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 unhonored. You will give
yourselves to many things, give yourself 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 round 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