LIFE AND LOVE. 



I. 



INTRODUCTION. 



IN all ages of the world, among all peoples, the 

 same question. What is life? has been asked, 

 and has never been answered. To-day we are all 

 eagerly asking it. The great men of science 

 accumulate observations about it, but cannot 

 satisfy us. The poet and the philosopher give us 

 the inspiring and consoling reply that life, some- 

 way, is a part of a Divine Life, manifested. But 

 aside from this thought of the poet, we seem to 

 ourselves to come nearest to some understanding of 

 this mystery when we speak the great companion, 

 word " love," — love, the great continuer of life. 



It is in itself a mystery nearly as deep as the 

 mystery of life ; its high office is that of drawing 

 together, uniting, perfecting, renewing, — the same 

 power working in the single cell, in the complex 

 structure, and — with what a sublime difference — 

 in the human being! 



