LECT. XVI. Those who love. St. Paul. With whom the melodies abide, Of th' everlasting chime : Through dusky lane and wrangling mart, They turn to the works of philanthropy. The sick, the aged, the unfortunate, the lost, are their sphere of labour, the objects of a tender, holy sympathy. The sight of the unblessed fills them with a yearning pity. Since the day of Christ there have been ever many such, some known, many more unknown, who could only give the widow's mite or the cup of cold water, or the smile, or the tear of sympathy, or the cheering word. Think of the Apostles, of St. John and St. Paul, to whom the love of Christ was an all-constraining impulse, who spent and were spent for the good of others. In such as these then a fact of immense practical significance stands out clearly, viz. that love which fulfils the law has certainly been possessed by some; some have been its subjects. Therefore they prove the reality of the kingdom of God. Proofs and It is already in them. With however many improphecies. perfections, they do belong in will and desire to 1 the perfect love, and thus they are proofs and prophecies of the future that shall be perfect. These were no dreamers, and love is not visionary. We may not love, but they do. We may despair of it, but they have begun to realize it. We may in the and its indulge selfishness and cry impossible, but they LECT. XVI. open their hearts, and lo! Divine love enters into them, and breathes itself through their affections, and they know by a precious experience beyond all argument that God is real and Christ is true. 3. And thirdly, what is more than all, or Jesus lives rather the explanation of all—the very source of world. this life of love is in our midst. God has become man, and love itself is incarnate. Never, nevermore will it depart from the world. Jesus is the central attractive figure of all its moral life. In Him men continually behold love perfected, acknowledge its beauty, and confess its power. His cross remains, and its shadows lengthen The cross down the ages of time, and the world is being influence. filled with the sense of a presence invisible but not absent. As long as sin lasts and the world lasts, as long as sorrow and trouble last, so long will human hearts see a vision of One full of love and pity, with a face Divinely tender, and lighted up with unspeakable things, going in and out amongst them touching, purifying, strengthening. Yes! whilst some are saying in their blindness, A contrast. "love is impossible," lo! love is here attracting the hearts of the willing, and breathing upon. them its own spirit. The King of the kingdom is amongst His subjects, giving them power "to become the sons of God, even to as many as believe on His Name." LECT. XVI. appeals to us. The example of Christ Behold then and strive to understand the force How Christ and truth of this new commandment. Jesus is Incarnate God, and love was His life, and that life is the life of men. From the cross of atonement, from the open grave, from the throne of glory, He cries to us, "Come, and take life in my love; come, and love me, and so live Divinely true." This love needs no other rules than the example of Christ. "As I have loved you.” Yet that example will prove infinitely deep as well as For a child. Divinely simple. The child will be able to take it as a guide, easily understood, easily followed. So act as to please Christ will ensure perfect action in motive and desire, on the part of the youngest and the most ignorant. But it will also serve the philosopher as the truest wisdom, whether practical or theoretical. James Hinton, the rigorous thinker, can see in it the germinal ideal of a perfect benevolence, placed under the fostering care of the safest and truest of all standards of action. Even a John Stuart Mill, the utilitarian and sceptical reasoner, must at last confess, that he who so lives as to please Christ, and who makes that his standard of life, is most likely to attain to truth of character and the happiest experience. For the wise man. Hinton. J. S. Mill. The grand est truth of life. What shall we say to these things? Here is the grandest force in this world, and therefore that it is offered to us is the grandest truth. If any one says-How am I to love?-how am I to LECT. XVI. get out of self? - the answer is the old one, love. Believe in Christ, in love Incarnate, in love that How to bled and died and rose again; receive Him into the heart, and lo! you possess the secret. To see love as a fine philosophical principle is not enough. Love does not come so. Nor to struggle after it as a duty; it will not root itself in the conscience first. It roots itself in the heart when Christ takes possession. Such is the force of His words in this new commandment. As I have loved you, so love one another. Love me, and each other in me. Be always sensible of my love, keep the feeling of it warm in your souls, and then live towards others out of that feeling. Thus He himself illustrates His own law, its nature and its working. It all comes to this, if you desire to be perfect, if you would keep the law, if you would attain eternal life, love, and it is done; and if you would love, believe in Christ as love Divine; believe, draw near to Him in personal communion, heart to heart, thought to thought. Then His spirit will pass into yours and cause you to see all things in a new light. We love Him because He first loved us. To believe that Jesus loves you personally, to live in the conviction of that belief, to habituate yourself to the internal guidance of it; that is, to submit persons and things to its The force of Christ's words in the text. The essence has been of all that said. LECT. XVI. influence, is to become a partaker of His life. The old A grand philosophy. |