born
of knowledge. We do not, it is true, love anything before we have some
knowledge of it; this would be an impossibility; but once the soul has
caught the vision, it is love that drives the life and stimulates and
enriches the knowledge. The objects of our affections are the interpreters
of our life and actions. If we love the world, we are led by the world; if
we love God, it is God that leads and directs us. Where the treasure is,
there will the heart be also;(42) and where the heart is, thither will the
life make its way. But if God is the object of our love, we shall fear no
evil; for "God is charity," says St. John, "and he that abideth in
charity, abideth in God, and God in him ... Fear is not in charity; but
perfect charity casteth out fear, because fear hath pain."(43)

It is only the love of God, therefore, that will steady our lives, and
bear us up in the thick of tribulations. It is the confident assurance
that we, although so unworthy, are the objects of divine complacency that
awakens in our hearts a return of burning charity, and enables us to say,
with the Psalmist, when the day is darkest "The Lord is my light and
salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life; of
whom shall I be afraid?"(44) We are not to fear men, said our Lord, who,
when they have destroyed the body, can do no more;(45) neither shall we be
in dread of our Master, if armed with the gift of His love, "for fear hath
pain, but love casteth out fear." Rather shall we, like the martyrs of
old, mindful of the gift of God, go bravely forth to the battle of life,
or to the slaughter, calmly, hopefully, cheerfully. While humbly, but
steadfastly trustful of the Shepherd that leads us, we shall not be
disturbed or troubled; the present shall be shorn of its terrors, the
future of its forebodings. This truly is the triumph of life, when love,
not fear, has come to rule us. This is the broader, larger life--the
forerunner of life eternal in which our days are passed in calm
serenity--in which we press on with undaunted tread, alike under frowning
clouds, or under a star-lit sky; alike with the joys of friendship around
us, or alone amidst the graves of the dead.

We must not infer from this that the love of God which is our strength,
the source of our courage, will blunt our feelings or harden our lives. It
does not seal up the fountain of tears, or make us insensible to the pains
and sorrows of life, which belong to the lot