Page:Tolstoy - Pamphlets.djvu/152

Rh and the same thing. One and the same thing is desired only by God.

To love God means to desire that which He desires. And He desires universal welfare.

"Brethren, let us love one another. He that loveth is born of God and knoweth God, because (it is written 'God is Love,' but we ought to say) Love is God." But also God is love, i.e. we know God only in the form of love, and love is God, i.e., if we love we are not God's but God.

Yes, love is God.

Love—love him who has caused thee pain, whom thou hast blamed, disliked; and then all that which had concealed his soul from thee will dis appear, and thou wilt, as through clear water, see at the bottom of his soul the divine essence of his love; and thou wilt not have to, thou wilt not be able to pardon him; thou wilt only have to pardon thyself for not having loved God in him in whom He was, and for not having seen Him through the absence of thy love.

Love is the manifestation within oneself (the consciousness) of God, and therefore the propensity to get out of oneself, to liberate oneself, to live a