April 12

Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you. — 2 Cor 13:11

He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? — 1 John 4:20

Lord! subdue our selfish will;
Each to each our tempers suit,
By Thy modulating skill,
Heart to heart, as lute to lute.
—C. WESLEY.

It requires far more of the constraining love of Christ to love our cousins and neighbors as members of the heavenly family, than to feel the heart warm to our suffering brethren in Tuscany or Madeira. To love the whole Church is one thing; to love—that is, to delight in the graces and veil the defects—of the person who misunderstood me and opposed my plans yesterday, whose peculiar infirmities grate on my most sensitive feelings, or whose natural faults are precisely those from which my natural character most revolts, is quite another.
—ELIZABETH CHARLES.