November 11, 2019 – Hebrews 10:32

Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering.
—Hebrews 10:32

The illumination of the heart is love.40 Just as the light of the intellect is truth, so the light of every heart is love. Without love the heart is always dark, and with love the heart is always light. The most common dwelling becomes a palace with it, and there is sunshine for the dreariest day. And all the wealth of Ormus and of Ind and all the joy of fame and whirl of fashion can never irradiate these hearts of ours like love. Whoever dwells in love dwells in God, and whoever dwells in God is in the light. The luster of the heart is always there, but it is unlighted until love comes in. And now remember the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great fight of afflictions. Long years ago some of you mothers here gathered you firstborn child into your arms, and there was such gladness in these eyes of yours that every neighbor saw your life illuminated. And now as you look back on it all and think of all that has come and gone since then, you know the sorrows that have followed love. What sleepless nights—what hours of weary watching—what seasons of agony when death was near! What struggle to do what was hard to do, when wills were rebellious and lips untruthful. All this followed the illumination that came when the love of motherhood was born, and all this is the anguish of the light. Let people love their work, and in that light they will be led to many a weary wrestling. Let people love their land, and in that light they will take up burdens that are not easily borne. Let people love their risen and living Savior, and in that light their lives will be a battlefield, as they struggle daily not against flesh and blood but against the rulers and the powers of this dark world. Love has its triumphs, but it has its tortures. Love has its paradise and it has its purgatory. Love has its mountains of transfiguration and its love gardens where the sweat is blood. Love is the secret of the sweetest song that ever was uttered by human lips, and love is the secret of the keenest suffering that ever pierced the heart.
—George H. Morrison