"The finest bread hath the least bran; the purest honey, the least wax; and the sincerest Christian, the least self love."
"Meditations Divine and Moral" (1664) .Anne Bradstreet wrote these words in the seventeenth century to one of her eight children. Apparently she felt that at the center of one's religion there should be an unselfish, heartfelt Christianity.
Pure religion is always religion of the heart. It's a kind of life-permeating, life-giving, all-embracing worship of God—a worship that touches and reaches deep into everything we do. It is tender, warm, joyous, willing to go the extra mile, willing to give the coat off one's back should winter have settled over another's dearest hopes and expectations.
Pure religion is a readiness to extend love when love may not be reciprocated, to forgive when forgiveness does not seem warranted. It is not only saying "I love You, God" and "I love you, my neighbor and friend" but doing all that the saying of the words implies—doing all that love demands.
