Love.
WHEREVER there is union to Christ, there is love. This is the essential principle. Whatever else there be, if there be not love, it profits nothing, it proves nothing. Love to God and our neighbor is the essence of piety. It is the body, the basis, the staple element; and if the great commandment and the nest greatest be absent, whatever else there be, there is not Christianity.
Have you got it? To Christ’s question, “Lovest thou me?” is it your answer, “Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee.” Then, if you love Jesus, you will love Him whose express image Jesus is. To God in Christ your soul will be attached in gratitude submission, and complacency. You will not wish Him less holy, less righteous, less true. Awed by His glorious majesty, and melted by His ineffable mercy, all that is dust and ashes in you will be humbled, and all that is filial will be inflamed. If nothingness and sin bid you be silent, the sight of your Saviour gone back to the bosom of His God and your God, will awakes a cry of relenting tenderness, and adoring astonishment. Boldest when you are most debased. From the foot of the Cross, the view of a reconciled God elicits the cry, Abba, Father; and you love Him who first loved you: and feeling it sweet to be accepted of God on any ground, feel that to be accepted in His own well-beloved Son is sweet indeed.
Joy.
The essence of love is attachment. Joy is the happiness of love It is love exulting. It is love aware of its own felicity, and rioting in riches which it has no fear of exhausting. It is love taking a look at its treasure, and surrendering itself to bliss without foreboding evil. God’s promises appearing so strong, so solid, so substantial― more so than the rock and the everlasting hills. And his perfections―what shall I say of them? When I think of one. I wish to dwell upon it forever; but another and another, equally glorious, claims a share of admiration. And when I begin to praise, I wish never to cease, but to find it the commencement of that song that will never end. Let who will be rich, or admired, or prosperous; let me be satisfied with heavenly things; and let my consolations arise from the knowledge that there is such a God as Jehovah, such a Saviour as Jesus, and that they are unchangeable.
Peace.
If joy be love exulting, peace is love reposing. It is love on the green pastures. It is love beside the still waters. It is that great calm that comes over the conscience when it sees the atonement sufficient, and the Saviour willing. It is unclouded azure in a lake of glass. It is the soul which Christ has pacified, spread out in serenity and simple faith, and the Lord God merciful and gracious smiling over it.
Long-suffering.
This is love enduring. If the trial come direct from God, it is enough. It is correction. It is His heavenly Father’s hand; and with Luther the disciple cries, “Strike, Lord, strike; but oh! do not forsake me!” If the trial come from Christian brethren, if it be seven-fold seventy times repeated, love to Jesus demands forgiveness. If it come from worldly men, it is the occasion for that magnanimity which recompenses evil with good, and in every case it is an opportunity for following a Saviour who was made perfect through suffering. That Saviour never loved the Father more intensely than when His Father’s face was hid, and when the bitter cup proclaimed His justice terrible, and His truth severe. One apostle denied Him, and all the disciples forsook Him; but Jesus prayed for Peter, whilst Peter was cursing; and His love followed the rest even when they were running away. Jerusalem killed him; but, in foresight of the guilty deed, it was over Jerusalem that Jesus wept. And when the deed wan done, in publishing pardon and the peace of God, it was at Jerusalem that evangelists were directed to begin.
Gentleness, or Affectionateness.
This is love in society. It is love holding intercourse with those around it. It is that cordiality of aspect, and that soul of speech which assures us, that kind and earnest hearts may still be met with here below. It is that quiet influence which, like the scented flame of an alabaster lamp, fills many a house with light, and warmth, and fragrance.
It is the carpet soft and deep, which, whilst it diffuses a look of comfort, deadens many a creaking sound. It is the curtain which, from many a beloved form, wards off the summer’s glow and the winter’s wind. It is the pillow on which sickness lays its head, and forgets half its misery, and to which death comes in a balmier dream.
It is considerateness. It is tenderness of feeling. It is warmth of affection. It is promptitude of sympathy. It is love in all its delicacy. It is every melting thing, including in that matchless grace, The gentleness of Christ. (2 Cor. 10:11Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you: (2 Corinthians 10:1).)
Goodness, of Beneficence.
Love in action. Love with its hand to the plough. Love with the burden on its back. Love carrying medicine to the sick, and food to the famishing. Love reading the Bible to the blind, and explaining the gospel to the poor and ignorant. Love at the Sunday school. Love at the ragged school. Love at the hovel door. Love in the missionary ship. Love in writing a letter of comfort, of exhortation, instruction, or reproof. But whatever task it undertakes, it is still the same—love following His footsteps, who went about doing good.
Faith.
Whether it mean trust in God, or fidelity to principle and duty, faith is love in the battle field. It is constantly following hard after God, when the world drags downward, and the flesh cries, Halt. It is zeal holding fast sound words, when fervor is costly, and sound words are obnoxious. It is firmness marching through fire and through water, to the post where duty calls and the captain waits.
It is Elijah before Ahab. It is Stephen before the Sanhedrim. It is Luther at Worms. It is the martyr in the flames. It is Jesus in the desert. It is Jesus in Gethsemane. It is Jesus on the Cross. And it is whosoever pursuing the path, or finishing the work which God has given him to do, and, like the great Forerunner does not fear to die.
Meekness.
Meekness is love at school. Love at the Saviour’s school. It is Christian lowlihood. It is the disciple learning to fear, and distrust, and abhor himself. It is the disciple practicing the sweet but self-emptying lesson of putting on the Lord Jesus, and finding all his righteousness in the Righteous One. It is the disciple learning the defects of his own character, and taking hints from hostile as well as friendly monitors. It is the disciple praying and watching for the improvement of his talents, the mellowing of his temper, and the amelioration of his character. It is the loving Christian at the Saviour’s feet learning of Him who is meek and lowly, and finding rest for his own soul.
Temperance.
Love taking exercise. Love enduring hardness. Love striving for the mastery in all things and bringing the body under. It is superiority to sensual delights, and it is the power of applying resolutely to irksome duties for the Master’s sake. It is self-denial and self-control, fearful lest it should subside to gross carnality, or waste away into shadowy hectic sentiment, Temperance is love alert and timorously active―sometimes rising before day for prayer; sometimes spending that day on tasks which daintiness or laziness declines. It is love with girt loins, and dusty feet, and blistered hands. It is love with the empty scrip, but the glowing cheek. Love subsisting on pulse and water, but grown so healthful, that it beareth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.