2. Of this love there could be no more illustrious example than was St. John himself. It was undoubtedly the loving nature of St. John that drew towards him the sympathetic affection of Jesus Christ. Between the two there existed a harmony of char- acter, which bound them necessarily to each other. In both there was the humility and calmness of that highest kind of love
314 THE BOND OF BROTHERHOOD
which is as far removed from the vehemence of passion as it is elevated above the changes inherent in passionate affection.
^ These is a tradition that, when St. John was too old to walk, he used to be carried by his friends to the Christian Assembly in Ephesus. Then followed a hush among those who were present. The Apostle who had leaned on the breast of Jesus, the Apostle who had been with Him through His ministry, who knew more of His mind than others, was about to speak to them, and when he did speak it seemed that time after time the only word which he uttered to them was, " Beloved, let us love one another " : " Little children, love one another." ^
I.
Love in its Oeigin.
Henry Drummond has described love as the greatest thing in the world. But in that definition he has set forth only half the truth, because love is the greatest power in the heavens above as well as in the earth beneath, Almighty God Himself being Love perfect, infinite and eternal. Heaven is the fulness of joy un- speakable, not on account of streets of gold, and gates of pearl, and walls of sapphire, but because it is the presence and home of Divine love. Angels are angels because therein they have absorbed and radiate everlastingly the rays of this Divine light of love. Men and women are angelic so far as they have received and reflect this sublime grace. The earth is like to heaven in proportion to the love that is in it.
1. God is love. — This is the first fact in the universe — first in time, and first in significance. Man cannot be the only or the highest thing that loves in this vast universe. There is — there must be — in it some great, deep heart of sympathy, the infinite counterpart of our faint and feeble human love ; for we could not be so moved and awed by unreality and deadness ; and till we feel this — till we feel that the holy tenderness which comes over us at the sight of boundless oceans or setting suns or starry skies, that the strong sympathies which seize us when we think of human sufferings and wrongs, and will not let us rest till we have
* Archbishop W. Alexander.
I JOHN IV. 7 315
done our utmost to relieve and redress them, cannot be explained by any curious network of nerves and fibres, by any laws of chemistry or mechanics, but is a living breath from the Omni- present Love, working unseen but ever active beneath the material veil of things — we do not truly believe; the cold inference of reason is not yet quickened into a living faith ; God is still a name rather than a power, a force than an agent, an operation than a person.
^ There is a gem which is called the flystone gem. To the naked eye there is no peculiarity to differentiate it from other like gems ; but place it under a microscope and you will see in the midst of its luminous brilliancy a tiny insect, perfect in all its proportions, even to the minute framework of its gauze-like wings and the network of facets on its tiny eyes. Diamond-enclosed, diamond-protected, it is a riddle in the book of Nature. How it came there no one knows, and no human skill could remove it. Whoso would touch that fly must first crush the wall of adamant around it. It is hid in the bosom of the gem, and the natural eye perceiveth it not, for it is microscopically discerned. The analogy fails, for it is dead, and we speak of life. But there is in man that which can call God Father, and which can never cease to be Divine, for it is similarly buried in the heart of the Omnipotent.^ 1^ ^ Love is the mightiest power in the heavens above or in the earth beneath, pure and overflowing at the heart of the universe. How marvellously it is akin to another most attractive force in Nature — gravitation. Eeraove this single binding influence, and worlds with all they contain instantly dissolve into chaos. Eemove the single bond of spiritual love, and society melts into a social chaos. And just as the sun is the principal seat of gravi- tation, and the planets are the inferior seats of gravity, so God is the central source of love, and His angels and children are subordin- ate sources of love. Then, again, as gravitation is extended equally everywhere, so also the love of God. No matter to what depths of sin the heart of man has sunk, be it steeped in degradation and vice, or paralysed by carelessness and indifference, God's love is ever-present, able and ready to save. No man is beyond its reach and secret influence. Its force never fails or decreases. Love can never die: it is infinite and eternal as God Himself. And because He reigns and directs, and lovingly takes measures unceasingly for the betterment of His children, this world of His is daily and hourly progressing and improving. To-day the world is better than yesterday. To-morrow it will be better than * B. Wilberforce, Feeling after Him, 130.