Love to the Uttermost | Page 7

the bush indicated that the
"I AM" was there.
Love is a supreme test, not only of the Church, but of the individual. It
has been the mistake of every age to make faith rather than love the test
of Christianity. "Tell me how much a man believes, and I shall know
how good a Christian he is!" The whole endeavor of the mediaeval
Church was to reduce the followers of Christ to a uniformity of belief.
And in our own time, a man is permitted by consent to be grasping
after money, imperious in temper, uncharitable in speech, without
losing position in the Church, so long as he assents to all the clauses of
an orthodox creed.
With Christ, however, love is all-important. A man may have faith
enough to remove mountains, but if he have not love, he is nothing, and
lighter than vanity in the estimation of heaven. Faith ranks with hope
and love, but it is destined to pass as the blossoms of spring before the
fruit of autumn, whilst love shall abide forevermore. A man may have a
very inadequate creed; like the woman of old, he may think there is
virtue in a garment, or a rite; like Thomas, he may find it impossible to
attain to the exuberant confidence of his brethren; but if he loves Christ
enough to be prepared to die for Him, if through the narrow aperture of
a very limited faith, love enough has entered his soul from the source of
love, Christ will entrust him with the tending of His sheep and lambs,
and call him into the secret place. Of course, the more full-orbed and
intelligent our faith, the quicker and intenser will be our love. But faith,
after all, is but the hand that takes, whilst love is the fellowship of
kindred hearts that flash each on the other the enkindling gleam.
If you do not love, though you count yourself illumined with the light
of perfect knowledge, you are in the dark. "He that hateth his brother is
in the darkness, even until now."
If you do not love, you are dead. "He that loveth not, abideth in death."

The light sparkle of intellectual or emotional life may light up your
words, and fascinate your immediate circle of friends, but there will be
no life toward God. Love is the perfect tense of live. Whoso does not
love does not live, in the deepest sense. There are capacities for richer
existence that never unfold until love stands at the portal and sounds his
challenge, and summons the sleeper to awake and arise.
If you do not love, you are under the thrall of the devil, into whose dark
nature love never comes. "Herein the children of God are manifest and
the children of the devil. Cain was of the wicked one, and slew his
brother."
"As I have loved you." Life is one long education to know the love of
God. "We have known and believed the love that God hath to us," is
the reflection of an old man reviewing the past. Each stage of life, each
phase of experience, is intended to give us a deeper insight into the love
wherewith we are loved; and as each discovery breaks upon our glad
vision, we are bidden to exemplify it to others. Does Jesus forgive to
the seventy-seventh time? We must forgive in the same measure. Does
Jesus forget as well as forgive? We, too, must forgive after the same
fashion. Does Jesus seek after the erring, and endeavor to induce the
temper of mind that will crave forgiveness? We also must seek the man
who has transgressed against us, endeavoring to lead him to a better
mind. The Christian knows no law or limit but that imposed by these
significant words, spoken on the eve of Christ's sacrifice, "As I have
loved you."
Thus all life gives opportunities for the practice of this celestial temper
and disposition. It has been said that talent develops in solitude, whilst
character is made in the strain of life. Be it so. Then the character of
loving may be made stronger by every association we have with our
fellows. Each contact with men, women, and children, may give us an
opportunity of loving with a little more of the strength, purity, and
sweetness of the love of Christ. The busiest life can find time for the
cultivation of this spirit. That which is spent in a crowd will even have
greater opportunities than the one which is limited to solitude. The
distractions and engagements that threaten to break our lives up to a

number of inconsiderable fragments may thus conduce to a higher unity
than could be gained by following one occupation, or concentrating
ourselves on one object.
Let