We gather to the sacred board
Perchance a scanty band; But with us in sublime accord
What mighty armies stand!
In creed and rite howe'er apart,
One Saviour still we own, And pour the worship of the heart
Before the Father's throne.
A thousand spires o'er hill and vale
Point to the same blue heaven; A thousand voices tell the tale
Of grace through Jesus given.
1 T. G. Selby.
i CORINTHIANS xi. 26 343
High choirs, in Europe's ancient fanes,
Praise Him for man who died; And o'er our boundless Western plains
His name is glorified.
Around His tomb, on Salem's height,
Greek and Armenian bend ; And through all Lapland's months of night
The peasants' hymns ascend.
Are we not brethren? Saviour dear!
Then may we walk in love, Joint subjects of Thy kingdom here,
Joint heirs of bliss above ! 1
1 Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch,
The One Thing Needful,
*4S
Literature.
Ainger (A.), The Gospel and Human Life, 30.
„ in Anglican Pulpit of To-day, 344.
Alford (H.), Quebec Chapel Sermons, vii. 104, 120, 133. Bonar (H.), GooVs Way of Holiness, 153. Bradby (E. H.), Sermons at Haileybury, 324. Brooke (S. A.), The Fight of Faith, 51. Brookfield (W. H.), Sermons, 96. Cross (J.), Pauline Charity, 22, 36, 50. Daplyn (E.), One with the Eternal, 9.
Duncan (J.), In the Pulpit and at the Communion Table, 183. Grant (C), A School's Life, 80. Jackson (G.), Memoranda Paulina, 47. Jones (H.), in A Lent in London, 134. Kingsley (C), Sermons for the Times, 256. Kuegele (F.), Country Sermons, New Ser., ii. 167. Matheson (G.), Times of Retirement, 222. Moberly (R. C), Christ our Life, 45. Moody (D. L.), Faithful Sayings, 41.
Newman (J. H.), Parochial and Plain Sermons, iv. 307, v. 327. Nicoll (W. R.), Ten-Minute Sermons, 173. Robarts (F. L.), Sunday Morning Talks, 125. Salmon (G.), Sermons in the Chapel of Trinity College, Dublin, 55. Sauter (B.), The Sunday Epistles, 134. Scott (M.), Harmony of Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, 66. Vaughan (J,), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), xiii. (1876) No. 992. Wilson (J. M.), Sermons in Clifton College Chapel, i. 205. Cambridge Review, ii. Supplement No. 39 (Bradby); vi. Supplement
No. 142 (Ainger). Christian World Pulpit, iii. 296 (Gasquoine), 406 (Bull) ; xvi. 20
(Statham); xxvii. 376 (Rogers); xxxv. 168 (Halsey) ; lxv. 97
(Henson) ; lxxix. 342 (Gordon). Church of England Magazine, xiii. 281 (Hodgson) ; xix. 273 (Horsford) ;
xxxix. 200 (Hoare). Clergyman's Magazine, 3rd Ser., vii. 92 (Proctor). Contemporary Pulpit, 2nd Ser., i. 155 (Newman) ; ii. 142 (Drummond) ;
v. 115 (Newman) ; vii. 120 (Alford). Preacher't Magazine, ix. (1898) 251 (Slater).
346
The One Thing Needful.
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.— i Cor. xiii. i.
1. This chapter, although a digression, is yet a step in the treatment of the subject of spiritual gifts (xii. 1, xiv. 40), and forms in itself a complete and beautiful whole. After the promise that he will point out a still more surpassing way, there is, as it were, a moment of suspense ; and then jam ardet Paulus it fertur in amorem (Bengel). Stanley imagines "how the Apostle's amanuensis must have paused to look up in his master's face at the sudden change in the style of his dictation, and seen his countenance lit up as it had been the face of an angel, as this vision of Divine perfection passed before him." Writer after writer has expatiated upon its literary and rhythmical beauty, which places it among the finest passages in the sacred, or, indeed, in any writings. We may compare ch. xv., Eom. viii. 31-39, and — on a much lower plane — the torrent of invective in 2 Cor. xi. 19-29. This chapter is a Divine " prophecy," which might have for its title that which distinguishes Ps. xlv. — " A Song of Love " or " of Loves." And it is noteworthy that these praises of love come, not from the Apostle of love, but from the Apostle of faith. It is not a fact that the Apostles are one-sided and prejudiced, each seeing only the gift which he specially esteems. Just as it is St. John who says, " This is the victory which over- cometh the world, even our faith," so it is St. Paul who declares that greater than all gifts is love.1
Tf " The greatest, strongest, deepest thing Paul ever wrote." 2
^| I never read 1 Cor. xiii. without thinking of the description of the virtues in the Nicomachean Ethics. St. Paul's ethical teaching has quite an Hellenic ring. It is philosophical, as resting
1 Robertson and Plummer, 1st Corinthians, 285. 2 Harnack.
3*7
348 THE ONE THING NEEDFUL
on a definite principle, namely, our new life in Christ; and it is logical, as classifying virtues and duties according to some intelligible principle.1
^ For moral elevation, there is nothing in literature equal to this chapter. No Plato or Seneca ever uttered a sentiment of such transcendent beauty. Even in the Word of God I know of no parallel to the passage, — even in the Epistles of St. John, who wrote so much upon the subject, and learned his lesson on the Saviour's heart. It is the highest encomium of the Queen of Graces that genius ever indited ; and what more could man, however inspired of God, say in her praise? Yet here is no exaggeration, no distortion of the virtue commended, no deprecia- tion of any other Christian quality or duty. All is just, exact, proportionate, because all is Divine. Love, in whatever aspect regarded — whether in its abstract principle, or in its relative importance, or in its enumerated attributes, or in its immeasurable duration, or in its asserted superiority to faith and hope — is manifestly worthy of its apostolic designation — "the more excellent way."2