind of person — however disagreeable, unlovable, and uncongenial — he is never to come to the end of his loving. It takes almost infinite patience to love thus, more, at least, than many of us can command.
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