in view and you will find that He spent a great pro portion of His time simply in making people happy, in doing good turns to people. There is only one thing greater than happiness in the world and that is holiness and it is not in our keeping, but what God has put in our power is the happiness of those about us and that is largely to be secured by our being kind to them. “ The greatest thing,” says someone, “ a man can do for his heavenly Father is to be kind to some of His other children.” I wonder why it is that we are not all kinder than we are? How much the world needs it! How easily it is done! How instantaneously it acts! How infallibly it is remembered! How super abundantly it pays itself back — for there is no debtor in the world so honorable, so superbly honorable, as love. “ Love never faileth.” Love is success, love is happiness, love is life. “ Love,” I say with Rrowning, “ is energy of life.” For life, with all it yields of joy or woe And hope and fear, Is fust our chance o’ the prize of learning love — How love might be, hath been indeed, and is. How love might be, hath been indeed, and is. Where love is, God is. He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God. God is love. Therefore love. Without distinction, without calculation, without procrastina tion, love. Lavish it upon the poor where it is very easy, especially upon the rich who often need it most, most of all upon our equals where it is very difficult and for whom perhaps we each do least of all. There is a difference between trying to please and giving pleasure. Give pleasure. Lose no chance of giving pleasure for that is the ceaseless and anonymous triumph of a truly loving spirit. “ I shall pass through this world but once. Any good thing, therefore, that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” Generosity. “ Love envieth not.” This is love in competition with others. Whenever you attempt a good work you will find other men doing the same kind of work and probably doing it better. Envy them not. Envy is a feeling of ill-will to those who are in the same line as ourselves, a spirit of covetous ness and detraction. How little Christian work even is a protection against unchristian feeling! That most despicable of all the unworthy moods which cloud a Christian’s soul assuredly waits for us on the threshold of every work unless we are fortified with this grace of magnanimity. Only one thing truly need the Christian envy — the large, rich, generous soul which “ envieth not.” Humility. And then, after having learned all that, you have to learn this further thing, humility — to put a seal upon your lips and forget what you have done. After you have been kind, after love has stolen forth into the world and done its beautiful work, go back into the shade again and say nothing about it. Love hides even from itself. Love waives even self- satisfaction. “ Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up.” Humility — love hiding. Courtesy. The fifth ingredient is a somewhat strange one to find in this summum bonum: courtesy. This
The Analysis After contrasting love with these things, Paul in three very short verses gives us an amazing analysis of what this supreme thing is. I ask you to look at it. It is a compound thing, he tells us. It is like light. As you have seen a man of science take a beam of light and pass it through a crystal prism, as you have seen it come out on the other side of the prism broken up into its component colors — red, blue, yellow, violet, orange and all the colors of the rainbow — so Paul passes this thing, love, through the magnificent prism of his inspired intellect and it comes out on the other side broken up into its elements. In these few words we have what one might call the spectrum of love, the analysis of love. Will you observe what its elements are? Will you notice that they have common names, that they are virtues which we hear about every day, that they are things which can be practiced by every man in every place in life; and how, by a multitude of small things and ordinary virtues, the supreme thing, the summum bonum, is made up? The spectrum of love has nine ingredients: Patience ....................Love suffereth long Kindness ...................And is kind Generosity ............... Love envieth not Humility ..................Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up Courtesy ................... Doth not behave itself unseemly Unselfishness ........... Seeketh not its own Good temper ........... Is not provoked Guilelessness ............Taketh not account of evil Sincerity...................Rejoiceth not in unrighteousness but rejoiceth with the truth Patience, kindness, generosity, humility, courtesy, unselfishness, good temper, guilelessness, sincerity — these make up the supreme gift, the stature of the perfect man. You will observe that all are in relation to men, in relation to life, in relation to the known today and the near tomorrow and not to the unknown eternity. We hear much of love to God; Christ spoke much of love to man. We make a great deal of peace with heaven; Christ made much of peace on earth. Religion is not a strange or added thing but the inspiration of the secular life, the breathing of an eternal spirit through this temporal world. The supreme thing, in short, is not a thing at all but the giving of a further finish to the multitudinous words and acts which make up the sum of every common day. Patience. This is the normal attitude of love; love passive, love waiting to begin; not in a hurry; calm; ready to do its work when the summons comes but ■meantime wearing the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. Love suffers long, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things. For love understands and therefore waits. Kindness. Love active. Have you ever noticed how much of Christ’s life was spent in doing kind things — in merely doing kind things? Run over it with that
25
M A R C H 1 9 5 7
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs