TJ That the whole substance of religion was faith, hope, and love ; by the practice of which we became united to the will of God; that all beside is indifferent, and to be used only as a means, that we may arrive at our end, and be swallowed up therein, by faith and love.
That all things are possible to him who believes, that they are less difficult to him who hopes, that they are easier to him who loves, and still more easy to him who perseveres in the practice of these three virtues.1
If I remember reading about an English barrister, of refined mind but speculative tendencies, who had reached such a depth of Pyrrhonism, alike in philosophy and religion, that he had lost all faith in positive truth. His Christian wife grieved over him all the more that she perceived about him symptoms of incipient consumption. One day, however, as he lay on the sofa, she saw him gazing upwards, as if on some object, with an expression of soft delight and almost rapture. "What's the matter?" she asked. " Do you know, I have begun to conceive hope." " Hope of what ? " "I don't know, but somehow I have hope." Ah ! the haze was dissolving, phantoms were crystallizing into concrete realities and the transporting " hope " of finding solid footing on the rock of positive truth. Eight speedily came that faith which overcometh the world — a childlike reception of the Gospel of Christ — terminating, and at no distant period, in a tranquil departure to the region of unclouded light.2
Tf John Knox, in his History of the Reformation, has preserved a beautiful comparison of faith, hope, and charity by Patrick
1 Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God, 23.
2 D. Brown, Memoir of John Duncan, 78.
432 THESE THREE
Hamilton, the Scottish martyr. Says Hamilton : " Faith cometh of the Word of God, Hope cometh of Faith, and Charity springeth of them both. Faith believes the Word, Hope trusteth after that which is promised by the Word, and Charity doeth good unto her neighbour, through the love which she hath to God, and gladness that is within herself. Faith looketh to God and His word; Hope looketh unto His gift and reward; Charity looketh unto her neighbour's profit. Faith receiveth God ; Hope receiveth His reward ; Charity looketh to her neighbour with a glad heart, and that without any respect of reward. Faith pertaineth to God only, Hope to His reward, and Charity tc her neighbour."
Let love weep —
It cometh, that day of the Lord divine;
And the morning star will surely shine On the long death-night of sleep.
Let faith fear, — The unending light comes on apace; The path leads homeward from this place; Through the twilight home must appear.
Let hope despair, — Let death and the grave shout victory, — That flush of the morning yet shall be, Which shall wake the slumberers there!
THESE THREE ABIDE.
1. Amidst all that changes and is destined to pass away, three things there are, St. Paul tells us, that abide. Just as in a world of shadows and uncertainties we have learned to postulate as fundamental certainties three incontestable realities, God, self, and our neighbour ; so amid the variety of external and transient manifestations of the religious life there remain unchangeably three activities or functions of the soul, which are perpetually concerned with these fundamental certainties. Much of the detail of religion is an accommodation to present necessities and will pass away when it has served its temporary purpose; but behind and beneath lie three essential and eternal principles of spiritual life — Faith, Hope, and Love.
i CORINTHIANS xm. 13 433
2. The popular interpretation reads "now" as temporal instead of logical — identifying it with the "now" of verse 12, though the Greek words differ — as though the Apostle meant that for the present faith and hope " abide " with love, but love alone "abides" for ever. But St. Paul puts the three on the same footing in respect of enduringness — " these three " in com- parison with the other three of verse 8 — pointedly adding faith and hope to share and support the "abiding" of love; love is greater among these, not more lasting.
It is curious that this meaning has been so generally missed by readers of the passage. Learned readers, as well as unlearned, have failed to observe it. You may frequently see it assumed, in hymns and other religious literature, that faith and hope, instead of being associated with love in this quality of per- manence, as St. Paul declares them to be, are contrasted with it, in that they are transitory, whilst love is eternal. " Faith will vanish into sight ; Hope be emptied in delight ; Love in heaven will shine more bright." Such language is plausible enough to be generally accepted. But it is at variance with St. Paul's view. The passage we are considering is not one of doubtful meaning ; no competent interpreter could question that St. Paul's purpose is to say that faith, hope, love, all three abide; and that by " abide " he means that they have not the changing and trans- itory character which belongs to other things of which he has been speaking. It is true that he is asserting the supreme glory of love ; it is greater, he says, than faith and hope. But these two sister graces share with it the significant distinction that they all abide.