ch
them for a moment. Where Christ abides in a man's heart, love will be
the very soil in which his life will be rooted and grow. That love will
be the motive of all service, it will underlie, as its productive cause,
all fruitfulness. All goodness and all beauty will be its fruit. The
whole life will be as a tree planted in this rich soil. And so the life
will grow not by effort only, but as by an inherent power drawing its
nourishment from the soil. This is blessedness. It is heaven upon earth
that love should be the soil in which our obedience is rooted, and from
which we draw all the nutriment that turns to flowers and fruit.

Where Christ dwells in the heart, love will be the foundation upon which
our lives are builded steadfast and sure. The blessed consciousness of
His love, and the joyful answer of my heart to it, may become the basis
upon which my whole being shall repose, the underlying thought that
gives security, serenity, steadfastness to my else fluctuating life. I
may so plant myself upon Him, as that in Him I shall be strong, and
then my life will not only grow like a tree and have its leaf green and
broad, and its fruit the natural outcome of its vitality, but it will
rise like some stately building, course by course, pillar by pillar,
until at last the shining topstone is set there. He that buildeth on
that foundation shall never be confounded.

For, remember that, deepest of all, the words of my text may mean that
the Incarnate Personal Love becomes the very soil in which my life is
set and blossoms, on which my life is founded.

'Thou, my Life, O let me be
Rooted, grafted, built in Thee.'

Christ is Love, and Love is Christ. He that is rooted and grounded in
love has the roots of his being, and the foundation of his life fixed
and fastened in that Lord.

So, dear brethren, go to Christ like those two on the road to Emmaus;
and as Fra Angelico has painted them on his convent wall, put out your
hands and lay them on His, and say, 'Abide with us. Abide with us!' And
the answer will come:--'This is my rest for ever; here'--mystery of
love!--'will I dwell, for I have desired it,' even the narrow room of
your poor heart.

LOVE UNKNOWABLE AND KNOWN

'That ye ... may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the
breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of
Christ, which passeth knowledge.'--Eph. iii. 18, 19.

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