The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 421

Vers. 4-8.-The immortality of love. "Charity never faileth," etc. Amonc,et the many things which Paul predicates in this chapter concerning "charity," or lo,-~, is its permanence. I. It will " never fail" as an ELEMENT OF MORAL POWER. Love is the strongest force in the soul. 1. lt is the strongest sustaining power. Our present state is one of trial cand sorrow. Bur<lcns press 011 all, in all grades of society. Godly love is the be8t sustaining power under all. All Divine promises are made to the loving. 2. It is the strongest nsisting power. We have not only burdens to oppress, but enemies to conquer and destroy. If love preoccupies the soul, temptathms are powerless. 3. It is the strongest aggressive power. We have not only to bear up with fortitude under trials, and to resist with success temptatior.s, but we have battles to fight and victories to win. Love is at once the inspiration and the qualification for the warfare. 'l'here is nothing so al!gressive in the moral world as love. Man can stand before anything sooner than love. As a sustaining, resisting, aggressive power, love will" never fail." II. It will "never fail" as a PRINCIPLE OF SOCIAL UNITY. Deep in the heart of man is the desire for uuion with his fellow. He wishes to flow with the race as waters with the stream. His ingenuity has been taxed for ages in the invention of schemes for union. Love alone can secure this; love ouly is the unifying force. We are only one with those we love with the moral affections of our nature. But we can only love the lovable. Love in the moral empire is what attraction is in the material. Love "never failetb" as a principle of social unity. III. It will "never fail" as a soi:RCK OF BPIBJTUAL HAPPINESS. Love is joy. 1. It -e:r;pels from the mind all element.~ unfavourable to happiness. 2. It generates in the mind all the ele.ments of spiritual foy. Vers. 9, 10.-Partial knowledge. "We know in part." Partial knowledge is of four k.inds. I. There is a partial knowledge that is a NECEHSITY. 'fhe knowledge of the highest intelligent creature must by the necessity of nature be partial. What he knows is as llothing compared with the knowable, still less with the unlmowable. "Who by search- ing can find out God?" II. There is a partial knowledge that is a CALAMI'IT. Our necessary ignorance is not a calamity; on the contrary, it is a benediction. '!'be necessarily unknown acts as a stimulus to our intellectual faculties. llut our ignorance of things that are really knowable must be ever more or less a disadvantage. lgnorance of true ethics, of political economy, agriculture, laws or health, beneficent rules of conduct, true religioh, entails incalculable injuries. Ignorance of these things is the night, the winter, of intellect. III. There is a partial knowledge that is SINFUL. A partial knowledge of our rnoml condition, the claims of God, the means of redemption, where a fuller l.:.n"wledge is cu. xm. 1-13.J THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 4W·