Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

4 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