Even thus it is in things divina If our heart
be the Lord's, all else that we possess will be His —
time, and strength, and influence, and money. Any-
thing, everything, that He commands will be wel-
come ; anything, everything, that He imposes will
be borne for love's sake.
On the other hand, except the heart be given, nothing
is given. If you had a little son, who watched your
face with the eye of a lynx, and ran at your bidding
with the swiftness of a roe ; who brought you pre-
sents of sweet-smelling flowers, and who sang in
your hearing the melodies with which you were
most pleased ; and if you knew that all this parade
of attention was a parade in which the heart had no
share, — that it was done to secure a larger amount
of recreation, or a larger stock of money to spend
with worthless friends, — would you thank him for
the outward service so ojfficiously rendered ? No,
verily ! You would think that to be a poor offering of
which the heart is not the author. You would say,
if I may not have the reality, I had rather be without a
hollow semblance of it. It is thus with the Lord We
may build a church, or endow a row of alms-houses ;
we may charter ships to distant countries, laden
with Bibles ; we may feed the himgry, and clothe
the naked, and visit the sick ; but, if love be not



»^^"*»-^^v»'^ll IJP I I



40 WHAT HAPPENED BY THE RIVER SIDE.
