great work of your personal salvation, and to labor therein with fear and trembling remembering that God, of His infinite mercy, does and will "work in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." Finally, when the day of our probation and of our labor shall have closed, then shall we all have abundant cause to acknowledge, each one, "I am but an unprofitable servant." And throughout a blissful eternity may it be our happy privilege, as we review the past, as we view all the way in which Divine Goodness has led us, to exclaim, with wonder, joy, and gratitude, "What hath God wrought!" ON LOVE. Διώκετε τὴν ἀγάπην.—“FOLLOW AFTER CHARITY.” T HE Sacred Volume is replete with heavenly instructions, is fraught with divine precepts, exhibits the noblest examples, proposes the greatest encouragement, and is in all respects adapted to the condition of man, able to instruct him in the knowledge of God and of himself, and, thus to make him wise unto salvation, through faith in Christ Jesus. Hence, the inspired penman hath said, "Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning; that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope"; and when we consider that "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God," and, therefore, "is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works," we cannot disregard any part of the sacred record; but must receive the whole as Heaven's revelation, firmly believe it, cheerfully obey it, and constantly live compatibly with its precepts. This being the case, every doctrine here inculcated must be important; every argument here advanced, cogent; every motive here presented, persuasive; every grace here described, requisite; and, yet, we may admit, without irreverence for this book of inspiration, that some things revealed therein are more important than others. Paul, himself, after expatiating on the gifts of God bestowed upon the Corinthian Church, exclaims, "Yet show I unto you a more excellent way." This "way," so pleasing to God, so necessary and beneficial to man, is set forth in our context, the lovely thirteenth of First Corinthians—a chapter which should be indelibly inscribed upon the tablet of every heart, and constantly exhibited in the life of every candidate for Heaven. Our text is an apostolic exhortation, and surely as applicable to us as to the ancient Corinthian Church. In its elucidation, I In its elucidation, I purpose to notice: I. The object which claims our attention. The object submitted to our thought is charity. The original word άyann, which in our version is rendered charity, may more properly be translated love. Our term charity comes from the French charite, and that from the Latin caritas, which signifies love, friendship, affection, delight, dearness. Charity, now meaning chiefly almsgiving, does not express fully the force of the original. The apostle himself affirms, "though I give all my goods to feed the poor, and my body to be burned, and have not charity, I am nothing." So that he must have meant more than almsgiving. The word love, in its best and noblest sense, expresses the meaning of the Greek word which 'he employed. Love to God and man constitutes the essence of true religion, and this is the object to which we are directed in the text. - The apostle, in his masterly description of this essential grace, gives us a detail of its properties. And surely, in an object paramount to all others without which, whatever we speak, whatever we know, whatever we believe, whatever we do, and whatever we suffer, we are but "sounding brass, and tinkling cymbal"-there is sufficient importance to claim our most profound attention. We therefore commence with the definition of the apostle, and say, 1. Charity, or love, "suffereth long and is kind." This holy, heaven-born principle is longsuffering; that is, he whose heart is imbued with this principle will evidence it by being patient toward all men. It enables him to bear with the weakness of the children of God. Aware that the human intellect is not equally powerful in all, some having received more and others less of mental power, his charitable heart will not look for more than should be expected. Being convinced that the greatest and most perfect of human beings are not exempt from weakness, but liable to err in judgment and, consequently, in practice, he therefore is inclined to the exercise of charity. He will bear with the ignorance and error of others. Many of the devoted followers of the Redeemer are poor, whose opportunities for the acquisition of knowledge have been few, and yet through grace have they been made partakers of the wisdom which is from above. Such, though destitute of scholastic attainments, and even very illiterate, are, nevertheless, prized by Him whose charity is patient with their errors. The mistakes of the pious, though unpardonable in the eye of the bigot, do not constitute a barrier to the man |