HENRY DRUMMOND
introduction I was staying with a party o f friends in a country house during my visit to England in 1884. On Sunday evening as we sat around the fire, they asked me to read and expound some portion o f Scripture. Being tired after the services o f the day, I told them to ask Henry Drummond, who was one o f the party. Af ter some urging he drew a small Testament from his hip pocket, opened it at the 13 th chapter o f 1 Corinthians, and began to speak on the subject o f Love. It seemed to me that I had never heard anything so beautiful. The one great need in our Christian life is love, more love to God and to each other. Would that we could all move into that Love chapter, and live there. F J __everyone has asked himself the great question of antiquity as of the modem world: What is the summum bonum — the supreme good? You have life before you. Once only you can live it. What is the noblest object of desire, the supreme gift to covet? We have been accustomed to be told that the greatest thing in the religious world is faith. That great word has been the keynote for centuries of the popular religion and we have easily learned to look upon it as the greatest thing in the world. Well, we are wrong. If we have been told that, we may miss the mark. In the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul takes us to Christianity at its source and there we see, “ the greatest of these is love.” It is not an oversight. Paul was speaking of faith just a moment before. He says, “ If I have all faith, so that I can remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.” So far from forgetting, he deliberately contrasts them, “now abideth faith, hope, love,” and without a moment’s hesitation the decision falls,’-'“ the greatest of these is love.” And it is not prejudice. A man is apt to recommend to others his own strong point. Love was not Paul’s strong point. The observing student can detect a beautiful tenderness grow- D . L. M oody
continued
LOVE
in the World
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M A R C H 19 57
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