The Message of Love.
“I was journeying in the noontide,
When His light shone o’er my road—
And I saw Him in His glory,
Saw Him—Jesus, Son of God.
All around in noonday splendour
Earthly scenes lay fair and bright—
But my eyes no longer see them
In the glory of that light.
Others in the summer sunshine
Wearily may journey on—
I have seen a light from Heaven
Past the brightness of the sun.
Light that knows no cloud, no waning,
Light wherein I see His Face;
All His love’s uncounted treasures,
All the riches of His grace.
All the wonders of His glory,
Deeper wonders of His love—
How for me He won, He keepeth,
That high place in Heaven above,
Not a glimpse—the veil uplifted—
But within the veil to dwell,
Gazing on His Face for ever,
Hearing words unspeakable.
Marvel not that Christ in glory
All my inmost heart hath won —
Not a star to cheer my darkness,
But a light beyond the sun.
In the radiance of the glory
First I saw His blessed Face,
And forever shall that glory
Be my Home, my dwelling-place.
Sinners, it was not to angels
All this wondrous love was given;
But to one who scorned, despised Him,
Scorned and hated Christ in Heaven.
From the lowest depths of darkness,
To the throne in Heaven on high,
Thus in me He told the measure
Of His love’s great mystery.”
AND meanwhile in the waiting time did the Lord heal and comfort many souls who came to tell their sorrows, and doubts, and fears, to the meek and pitiful woman who lived so near to the heart of Christ. For she did not speak to them of saints, and services, and relics; but of Jesus only.
“And is not Mary to be loved and honored?”
“Yes,” she would say, “for the marvelous, high, singular love that Christ hath to this sweet maiden, His blessed mother. He showeth her bliss and joy―as if He said, ‘Seest thou not that I love her, and wilt thou not joy with Me in the love that I have to her and she to me?’ And know that this sweet word our good Lord speaketh to all that shall be saved, as if He said, ‘Wilt thou see in her how thou art loved?’”
“And is this love for me? I dare not think it.”
“What then is the property of a glad giver? Ever a glad giver taketh but little heed of the thing he giveth; but all his desire, all his intent, is to please him, and solace him to whom he giveth it. And if the receiver take the gift gladly and thankfully, then the courteous giver setteth at naught all his cost and all his travail for the joy and delight he hath, for that he path pleased and solaced him that he loved. And in His deed of love doth Jesus ever joy.
“Think of the greatness of this word EVER. It is from endless pain that He has bought us with His blessed death—it is to His eternal city He has brought us, and made us to be His Crown and endless bliss. Full blissfully does our good Lord say to us, Lo, how I love thee I’ as if He had said, ‘My darling, behold and see thy Lord, thy God, that is thy Maker, and thine endless joy-behold and see what liking and bliss I have in thy salvation, and for My love rejoice with Me. Behold and see that I loved thee so much I died for thee, and that for thee I suffered pain and tribulation which pass so far all that thou mayest suffer, that thought cannot measure it.’”
“But I am a sinner, and vile and evil, and I have done naught to win the love of Christ.”
“Yea, verily, and this is the highest joy that the soul can understand, even that salvation is the work of God Himself. For I in myself do right naught but sin, and my sin shall not hinder the working of His love. And this shall be the highest joy that may be beholden of the deed, that God Himself shall do it, and man shall do right naught but sin.
“And if we bethink us that there are yet those upon whom the wrath of Gad shall come, let us yet know that all that our Lord doeth is rightful, and all that He suffereth to be, is by reason of His high wisdom and His high goodness. And as long as we be in this life, what time that we by our folly turn us to the beholding of the lost ones, tenderly our Lord toucheth us, and blissfully calleth us, saying in our soul, Let Me alone, my dear worthy child; turn thee to Me, I am enough for thee; rejoice than in thy Saviour.’
“For all the souls that shall be saved in Heaven without end, be made righteous in the sight of God by His own goodness. By his sufferance we fall; and in His blessed love, with His might, are we kept; and by mercy and grace are we raised to manifold more joy than if sin had never been.
“For if we look at our Saviour and our salvation, this blessed sight is open, clear, fair, light, and plenteous; for all mankind that is of goodwill, and that shall be, is comprehended in this showing of God. And the other part is hid and shut up from; that is to say, all besides our salvation, for that is out Lord’s privy council, and it belongeth to the royal of lordship of God to have His privy counsels in peace.
“The dear worthy Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, also verily as it is most precious, as verily is it most plenteous. It is a plenty that overfloweth all the earth, and is ready to wash all men from sin which be of goodwill, have been, or shall be.
The precious plenty of His Blood ascendeth up into Heaven in the blessed Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, and there is it as a prayer before God, for evermore. Let us then, rejoice in Him for all that He showeth, and for all that He hideth.”
And often did those who loved the Lord betake themselves to the churchyard of S. Julian’s, for they knew they had there a loving welcome, and would find gladsome cheer. For it was not the case, as we might think, that the solitary life of the Lady Julian led her to be taken up with thoughts of herself alone.
“For,” she said, “the Lord taught me that the love He showed me was His love to all my fellow Christians-not a special love, but a general love, so that if I thought of His goodness to me, by me is understood all. What may make me more to love my fellow Christians, than to see in God that He loveth all that shall be saved, as it were all one soul? and His promise to me of spiritual keeping and secureness comforted me, by the knowing that it was the same keeping and the same secureness for all my fellow Christians.
“And our good Lord showed me how whole a love is that in which we stand in His sight; yea, that He loveth us now, as well, while that we be here, as He shall do when we be there before His blessed Face. And also as to every sin there is an answering pain, so for every sin is given to us a bliss by love.
“And He brought to my mind with gladsome cheer, David, and others in the old law, without number. And in the new law He brought to my mind, first Magdalen, Peter, and Paul, and Thomas, and others without number, how they be known on earth by their sins; but all is turned to fuller worship.
“And it is a sovereign friendship of our loving Lord, that He keepeth us so tenderly whiles we be in our sin; and furthermore, He toucheth us full privily, and showeth us our sin by the sweet light of mercy and grace. For peace and love are ever in us, being and working; but we be not ever in peace and love.
“And when we be stirred by the Holy Ghost, and see ourselves so foul, we weep that God were wroth with us for our sins. And when afterward we find a rest of soul, and softness of conscience, we hope that God has forgiven us our sin, and it is true.
“And then showeth our loving Lord Himself to the soul, with gladsome cheer, with friendly welcoming, as if it had been in pain and in prison, saying thus, ‘My dearly beloved, I am glad thou art come to Me in all thy woe; I have ever been with thee, and now seest thou Me loving, and we rejoice together.’
“Thus are sins forgiven by grace and mercy, and our soul worshipfully received in joy, like as it shall be when it cometh into Heaven, by the gracious working of the Holy Ghost, and the virtue of the Blood of Christ. And therefore, whilst as yet we know not fully all that then we shall know of joy and rest, it befitteth us ever to live in sweet praying, and in lovely longing with our Lord Jesus; for He too longeth ever to bring us to the fullness of joy for evermore.”
But it would seem that some men and women, “stirred by folly,” would argue thus with Julian, “If this be true, then were it good for to sin, to have the more joy at last.”
“Beware,” she said, “of this stirring; for truly, if it come, it is untrue, and of the enemy. For the same true love that teacheth us all this comfort, the same blessed love teacheth us that we should hate sin only for love. And I am sure by my own feeling, the more that each kind soul seeth in this the tender love of our Lord God, the loather is him to sin, and the more he is ashamed. For if all the pain that can be suffered were laid before us, to suffer it rather than sin, we should rather choose all that pain than sin. For sin is so vile and so hateful, that it may be likened to no pain, which pain is not sin. And to me was showed none harder hell than sin.”
And if any came to Julian to complain of the unloving deeds and hard words of their neighbors, she said to them, “God, who is mighty and wise to save, is willing also to save. For He loveth to do good against evil. For He is Himself love, and He Both to us as He teacheth us to do, for He willeth that we be like Him in fullness of endless love to ourselves, and to our fellow Christians.
“No more than His love is broken to us for our sin, no more will He that our love be broken to ourselves nor to our fellow Christians, but that we nakedly hate sin, and endlessly love the soul, as God loveth it.”