will be shattered. The collect for the 7th Sunday after Trinity expresses it very well: “Lord of all power and might, who art the author and giver of all good things, graft in our hearts the love of thy name, increase in us true religion, nourish us in all goodness…” In other words for the man who loves God, it is impossible to ask deliberately for improper things, because his chief desire is to love God more. Absolute trust is either mutual, or it does not exist. If it exists, then each side must satisfy the conditions which its continued existence demands – or it ceases to exist.
The practical application of this is that the man is able to use this absolute faith, that God will give him anything he asks for, to keep his morale and hope alive. It must not, however, be merely a device; it must also be true. No man can have a real faith based on a polite deception. How then does God give one person to another? Is it possible? Is it not an intolerable interference with personal liberty? The revelation of an idea sometimes has the choking, dazzling, brilliance of divine inspiration. There is only one way I know of moving the human heart; and that is by the demonstration that one person is willing to die for another. This is what is meant when people say, correctly, that human love never changes anybody, only divine love does that. The willingness of one to die for another moves the human heart incalculably. Just as when a doctor has done all he can, he has to sit back, and let “Nature” effect the cure; so when the man has done all he can, he will have to sit back and let God effect the reconciliation. If God does, well and good; if he does not, then nothing will happen at all.
It is always dangerous falling in love. No one can know at the beginning whether it will lead to happiness, or to disaster. Even if it seems to lead to happiness, disaster may supervene. As circumstances may be beyond the parties' control, their love and happiness is always to some extent balanced on…