love is the
annihilation, and therefore the apotheosis and glorifying, of self; and
in that annihilation lies the secret charm which brings all blessedness
into a life.

But, then, though love in itself be always bliss, yet, by reason of the
imperfections of its objects, it sometimes leads to sorrow. For
limitations and disappointments and inadequacies of all sorts haunt our
earthly loves whilst they last; and we have all to see them fade, or to
fade away from them. The thing you love may change, the thing you love
must die; and therefore love, which in itself is blessedness, hath
often, like the little book that the prophet swallowed, a bitter taste
remaining when the sweetness is gone. But if we set our hearts on God,
we set our hearts on that which knows no variableness, neither the
shadow of turning. _There_ are no inadequate responses, no changes that
we need fear. On that love the scythe of death, which mows down all
other products of the human heart, hath no power; and its stem stands
untouched by the keen edge that levels all the rest of the herbage. Love
God, and thou lovest eternity; and therefore the joy of the love is
eternal as its object. So he who loves God is building upon a rock, and
whosoever has this for his treasure carries his wealth with him
whithersoever he goes. Well may the Apostle gather into one potent word,
and one mighty wish, the whole fulness of his desires for his friends.
And wise shall we be if we make this the chiefest of our aims, that our
hearts may have their home in the love of God.

Still further, there is another chamber in this house of the soul. The
outer room, where the heart inhabits that loves God, leads into another
compartment, 'the patience of Christ.'

Now, I suppose I need not remind many of you that this great New
Testament word 'patience' has a far wider area of meaning than that
which is ordinarily covered by that expression. For _patience_, as we
use it, is simply a passive virtue. But the thing that is meant by the
New Testament word which is generally so rendered has an active as well
as a passive side. On the passive side it is the calm, unmurmuring,
unreluctant submission of the will to whatsoever evil may come upon us,
either directly from God's hand, or through the ministration and
mediation of men who are His sword. On the active side it is the
steadfast persistence in the path of duty, in spite of all that may
array itself against us. So there are the tw