Let us kill our own selfishness; it is only at
that price that we will be able to love. There
are two kinds of selfishness — the one coarse, the
other refined. When we have crucified the first,
we may still have to contend with the second
It is this selfishness that conceals itself in our
natural affections. We love, but on condition that



Christian Intimacy. 15

we are loved in return. We go to see a sick
person, but this sick person must be interesting.
We are willing to rise at midnight to open to a
friend, but this is in order that he may let us sleep
in peace afterwards. We forgive seven times, that
we may have the right to say. Is not that enough ?
The Pharisees did as much, but at the feet of
Jesus we learn other lessons. Mary is learning
there that charity " which faileth not, which bear-
eth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things,
endureth all things." Nothing short of this will
suffice for true intimacy. Alas, how much misery
is there in those private relations which are only
superficially Christian ! The fact is, there is as yet
no real love — only the desire to be loved. Mary,
on the contrary, desires to receive from the Lord
that gift of perfect love which seeks no other wages
than to go on loving more and more.
But Mary had suffered much. Suflfering is the
complement of faith. " Unto you it is given,"
says St Paul to the Philippians, "in the behalf
of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to
suffer for his sake." Suffering renders the heart
soft and tender, and takes away all its natural



1 6 Christian Intimacy.
