Be Tender.
" Let all that ye do (be done in love."
1. There is a singular contrast between the first four of these exhortations and the last. The former ring sharp and short like pistol-shots; the last is of gentler mould. The former sound like the word of command shouted by an officer along the ranks; and there is a military metaphor running all through them. The foe threatens to advance; let the guards keep their eyes open. He comes nearer ; prepare for the charge, stand firm in your ranks. The battle is joined ; " Quit you like men " — strike a man's stroke — " be strong." And then all the apparatus of warfare is put away out of sight, and the captain's word of "command is softened into the Christian teacher's exhortation:
1 G. Clarke, True, Manhood, Womanhood, 10.
i CORINTHIANS xvi. 13, 14 515
" Let all that you do be done in love." For love is better than fighting, and is stronger than swords.
2. And yet, although there is a contrast here, there is also a sequence and connection. No doubt these exhortations, which are St. Paul's last word to that Corinthian Church on which he had lavished in turn the treasures of his manifold eloquence, indignation, argumentation, and tenderness, reflected the deficiencies of the people to whom he was speaking. They were schismatic and factious to the very core, and so they needed the exhortation to be left last in their ears, as it were, that everything should be done in love. They were ill-grounded in regard to the very fundamental doctrines of the faith, as all St. Paul's argumentation about the resurrection proves, and so they needed to be bidden to "stand fast in the faith." Their slothful carelessness as to the discipline of the Christian life, and their consequent feeble- ness of grasp of the Christian verities, made them loose-braced and weak in all respects, and incapacitated them for vigorous warfare.
If An example of a splendid Christian manhood is furnished by the career of Sir Titus Salt. It was my privilege recently to visit Saltaire, near Bradford, the model village of which he was the founder, and to see there in some measure how much a single well-spent life may do in brightening the lot of others. The great mill, which is built in the Italian style, the dwellings for the work-people, the almshouses, the schools, the church, the public park, and other facilities for the culture and the elevation of the people, are proofs of a large intelligence and a loving heart. He came to his grave in 1876 at the age of seventy-three; but his memory lives as that of one whose motto was — " Love and Serve."1
Tf A story is told of Marston Moor for which there is as good evidence as for many things that men believe. A Lancashire squire of ancient line was killed fighting for the king. His wife came upon the field the next morning to search for him. They were stripping and burying the slain. A general officer asked her what she was about, and she told him her melancholy tale. He listened to her with great tenderness, and earnestly besought her to leave the horrid scene. She complied, and calling for a trooper, he set her upon the horse. On her way she inquired
1 R. S. Duff, Pleasant Places 119.
516 THE CHRISTIAN KNIGHT
the name of the officer, and learned that he was Lieutenant- General Cromwell.1
If I've noticed it often among my own people around Snow- field, that the strong, skilful men are often the gentlest to the women and children; and it's pretty to see 'em carrying the little babies as if they were no heavier than little birds. And the babies always seem to like the strong arm best.2
^f Burne-Jones soon caught Buskin's enthusiasm for Luini, and some years later advised a friend who was travelling in Italy to " hunt him out everywhere. Never were any faces so perfect ; for they are perfect like Greek ones, and have fourteen hundred years of tenderness and pity added." 3
1 J. Morley, Oliver Cromwell, 154.
3 Dinah Morris, in Adam Bede.
• Memorials of Edward Bume- Jones, i. 248.
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The great texts of the Bible
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