child's love, without understanding them; by that simple instinct and
longing after what is good and beautiful and true, which is indeed the
inspiration of the Spirit of God. But as we go on, as St Paul bids us,
to meditate on them; and "if there be any virtue and if there be any
praise, to think on such things," and feed our minds daily with
purifying, elevating, sobering, humanizing, enlightening thoughts: then
we shall get to love goodness with a reasonable and manly love; to see
the beauty of holiness; the strength of self-sacrifice; the glory of
justice; the divineness of love; and in a word--To love God for His own
sake, and to give Him thanks for His great glory, which is: That He is a
good God.

This thought--remember it, I pray--brings me to the last point. This
Spirit is also the spirit of the fear of the Lord. And that too, my
friends, must be a spirit of love not only to God, but to our
fellow-creatures. For if we but consider that God the Father loves all;
that His mercy is over all His works; and that He hateth nothing that He
has made: then how dare we hate anything that He has made, as long as we
have any rational fear of Him, awe and respect for Him, true faith in His
infinite majesty and power? If we but consider that God the Son actually
came down on earth to die, and to die too on the cross, for all mankind:
then how dare we hate a human being for whom He died: at least if we have
true honour, gratitude, loyalty, reverence, and godly fear in our hearts
toward Him, our risen Lord?

Oh let us open our eyes this Whitsuntide to the experience of our past
lives. Let us see now--what we shall certainly see at the day of
judgment--that whenever we have failed to be loving, we have also failed
to be wise; that whenever we have been blind to our neighbours'
interests, we have also been blind to our own; whenever we have hurt