April 21

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. — Matt 5:48

As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness. — Ps 17:15

The righteousness he marks in Thee
His will to right doth win;
Delighting in Thy purity,
He deeply drinks it in.
—T. H. GILL.

To love God is to love His character. For instance, God is Purity. And to be pure in thought and look, to turn away from unhallowed books and conversation, to abhor the moments in which we have not been pure, is to love God. God is Love; and to love men till private attachments have expanded into a philanthropy which embraces all,—at last even the evil and enemies with compassion,—that is to love God. God is Truth. To be true, to hate every form of falsehood, to live a brave, true, real life,—that is to love God. God is Infinite; and to love the boundless, reaching on from grace to grace, adding charity to faith, and rising upwards ever to see the Ideal still above us, and to die with it unattained, aiming insatiably to be perfect even as the Father is perfect,—that is to love God. —F. W. ROBERTSON.