The Worlds Great Sermons, Volume 10 | Page 2

thinking about them. If you love, you will

unconsciously fulfil the whole law. And you can readily see for
yourselves how that must be so. Take any of the commandments.
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." If a man love God, you will
not require to tell him that. Love is the fulfilling of that law. "Take not
his name in vain." Would he ever dream of taking His name in vain if
he loved Him? "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Would he
not be too glad to have one day in seven to dedicate more exclusively
to the object of his affection? Love would fulfil all these laws regarding
God. And so, if he loved man, you would never think of telling him to
honor his father and mother. He could not do anything else. It would be
preposterous to tell him not to kill. You could only insult him if you
suggested that he should not steal--how could he steal from those he
loved? It would be superfluous to beg him not to bear false witness
against his neighbor. If he loved him it would be the last thing he
would do. And you would never dream of urging him not to covet what
his neighbors had. He would rather that they possest it than himself. In
this way "Love is the fulfilling of the law." It is the rule for fulfilling all
rules, the new commandment for keeping all the old commandments,
Christ's one secret of the Christian life.
Now, Paul had learned that; and in this noble eulogy he has given us
the most wonderful and original account extant of the summum bonum.
We may divide it into three parts. In the beginning of the short chapter,
we have love contrasted; in the heart of it, we have love analyzed;
toward the end, we have love defended as the supreme gift.
Paul begins contrasting love with other things that men in those days
thought much of. I shall not attempt to go over those things in detail.
Their inferiority is already obvious.
He contrasts it with eloquence. And what a noble gift it is, the power of
playing upon the souls and wills of men, and rousing them to lofty
purposes and holy deeds. Paul says, "If I speak with the tongues of men
and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a
tinkling cymbal." And we all know why. We have all felt the
brazenness of words without emotion, the hollowness, the
unaccountable unpersuasiveness, of eloquence behind which lies no
love.
He contrasts it with prophecy. He contrasts it with mysteries. He
contrasts it with faith. He contrasts it with charity. Why is love greater

than faith? Because the end is greater than the means. And why is it
greater than charity? Because the whole is greater than the part. Love is
greater than faith, because the end is greater than the means. What is
the use of having faith? It is to connect the soul with God. And what is
the object of connecting man with God? That he may become like God.
But God is love. Hence faith, the means, is in order to love, the end.
Love, therefore, obviously is greater than faith. It is greater than charity,
again, because the whole is greater than a part. Charity is only a little
bit of love, one of the innumerable avenues of love, and there may even
be, and there is, a great deal of charity without love. It is a very easy
thing to toss a copper to a beggar on the street; it is generally an easier
thing than not to do it. Yet love is just as often in the withholding. We
purchase relief from the sympathetic feelings roused by the spectacle of
misery, at the copper's cost. It is too cheap--too cheap for us, and often
too dear for the beggar. If we really loved him we would either do more
for him, or less.
Then Paul contrasts it with sacrifice and martyrdom. And I beg the
little band of would-be missionaries--and I have the honor to call some
of you by this name for the first time--to remember that tho you give
your bodies to be burned, and have not love, it profits nothing--nothing!
You can take nothing greater to the heathen world than the impress and
reflection of the love of God upon your own character. That is the
universal language. It will take you years to speak in Chinese; or in the
dialects of India. From the day you land, that language of love,
understood by all, will be pouring forth its unconscious eloquence. It is
the man who is the missionary, it is not his words.