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 without a word.
Guilelessness is the grace for suspicious people. 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. 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 unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the
truth." I have called this SINCERITY from the words rendered in
the Authorized 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 endeavors 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 playground; it is a schoolroom. Life is not a
holiday, but an education. And