Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2.djvu/371

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336

know it Pardon me, I only remind you of it. Love is not gratitude for liberal benefits, not admiration for transcendent wisdom, not reverence for unspotted holiness, not confidence in unfailing providence, not obedience to sovereign will, not assent to infallible truth; but love — true love, pure love, simple love— consists in adoring God as the Beautiful One, as the Charming One, so entrancing, so enrapturing alike to the eye and to the heart, for Himself, for His own dear and holy sake, even as He is half veiled behind and half revealed through His universal manifest- ation which we call viswam. We love Him for His own sake. And love banishes all ideas and motives that are low, while those that are good, wise, noble and holy are all comprised in that one divine sentiment, Love. Love, love, love — -that is something purer, holier, more comprehensive, more disinterested, more engaging, more absorbing, than all the other sentiments of obedience, trust, gratitude and reverence. It is love which declares, 'He and I are suffi-