It is a common delusion to suppose that it does. Yet St. Paul tells us
plainly, that a man may "bestow all his goods to feed the poor" (1 Cor.
xiii. 3), and not have charity. That a charitable man will "remember the
poor," there can be no question. (Gal. ii. 10.) That he will do all he
can to assist them, relieve them, and lighten their burdens, I do not
for a moment deny. All I say is, that this does not make up "charity."
It is easy to spend a fortune in giving away money, and soup, and wine,
and bread, and coals, and blankets, and clothing, and yet to be utterly
destitute of Bible charity.
(_b_) The charity of the Bible does not consist in never disapproving
anybody's conduct. Here is another very common delusion! Thousands pride
themselves on never condemning others, or calling them wrong, whatever
they may do. They convert the precept of our Lord, "judge not," into an
excuse for having no unfavourable opinion at all of anybody. They
pervert His prohibition of rash and censorious judgments, into a
prohibition of all judgment whatsoever. Your neighbour may be a
drunkard, a liar, a Sabbath-breaker, a passionate man. Never mind! "It
is not charity," they tell you, "to pronounce him, wrong." You are to
believe that he has a good heart at bottom! This idea of charity is,
unhappily, a very common one. It is full of mischief. To throw a veil
over sin, and to refuse to call things by their right names,--to talk of
"hearts" being good, when "lives" are flatly wrong,--to shut our eyes
against wickedness, and say smooth things of immorality,--this is not
Scriptural charity.
(_c_) The charity of the Bible does not consist in never disapproving
anybody's religious opinions. Here is another most serious and growing
delusion. There are many who pride themselves on never pronouncing
others mistaken, whatever views they may hold. Your neighbour, forsooth,
may be an Arian, or a Socinian, a Roman Catholic, or a Mormonite, a
Deist, or a Sceptic, a mere Formalist, or a thorough Antinomian. But the
"charity" of many says that you have no right to think Him wrong! If he
is sincere, it is "uncharitable" to think unfavourably of his spiritual
condition!--From such charity may I ever be delivered! At this rate the
Apostles were wrong in going out to preach to the Gentiles! At this rate
there is no use in missions! At this rate we had better close our
Bibles, and shut up our churches! Everybody is right, and nobody is
wrong! Everybody is going to heaven, and nobody is going to hell! Such
charity is a monstrous caricature. To say that all are equally right in
their opinions, though their opinions flatly contradict one another,--to
say that all are equally in the way to heaven, though their doctrinal
sentiments are as opposite as black and white,--this is not Scriptural
charity. Charity like this pours contempt on the Bible, and talks as if
God had not given us a written test of truth. Charity like this confuses
all our notions of heaven, and would fill it with a discordant
inharmonious rabble. True charity does not think everybody right in
doctrine. True charity cries,--"Believe not every spirit, but try the
spirits whether they be of God: because many false prophets are gone out
into the world."--"If there come any unto you, and bring not this
doctrine, receive him not." (1 John iv. 1; 2 John 10.)
I leave the negative side of the question here. I have dwelt upon it at
some length because of the days in which we live and the strange notions
which abound. Let me now turn to the positive side. Having shown what
charity is not, let me now show what it is.
Charity is that "love," which St. Paul places first among those fruits
which the Spirit causes to be brought forth in the heart of a believer.
"The fruit of the Spirit is love." (Gal. v. 2.) Love to God, such as
Adam had before the fall, is its first feature. He that has charity,
desires to love God with heart, and soul and mind, and strength. Love to
man is its second feature. He that has charity, desires to love his
neighbour as himself. This is indeed that view in which the word
"charity" in Scripture is more especially regarded. When I speak of a
believer having "love" in his heart, I mean that he has love to both God
and man. When I speak of a believer having "charity," I mean more
particularly that he has love to man.
The charity of the Bible will show itself in a _believer's doings_. It
will make him ready to do kind acts to every one within his
reach,--both to their bodies and souls. It will not let him be content
with soft words and kind wishes. It will make him diligent in doing all
that lies in his power to lessen the sorrow and increase the happiness
of others. Like his Master, he will care more for ministering than for
being ministered to, and will look for nothing in return. Like his
Master's great apostle, he will very willingly "spend and be spent" for
others, even though they repay him with hatred, and not with love. True
charity does not want wages. Its work is its reward.
The charity of the Bible will show itself in a believer's _readiness to
bear_ evil as well as to do good. It will make him patient under
provocation, forgiving when injured, meek when unjustly attacked, quiet
when slandered. It will make him bear much and forbear much, put up with
much and look over much, submit often and deny himself often, all for
the sake of peace. It will make him put a strong bit on his temper, and
a strong bridle on his tongue. True charity is not always asking,--"What
are my rights? Am I treated as I deserve?" but, "How can I best promote
peace? How can I do that which is most edifying to others?"
The charity of the Bible will show itself in the _general spirit and
demeanour_ of a believer. It will make him kind, unselfish,
good-natured, good-tempered, and considerate for others. It will make
him gentle, affable, and courteous, in all the daily relations of
private life, thoughtful for others' comfort, tender for others'
feelings, and more anxious to give pleasure than to receive. True
charity never envies others when they prosper, nor rejoices in the
calamities of others when they are in trouble. At all times it will
believe, and hope, and try to put a good construction on others' doings.
And even at the worst, it will be full of pity, mercy, and compassion.
Would we like to know where the true Pattern of charity like this can be
found? We have only to look at the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, as
described in the Gospels, and we shall see it perfectly exemplified.
Charity shone forth in all His doings. His daily life was an incessant
"going about", doing good.--Charity shone forth in all His bearing. He
was continually hated, persecuted, slandered, misrepresented. But He
patiently endured it all. No angry word ever fell from His lips. No
ill-temper ever appeared in His demeanour. "When He was reviled, He
reviled not again: when He suffered, He threatened not." (1 Pet. ii.
23.)--Charity shone forth in all His spirit and deportment. The law of
kindness was ever on His lips. Among weak and ignorant disciples, among
sick and sorrowful petitioners for help and relief, among publicans and
sinners, among Pharisees and Sadducees, He was always one and the
same.--kind and patient to all.
And yet, be it remembered, our blessed Master never flattered sinners,
or connived at sin. He never shrunk from exposing wickedness in its true
colours, or from rebuking those who would cleave to it. He never
hesitated to denounce false doctrine, by whomsoever it might be held, or
to exhibit false practice in its true colours, and the certain end to
which it tends. He called things by their right names. He spoke as
freely of hell and the fire that is not quenched, as of heaven and the
kingdom of glory. He has left on record an everlasting proof that
perfect charity does not require us to approve everybody's life or
opinions, and that it is quite possible to condemn false doctrine and
wicked practice, and yet to be full of love at the same time.
I have now set before my readers the true nature of Scriptural charity.
I have given a slight and very brief account of what it is not, and what
it is. I cannot pass on without suggesting two practical thoughts, which
press home on my mind with weighty force, and I hope may press home on
others.
You have heard of charity. Think, for a moment, how deplorably little
charity there is upon earth! How conspicuous is the absence of true love
among Christians! I speak not of heathen now, I speak of Christians.
What angry tempers, what passions, what selfishness, what bitter
tongues, are to be found in private families! What strifes, what
quarrels, what spitefulness, what malice, what revenge, what envy
between neighbours and fellow-parishioners! What jealousies and
contentions between Churchmen and Dissenters, Calvinists and Arminians,
High Churchmen and Low Churchmen! "Where is charity?" we may well
ask,--"Where is love? where is the mind of Christ?" when we look at the
spirit which reigns in the world. No wonder that Christ's cause stands
still, and infidelity abounds, when men's hearts know so little of
charity! Surely, we may well say,--"When the Son of man cometh, shall He
find charity upon earth?"
Think, for another thing, what a happy world this would be if there was
more charity. It is the want of love which causes half the misery there
is upon earth. Sickness, and death, and poverty, will not account for
more than half the sorrows. The rest come from ill-temper, ill-nature,
strifes, quarrels, lawsuits, malice, envy, revenge, frauds, violence,
wars, and the like. It would be one great step towards doubling the
happiness of mankind, and halving their sorrows, if all men and women
were full of Scriptural charity.
III. Let me show, thirdly, _whence the charity of the Bible comes_.
Charity, such as I have described, is certainly not natural to man.
Naturally, we are all more or less selfish, envious, ill-tempered,
spiteful, ill-natured, and unkind. We have only to observe children,
when left to themselves, to see the proof of this. Let boys and girls
grow up without proper training and education, and you will not see one
of them possessing Christian charity. Mark how some of them think first
of themselves, and their own comfort and advantage! Mark how others are
full of pride, passion, and evil tempers! How can we account for it?
There is but one reply. The natural heart knows nothing of true charity.
The charity of the Bible will never be found except in a heart prepared
by the Holy Ghost. It is a tender plant, and will never grow except in
one soil. You may as well expect grapes on thorns, or figs on thistles,
as look for charity when the heart is not right.
The heart in which charity grows is a heart changed, renewed, and
transformed by the Holy Ghost. The image and likeness of God, which Adam
lost at the fall, has been restored to it, however feeble and imperfect
the restoration may appear. It is a "partaker of the Divine nature," by
union with Christ and sonship to God; and one of the first features of
that nature is love. (2 Pet. i. 4.)
Such a heart is deeply convinced of sin, hates it, flees from it, and
fights with it from day to day. And one of the prime motions of sin
which it daily labours to overcome, is selfishness and want of charity.
Such a heart is deeply sensible of its mighty debt to our Lord Jesus
Christ. It feels continually that it owes to Him who died for us on the
cross, all its present comfort, hope, and peace. How can it show forth
its gratitude? What can it render to its Redeemer? If it can do nothing
else, it strives to be like Him, to drink into His spirit, to walk in
His footsteps, and, like Him, to be full of love. "The love of Christ
shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost" is the surest fountain of
Christian charity. Love will produce love.
I ask my reader's special attention to this point. It is one of great
importance in the present day. There are many who profess to admire
charity, while they care nothing about vital Christianity. They like
some of the fruits and results of the Gospel, but not the root from
which these fruits alone can grow, or the doctrines with which they are
inseparably connected.
Hundreds will praise love and charity, who hate to be told of man's
corruption, of the blood of Christ, and of the inward work of the Holy
Ghost. Many a parent would like his children to grow up unselfish and
good tempered, who would not be much pleased if conversion, and
repentance, and faith, were pressed home on their attention.
Now I desire to protest against this notion, that you can have the
fruits of Christianity without the roots,--that you can produce
Christian tempers without teaching Christian doctrines,--that you can
have charity that will wear and endure without grace in the heart.
I grant, most freely, that every now and then one sees a person who
seems very charitable and amiable, without any distinctive doctrinal
religion. But such cases are so rare and remarkable, that, like
exceptions, they only prove the truth of the general rule. And often,
too often, it may be feared in such cases the apparent charity is only
seeming, and in private completely fails. I firmly believe, as a general
rule, you will not find such charity as the Bible describes, except in
the soil of a heart thoroughly imbued with Bible religion. Holy practice
will not flourish without sound doctrine. What God has joined together,
it is useless to expect to have separate and asunder.
The delusion which I am trying to combat is helped forward to a most
mischievous degree by the vast majority of novels, romances, and tales
of fiction. Who does not know that the heroes and heroines of these
works are constantly described as patterns of perfection? They are
always doing the right thing, saying the right thing, and showing the
right temper! They are always kind, and amiable, and unselfish, and
forgiving! And yet you never hear a word about their religion! In short,
to judge by the generality of works of fiction, it is possible to have
excellent practical religion without doctrine, the fruits of the Spirit
without the grace of the Spirit, and the mind of Christ without union
with Christ!
Here, in short, is the great danger of reading most novels, romances,
and works of fiction. The greater part of them give a false or incorrect
view of human nature. They paint their model men and women as they ought
to be, and not as they really are. The readers of such writings get
their minds filled with wrong conceptions of what the world is. Their
notions of mankind become visionary and unreal. They are constantly
looking for men and women such as they never meet, and expecting what
they never find.
Let me entreat my readers, once for all, to draw their ideas of human
nature from the Bible, and not from novels. Settle it down in your mind,
that there cannot be true charity without a heart renewed by grace. A
certain degree of kindness, courtesy, amiability, good nature, may
undoubtedly be seen in many who have no vital religion. But the glorious
plant of Bible charity, in all its fulness and perfection, will never be
found without union with Christ, and the work of the Holy Ghost. Teach
this to your children, if you have any. Hold it up in schools, if you
are connected with any. Lift up charity. Make much of charity. Give
place to none in exalting the grace of kindness, love, good nature,
unselfishness, good temper. But never, never forget, that there is but
one school in which these things can be thoroughly learned, and that is
the school of Christ. Real charity comes down from above. True love is
the fruit of the Spirit. He that would have it must sit at Christ's
feet, and learn of Him.
IV. Let me show, lastly, _why charity is called the "greatest" of the
graces_.
The words of St. Paul, on this subject, are distinct and unmistakable.
He winds up his wonderful chapter on charity in the following manner:
"Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three: but the greatest of
these is charity." (1 Cor. xiii. 13.)
This expression is very remarkable. Of all the writers in the New
Testament, none, certainly, exalts "faith" so highly as St. Paul. The
Epistles to the Romans and Galatians abound in sentences showing its
vast importance. By it the sinner lays hold on Christ and is saved.
Through it we are justified, and have peace with God. Yet here the same
St. Paul speaks of something which is even greater than faith. He puts
before us the three leading Christian graces, and pronounces the
following judgment on them,--"The greatest is charity." Such a sentence
from such a writer demands special attention. What are we to understand
when we hear of charity being greater than faith and hope?
We are not to suppose, for a moment, that charity can atone for our
sins, or make our peace with God. Nothing can do that for us but the
blood of Christ, and nothing can give us an interest in Christ's blood
but faith. It is unscriptural ignorance not to know this. The office of
justifying and joining the soul to Christ belongs to faith alone. Our
charity, and all our other graces, are all more or less imperfect, and
could not stand the severity of God's judgment. When we have done all,
we are "unprofitable servants." (Luke xvii. 10.)
We are not to suppose that charity can exist independently of faith. St.
Paul did not intend to set up one grace in rivalry to the other. He did
not mean that one man might have faith, another hope, and another
charity, and that the best of these was the man who had charity. The
three graces are inseparably joined together. Where there is faith,
there will always be love; and where there is love, there will be faith.
Sun and light, fire and heat, ice and cold, are not more intimately
united than faith and charity.
The reasons why charity is called the greatest of the three graces,
appear to me plain and simple. Let me show what they are.
(_a_) Charity is called the greatest of graces, because it is the one in
which there is _some likeness between the believer and his God_. God has
no need of faith. He is dependent on no one. There is none superior to
Him in whom He must trust.--God has no need of hope. To Him all things
are certain, whether past, present, or to come.--But "God is love:" and
the more love His people have, the more like they are to their Father in
heaven.
(_b_) Charity, for another thing, is called the greatest of the graces,
because _it is most useful to others_. Faith and hope, beyond doubt,
however precious, have special reference to a believer's own private
individual benefit. Faith unites the soul to Christ, brings peace with
God, and opens the way to heaven. Hope fills the soul with cheerful
expectation of things to come, and, amid the many discouragements of
things seen, comforts with visions of the things unseen. But charity is
pre-eminently the grace which makes a man useful. It is the spring of
good works and kindnesses. It is the root of missions, schools, and
hospitals. Charity made apostles spend and be spent for souls. Charity
raises up workers for Christ, and keeps them working. Charity smooths
quarrels, and stops strife, and in this sense "covers a multitude of
sins." (1 Pet. iv. 8.) Charity adorns Christianity, and recommends it to
the world. A man may have real faith, and feel it, and yet his faith may
be invisible to others. But a man's charity cannot be hid.
(_c_) Charity, in the last place, is the greatest of the graces, because
it is the one which _endures the longest_. In fact, it will never die.
Faith will one day be swallowed up in sight, and hope in certainty.
Their office will be useless in the morning of the resurrection, and,
like old almanacs, they will be laid aside. But love will live on
through the endless ages of eternity. Heaven will be the abode of love.
The inhabitants of heaven will be full of love. One common feeling will
be in all their hearts, and that will be charity.
I leave this part of my subject here, and pass on to a conclusion. On
each of the three points of comparison I have just named, between
charity and the other graces, it would be easy to enlarge. But time and
space both forbid me to do so. If I have said enough to guard men
against mistakes about the right meaning of the "greatness" of charity,
I am content. Charity, be it ever remembered, cannot justify and put
away our sins. It is neither Christ, nor faith. But charity makes us
somewhat like God. Charity is of mighty use to the world. Charity will
live and flourish when faith's work is done. Surely, in these points of
view, charity well deserves the crown.
(1) And now let me ask every one into whose hands this paper may come a
simple question. Let me press home on your conscience the whole subject
of this paper. Do you know anything of the grace of which I have been
speaking? _Have you charity?_
The strong language of the Apostle St. Paul must surely convince you
that the inquiry is not one that ought to be lightly put aside. The
grace, without which that holy man could say, "I am nothing," the grace
which the Lord Jesus says expressly is the great mark of being His
disciple,--such a grace as this demands the serious consideration of
every one who is in earnest about the salvation of his soul. It should
set him thinking,--"How does this affect me? Have I charity?"
You have some knowledge, it may be, of religion. You know the difference
between true and false doctrine. You can, perhaps, even quote texts, and
defend the opinions you hold. But, remember the knowledge which is
barren of practical results in life and temper is a useless possession.
The words of the Apostle are very plain: "Though I understand all
knowledge, and have not charity, I am nothing." (1 Cor. xiii. 3.)
You think you have faith, perhaps. You trust you are one of God's elect,
and rest in that. But surely you should remember that there is a faith
of devils, which is utterly unprofitable, and that the faith of God's
elect is a "faith that worketh by love." It was when St. Paul remembered
the "love" of the Thessalonians, as well as their faith and hope, that
he said,--"I know your election of God." (1 Thess. i. 4.)
Look at your own daily life, both at home and abroad, and consider what
place the charity of Scripture has in it. What is your temper? What are
your ways of behaving toward all around you in your own family? What is
your manner of speaking, especially in seasons of vexation and
provocation? Where is your good-nature, your courtesy, your patience,
your meekness, your gentleness, your forbearance? Where are your
practical actions of love in your dealing with others? What do you know
of the mind of Him who "went about doing good,"--who loved all, though
specially His disciples,--who returned good for evil, and kindness for
hatred, and had a heart wide enough to feel for all?
What would you do in heaven, I wonder, if you got there without charity?
What comfort could you have in an abode where love was the law, and
selfishness and ill-nature completely shut out? Alas! I fear that heaven
would be no place for an uncharitable and ill-tempered man!--What said a
little boy one day? "If grandfather goes to heaven, I hope I and brother
will not go there." "Why do you say that?" he was asked. He
replied,--"If he sees us there, I am sure he will say, as he does
now,--'What are these boys doing here? Let them get out of the way.' He
does not like to see us on earth, and I suppose he would not like to see
us in heaven."
Give yourself no rest till you know something by experience of real
Christian charity. Go and learn of Him who is meek and lowly of heart,
and ask Him to teach you how to love. Ask the Lord Jesus to put His
Spirit within you, to take away the old heart, to give you a new nature,
to make you know something of His mind. Cry to Him night and day for
grace, and give Him no rest until you feel something of what I have been
describing in this paper. Happy indeed will your life be when you really
understand "walking in love."
(2) But I do not forget that I am writing to some who are not ignorant
of the charity of Scripture, and who long to feel more of it every year.
I will give you two simple words of exhortation. They are
these,--"Practice and teach the grace of charity."