He gives all in exchange for all, and possesses all in all. He looks
not at gifts, but turns to the giver above all good things. Love knows no
measure, but is fervent beyond all measure. Love feels no burden, thinks
nothing of labor, strives beyond its force, reckons not of impossibility,
for it judges that all things are possible. Therefore it attempts all
things, and therefore it effects much when he who is not a lover fails and
falls.... My Love! thou all mine, and I all thine."
There is a certain natural disinclination in many quarters to recognize
any special connection between the sexual emotions and the religious
emotions. But this attitude is not reasonable. A man who is swayed by
religious emotions cannot be held responsible for the indirect emotional
results of his condition; he can be held responsible for their control.
Nothing is gained by refusing to face the possibility that such control
may be necessary, and much is lost. There is certainly, as I have tried to
indicate, good reason to think that the action and interaction between
the spheres of sexual and religious emotion are very intimate. The obscure
promptings of the organism at puberty frequently assume on the psychic
side a wholly religious character; the activity of the religious emotions
sometimes tends to pass over into the sexual region; the suppression of
the sexual emotions often furnishes a powerful reservoir of energy to the
religious emotions; occasionally the suppressed sexual emotions break
through all obstacles.
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