Gospel. Do not offer them merely joy, or merely peace, or merely
rest, or merely safety; tell them how Christ came to give men a more
abundant life than they have, a life abundant in love, and therefore
abundant in salvation for themselves, and large in enterprise for
the alleviation and redemption of the world. Then only can the
Gospel take hold of the whole of a man, body, soul and spirit, and
give to each part of his nature its exercise and reward. Many of
the current Gospels are addressed only to a part of man's nature.
They offer peace, not life; faith, not Love; justification, not
regeneration. And men slip back again from such religion because
it has never really held them. Their nature was not all in it. It
offered no deeper and gladder life-current than the life that was
lived before. Surely it stands to reason that only a fuller love
can compete with the love of the world.

To love abundantly is to live abundantly, and to love forever is
to live forever. Hence, eternal life is inextricably bound up with
love. We want to live forever for the same reason that we want to
live to-morrow. Why do we want to live to-morrow? Is it because
there is some one who loves you, and whom you want to see to-morrow,
and be with, and love back? There is no other reason why we should
live on than that we love and are beloved. It is when a man has
no one to love him that he commits suicide. So long as he has
friends, those who love him and whom he loves, he will live, because
to live is to love. Be it but the love of a dog, it will keep him
in life; but let that go, he has no contact with life, no reason
to live. He dies by his own hand.

Eternal life also is to know God, and God is love. This is Christ's
own definition. Ponder it. "This is life eternal, that they might