Love to the Uttermost | Page 5

for the
fulfillment of His purposes; however pressing the concerns of the
Church or the universe upon His broad shoulders, He must needs turn
from all these to do a work He will not delegate. Again He stoops from

the throne, and girds Himself with a towel, and, in all lowliness,
endeavors to remove from thee and me the strain which His love dare
not pass over. He never loses the print of the nail; He never forgets
Calvary and the blood; He never spends one hour without stooping to
do the most menial work of cleansing filthy souls. And it is because of
this humility He sits on the Throne and wields the sceptre over hearts
and worlds.
This is the key to our ministry to each other.--I have often thought that
we do not often enough wash one another's feet. We are conscious of
the imperfections which mar the characters of those around us. We are
content to note, criticise, and learn them. We dare not attempt to
remove them. This failure arises partly because we do not love with a
love like Christ's--a love which will brave resentment, annoyance,
rebuke, in its quest,--and partly because we are not willing to stoop low
enough.
None can remove the mote of another, so long as the beam is left in the
eye, and the sin unjudged in the life, None can cleanse the stain, who is
not willing to take the form of a servant, and go down with bare knees
upon the floor. None is able to restore those that are overtaken in a fault,
who do not count themselves the chief of sinners and the least of saints.
We need more of this lowly, loving spirit: not so sensitive to wrong and
evil as they affect us, as anxious for the stain they leave on the offender.
It is of comparatively small consequence how much we suffer; it is of
much importance that none of Christ's disciples should be allowed to
go on for a moment longer, with unconfessed and unjudged wrongs
clouding their peace, and hindering the testimony which they might
give. Let us therefore watch for each other's souls: let us consider one
another to provoke to love and good works; let us in all sincerity do as
Christ has done, washing each other's feet in all humility and tender
love. But this spirit is impossible save through fellowship with the
Lamb of God, and the reception of His holy, humble nature into the
inmost heart, by the Holy Ghost.

II
Thrice Bidden to Love
"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I
have loved you, that ye also love one another."--JOHN xiii. 34.
Anacreon complains that when they asked him to sing of heroic deeds,
he could only sing of love. But the love with which he fills his sonnets
will bear as much comparison with that of which Jesus spoke in His
last discourse, as the flaring oil of a country fair with the burning of the
heavenly constellations. Even the love that binds young hearts is too
selfish and exclusive to set forth that pure ray which shone from the
heart of the Son of Man, and shines and will shine. What word shall we
use to describe it?
Charity?--The disposition denoted by this great word does not fulfill
the measure of the love of Christ. It is cold and severe. It can be
organized. It casts its dole to the beggar and turns away, content to have
relieved the sentiment of pity. By being employed for one
manifestation of love, charity is too limited and restricted in its
significance to become an adequate expression of the Divine love
which Drought Jesus from the throne, and should inspire us to lay
down our lives for the brethren.
Philanthropy?--This is a great word, "the love of man." And yet the
philanthropist is too often content with the general patronage of good
works, the elaboration of schemes, the management of committees, to
do much personal work for the amelioration of the world. The word is
altogether too distant, too deficient in the personal element, too
extensive in its significance. It will not serve to represent the Divine
compassion with which the heart of Christ was, at the moment of
speaking, in tumult.
Complacency?--No; for this is the emotion excited by the
contemplation of merit and virtue, which turns away from sin and
deformity; and the sentiment denoted by our Master's words is one that
is not brought into existence by virtue, nor extinguished by demerit and

vice.
Since all these words fail, we are driven to speak of love, as Christ used
the word, as being the essence of the Divine nature, for God is love. It
is the indwelling of