LOVE by Eliza H. Morton

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 12, 1877

LOVE

By Eliza H. Morton

LIFE without love is like a garden without flowers, it lacks all that is beautiful and fair. Affection is early manifested by the child, and may be cultivated to an indefinite extent.

Parents, you do wrong when you check the loving caresses of your children. Dry up the fountain of love in their hearts, and you cast them upon the great sea of human life without an anchor. Cherish that love, and it may prove a mighty anchor, holding them from ruin. One writer says, “A father had better extinguish a boy’s eyes than take away his heart.” If this is true of children, it is also true in regard to older people. Our life should be a constant growth in love. Those who have been thus favored, know how pleasant it is to have true and tried friends; and under the influence of that love their hearts grow lighter and their lives more unselfish day by day.

There are kindred souls on this earth; and friendships are often formed that are lifelong. This congeniality—of mind and sympathy of heart all do not find in earthly friends. This world is full of deceit and wickedness, and friends often prove untrue; but this fact ought not to cause us to lose faith in human nature. There are many true and noble hearts in the world, and those who have faithful and tried friends should cherish their friendship and love, and by an interchange of thought and sympathy seek to draw out the sweetest and most perfect harmonies of the soul.

There is no joy so great as that which springs from a loving heart. Eternal joy will be eternal love, and will be ours when

“Our souls are lost in love In a brighter, brighter world above.”

ELIZA H. MORTON.