Heart of Jesus," I prefer to name it. For it was His wealth of love that
really gave Him the victory.

Does one read these lines who is poor, who is cast out by those who are
dear, who is a stranger in a strange land, who is driven from "pillar to
post," who is harassed by open foes and wounded by secret enmity? Well, to
that one let me say, remember your Lord's poverty and friendlessness;
remember the tossings up and down of His infancy; the frugal cottage home
in Nazareth wherein His family was finally gathered--despite its bareness
and toil--was a place of peace and abundance, compared with the stable,
the flight into Egypt, and the sojourn among aliens there.

Are you, dear friend, tempted to complain of your narrow surroundings, of
your small opportunity to shine before others, or of a want of
appreciation of your service and gifts and powers by those who should know
you? Oh, remember the Babe, and the long years of His condescension to men
of low estate, to the cramped surroundings of the carpenter's shed, and
the sleepy Jewish village. Are you tried sometimes because you have to
suffer the hatred or jealousy, secret or open, of those for whom you feel
nothing but goodwill, and who perhaps once thought themselves happy in
your friendship? Well, in such hours, remember your Master, and the hatred
of Herod seeking to kill the Child. Try to call to mind something of the
secret, as well as the open, bitterness of men, religious and irreligious
alike, which began to hunt Him while yet in swaddling clothes, and which
hunted Him still all through His days.

But amidst it all, what a great heart of passionate love was His! Blessed
be His Name for ever! Whether the poverty and suffering and hatred were or
were not favourable to it, there it was--_the Great Heart of all the
world_. What about you? Can you ever be again the same since you