The Deepest Life of the Soul is Incommunicable 159

8. Thought is deeper than all speech,

Feeling deeper than all thought;
Souls to souls can never teach
What unto themselves was taught.

9. We are spirits, clad in veils ;
Man by man was never seen.
All our deep communing fails
To remove the shadowy screen.

10. Points have we all of us within our souls

Where all stand single; this I feel, and make
Breathings for incommunicable powers.

CHAPTER L

LOVE IS THE FULFILLING OF JUSTICE AND PERFECT JUSTICE THE FULFILMENT OF LOVE

1. Love's hearts are faithful, but not fond,

THE SELFRESTRAINT OF LOVE

Bound for the just, but not beyond;

2. Not glad, as the low-loving herd,
Of self in other still preferred,

But they have heartily designed
The benefit of broad mankind,
3. And they serve men austerely,
After their own genius, clearly,
4. Without a false humility;
For this is Love's nobility,-
Not to scatter bread and gold,
Goods and raiment bought and sold;
5. But to hold fast his simple sense,
And speak the speech of innocence,
And with hand and body and blood,
To make his bosom-counsel good.

6. Without love the exterior work profiteth nothing; but whatsoever is done of love, be it never so little and contemptible in the sight of the world, it becomes wholly fruitful.

LOVE SERVES GLADLY

7. He doeth much that loveth much.

8. Love is a great thing, yea, a great and thorough good; by itself it makes everything that is heavy light; and it bears evenly all that is uneven.

9. It carries a burden which is no burden; it will not be kept back by anything low and mean; it desires to be free from all worldly affections, and not to be entangled by any outward prosperity, or by any adversity subdued.

10. Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of trouble, attempts what is above its strength, pleads no excuse of impossibility.

11. It is therefore able to undertake all things, and it completes many things, and warrants them to take effect, where he who does not love would faint and lie down,

12. Though weary, it is not tired; though pressed, it is not straitened; though alarmed, it is not confounded; but as a living flame it forces its way upward, and securely passes through all.

LOVE ENDURES PATIENTLY

13. Love is active and sincere; courageous, patient, faithful, prudent and manly.

14. Love suffereth long and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

15. Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

16. Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

17. Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

18. Love never faileth; but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they

L

shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish

away.

19. And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

20. He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

21. Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you.

TRUE LOVE IS TOWARD

ALL MANKIND

22. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

23. And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?

24. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.

25. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.

26. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.

NAUGHT

ELSE AVAILETH

27. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge: and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.

28. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing.

THE GIFT WITHOUT THE GIVER IS BARE

1. Who are there, that will draw somewhat from their excesses, that will abate a lace from their garment, or a dish from their table, to bestow upon the necessities of the poor?

THE SELF-DENIAL IS THE

GIFT

2. Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much.

3. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.

4. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily, I say unto you that this poor widow hath cast in more than all they which have cast into the treasury.

5. For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.

6. The price of one feast will buy bread for a great many poor people.

7. It is small thanks to thee to give to the poor some leavings, when thy belly is first glutted with as much as the appetite desired:

A LITTLE LUXURY WOULD BUY

MANY

NECESSITIES

8. This costeth thee nothing: a swine will leave that to another which he cannot eat.