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True Love
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realized, you will be in danger of becoming discouraged and restless,
and wishing a change. You must shun a disposition to censure, to
bear down. Keep clear of everything that savors of a denunciatory
spirit. It is not pleasing to God for this spirit to be found in any of
His servants of long experience. It is proper for a youth, if graced
with humility and the inward adorning, to manifest ardor and zeal;
but when a rash zeal and a denunciatory spirit are manifested by a
youth who has but a few years of experience, it is most unbecoming
and positively disgusting. Nothing can destroy his influence as soon
as this. Mildness, gentleness, forbearance, long-suffering, being not
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easily provoked, bearing all things, hoping all things, enduring all
things—these are the fruit growing upon the precious tree of love,
which is of heavenly growth. This tree, if nourished, will prove to be
an evergreen. Its branches will not decay, its leaves will not wither.
It is immortal, eternal, watered continually by the dews of heaven.
Love is power. Intellectual and moral strength are involved in
this principle, and cannot be separated from it. The power of wealth
has a tendency to corrupt and destroy; the power of force is strong
to do hurt; but the excellence and value of pure love consist in its
efficiency to do good, and to do nothing else than good. Whatsoever
is done out of pure love, be it ever so little or contemptible in the
sight of men, is wholly fruitful; for God regards more with how much
love one worketh than the amount he doeth. Love is of God. The
unconverted heart cannot originate nor produce this plant of heavenly
growth, which lives and flourishes only where Christ reigns.
Love cannot live without action, and every act increases,
strengthens, and extends it. Love will gain the victory when ar-
gument and authority are powerless. Love works not for profit nor
reward; yet God has ordained that great gain shall be the certain
result of every labor of love. It is diffusive in its nature and quiet in
its operation, yet strong and mighty in its purpose to overcome great
evils. It is melting and transforming in its influence, and will take
hold of the lives of the sinful and affect their hearts when every other
means has proved unsuccessful. Wherever the power of intellect, of
authority, or of force is employed, and love is not manifestly present,
the affections and will of those whom we seek to reach assume a
defensive, repelling position, and their strength of resistance is in-
creased. Jesus was the Prince of Peace. He came into the world to