Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 3.djvu/178

Rh limitations of their character: thus far and no farther is the rule:

But as God is infinitely perfect, absolutely loveable, so there is no limit without to my power of loving Him, and my affection grows with the love of God which it feeds upon, and becomes greater, wider, deeper, nicer in its refinement, and brings a greater and greater accession of delight.

Then I have in God the sense of security, of permanent welfare which it brings; this imparts a steadiness to the action of all the faculties; it gives energy, vigour, quickness to the intellect, strengthens the will, sharpens the conscience, widens the heart, blesses with its own beatitude every faculty that I possess. My delight in God increases each special joy in the things of matter or in the persons of men; I love the world the more, because I know it is God's world, even as a dry leaf given by a lover is dearer than all pearls from whoso loves us not! I love my proper business better, by fire-side and street-side, in market and in shop, because I know that it is the way of serving God, bringing about His divine end by my human means. I love my brothers and sisters, my father and mother, wife and child, far more, because my heart is filled with reverence and love to God.

In the sunshine of life, every human joy is made more joyous by this delight in God. When these fail, when health is gone, when my eye is dim, when my estate slips through my hands, and my good name becomes a dishonour, when death takes the nearest and dearest of my friends, then my consciousness of God comes out, a great light in my darkness, and a very present help in my time of trouble. In wet weather in the spring, every hill abounds with water, the brooks run over in their affluence, and all the hill-sides and plains are green; but, when week after week there is no dew nor rain, and month after month the heavens impart no germinative moisture to the ground, the little streams dry up, the surface springs are choked with heat and dust, then we go to the well, that is