Love comes of God, and is an attribute
Of Him whose dwelling is in perfect light.
Love dwells in light, or else it cannot be
True love at all.
Love never seeks its own, but spends its all
Upon its object, and in doing so
Receives it back a thousandfold
In happiness and sweet content.
Love ever has an object; let it be
A worthy or a worthless one, it alters not
That character of love that seeks its good.
The highest love we know, the love of God,
Was spent on objects no less mean than we.
Then let us not in loving seek to find
An object worthy of our human love;
But, loving all who come within our reach,
Seek in our measure to do good to each;
Model our love upon the perfect mould
Of His whose love no tongue has ever told:
Drawing it too from out that living source,
Letting it find through us unhindered course,
Letting it flow o'er all that stops the way,
Letting it have o'er us unbounded sway;
Flowing through us in every word and deed,
Out through this scene of deepest human need.
A. E. A. S.