quality in it. It docs not make men one whit the nobler, purer, more gracious in heart and lifo. It in no way promotes the reign of those Divine principles ot· "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost," in which the kingdom of GoJ consists. II. 'rHE LOVE THAT BUILDETH UP. Take love here in the highest and broadest sense, as including love to God and love to man. These are but two sirles and aspects of the same affection. It is an essentially religious affection. There are tender sensibilities and generous sentiments which give a natural grace to human character quite apart from all religious thought and feeling. They may prepare the way for the awakening of this Divine affection, but are not to be confounded with it. Only by personal fellowship with Christ can we rise into the atmosphere of a pure, unselfish, all-embracing love like his. Love builds up the temple of God. The separate personality of every Christian, and the complex, many-membered personality of the whole redeemed Church, are the dwelling- place of God, prepared by gradual enlargement and adornment to be the fitting shrine of his glory; and it is.the office of love to promote this process. It is the effective power in the development and perfecting of personal Christian character and social Christian life. In confirmation of this, think of it: 1. As the essential spirit of all other graces. It gives them their highest, richest quality. It is the life, the beauty, the strength, the very soul, of them all. Consider the position love occupies in the circle of the Divine attributes. Truth, justice, purity, goodness, etc., are attributes of the Divine character; but "God is love." A similar position does love occupy in the ideal character of his true children. \Ve are such poor, fragmentary, distorted reflections of the Divine beauty that even in the best of us this truth is too often obscured. Personal Christianity assumes many forms-the gentle and the severe, the reserved and the demonstrative, the meditative and the practical, the punctilious and the free; but this is the essential spirit of all its forms. It is true to the Divine ideal only so far as this spirit breathc3 through all its moods. 2. As the bond of Christian unity. Keenness of spirit11CLl insight, zeal for truth, fidelity to conscience, may of themselves have a separatin:-:; effect; but love draws and cements men together in a real fellowship of life. Differcncc,i in opiuion, modes of thought, ecclesiastical usage, etc., become of comparatively small account, "so love at heart prevail." 3. As an incentive to all real Christian activity. It is the distinction of Christiauitv as a Divine method of moral culture that it bases practical and social virtue on this foundation, casts it freely on the prompting anrl sustaining power of love. "Love is the end of the commandment, the fulfilling of the Law." Get your soul filled with love, and you will never want for an effectual motive to all noble living. .As the materials of the building arrange themselves and rbe into their finished form in obedience to the thought and will of the nrchite~t; as the notes fall, as if by an instinct of their own, into their dne place according to the inspira- tion of the musician; as the words flow in rhythmic cadence in answer to the mood of the poet's genius; as the grass anrl the flowers and the corn grow by the spontaneous energy of the creative and formative mind that animates them all ;-so will you rear for yourself the structure of a beautiful and useful Christian life, if your heart is filled with love. 4. As the mightiest of all instruments of ble.1si11g to others. By the sweet constraint of his love Christ wins the hearts of those for whom he died. Dy the almightiness of his love he will ultimately conquer tho workl ano. build up that glorious temple to his praise-a re,leemc<l humanity, a creation ransomed from the curse. Let his love be the inspiration of our life, and we wield a moral force akin to his; we share his work, his triumph, and his joy.-W.
Ver. !.-Knowledge and love. Revised Version, "Knowledge puffeth up, but lovu cdifieth ; " Greek, "buildeth up." This remark is made at the outset of the considera- tion of a new topic. It embodies a principle upon which Christians may safely act in any of the practical difficulties that may arise. The precise matter which engaged the apostle's attention only concerns us historically. It hardly represents any kiml of difficulty that is likely to arise in modern society. "In Corinth and other cities me11t was offered for sale which had been used for sacrificial purposes in the heathen temples, having been sold to the dealers by the priests, who received a large sharo of the sacrifices fur themselves, or by the individuals who offered them, anti had more remaining of their own share than they could use themselves. Thus a Christian ·282 TIIE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE COIUNTHIANS. [cH, vm. 1-13.