The Higher Powers of the Soul (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1913. Excerpt: ... VII. THE HALLOWING OF LOVE. VII. THE HALLOWING OF LOVE. "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another."--John xiii. 34. "And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us."--Eph. V. 2. The transcendent endowment of the soul is its capacity of loving. In the passionate, clinging fondness so abundandy manifest between man and woman, parent and child, friend and friend, immeasurable depths and possibilities of affection are revealed. Love, indeed, is that trace of the divine which shines out with such lustre at times as to redeem the sordidness of human nature, and cast a softer tinge even over its stains. And love lends the touch of romance which preserves the lives of multitudes from utter dreariness and inanity. Its beauty and its pathos, its joys and sorrows, struggles and triumphs, belong to the common experience of the race, and serve to intensify the thrill of existence. And this heightened interest which love gives to life is reflected in the literature of the world all down the ages. In poetry and in song it is the enchantment of this theme that inspires the sweetest strains and wields the strongest spell; and many a moving story is full of the wonderful things endured, dared, and accomplished under the pressure of love's ardent flame. To purify love at the core, and infuse into it a higher temper, was the object on which the Lord Jesus concentrated the main current of His teaching and the labour of His life. The love which burned in Himself was pure and warm and deep, an outbreathing of the Eternal Love that throbs in the Divine Father's heart; and His anxiety was to draw men and women within its range, that they might catch its glow, and get their own lo...