The Christian's Greater Motive to Love

BELIEVERS know well the need they have of Jesus crucified ; but, whilst they confess and admire His love, they feel no confusion at having so little, no thing but themselves, to return for charity so conde scending and so great. Their love is excited by the sense of being so much and so gratuitously loved ; for he to whom little love is given, loveth little. Neither Jews nor Pagans feel the pang of love as the Church does, who says: “Stay me up with flowers, compass me about with fruits : because I languish with love.” She sees Solomon wearing the diadem with which his mother crowned him. She sees the Only-begotten of the Father staggering under the weight of the cross ; the God of all majesty discoloured by blows, covered with spittings ; the Author of life and of glory hung upon nails, pierced with a lance and reviled, giving His dear soul for His friends. Gazing on this she feels the sword of love pierce through her heart, and cries out :

“ Stay me up with flowers, compass me about with fruits, for I languish with love.” The pome granates which the Bride, led into the garden of her Beloved, delights to gather on the tree of life have the taste of the Bread of Heaven and the colour of the Blood of Christ. She sees the death blow given to death, and its Author swelling the triumph of his Conqueror. She sees the Victor rising gloriously from hell to earth, from earth to heaven, attended by the host of the redeemed ; that at “ the name of Jesus every knee may bow of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.” Under the ancient curse, the earth was doomed to bring forth thorns and thistles ; but the Spouse calls upon it now, restored by divine benediction, to cover her with flowers ; and, remembering those words, “ My flesh hath flourished again, and with my will I will praise Him,” she renews her strength by the fruit of the tree of the cross, and with the flowers of the Resurrection, whose divine perfume attracts the visits of the Beloved. Then he exclaims : “ Behold thou art fair, my Beloved, and comely.” She shows her desire for His coming, and upon what her hopes are founded ; not on her own perfec tions, but on the sweetness of the flowers gathered in a field that the Lord hath blessed ; for they are dear to the Christ who chose to be born and brought up at Nazareth. The heavenly Bride groom, drawn by the odour, delights to come into the chamber of the heart, when He finds it decked with fruits and perfumed with flowers. He comes with eagerness, and delights to dwell in souls that He sees are devoted to meditation, carefully set on gathering in the fruit of His Passion, and the glorious flowers of His Resurrection. That precious crop which was ripening through the ages of crime and death, and in these last days is fit to be garnered, is the harvest of the fruits of His Passion ; but it is in the splendour of the Resurrection that the flowers bloom of the new Springtide which grace has brought upon the earth. In the end of time, at the general resur rection, the abundance of fruit shall be without measure, “ for winter is now past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers have appeared in our land.” By these words the Bride would say : The summer is come back, with Him who broke up the ice of the old world to restore universal spring, saying : “ Behold I make all things new.” His body, sown in death, has blossomed in the resurrec tion, and after His likeness, our plains and valleys, which were dry and bare, or frozen, are new born to life and heat.

The freshness of these flowers, the perfection of the fruits, and the beauty of this garden exhaling such exquisite perfume, are pleasing also to the Father of Him who has made all things new ; and, blessing Him, He says : “Behold the smell of my Son is as the smell of a field full of flowers, which the Lord hath blessed ; “ full of flowers, indeed, for it is of His fulness that we have all received. But the Bride, when she will, may come familiarly and gather flowers and fruit, to dress with them the chamber of her conscience, that the Bridegroom at His coming may find the little bed of her heart giving out the sweetest odours. And in like manner we, if we desire that Christ should come to us and abide in us, must fill our hearts full of the thoughts of His death and resurrection and of faithful recollection of the mercy and the power of which by them He has given us proof. This David meant by the words : “ These two things have I heard : that power belongeth to God, and mercy to Thee, O Lord.” And Christ has super abundantly proved it ; for, having died to expiate our sins, He rose from the dead for our justifica tion, and sent the Holy Spirit for our consolation. Hereafter He will return to consummate our sal vation. In His death we have the proof of His mercy, in His resurrection of His power, and of the two united in the rest.

When the Bride entreats to be sustained with aromatic flowers and strengthened with sweetsmelling fruits, it is that she fears lest her love should chill or languish ; but she seeks such stimu lants only till received into the chamber of her Beloved. She will then feel Him covering her with the kisses she has longed for, and will exclaim : “ His left hand is under my head, and His right doth embrace me.” She will then feel how far the embrace of the right hand surpasses all sweetness, and that that of the left cannot be compared to it, with which He had caressed her in the first days of His coming. She will understand that “the flesh profiteth nothing ; it is the Spirit that quickeneth.” She will enter into the sense of His words : “My spirit is above honey, and my inheritance above honey and the honeycomb.” If it be also written, “ My memory is unto everlasting genera tions,” it is to show that the elect who are not yet satisfied by the presence of the Bridegroom have at least His image for their comfort now whilst time runs on. If it be written, “ They shall pub lish the memory of thine inexhaustible sweetness,” it clearly refers to those of whom the Psalmist had before spoken : “ Generation and generation shall praise Thy works.” On earth there is but the memory of the Bridegroom ; in heaven, His per petual Presence. This is the glory of those who have already arrived in port ; and that the consola tion of those still buffeting with the waves.