The Love That Seeks to Learn.
UNTRAINED love can make disastrous mistakes, as can ignorance in any other sphere. Yet we are prone to believe that true love is a sort of guarantee against error; that whatever we do in love for others is sure to work out for their good. It is a dangerous notion, from which some have had rude or tragic awakening. Many a mother who has been lovingly indulgent to her boy has lived to realize that those indulgences, born of her devoted and unselfish love, have helped to pave his way to ruin. Love must know, as well as feel. If we really love, we should be willing to study how to direct that love helpfully, instead of letting it take its own way harmfully. What is best for those whom we love, rather than what we would like to do for them, is the question that trained love asks, as over against thoughtless, ignorant love. “And this I pray,” wrote Paul to those whom he loved, “that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment.”—S. S. Times.