" For another reason, love transcends all the other gifts. It never ceases. In the ftiture worid the oth- er gifts will disappear, at least in their present nature. The mysterious tongrues will cease in the land, where all understand them. Prophecies will be lost in their fulUlment, like the aurora in the moon. Knowledge, which on earth is but partial, will merge in immediate, perfect intuition. Nay, iidth itself will be exchanged for sight, and hope for firuitioh. Bat love, by which even here we have fellowship of life with God through Christ, remains love. It changes not. It rises not out of its element. It passes not into another sphere. It only deepens and expands. It can never gain high- er grounds, never reach another and better form of union with God ; but only continues to grow stronger, fuller, more lively, and more blissftil (1 Cor. xiii, 8- 18). 'Charity,' says Bishop Warburton somewhere, ' regulates and perfects all the other virtues, and is in itself in no want of a reformer.'
" Hence Paul exhorts the Corinthians, who were in- clined to place an undue estimate on the more striking and showy charisms, to strive after charity, above all, as the greatest and most precious gift, the cardinal and universal Christian virtue, of which heathenism had scarce the faintest notion. 'Heathenism,* observes Olshausen (Comment, iii, p. 698), 'did not get beyond I epcuc. It knew nothing of the Christian a'-yawiy. In j the Old Testament nothing but the stem Stni reigns. : Eros, even in its purest, noblest form, is but the result ' of want, the longing for love, springing ftom the coa- j sciousness that we have not what is worth loving.
CHARITY, BROTHERS OF 219 CHARITY, SISTERS OP
Bat tiM Ghriilka dyawti is the streaming forth of pos- itive love, God hhneelf dwelling in the ^ever, so that streams of living water flow oat of him (John iv, 14).' And he conunends it, in the most glowing and attractive deecription ever nttered by tongoe of man or angelt in language which oomee to the heart with perpetaal freshness, like music fh>m the bowers of eternitj, and is of itself enough to pat lieyond all doabt the divinity of Christianity and its infinite supe- riority to all other religions. * And now (in tlie pres- ent earthly life of Christians) abideth fiUth, hope, char- ity, these three; bat the greatest of these is charity' " (Schafl; Aptmtolieal Ckurek, § 120). See also Watson, TkeoL IntHtutet, pL iii, eh. iv ; Fellowes, Botfy o/Tks^ oUtgif, ii, 64, etc ; Barrow, Works, voL i, ser. 27, 28; Fletcher, Workt (N.Y. ed.), iii, 156 sq.
Charity, Brothers of (called, in Italy, Fate hen fiatelH; in France, Frh^ de la Chariii; in Spain, Brolhert of Ho$piiality), a Bomanist order, founded in 1540 at Seville, by the Portuguese Johannes a Deo, for nursing the sick and reforming immoral females. In 1572 Pope Pins Y confirmed it, under the rule of St. Augustine, and it then limited itself to serving hospi- tals for the sick of all nations and religions. In 1580 it had a number of institutions in France, Italy, Ger- many, Poland, both Indies, and other countries. In 1617 it was received into the number of regular orders by adopting the solemn vows. In 1619 ^e brethren were exempted ftt>m the jurisdiction of the diocesan bishops, and in 1624 they received all the privileges of the mendicant orders. Among the hospitals of the order, those of Milan, Paris, Rome, Naples, Vienna, Prague, are especially celelnrated. The number of bouses amounts at present to over a hundred, in Italy, France, Spain, Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, and North and South America. See Helyot, Ordret Rdigieux^ vol. ii ; Fehr, Oeschiehte der Mdnchsorden^ ii, 80 sq.
Charity, Bisters o( called also Dauohtbbs or
Chustiah Charitt (3eatr$ or FUUt de la ChariU),
or, from their dress, Grat SisrrsBS (Stmn gr%$e$\
a oonununity of women in the Roman Catholic Church
for norsing the poor and the sick, founded in 1629 at
ChatiUon, in France, by Vincent de Paul, aided by
Madame Louise de Marillac le Oras. The rule which
Vincent gave to his community was oonfirmed by^
the pope in 1668, whereupon the community spread
90 rapidly that by 1685 two hundred and twenty>four houses were establish- ed. Until the end of the eighteenth century they remained almost entirely confined to France, where their la- bors were interrupt- ed by the Revolution. After a fow years they were permitted to take them up again, and in 1807 they were placed under the protection of the mother of Napo- leon. Since that time they have enjoyed the patronage of all French governments. In 1827 they nursed in France 145,000 sick persons \ and 120,000 children, which number has since considerably in- creased. Since 1815
they have rapidly established themselves in all states
in which monastic orders are not forbidden. Several
itatea, as Prussia and Baden, wliich ezclode meet of
the monastio orders, have made an exception in fhvor
of tiie Sisters of Charity. Sinoe 1848 they have been
Slater of Charity.
admitted into all the German statsi except Saxony. In all Germany they had, in 1858, eetablisfaments in 194 places, with about 2000 members. Spain promised to admit tliem in the Concordat of 1851. They estab- lished themselves in Portugal in 1857, but were there, as also in Brasil, severely attacked by the Liberal par- ty, and mobbed by the populace. Large numbers of them were called to Russia by the government of Al- exander II, and they have penetrated even into Den- mark and Sweden. In Turkey they conduct several largely -attended schools. They are also found in many of the missions of Asia, Africa, and Australia, and hi several of the states of Central and South Amer- ica. In the United SUtes they were established in 1809 by Eliaabeih 8eUm (a pervert from Protestant- ism), with a distinct rule, which is still followed in the dioceses of New Yorlc, Brooklyn, Newark, and HaliCiUL. The houses in the other dioceses liave abandoned Mrs. Seton's rule, and have united with the French order. In 1852 there were 88 houses under the chaige of the sisters in different parts of the United States, and the number of sisters was 420. This number has since considerably increased. In the diocese of New York alone there are now about 250 sisters, having under their care, besides the parish sdiools in the city of New York, a hospital, a male and female asylum, and an in- dustrial school. Their mother-house is at Fonthill, on the Hudson River, near Yonkers.