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.
