Other men once as
far from the supreme love of God as you are have afterwards attained to
it; and so will you if you continue to set it before yourself. Think
often on God; read the best books about God; call continually upon God;
hold an intimate communion with God, till you feel that you also actually
and certainly love God. And though you begin with loving God because He
first loved you, you will, beginning with that, rise far above that till
you come to love Him for what He is in Himself as well as for what He has
done for you. 'I have done this in order to have a seat in the Academy,'
said a young man, handing the solution of a problem to an old
philosopher. 'Sir,' was the reply, 'with such dispositions you will
never earn a seat there. Science must be loved for its own sake, and not
for any advantage to be derived from it.' And much more is that true of
the highest of all the sciences, the knowledge and the love of God. Love
Him, then, till you arrive at loving Him for Himself, and then you shall
be for ever delivered from all self-love and by-ends, and shall both
glorify and enjoy God for ever.
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