In Heaven ambition cannot dwell,
Nor avarice in the vaults of Hell.
Of earth, these passions of the earth,
They perish where they have their birth,
But love is indestructible:
Its holy flame for ever burneth.
From Heaven it came, to Heaven returneth,
Full oft on earth, a troubled guest,
At times deceived, at times oppressed,
In Heaven it finds its perfect rest.
It soweth here in toil and care,
But the harvest-time of love is there.
1 Louise Chandler Moulton.
i CORINTHIANS xm. 13 443
When the last day is ended,
And the nights are through When the last sun is buried
In its grave of blue;
When the stars are snuffed like candles,
And the seas no longer fret; When the winds unlearn their cunning,
And the storms forget;
When the last lip is palsied
And the last prayer said — Love shall reign immortal
While the worlds lie dead!
THE GREATEST OF THESE THREE.
St. Paul, when he assigns the pre-eminence to love, has no intention of depreciating the value, still less of dispensing with the necessity, of those other graces to which he prefers it. For it is remarkable that he who in this passage extols love in a strain which none of the other writers of the New Testament has ever reached is the same who has also dwelt more largely and more forcibly than all the others on the inestimable preciousness of faith and hope, — attaching, indeed, to these two principles, and more particularly to faith, a measure of importance which men have objected to as, in their judgment, altogether inordinate and unwarranted.
Yet the first thing that strikes us is, that the whole civilized world has come round — at any rate, in theory — to the teaching of St. Paul. To an educated Eoman of the time of St. Paul it would have seemed the most ridiculous assertion possible that the greatest of all virtues was love. To die with a smile on his face, to wrap himself up in the toga of his reserve, to be self- contained and absolutely self-controlled, that was his ideal, and a grand one, too, up to a certain point ; but the attitude of Marcus Aurelius, for instance, towards Christianity, shows us that the educated Roman of the day would have heard with something like contempt that "the greatest of these is love." And yet to-day take up any magazine — the most anti-Church magazine that you
444 THESE THREE
can find — and look to see what is its teaching about social matters. What is it that the popular magazine puts before us as the greatest thing of all ? Away with creeds ! Away with dogmas ! But what is important ? The service of man ; doing good to one's fellows ! The verdict of the popular magazine of to-day is, that cleverness may be a great thing, and learning a great thing, but a greater than these is love. Or pick up a philosophical treatise on ethics, and, in a more cumbrous style, you will find the same thing said. What comes out as the ultimate basis of conduct in such books ? Is it not Altruism ? But Altruism after all is but a cumbrous name for love, and was taught to the world by Jesus Christ ; and therefore the verdict of the ethical treatise is the verdict of St. Paul, that " the greatest of these is love." Or, again, take practical life. Who is the villain that is hissed off the stage not only of the theatre but of real life ? Is it the dishonest man ? Is it the drunkard ? No ! It is the hard-hearted man ; it is the man with no sympathy ; it is the man with no kindness. Let a man be kind-hearted and generous, and there is nothing that he is not forgiven to-day. You will find his victims waiting round the corner to give him another chance. He may break every statute in the Statute Book, but if he is kind and affectionate everything is forgiven him. The popular verdict of the day is that sobriety is a great thing and honesty is a great thing, but a greater than these is love.
U There are people who believe they could have improved this thirteenth verse of the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians. I have found one man who, if he had been acting as amanuensis, and St. Paul had said, * And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three, and the greatest of these is love " — he would have held up his hands and said, " No, Paul, that is a mistake ; put compact organization of the visible church for the word love, and you will have it right." There are multitudes of people in the churches who believe that the outer form of the organization of the church has more to do with religion conquering the world than love. I have known a man who, if he had been there, would have insisted that the word beauty should be substituted for the word love. There are other men who would have substituted the word music, so that it would read: "And now abideth faith, hope, music, these three ; but the greatest of these is music." There is another class of men who would have said, " Paul, you should substitute conscience for the word charity, so that it shall read : And now