Never a Dull Moment

Moje Drahy Rodina,

Heyyyy! (In Czech one would say 'hela' instead of 'hey', but that sounds like cursing....so I won't. Today.)

GOOD NEWS! (Better than no nylons...by the way Ma, I would shave more than once a week if there were anything on my legs to shave off anymore. I think that cutting back on shaving before coming on the mission was a major blessing in disguise because now it hardly seems to grow... who cares how many gag-reflexes I may have triggered.)
The temple opened today! Finally! I almost forgot how different it feels there. I mean, always knew it was, but today I really FELT it again, which was just incredible. I wish I could have stayed there alllllll daaaaaayyyyyy. But instead I get to do laundry. That is something I may never fully appreciate. Maybe if they started to make laundry detergent a little more exciting--they way cereal is, with little shaped and colored surprises--then maybe it'd be more interesting and less stifling. They could even offer little toys if you collect enough Tide box tops. Jejda! Anyways, the temple was SO good and SO enlightening that I forgot to zip up my skirt when I came out of the dressing room! I had no idea all throughout breakfast (we ate in the cafeteria there) until one of the Elders got all nervous and started whispering "Sister Dean! Sister Dean!" The poor poor missionary--a few weeks ago my companion accidentally tucked her skirt into her garments while in the bathroom...and then she bent over to try and stretch her back...and it was this very same missionary who happened to notice her entire back side. AH! I may have a hernia if I laugh much more here--the MTC is just too much fun.

This week marks the end of week number FIVE! Whoa! It's weird--suddenly all these individuals I've become friends with are leaving the MTC and I'm starting to realize how fleeting this time is here. Some missionaries seem so anxious to leave the MTC, but I've been so blessed here. I might cry myself to sleep the first night I don't get to stare up at Sestra Stratton's saggy mattress and know that, whatever happens, she's sleeping above me.
This week we are teaching the 1st discussion in CZECH--that's right! No more English at the TRC/TE/whatever it's called. This means that Sestra Stratton and I aren't teaching together anymore--that I'm teaching with an Elder now (Elder Bracken, if you want to find him in the pictures--AKA: Neville Longbottom). It's a little different, but he's a good missionary and he's very determined to learn the language, so I think it'll go well.
Lately I've been very impressed with the Lord's willingness to help us. Over and over again, I find myself reading of His promises to grant us whatever it is that we ask for that is right. I love how in 2 Nephi 33:3-4 Nephi bears his testimony that the Lord will not only help us, but he will consecrate our prayers for the well being of those we pray for. Woo! We're so so loved and watched out for! Thus, your prayers really mean a lot to me--to all of us missionaries here. We need them and so do investigators.
Speaking of investigators--the -------- family! I wish you could be here, learning the things that I'm learning about helping others come unto Christ. What it all comes down to is that you need to first figure out what is important to them/what their needs are, then you must show how the gospel will help that specific aspect of their lives and then testify of how it's blessed you and promise them blessings if they take actions. It sounds so easy, but it definitely takes a lot of listening and making yourself receptive to the Lord.
AH! I'm almost out of time! Sorry--Dekuji vas moc!

Sestra Dean

I Love the MTC!

Another p day is nearly gone! It's so weird how quickly each week goes by--I know this is only the preparation for the real thing, but it already seems as though there will never be anything else.

Can I just say that I love the MTC? (Everyone makes fun of me here because apparently I use the phrase "can I just say..." a LOT. Did I say that before?! Once I caught myself saying it in a personal prayer...maybe that's when I know it's gone too far.) One of my favorite things about the MTC is Thursdays. For a few reasons. 1) Thursday means that GYM time is right after breakfast, so Sestra Stratton and I can get really sweaty all at once in the morning and we don't have to spend all of GYM time making sure our internal body temperatures are low enough to keep us from sweating. We're pretty dedicated about running every morning. Somehow I've become the health/nutrition guru of our district. Probably because everyone else just eats doughnuts all the time and I don't. 2) Thursdays involve Large Group Meetings, which we attend with many other districts (hence, we become a LARGE GROUP). These are always taught by former missionaries and they do a great job of refocusing me--they help me realize that the MTC isn't about learning a new language or about memorizing scriptures, but it's about teaching individuals the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It's about finding and teaching these individuals. I love it. 4) TE!! Woo! I LOVE this place! The TE stands for "Teaching Experience"...or something. This name is actually in the process of being changed, so it's known by many names. But each week we're given tasks that involve learning how to do different things in our language. Then we come to the TE and RMs from our missions will speak to us and pretend to be investigators while we teach them important principles, ask them if they kept commitments, etc. It's great because it's then that I realize how much I've learned. It's SO exciting to suddenly realize that I can carry on a sort of conversation in this crazy language! Last TE, we were supposed to follow up with a commitment regarding reading the Book of Mormon with our "investigators", however my clever little guys began asking me about baptism and why it was important...I'm sure they were laughing their heads off inside. It went over pretty well, until they asked me if sprinkling was okay to do, and I had no idea how to say 'immersion'....so I settled for body (telo), everything (vsechno) and water (voda). They got the basic idea. Then, after we speak in Czech, we get to teach the fake investigators one of the lessons. This week will be our last time to practice teaching in English. I find myself very very envious of those missionaries who only speak English. I feel like that would be wonderful. I love teaching with Sister Stratton--we make a pretty good team and we've learned the importance of following the spirit together. After this week, however, we will begin teaching the first lesson in our respective languages, which means that she will be teaching in Croatian and I will be stuck teaching with a BOY. Ack. Just kidding, they're great. But I'll miss teaching with her strength at my side. All the while we're teaching, our teachers get to watch us on video. AFterwards, they tell us all the things we did well and give us prods in the right direction. It's pretty fun.
And THAT is why I love Thursdays.

Are Thursdays very exciting for you? I heard about Dad's car accident....was that on a Thursday? And about work being slow . . . it kind of makes me wonder what you've been praying for though...I've definitely learned here that, when you pray and ask God for help in developing a certain trait (i.e. charity, patience, humility, etc.), He has this way of ALWAYS giving you trying experiences in which you can practice exercising what little of that trait you already do have. And this is how it grows. For example: there is an elder in my class that I've been struggling to love. I mean, I DO love him, but we always tend to disagree about EVERYTHING. And of course I'm always the one in the right, so he's the one that needs to change. (Kidding.) But he tends to pick on the other Elders and then my mother bear instincts kick in and I end up verbally kicking him. Which is not very Christlike. So I've been praying for help. And lo and behold, what should the Lord do except inspire my teachers to rearrange our desks so that I am sitting RIGHT NEXT to him. ALWAYS. For 11 hours of class time nearly every day of the week. What can we do but laugh, right? God knows what's up. Hopefully you've been able to see good come out of all this mess. I'm always praying for you.

And I'm praying for the --------- family! Woo! Way to go fam! And ward! One thing I've learned here: people's testimonies only grow when they use their agency to do something to bring them closer to God--choosing to read, pray, attend church, etc. If there's anything you can do for them, help them help themselves. I'm glad that you're back in the missionary work Dad--I want to hear all about that video you're thinking of making! It's bound to touch people in the ward and help them touch those around them. Man, missionary work is the greatest, isn't it?

Also--GREAT news! They've nixed pantyhose for sister missionaries! For real! Well, they're no longer required. But they stressed still looking professional, so I decided that I would sacrifice and shave my legs at least once a week. For the Lord. (I wouldn't shave for any other reason). But it's incredible what bare legs will do for a person after wearing pantyhose every day for so long. I automatically feel younger, hotter, slimmer, stronger, happier. Take that, 20th century! Your pantyhose are a thing of the past! (Except for on Sundays and at devotionals). This is the most exciting thing since sliced bread. Except sliced bread means it's processed bread, usually. Anyway.

Miluje vam HODNE! Really!

Sestra Dean

God Loves His Children

Whoa. I have sold my soul to the Son of Man and given away my belongings in the process. It is Monday morning (early--maybe around 3 or 4 a.m) and I am writing a rough draft of this email in my journal. I am doing this because I have a story for you. I can't not tell you (we just learned about double negatives in Czech--sorry, I guess it's going to my head) because I feel compelled to. There's a big balloony feeling in my chest that's wonderful, and just uncomfortable enough that I must do something about it. So, here I am, just doing . . .

There is another Sister living in my room. Her name is Sister ------. She is going to the Utah St. George mission. She should have left last week with the rest of her group, but she is having some difficulties I don't know much about. She is something of an odd ball. As we were creating our Harry Potter world, Sister Stratton and I named her Moaning Myrtle (this is very unChristlike, I am all too aware). She sometimes likes to be a martyr. Once she watched us play volleyball from a balcony above during gym. We caught her eye and invited her to come play (well, this was mostly Sister Stratton--she's great), quite enthusiastically, if I do say so myself. Sister ------ declined and remained up there alone. Later she told us she didn't want to play because she was feeling lonely. Go figure.
Sister ------- is a convert--was baptized in April of 2007. She's not particularly attractive or amiable. She doesn't seem like she would make much of a missionary because she is always napping. She tends to disclose very personal facts very openly. But I know the Lord loves her. The is how I know:
On Wednesday, Sister Stratton and I found ourselves in some sort of funk. We didn't quite feel like representatives of Christ. Largely because we were too caught up in ourselves. This we openly admitted. I found myself, I am ashamed to say, enjoying being the "trendy" Sister missionary. I wore both the sweater you sent me and the shirt Beks gave me and had little room in me for much other than vain thoughts when I did. Sis Stratton had similar feelings about things. But this was not why we came to be missionaries!
Sister Stratton talked of the Anti-Nephi-Lehis and how they buried the things that were keeping them from the Lord. We decided to do the same, or something similar. So we found a box and put some of our "great and spacious building" possessions in it. She put in her eyeshadow. I put in some headbands and a hair clip that seemed to attract too much attention from other Sister missionaries (the Elders never care, of course). I felt okay about this.
Later that night, as I prayed, I knew it wasn't enough. I fought an inner battle with my own vanity and finally put that birthday sweater in the box. I tried to do this discreetly so I wouldn't have to explain myself to anyone. I prayed longer and felt that I should add Bekah's gift(a shirt)to the box too. This I fought for a while--it seemed so stupid! Other missionaries were just fine with their own cute clothes--the branch president's wife had even told me she liked it! It was definitely not against the rules.
Suddenly I realized my own ridiculous vanity and pride. When the lights went out, I quickly grabbed the shirt and threw it on top of the dresser where we'd stowed the box before I could think about it much longer. I didn't feel great yet. I kind of felt that I wouldn't be completely over it unless I gave it all away somehow. This was an unappealing idea, to say the least. The thought crossed my mind to give them to Sister -------. It was a stupid idea--they wouldn't fit her anyway.
The next day began my and Sister Stratton's Book of Mormon challenge. Because of a very inspirational Large Group Meeting, we decided that reading the Book of Mormon all the way through before we left the MTC would really help us become the representatives of Christ we wanted to be. This has been going on for several days now.
Saturday night I felt myself getting sick. Blech. I didn't sleep so well that night. Lack of sleep and sickness put me in what I'd like to call a "fragile state". Fragile to emotions and fragile to the Spirit. The cold was annoying, but only hindered the day mildly. The Spirit was there. It was Sunday. Good feelings grew and culminated throughout to a very grand high during a fireside by the celebrated violinist Jenny Oaks Baker (Dallin H. Oaks' daughter). We stayed afterward for a film they were showing. It's peculiar, because before the fireside a screen displayed the four films one could attend at various locations afterward. After the fireside, the options changed. Three of the new four options I had already seen recently. So we watched part three of a documentary following missionaries in California. It's almost my new favorite movie. At one point, a Hispanic woman investigating the Church describes how she feels the Spirit--like there's something far too big inside her chest, pulling and stretching to come out. But a very good feeling. This was how I have always felt the Spirit. Exactly.
Scene.
I tried to sleep last night, but the cold kept me awake. I had dreamt that I kept pulling things out of my nose, only to wake and find I'd been sleeping with a tissue up there. I was so tired and angry and ill, and I prayed a frustrated prayer, took the only nasal decongestants I had (non drowsy!), blew my nose, and tried to sleep again. Every time I laid my head down, my nose completely plugged up so that breathing was not an option. It's like the Lord was playing that trick on me that younger siblings sometimes do in movies--pinching my nose while I'm sleeping so I'd have to wake up (or die). Finally I got out of bed, grabbed my scriptures and begrudgingly began to work on our Book of Mormon goal in the lobby.
"Get a pen". That's what He told me. I ignored it sulkily and read on until the thought came quite clearly to me: "Ashley, I need to talk to you. Go get something to write with." So I did. I opened my journal and began reading 1 Nephi again. I was led to Jeremiah 7: 23-24. ["But this thing commanded I them, saying, 'Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward".] I felt the Lord was trying to tell me something, but I was all mean emptiness inside, so I began to write about that. And my thoughts were taken to Sister ------ and my box of things I'd sacrificed again. And that very feeling the woman had described in the video came to me (it was unmistakeable, now that someone else had described it just so). I was overcome by the Lord's love for Sister ------- and His need for her out in the field.
Instantly, a thousand things came to my memory at once--how the film had been changed last minute so I could hear that exact description of feeling the Spirit, the calculated timing of our Book of Mormon goal and our Anti-Nephi-Lehi sacrifices, the crazy thought that I'd had to offer Sister ------- my sacrifices. I remembered the blessing Grandpa Bellows had given me--that my health would be good according to my obedience. I ignored that first feeling, and now the Lord had used my health to wake me up!
I gave Sister ------- the clothes. And my favorite locket of Ma's that I always wear. (Sorry. I needed to). Just after that, Sister ------ found out she was getting sent home to sort things out.
I just thought it incredible that the Lord would alter MY life so severely in order to tell Sister ------ she's loved. You should have seen her face when she tried on the clothes. She told me she'd wear the necklace every day. I can't believe how much that mattered to her.
I'm so full of the Spirit right now I could throw it up.
THE LORD LOVES HIS CHILDREN. He will go to GREAT lengths to tell them that. I don't have any time left, but I just had to tell you. I love you SOOOOOO much.

Ash

Message from Hogwarts

Dearest family of mine,

THANK YOU for the wonderful birthday package! It was perfect! (Although everyone looks like an Egyptian princess in the family photo because of the way our eyes are edited....but I put it up on my shelf for all to see anyway. I kind of have a thing for Egyptian princesses.)

Yesterday morning my awesome companion and I took Ma's homemade granola and milk and bowls and some Einstein's bagels that Sestra Stratton received in the mail (she is probably the most popular person I know) into the Forbidden Forest and ate our breakfast after a healthy morning run. It was perfect. And then we discussed all the similarities between the MTC and Hogwarts--there are lots. In all seriousness though, I am loving my days here. I love the challenge the language provides and the depth that teaching brings to my soul. I find that, when I begin teaching a lesson about my God, my Savior, the Restoration, I am really looking into the hearts of whomever I am teaching. Usually, they're just teachers or Elders pretending to be investigators, but it's easy to forget that they're pretending. Because as soon as we begin talking about the truth, the feelings are real and it's impossible to misunderstand exactly how God feels about the person in front of me. The Spirit never pretends and it cannot be forced. But when it comes (usually when we testify), it is an overwhelming inner raucous of compassion--only a small semblence of the ferocity and intensity with which the Lord loves His children. Sometimes it's so strong that I'm afraid I'll need acupuncture to keep my heart from swelling, which would be messy. I just can't get over how great it is.

Also, I am loving cesky. It's difficult, but the way it stretches me is a bikram yoga, simultaneously-finding-and-pushing-oneself sort of pull. (Speaking of which, the exercise class this morning was YOGA. LOVED IT!) I've been able to spend a bit of time just speaking cesky with some fluent returned missionaries for the past few days--it's horrifying and exciting all at once to be forced to think on my feet and construct my own sentences with the limited knowledge that I have. It almost makes me feel as though I'm back in Romania again. (I often accidentally say things in Romanian instead of cesky, although this is getting less and less common.) It's incredible how quickly one learns things here. But I suppose that's the point of sitting in classes for 11+ hours a day.

The food here's not so bad. I've become the queen of making special requests of the cafeteria staff, but they are all very kind and accommodating. But really, potato pearls and gravy, with a side of SPAM?? If only Daddio were here.

It's so funny how the MTC begins to feel like a small university campus of sorts. You always run in to friends and we're always making new ones. I've run into Ben Miles several times (he teaches Romanian) and Marky's been my substitute teacher twice. Sometimes I find myself walking around and being surprised at the faces that I don't recognize. But I like it--there are so many interesting people to meet. I.e., there's an elder going to Czech with me that I want Danielle to marry. He's so cute and adorable and nice and he plays soccer and he's very musically talented and I just think they could love each other. I've already talked to him about it--I think I can convince him the age isn't that big of a deal.

I have three minutes left. I LOVE YOU ALL! Ma, I loved your letter. I'm so sorry that things have been hard on you with Pippen and all. Just remember: all dogs go to heaven. And tell Michelle that I will e-spank her if she doesn't start running with you more. (Also--I happened to see Beks on my temple walk on Sunday. She's going to buy me some brown flats and I just told her you'd give her my money. I hope that's okay. Really though, they're essential.)

Na shledanou! Hesky den!

Sestra Dean

First Email from MTC

Dear Ma & Co.,
Let me begin with a bit of forewarning: this computer is really funky. What I mean is, the 'enter' key is out of order, or something like that. So this is going to be one very looooong paragraph. And I know how you feel about long, intimidating paragraphs. Try not to throw up. And every time I press the period key this happens: .. Yeah, TWO periods.. How ridiculous.. I've been deleting the second one after each sentence, but now I'm about to give up on that.. It makes everything I say so suspenseful.. Don't get your hopes up, they're really just normal sentences.. I can't believe Pippen died.. Actually, that's a lie--I can definitely believe it.. But comprehending everything that entails is the part I can't seem to wrap my brain around.. I think I would cry if I hadn't already cried my eyes out today.. Nothing to worry about--the Lord is just teaching me how to be the person He wants me to be, rather than the girl I felt comfortable being.. Perhaps more tears will come tomorrow.... I LOVE the MTC.. Really! It's wonderful and spiritual and elevating and exhausting and hard and fun and completely worth it.. My companion is the greatest thing in the world.. Her name is Sestra Stratton, a direct descendant from the famous Stratton farmers of Orem Utah and she is headed for Croatia.. Actually, we are both 'solo' sisters, which means that we are both the only sisters learning our respective languages.. We have these little stickers on our nametags that let everyone know we're allowed to be with each other or with two elders at once.. We laugh our heads off on a regular basis and she is always so eager to find ways that we can be a better companionship.. The language is coming along well.. I am SO glad I studied some before I came.. I already know how to testify and pray and meet people and conjugate verbs and what seems like a MILLION other things.. I have 2:32 minutes left! EEK! This is hard! On Friday we had 8 apostles come to a fireside.. EIGHT! And I met my new mission president and he is the cutest little British man I've ever met! I'm afraid I have to go.. Next time you should write me on Dear Elder so I'll have more time to write back.. I love you SOOOO much! Ashley

Oh, and I did see Tyler.. And Ben Miles.. And Marky's going to sub for my class soon.. P..S.. Remember how, when I tried to imagine it before I could only envision Hogwarts? Well, I've found some similarities: a) Everyone dresses differently.. b) There is lots and lots of food at every meal.. c) There is a forbidden forest.. Seriously.. Sorry Nigel didn't find it when he was here.. d) we learn magic.. really, it's all magic..

Three days.

I woke up with the words looping throughout my brain like a steam engine on a set of toy tracks:

THREE DAYS THREE DAYS THREE DAYS THREE DAYS THREE DAYS THREE DAYS

It can’t be real. The way I see it, it feels so much smaller than a real train. Well, yes, it has a set of wheels that move and cars that link together and it even runs on real steam. Yes, perhaps it’s as real a train as any. I just thought it’d look bigger.

I thought I’d feel bigger. Feel more like a missionary. Perhaps I’d grow a hard, flat rectangular patch of skin below my shoulder, like the nametag was already a part of me. Or my tongue would just roll its own r’s. Or maybe even I’d find myself above things like laughing over bodily functions and teasing my sister about her 3-barrel crimper.

But life feels as close to normal as anyone might guess. Sunburns still burn. Swimming’s still fun. I still laugh loudly at stupid things. Knee-length dresses are still appealing. I still make myself read the scriptures each morning—it doesn’t just happen without my thinking about it and they have yet to become an extension of my right arm.

First this frightens me, just slightly. It is frightening because a small part of me imagines that desires contrary to the immortal white handbook should be extinguished as distractions. It is frightening because my romanticizing self thinks that good missionaries have only one thought.

It is frightening because what if I’m not enough?

And then it’s humbling. It’s inspiring. Because what kind of offering would I be making if I gave up only the things that meant nothing to me? What kind of mission is it if none of it stretches me? It’s not a stretch at all if it doesn’t hurt. What kind of missionary would I be if I didn’t have to physically pick the nametag up off the dresser and clip it on every morning? If I had no room to become anything different than the girl I already am?

We are given the law of sacrifice—a gift, if we could only see it as such. It is for us, for becoming, for greater joy.

If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

Before me--before all of us!--is the glorious opportunity to let the Lord move through me. I've spent a lifetime learning to feel His pulse through the ferocity of my own. And the less I think of my own life, the more alive I feel. I'm beginning to get at the stuff that’s deep in the very core of me, to recognize myself for who I really am and the world around me for what it really is. As I learn to discern the light and color that’s all around me and within me, I realize that there's divinity in everything. And I find that divinity coursing through my veins, pulling me in high directions. He’s in me. He's in us.

So the living begins.

And my purpose as a missionary is to live so hard and so well that it’s contagious. GAH!

The Greatest Thing in the World

I know it's long, but, trust me, you'll be happier if you read it.

THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD

by Henry Drummond

First Published c1880

THOUGH I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as a sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not LOVE I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not Love, it profiteth me nothing.

Love suffereth long, and is kind;

Love envieth not;

Love vaunteth not itself is not puffed up,

Doth not behave itself unseemly,

Seeketh not her own,

Is not easily provoked,

Thinketh no evil;

Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, Love, these three; but the greatest of these is Love.--I COR xiii.



THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD


EVERY one has asked himself the great question of antiquity as of the modern world: What is the summum bonum--the supreme good? You have life before you. Once only you can live it. What is the noblest object of desire, the supreme gift to covet?
We have been accustomed to be told that the greatest thing in the religious world is Faith. That great word has been the key-note for centuries of the popular religion; and we have easily learned to look upon it as the greatest thing in the world. Well, we are wrong. If we have been told that, we may miss the mark. I have taken you, in the chapter which I have just read, to Christianity at its source; and there we have seen, "The greatest of these is love." It is not an oversight. Paul was speaking of faith just a moment before. He says, "If I have all faith, so that I can remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. "So far from forgetting, he deliberately contrasts them, "Now abideth Faith, Hope, Love," and without a moment's hesitation, the decision falls, "The greatest of these is Love."
And it is not prejudice. A man is apt to recommend to others his own strong point. Love was not Paul's strong point. The observing student can detect a beautiful tenderness growing and ripening all through his character as Paul gets old; but the hand that wrote, "The greatest of these is love," when we meet it first, is stained with blood.
Nor is this letter to the Corinthians peculiar in singling out love as the summum bonum. The masterpieces of Christianity are agreed about it. Peter says, "Above all things have fervent love among yourselves." Above all things. And John goes farther, "God is love." And you remember the profound remark which Paul makes elsewhere, "Love is the fulfilling of the law." Did you ever think what he meant by that? In those days men were working their passage to Heaven by keeping the Ten Commandments, and the hundred and ten other commandments which they had manufactured out of them. Christ said, I will show you a more simple way. If you do one thing, you will do these hundred and ten things, without ever thinking about them. If you love, you will unconsciously fulfil the whole law. And you can readily see for yourselves how that must be so. Take any of the commandments. "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." If a man love God, you will not require to tell him that. Love is the fulfilling of that law. "Take not His name in vain." Would he ever dream of taking His name in vain if he loved Him? "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Would he not be too glad to have one day in seven to dedicate more exclusively to the object of his affection? Love would fulfil all these laws regarding God. And so, if he loved Man, you would never think of telling him to honour his father and mother. He could not do anything else. It would be preposterous to tell him not to kill. You could only insult him if you suggested that he should not steal -.how could he steal from those he loved? It would be superfluous to beg him not to bear false witness against his neighbour. If he loved him it would be the last thing he would do. And you would never dream of urging him not to covet what his neighbours had. He would rather they possessed it than himself. In this way "Love is the fulfilling of the law." It is the rule for fulfilling all rules, the new commandment for keeping all the old commandments, Christ's one secret of the Christian life.
Now Paul had learned that; and in this noble eulogy he has given us the most wonderful and original account extant of the summum bonum. We may divide it into three parts. In the beginning of the short chapter, we have Love contrasted; in the heart of it, we have Love analysed; towards the end we have Love defended as the supreme gift.

THE CONTRAST


PAUL begins by contrasting Love with other things that men in those days thought much of. I shall not attempt to go over those things in detail. Their inferiority is already obvious.
He contrasts it with eloquence. And what a noble gift it is, the power of playing upon the souls and wills of men, and rousing them to lofty purposes and holy deeds. Paul says, "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." And we all know why. We have all felt the brazenness of words without emotion, the hollowness, the unaccountable unpersuasiveness, of eloquence behind which lies no Love.
He contrasts it with prophecy. He contrasts it with mysteries. He contrasts it with faith. He contrasts it with charity. Why is Love greater than faith? Because the end is greater than the means. And why is it greater than charity? Because the whole is greater than the part. Love is greater than faith, because the end is greater than the means. What is the use of having faith? It is to connect the soul with God. And what is the object of connecting man with God? That he may become like God. But God is Love. Hence Faith, the means, is in order to Love, the end. Love, therefore, obviously is greater than faith. It is greater than charity, again, because the whole is greater than a part. Charity is only a little bit of Love, one of the innumerable avenues of Love, and there may even be, and there is, a great deal of charity without Love. It is a very easy thing to toss a copper to a beggar on the street; it is generally an easier thing than not to do it. Yet Love is just as often in the withholding. We purchase relief from the sympathetic feelings roused by the spectacle of misery, at the copper's cost. It is too cheap--too cheap for us, and often too dear for the beggar. If we really loved him we would either do more for him, or less.
Then Paul contrasts it with sacrifice and martyrdom. And I beg the little band of would-be missionaries and I have the honour to call some of you by this name for the first time--to remember that though you give your bodies to be burned, and have not Love, it profits nothing--nothing! You can take nothing greater to the heathen world than the impress and reflection of the Love of God upon your own character. That is the universal language. It will take you years to speak in Chinese, or in the dialects of India. From the day you land, that language of Love, understood by all, will be pouring forth its unconscious eloquence. It is the man who is the missionary, it is not his words. His character is his message. In the heart of Africa, among the great Lakes, I have come across black men and women who remembered the only white man they ever saw before--David Livingstone; and as you cross his footsteps in that dark continent, men's faces light up as they speak of the kind Doctor who passed there years ago. They could not understand him; but they felt the Love that beat in his heart. Take into your new sphere of labour, where you also mean to lay down your life, that simple charm, and your lifework must succeed. You can take nothing greater, you need take nothing less. It is-not worth while going if you take anything less. You may take every accomplishment; you may be braced for every sacrifice; but if you give your body to be burned, and have not Love, it will profit you and the cause of Christ nothing.

THE ANALYSIS


AFTER contrasting Love with these things, Paul, in three verses, very short, gives us an amazing analysis of what this supreme thing is. I ask you to look at it. It is a compound thing, he tells us. It is like light. As you have seen a man of science take a beam of light and pass it through a crystal prism, as you have seen it come out on the other side of the prism broken up into its component colours--red, and blue, and yellow, and violet, and orange, and all the colours of the rainbow--so Paul passes this thing, Love, through the magnificent prism of his inspired intellect, and it comes out on the other side broken up into its elements. And in these few words we have what one might call the Spectrum of Love, the analysis of Love. Will you observe what its elements are? Will you notice that they have common names; that they are virtues which we hear about every day; that they are things which can be practised by every man in every place in life; and how, by a multitude of small things and ordinary virtues, the supreme thing, the summum bonum, is made up?

The Spectrum of Love has nine ingredients:--
Patience . . . . . . "Love suffereth long."
Kindness . . . . . . "And is kind."
Generosity . . . . "Love envieth not."
Humility . . . . . . "Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up."
Courtesy . . . . . . "Doth not behave itself unseemly."
Unselfishness . . "Seeketh not her own."
Good Temper . . "Is not easily provoked."
Guilelessness . . "Thinketh no evil."
Sincerity . . . . . . "Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth."

Patience; kindness; generosity; humility; courtesy; unselfishness; good temper; guilelessness; sincerity--these make up the supreme gift, the stature of the perfect man. You will observe that all are in relation to men, in relation to life, in relation to the known to-day and the near to-morrow, and not to the unknown eternity. We hear much of love to God; Christ spoke much of love to man. We make a great deal of peace with heaven; Christ made much of peace on earth. Religion is not a strange or added thing, but the inspiration of the secular life, the breathing of an eternal spirit through this temporal world. The supreme thing, in short, is not a thing at all, but the giving of a further finish to the multitudinous words and acts which make up the sum of every common day.
There is no time to do more than make a passing note upon each of these ingredients. Love is Patience. This is the normal attitude of Love; Love passive, Love waiting to begin; not in a hurry; calm; ready to do its work when the summons comes, but meantime wearing the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. Love suffers long; beareth all things; believeth all things; hopeth all things. For Love understands, and therefore waits.
Kindness. Love active. Have you ever noticed how much of Christ's life was spent in doing kind things--in merely doing kind things? Run over it with that in view and you will find that He spent a great proportion of His time simply in making people happy, in doing good turns to people. There is only one thing greater than happiness in the world, and that is holiness; and it is not in our keeping; but what God has put in our power is the happiness of those about us, and that is largely to be secured by our being kind to them.
"The greatest thing," says some one, "a man can do for his Heavenly Father is to be kind to some of His other children." I wonder why it is that we are not all kinder than we are? How much the world needs it. How easily it is done. How instantaneously it acts. How infallibly it is remembered. How superabundantly it pays itself back--for there is no debtor in the world so honourable, so superbly honourable, as Love. "Love never faileth". Love is success, Love is happiness, Love is life. "Love, I say, "with Browning, "is energy of Life."

"For life, with all it yields of joy and woe
And hope and fear,
Is just our chance o' the prize of learning love--
How love might be, hath been indeed, and is."


Where Love is, God is. He that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God. God is love. Therefore love. Without distinction, without calculation, without procrastination, love. Lavish it upon the poor, where it is very easy; especially upon the rich, who often need it most; most of all upon our equals, where it is very difficult, and for whom perhaps we each do least of all. There is a difference between trying to please and giving pleasure Give pleasure. Lose no chance of giving pleasure. For that is the ceaseless and anonymous triumph of a truly loving spirit.
"I shall pass through this world but once. Any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again."
Generosity. "Love envieth not" This is Love in competition with others. Whenever you attempt a good work you will find other men doing the same kind of work, and probably doing it better. Envy them not. Envy is a feeling of ill-will to those who are in the same line as ourselves, a spirit of covetousness and detraction. How little Christian work even is a protection against un-Christian feeling. That most despicable of all the unworthy moods which cloud a Christian's soul assuredly waits for us on the threshold of every work, unless we are fortified with this grace of magnanimity. Only one thing truly need the Christian envy, the large, rich, generous soul which "envieth not."
And then, after having learned all that, you have to learn this further thing, Humility-- to put a seal upon your lips and forget what you have done. After you have been kind, after Love has stolen forth into the world and done its beautiful work, go back into the shade again and say nothing about it Love hides even from itself. Love waives even self-satisfaction. "Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up."
The fifth ingredient is a somewhat strange one to find in this summum bonum: Courtesy. This is Love in society, Love in relation to etiquette. "Love doth not behave itself unseemly." Politeness has been defined as love in trifles. Courtesy is said to be love in little things. And the one secret of politeness is to love. Love cannot behave itself unseemly. You can put the most untutored person into the highest society, and if they have a reservoir of love in their heart, they will not behave themselves unseemly. They simply cannot do it. Carlyle said of Robert Burns that there was no truer gentleman in Europe than the ploughman-poet. It was because he loved everything--the mouse, and the daisy, and all the things, great and small, that God had made. So with this simple passport he could mingle with any society, and enter courts and palaces from his little cottage on the banks of the Ayr. You know the meaning of the word "gentleman." It means a gentle man--a man who does things gently, with love. And that is the whole art and mystery of it. The gentleman cannot in the nature of things do an ungentle, an ungentlemanly thing. The un-gentle soul, the inconsiderate, unsympathetic nature cannot do anything else. "Love doth not behave itself unseemly."
Unselfishness. "Love seeketh not her own." Observe: Seeketh not even that which is her own. In Britain the Englishman is devoted, and rightly, to his rights. But there come times when a man may exercise even the higher right of giving up his rights. Yet Paul does not summon us to give up our rights. Love strikes much deeper. It would have us not seek them at all, ignore them, eliminate the personal element altogether from our calculations. It is not hard to give up our rights. They are often external. The difficult thing is to give up ourselves. The more difficult thing still is not to seek things for ourselves at all. After we have sought them, bought them, won them, deserved them, we have taken the cream off them for ourselves already. Little cross then, perhaps, to give them up. But not to seek them, to look every man not on his own things, but on the things of others--id opus est. "Seekest thou great things for thyself? "said the prophet; "seek them not." Why? Because there is no greatness in things. Things cannot be great. The only greatness is unselfish love. Even self-denial in itself is nothing, is almost a mistake. Only a great purpose or a mightier love can justify the waste. It is more difficult, I have said, not to seek our own at all, than, having sought it, to give it up. I must take that back. It is only true of a partly selfish heart. Nothing is a hardship to Love, and nothing is hard. I believe that Christ's yoke is easy. Christ's "yoke" is just His way of taking life. And I believe it is an easier way than any other. I believe it is a happier way than any other. The most obvious lesson in Christ's teaching is that there is no happiness in having and getting anything, but only in giving. I repeat, there is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving. And half the world is on the wrong scent in the pursuit of happiness. They think it consists in having and getting, and in being served by others. It consists in giving, and in serving others. He that would be great among you, said Christ, let him serve. He that would be happy, let him remember that there is but one way--it is more blessed, it is more happy, to give than to receive.
The next ingredient is a very remarkable one: Good Temper. "Love is not easily provoked." Nothing could be more striking than to find this here. We are inclined to look upon bad temper as a very harmless weakness. We speak of it as a mere infirmity of nature, a family failing, a matter of temperament, not a thing to take into very serious account in estimating a man's character. And yet here, right in the heart of this analysis of love, it finds a place; and the Bible again and again returns to condemn it as one of the most destructive elements in human nature.
The peculiarity of ill temper is that it is the vice of the virtuous. It is often the one blot on an otherwise noble character. You know men who are all but perfect, and women who would be entirely perfect, but for an easily ruffled, quick-tempered, or "touchy" disposition. This compatibility of ill temper with high moral character is one of the strangest and saddest problems of ethics. The truth is there are two great classes of sins--sins of the Body, and sins of the Disposition. The Prodigal Son may be taken as a type of the first, the Elder Brother of the second. Now society has no doubt whatever as to which of these is the worse. Its brand falls, without a challenge, upon the Prodigal. But are we right? We have no balance to weigh one another's sins, and coarser and finer are but human words; but faults in the higher nature may be less venial than those in the lower, and to the eye of Him who is Love, a sin against Love may seem a hundred times more base. No form of vice, not worldliness, not greed of gold, not drunkenness itself, does more to un-Christianise society than evil temper. For embittering life, for breaking up communities, for destroying the most sacred relationships, for devastating homes, for withering up men and women, for taking the bloom off childhood; in short, for sheer gratuitous misery-producing power, this influence stands alone. Look at the Elder Brother, moral, hard-working, patient, dutiful--let him get all credit for his virtues--look at this man, this baby, sulking outside his own father's door. "He was angry," we read, "and would not go in." Look at the effect upon the father, upon the servants, upon the happiness of the guests. Judge of the effect upon the Prodigal--and how many prodigals are kept out of the Kingdom of God by the unlovely characters of those who profess to be inside? Analyse, as a study in Temper, the thunder-cloud itself as it gathers upon the Elder Brother's brow. What is it made of? Jealousy, anger, pride, uncharity, cruelty, self-righteousness, touchiness, doggedness, sullenness--these are the ingredients of this dark and loveless soul. In varying proportions, also, these are the ingredients of all ill temper. Judge if such sins of the disposition are not worse to live in, and for others to live with, than sins of the body. Did Christ indeed not answer the question Himself when He said, "I say unto you, that the publicans and the harlots go into the Kingdom of Heaven before you." There is really no place in Heaven for a disposition like this. A man with such a mood could only make Heaven miserable for all the people in it. Except, therefore, such a man be born again, he cannot, he simply cannot, enter the Kingdom of Heaven. For it is perfectly certain-- and you will not misunderstand me--that to enter Heaven a man must take it with him.
You will see then why Temper is significant. It is not in what it is alone, but in what it reveals. This is why I take the liberty now of speaking of it with such unusual plainness. It is a test for love, a symptom, a revelation of an unloving nature at bottom. It is the intermittent fever which bespeaks unintermittent disease within; the occasional bubble escaping to the surface which betrays some rottenness underneath; a sample of the most hidden products of the soul dropped involuntarily when off one's guard; in a word, the lightning form of a hundred hideous and un-Christian sins. For a want of patience, a want of kindness, a want of generosity, a want of courtesy, a want of unselfishness, are all instantaneously symbolised in one flash of Temper.
Hence it is not enough to deal with the temper. We must go to the source, and change the inmost nature, and the angry humours will die away of themselves. Souls are made sweet not by taking the acid fluids out, but by putting something in--a great Love, a new Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. Christ, the Spirit of Christ, interpenetrating ours, sweetens, purifies, transforms all. This only can eradicate what is wrong, work a chemical change, renovate and regenerate, and rehabilitate the inner man. Will-power does not change men. Time does not change men. Christ does. Therefore "Let that mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." Some of us have not much time to lose. Remember, once more, that this is a matter of life or death. I cannot help speaking urgently, for myself, for yourselves. "Whoso shall offend one of these little ones, which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." That is to say, it is the deliberate verdict of the Lord Jesus that it is better not to live than not to love. It is better not to live than not to love.
Guilelessness and Sincerity may be dismissed almost with a word. Guilelessness is the grace for suspicious people. And the possession of it is the great secret of personal influence. You will find, if you think for a moment, that the people who influence you are people who believe in you. In an atmosphere of suspicion men shrivel up; but in that atmosphere they expand, and find encouragement and educative fellowship. It is a wonderful thing that here and there in this hard, uncharitable world there should still be left a few rare souls who think no evil. This is the great unworldliness. Love "thinketh no evil," imputes no motive, sees the bright side, puts the best construction on every action. What a delightful state of mind to live in! What a stimulus and benediction even to meet with it for a day! To be trusted is to be saved. And if we try to influence or elevate others, we shall soon see that success is in proportion to their belief of our belief in them. For the respect of another is the first restoration of the self-respect a man has lost; our ideal of what he is becomes to him the hope and pattern of what he may become.
"Love rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth." I have called this Sincerity from the words rendered in the Authorised Version by "rejoiceth in the truth." And, certainly, were this the real translation, nothing could be more just. For he who loves will love Truth not less than men. He will rejoice in the Truth--rejoice not in what he has been taught to believe; not in this Church's doctrine or in that; not in this ism or in that ism; but "in the Truth." He will accept only what is real; he will strive to get at facts; he will search for Truth with a humble and unbiased mind, and cherish whatever he finds at any sacrifice. But the more literal translation of the Revised Version calls for just such a sacrifice for truth's sake here. For what Paul really meant is, as we there read, "Rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth," a quality which probably no one English word--and certainly not Sincerity--adequately defines. It includes, perhaps more strictly, the self-restraint which refuses to make capital out of others' faults; the charity which delights not in exposing the weakness of others, but "covereth all things"; the sincerity of purpose which endeavours to see things as they are, and rejoices to find them better than suspicion feared or calumny denounced.
So much for the analysis of Love. Now the business of our lives is to have these things fitted into our characters. That is the supreme work to which we need to address ourselves in this world, to learn Love. Is life not full of opportunities for learning Love? Every man and woman every day has a thousand of them. The world is not a play-ground; it is a schoolroom. Life is not a holiday, but an education. And the one eternal lesson for us all is how better we can love What makes a man a good cricketer? Practice. What makes a man a good artist, a good sculptor, a good musician? Practice. What makes a man a good linguist, a good stenographer? Practice. What makes a man a good man? Practice. Nothing else. There is nothing capricious about religion. We do not get the soul in different ways, under different laws, from those in which we get the body and the mind. If a man does not exercise his arm he develops no biceps muscle; and if a man does not exercise his soul, he acquires no muscle in his soul, no strength of character, no vigour of moral fibre, nor beauty of spiritual growth. Love is not a thing of enthusiastic emotion. It is a rich, strong, manly, vigorous expression of the whole round Christian character--the Christlike nature in its fullest development. And the constituents of this great character are only to be built up by ceaseless practice.
What was Christ doing in the carpenter's shop? Practising. Though perfect, we read that He learned obedience, He increased in wisdom and in favour with God and man. Do not quarrel therefore with your lot in life. Do not complain of its never-ceasing cares, its petty environment, the vexations you have to stand, the small and sordid souls you have to live and work with. Above all, do not resent temptation; do not be perplexed because it seems to thicken round you more and more, and ceases neither for effort nor for agony nor prayer. That is the practice which God appoints you; and it is having its work in making you patient, and humble, and generous, and unselfish, and kind, and courteous. Do not grudge the hand that is moulding the still too shapeless image within you. It is growing more beautiful though you see it not, and every touch of temptation may add to its perfection. Therefore keep in the midst of life. Do not isolate yourself. Be among men, and among things, and among troubles, and difficulties, and obstacles. You remember Goethe's words: Es bildet ein Talent sich in der Stille, Doch ein Character in dem Strom der Welt. "Talent develops itself in solitude; character in the stream of life." Talent develops itself in solitude--the talent of prayer, of faith, of meditation, of seeing the unseen; Character grows in the stream of the world's life. That chiefly is where men are to learn love.
How? Now, how? To make it easier, I have named a few of the elements of love. But these are only elements. Love itself can never be defined. Light is a something more than the sum of its ingredients--a glowing, dazzling, tremulous ether. And love is something more than all its elements-- a palpitating, quivering, sensitive, living thing. By synthesis of all the colours, men can make whiteness, they cannot make light. By synthesis of all the virtues, men can make virtue, they cannot make love. How then are we to have this transcendent living whole conveyed into our souls? We brace our wills to secure it. We try to copy those who have it. We lay down rules about it. We watch. We pray. But these things alone will not bring Love into our nature. Love is an effect. And only as we fulfil the right condition can we have the effect produced. Shall I tell you what the cause is?
If you turn to the Revised Version of the First Epistle of John you will find these words: "We love, because He first loved us." "We love," not "We love Him" That is the way the old Version has it, and it is quite wrong. "We love--because He first loved us." Look at that word "because." It is the cause of which I have spoken. "Because He first loved us," the effect follows that we love, we love Him, we love all men. We cannot help it. Because He loved us, we love, we love everybody. Our heart is slowly changed. Contemplate the love of Christ, and you will love. Stand before that mirror, reflect Christ's character, and you will be changed into the same image from tenderness to tenderness. There is no other way. You cannot love to order. You can only look at the lovely object, and fall in love with it, and grow into likeness to it And so look at this Perfect Character, this Perfect Life. Look at the great Sacrifice as He laid down Himself, all through life, and upon the Cross of Calvary; and you must love Him. And loving Him, you must become like Him. Love begets love. It is a process of induction. Put a piece of iron in the presence of a magnetised body, and that piece of iron for a time becomes magnetised. It is charged with an attractive force in the mere presence of the original force, and as long as you leave the two side by side, they are both magnets alike. Remain side by side with Him who loved us, and gave Himself for us, and you too will become a centre of power, a permanently attractive force; and like Him you will draw all men unto you, like Him you will be drawn unto all men. That is the inevitable effect of Love. Any man who fulfils that cause must have that effect produced in him. Try to give up the idea that religion comes to us by chance, or by mystery, or by caprice. It comes to us by natural law, or by supernatural law, for all law is Divine. Edward Irving went to see a dying boy once, and when he entered the room he just put his hand on the sufferer's head, and said, "My boy, God loves you," and went away. And the boy started from his bed, and called out to the people in the house, "God loves me! God loves me!" It changed that boy. The sense that God loved him overpowered him, melted him down, and began the creating of a new heart in him. And that is how the love of God melts down the unlovely heart in man, and begets in him the new creature, who is patient and humble and gentle and unselfish. And there is no other way to get it. There is no mystery about it We love others, we love everybody, we love our enemies, because He first loved us.

THE DEFENCE


Now I have a closing sentence or two to add about Paul's reason for singling out love as the supreme possession. It is a very remarkable reason. In a single word it is this: it lasts. "Love," urges Paul, "never faileth." Then he begins again one of his marvellous lists of the great things of the day, and exposes them one by one. He runs over the things that men thought were going to last, and shows that they are all fleeting, temporary, passing away.
"Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail" It was the mother's ambition for her boy in those days that he should become a prophet. For hundreds of years God had never spoken by means of any prophet, and at that time the prophet was greater than the king. Men waited wistfully for another messenger to come, and hung upon his lips when he appeared as upon the very voice of God. Paul says, "Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail" This Book is full of prophecies. One by one they have "failed"; that is, having been fulfilled their work is finished; they have nothing more to do now in the world except to feed a devout man's faith.
Then Paul talks about tongues. That was another thing that was greatly coveted. "Whether there be tongues, they shall cease." As we all know, many, many centuries have passed since tongues have been known in this world. They have ceased. Take it in any sense you like. Take it, for illustration merely, as languages in general--a sense which was not in Paul's mind at all, and which though it cannot give us the specific lesson will point the general truth. Consider the words in which these chapters were written--Greek. It has gone. Take the Latin--the other great tongue of those days. It ceased long ago. Look at the Indian language. It is ceasing. The language of Wales, of Ireland, of the Scottish Highlands is dying before our eyes. The most popular book in the English tongue at the present time, except the Bible, is one of Dickens's works, his Pickwick Papers. It is largely written in the language of London streetlife; and experts assure us that in fifty years it will be unintelligible to the average English reader.
Then Paul goes farther, and with even greater boldness adds, "Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away." The wisdom of the ancients, where is it? It is wholly gone. A schoolboy to-day knows more than Sir Isaac Newton knew. His knowledge has vanished away. You put yesterday's newspaper in the fire. Its knowledge has vanished away. You buy the old editions of the great encyclopaedias for a few pence. Their knowledge has vanished away. Look how the coach has been superseded by the use of steam. Look how electricity has superseded that, and swept a hundred almost new inventions into oblivion. One of the greatest living authorities, Sir William Thomson, said the other day, "The steam-engine is passing away." "Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away." At every workshop you will see, in the back yard, a heap of old iron, a few wheels, a few levers, a few cranks, broken and eaten with rust. Twenty years ago that was the pride of the city Men flocked in from the country to see the great invention; now it is superseded, its day is done. And all the boasted science and philosophy of this day will soon be old. But yesterday, in the University of Edinburgh, the greatest figure in the faculty was Sir James Simpson, the discoverer of chloroform. The other day his successor and nephew, Professor Simpson, was asked by the librarian of the University to go to the library and pick out the books on his subject that were no longer needed. And his reply to the librarian was this: "Take every text-book that is more than ten years old, and put it down in the cellar."Sir James Simpson was a great authority only a few years ago: men came from all parts of the earth to consult him; and almost the whole teaching of that time is consigned by the science of to-day to oblivion. And in every branch of science it is the same. "Now we know in part. We see through a glass darkly."
Can you tell me anything that is going to last? Many things Paul did not condescend to name. He did not mention money, fortune, fame; but he picked out the great things of his time, the things the best men thought had something in them, and brushed them peremptorily aside. Paul had no charge against these things in themselves. All he said about them was that they would not last They were great things, but not supreme things. There were things beyond them. What we are stretches past what we do, beyond what we possess. Many things that men denounce as sins are not sins; but they are temporary. And that is a favourite argument of the New Testament. John says of the world, not that it is wrong, but simply that it "passeth away." There is a great deal in the world that is delightful and beautiful; there is a great deal in it that is great and engrossing; but it will not last. All that is in the world, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, are but for a little while. Love not the world therefore. Nothing that it contains is worth the life and consecration of an immortal soul. The immortal soul must give itself to something that is immortal. And the only immortal things are these: "Now abideth faith, hope, love, but the greatest of these is love."
Some think the time may come when two of these three things will also pass away --faith into sight, hope into fruition. Paul does not say so. We know but little now about the conditions of the life that is to come. But what is certain is that Love must last. God, the Eternal God, is Love. Covet therefore that everlasting gift, that one thing which it is certain is going to stand, that one coinage which will be current in the Universe when all the other coinages of all the nations of the world shall be useless and unhonoured. You will give yourselves to many things, give yourselves first to Love. Hold things in their proportion. Hold things in their proportion. Let at least the first great object of our lives be to achieve the character defended in these words, the character,--and it is the character of Christ--which is built around Love.
I have said this thing is eternal. Did you ever notice how continually John associates love and faith with eternal life? I was not told when I was a boy that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should have everlasting life." What I was told, I remember, was, that God so loved the world that, if I trusted in Him, I was to have a thing called peace, or I was to have rest, or I was to have joy, or I was to have safety. But I had to find out for myself that whosoever trusteth in Him--that is, whosoever loveth Him, for trust is only the avenue to Love--hath everlasting life The Gospel offers a man life. Never offer men a thimbleful of Gospel. Do not offer them merely joy, or merely peace, or merely rest, or merely safety; tell them how Christ came to give men a more abundant life than they have, a life abundant in love, and therefore abundant in salvation for themselves, and large in enterprise for the alleviation and redemption of the world. Then only can the Gospel take hold of the whole of a man, body, soul, and spirit, and give to each part of his nature its exercise and reward. Many of the current Gospels are addressed only to a part of man's nature. They offer peace, not life; faith, not Love; justification, not regeneration. And men slip back again from such religion because it has never really held them. Their nature was not all in it. It offered no deeper and gladder life-current than the life that was lived before. Surely it stands to reason that only a fuller love can compete with the love of the world.
To love abundantly is to live abundantly, and to love for ever is to live for ever. Hence, eternal life is inextricably bound up with love We want to live for ever for the same reason that we want to live tomorrow. Why do you want to live tomorrow? It is because there is some one who loves you, and whom you want to see tomorrow, and be with, and love back. There is no other reason why we should live on than that we love and are beloved. It is when a man has no one to love him that he commits suicide. So long as he has friends, those who love him and whom he loves, he will live; because to live is to love. Be it but the love of a dog, it will keep him in life; but let that go and he has no contact with life, no reason to live. The "energy of life" has failed. Eternal life also is to know God, and God is love. This is Christ's own definition. Ponder it. "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." Love must be eternal. It is what God is. On the last analysis, then, love is life. Love never faileth, and life never faileth, so long as there is love. That is the philosophy of what Paul is showing us; the reason why in the nature of things Love should be the supreme thing--because it is going to last; because in the nature of things it is an Eternal Life. That Life is a thing that we are living now, not that we get when we die; that we shall have a poor chance of getting when we die unless we are living now. No worse fate can befall a man in this world than to live and grow old alone, unloving, and unloved. To be lost is to live in an unregenerate condition, loveless and unloved; and to be saved is to love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth already in God. For God is love.
Now I have all but finished. How many of you will join me in reading this chapter once a week for the next three months? A man did that once and it changed his whole life. Will you do it? It is for the greatest thing in the world. You might begin by reading it every day, especially the verses which describe the perfect character. "Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself." Get these ingredients into your life. Then everything that you do is eternal. It is worth doing. It is worth giving time to. No man can become a saint in his sleep; and to fulfil the condition required demands a certain amount of prayer and meditation and time, just as improvement in any direction, bodily or mental, requires preparation and care. Address yourselves to that one thing; at any cost have this transcendent character exchanged for yours. You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments that stand out, the moments when you have really lived, are the moments when you have done things in a spirit of love. As memory scans the past, above and beyond all the transitory pleasures of life, there leap forward those supreme hours when you have been enabled to do unnoticed kindnesses to those round about you, things too trifling to speak about, but which you feel have entered into your eternal life. I have seen almost all the beautiful things God has made; I have enjoyed almost every pleasure that He has planned for man; and yet as I look back I see standing out above all the life that has gone four or five short experiences when the love of God reflected itself in some poor imitation, some small act of love of mine, and these seem to be the things which alone of all one's life abide. Everything else in all our lives is transitory. Every other good is visionary. But the acts of love which no man knows about, or can ever know about--they never fail.
In the Book of Matthew, where the Judgment Day is depicted for us in the imagery of One seated upon a throne and dividing the sheep from the goats, the test of a man then is not, "How have I believed?" but "How have I loved?" The test of religion, the final test of religion, is not religiousness, but Love. I say the final test of religion at that great Day is not religiousness, but Love; not what I have done, not what I have believed, not what I have achieved, but how I have discharged the common charities of life. Sins of commission in that awful indictment are not even referred to. By what we have not done, by sins of omission, we are judged. It could not be otherwise. For the withholding of love is the negation of the spirit of Christ, the proof that we never knew Him, that for us He lived in vain. It means that He suggested nothing in all our thoughts, that He inspired nothing in all our lives, that we were not once near enough to Him to be seized with the spell of His compassion for the world. It means that:--

"I lived for myself, I thought for myself,
For myself, and none beside--
Just as if Jesus had never lived,
As if He had never died."
It is the Son of Man before whom the nations of the world shall be gathered. It is in the presence of Humanity that we shall be charged. And the spectacle itself, the mere sight of it, will silently judge each one. Those will be there whom we have met and helped: or there, the unpitied multitude whom we neglected or despised. No other Witness need be summoned. No other charge than lovelessness shall be preferred. Be not deceived. The words which all of us shall one Day hear, sound not of theology but of life, not of churches and saints but of the hungry and the poor, not of creeds and doctrines but of shelter and clothing, not of Bibles and prayer-books but of cups of cold water in the name of Christ. Thank God the Christianity of to-day is coming nearer the world's need. Live to help that on. Thank God men know better, by a hairsbreadth, what religion is, what God is, who Christ is, where Christ is. Who is Christ? He who fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the sick. And where is Christ? Where?--whoso shall receive a little child in My name receiveth Me. And who are Christ's? Every one that loveth is born of God.

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So. Who will take up the challenge with me?