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THE POTENCY OF LOVE
“Walk in Love even as Christ also loved you.’’
HERE are two general thoughts that I
desire to express concerning the subject
of love:
T
1. The potency of love.
2. The manner in which love is to ex
press itself, especially in the church.
As to the potency of love, we see it
everywhere exemplified. There is not
a man or a woman who has not felt the
potency of love.
Take, for example, conjugal love: Where is the
man or the woman who has not felt at some time
the throb of love in his or her heart?
I, myself, have had some little experience in it.
How I was willing to endure, sit up half the night,
or all the other nights, if necessary, and it almost
always was necessary. How I was willing to walk
one mile, or five miles, or all the miles. How 1 was
willing to endure all sorts of hardships along the
walk, cold and heat, light and darkness, and ghosts
of all sorts. I remember one time starting off on
a tramp of this kind when there was a terri
ble freeze. When I got to the branch, I found I
had to walk a foot-log. The branch was frozen
over. It was very cold, and it took a great deal
of fire on ithe inside to make me attempt such a
task. About half way across the toot-log I slip
ped, went in, and got wet. But I wasn't to be
stopped; I went back home, and changed my
clothes, came back with renewed determination,
tackled the foot-log, and landed safely on the oth
er side.
There is the love of the parent for the child.
Who has not seen and felt love there?
I read a description of it the other day at Port
Arthur. A Russian mother, who lived in the fort,
had a son in the army. In the thickest of the fight
news came to her that he had been wounded, and
wounded unto death, and that he was still in the
trenches. She did not do a thing but make a break
through shot and shell to that boy.
She paid no attention to the pickets or ofliceis.
The result was she was shot herself in the right
limb. Upon her allfours, dragging her limb through
the dirt, she w’ent through that line, and reached
the boy just in time to give him a mother’s kiss
just before he died.
That is mother’s love. This is how much she
thinks of us. Oh, she may splutter around, but
there is nothing that measures up to her love!
Then there is the love of the child for the parent.
I think the prettiest description of this I ever
read is in Tom Dixon’s book, “The Clansman.”
He describes a young colonel who has just received
from his mother a home-made colonel’s uniform
with a sash she had worked with her own hands.
Immediately after he put it on, he was forced into
battle. In the midst of the battle the whole regi
ment retreated and left him fighting the enemy
alone. He saw' his flag lying in the dirt, and, tak
ing it in his hand, he made one tremendous leap,
and shoved it down the mouth of the enemy’s
cannon. He was wounded, picked up, and carried
to the hospital in Washington. His mother w’ent to
see him. She attempted, at first, to remonstrate
with him for such reckless fighting. Then, with the
tears running down his cheeks, and with a kind of
smile, he said, “Mother, how could a boy retreat
with a new uniform on, made by his mother’s
fingers?”
That is the potency of love of child to parent.
The Church today that is actuated by that prin
ciple will succeed in impressing itself upon the
world.
Many of you have read the story of the boy
in Chicago, who lived a distance of five miles from
Bunday school. A policeman watched him pass
his beat every Sunday morning, through cold and
heat, sunshine and rain. He said one morning,
“Where are you going; to work?” The boy re
plied, “I am not going to work. lam going to
Sunday school and church. I am going to Mr.
The Golden Age for December 6, 1906.
Tabernacle Sermon by Rev. Len. G. Broughton.
Moody’s Sunday school and church.” The police
man said, “Why do you go so far, when there are
hundreds of churches between there and where
you live?” “Yes, sir,” said the boy, “but they
love a fellow over there.”
Thlat is what the world wants today of the
church. All the talk of the church simply express
ing itself in rescuing- men from hell and getting
them to heaven is good, but in fulfilling this mis
sion, the earth is to be made like heaven. We
are to take hold of men in this life, and make them
feel the throb of a new heart of love.
LOVE’S EXPRESSION:
So much for the general potency of love. I
want to dwell more largely upon the manner of
love’s expression.
There is a great deal in the way love expresses
itself. No man will go up to a girl when he wants
to tell her he loves her, and say in cold blood,
“I love you.” There is everything in the way the
heart expresses itself. Just so with respect to
the manner in which love expresses itself in the
church. My brethren, I believe there are men and
women in the church that love humanity with a
deep heart of love, but they are lacking in the way
in which the heart of love is to express itself.
It seems that the apostle recognizes this defect,
and attempts to strike at it.
1. We are to express our love by putting aside
“all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor,
and railing.” Now the church that is constantly
living in the midst of bitterness and wrath, and
anger, and clamor is a church where love does not
reign, for love does not express itself in that way.
The world knows this and does not want to get in
a loveless church.
I have in mind a church that might have been a
mighty church for God, and yet that church lost
its opportunity by wrangling and clamoring. Why,
their church conferences were actually like a show.
The world on the outside would say, “ When are
you going to have a church conference ? What
do you charge for admission?” They wanted to
get there and see the fur fly.
Sometimes, I think, it would be far better if the
church had no business meetings of any kind, and
yet I am aware of the fact that we have to have
business transactions for God.
2. We are to show our love by abstaining from
evil speaking. You cannot fool the world with
respect to this matter. There can be no Holy
Spirit leadership where there is constant talking
about one another.
Not long ago, I read a man’s conception of tat
tling church members. He drew a picture of the
scene at the table where the rich man and Lazarus
were—Lazarus eating the crumbs, and the dog
licking his sores. Then he said, “You people in
the church that are constantly talking about one
another remind me of those dogs.”
I have known people whose usefulness was lost
by this sin. It is a habit that will grow. When
we once begin that kind of thing, there is no end
to it. Oh, let us be very careful.
3. Then, again, he says we are to show our
love by being “kind, tender-hearted and affection
ate.” Now, this to some people is a very great
hardship. It ought not to be, for the Spirit of
Christ indwelling will make it easy for us. For
giveness is a thing people do not like to have talked
about, for it most generally strikes a very sensi
tive spot in our hearts. But without forgiveness,
there is no spiritual life; without forgiveness there
is no heaven.
It may be hard for us to forgive, but it will
be harder for us to be lost. Read the account of
our Lord’s first dealing with his disciples con
cerning the matter of prayer when he gave them
the pattern prayer.
LOVE AND FORGIVENESS.
“If ye forgive not men their tresspasses, neither
will your Heavenly Father forgive your tres-
passes.” So, you see, if there is unforgiveness
in our hearts toward our fellow-men, the door of
Heaven is locked against us forever.
Here is a man who says, ‘ ‘ A certain man has done
me an injury. I wish I could forgive him, but
I can’t.” Yeit that man will go to prayer meeting
and pray: “Forgive us our trespasses as we for
give those who trespass against us.” He is ask
ing God not to forgive him his trespasses, for he
has not forgiven them that trespass against him.
You had better go to Heaven a prayerless saint,
if there is such a thing, than to ask God to for
give your trespasses as you forgive them that tres
pass against you when you won’t forgive.
But there is another thing about this forgiveness
that I want to impress. We are to forgive “as
God for Christ’s sake forgave us.” It seems that
when we look at it from that standpoint it would
be much easier. That man against whom you hold
something in your heart may not deserve forgive
ness, but listen, you did not deserve God’s forgive
ness. You will pardon me for giving an illustration
right out of my church.
There was a man who had been a very notorious
drunkard. To hear him tell of his crimes would
make your hair stand on your head. That man
was saved. After awhile he had a difficulty with
another brother in the church. In a short time
after the difficulty, the first mentioned brother be
gan to talk about the other man. As a result, there
grew up animosity between the two men. I went
to the first, and said: “Don’t you think you ought
to forgive that man?” He said, “How can I
forgave him? He has done everything in the world
to ruin my character, and damage my business.”
I said, “But you can forgive him for Christ’s
sake. You had done everythinng in your power to
damn God’s chosen and to damn God’s church, and
yet, God, looking down upon you, and seeing
Christ’s love for you, said, I will forgive you.”
Then he thought a moment and said, “I have been
a pretty bad sinner, haven’t I?” I said, “Yes,
you have sinned against God a thousand times
more than that man has sinned against you, and
if God, for Christ’s sake, forgave you, shame upon
you, as a Christian, that you cannot, for Christ’s
sake, forgive that man.” He said, “I will do it,”
and he did it.
Here is a man who says, “I am sure I do not
have anything in my heart against anybody.”
Yon know that is one of the most wicked ways the
devil has of damning the spiritual life of people.
If he can just get a man to say, “I am right, and
I have done nothing against anybody at all, he is
at outs with me,” he is satisfied. I want you to
hear Jesus Christ. He says, “When thou bringest
thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that
thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there
thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be
reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer
thy gift.”
WALKING IN LOVE.
Now, turning from the 23rd verse of this chapter,
you will see that the apostle not only proposes
that they shall forgive with reference to past acts,
but are to walk in life as God’s children. They
are to express this past forgiveness in the present
and future walk of their lives. That is very es
sential to keep in mind. Some people flatter them
selves that they have done some such act, and they
can be excused for various things in the life to
come. Paul’s teaching is that they are to walk
day by day in love.
M hat would be the effect upon the church that
observes this teaching? What would be the effect
upon the church that loved this way? In the
first place, we would regard our brother’s interest
as sacredly as we regard our own. Wouldn’t that
be. delightful? Wouldn’t it be blessed to have
this city peep in upon our church, and say, “There
is a crowd of people that are so spiritually on
fire that they regard one another’s interest with
the same degree of earnestness and interest that