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(Editor's Note: During the vacation o f Dr. Len
G. Broughton, our Pulpit Editor, in America, The
Golden Age is fortunate in being able to furnish a
sermon everj r week from Dr. A. C. Dixon, whose
sermons are published regularly in The Christian
Globe, of London, England. Dr. Dixon is Dr. Brough
ton’s “Father in the Gospel” and is doing a great
work as pastor of Spurgeon's Tabernacle, London.)
“Show I unto you a still more excel
lent way.” “Follow after love.’’ 1.
Cor. 12:31. 1 Cor. 14:1.
IETWEEN these two verses we have the
unfolding of the more excellent way
| which we are bidden to walk in. We
have the unfolding in the 13th chapter.
B
which is the pearl of chapters, of the unselfish
love of Christ. The chapter divides itself into
three clear-cut divisions. In the first three
verses we have this love forming character,
making individuality. In the 4th, sth and 6th
verses we have this love making society, form
ing the community. In the following verses
from the Bth to the 13th we have this love
through the individual and through society
constructing heaven itself. Now may the Spirit
help us not only to consider it but to probe
down to the depth of our soul. The first thing
that 1 am sure the Spirit shows us is that
as a power for constructing character, for
making the individual, love is greater than
ecstatic joy, greater than eloquence. “Though
I speak with the tongue of men and of angels.”
have all the ecstatic joy that man can have,
all the angelic rapture, and have not love, I
am become as sounding brass and a clanging
cymbal, and it it were possible for us to have,
apart from love, all the joy that man can pos
sess( it cannot construct character. The sec
ond thing he has to show is that that unsel
fish love is better than the gift of prophecy.
It is better than understanding the mysteries,
rhe word “Mysteries” in the New Testament
you know, does not mean something difficult
to understand, but something hitherto not re
vealed. And, better than the capacity to ap
propriate revelation and pass it on to others,
is unselfish love. It is better even than all
knowledge. Knowledge revealed, and knowl
edge discovered by research. If I have the
gift of prophecy, and know all mystery and
all knowledge, and have not love, I am noth
ing. 1 (Jan do much. I can pass on the knowl
edge, and knowledge is power. I can speak'
the revelation, and the revelation may accom
plish God’s purpose, but in the process of for
ming character I am still as nothing, simply
an aeeumulatoin of nothing. The knowledge
of God’s word, of God’s laws in nature, any
kind of knowledge, will not make character
what if, ought to be unless we have unselfish
love and if I have all things so that I may
move mountains; faith that can say to this
great difficulty towering like an alpine he ght
“Be thou cast into the sea,” and faith that
God honors, a faith that works, a faith that
performs miracles, though I have a faith that
removes mountains and have not unselfish love
I am still nothing. ] may do mighty tlTngs.
1 may be doing a great work, but I am nothing
in my Christian character. I may go further
than that. 1 may be prompted by a benev
olent spirit. 1 may give all my goods to feed
“FOLLOW AFTER LOVE.”
A Sermon by Dr. A. C. DIXON, Metropolitan Tabernacle, London
THE GOLDEN AGE FOR WEEK OF OCT. 9
the poor. I may be so conscientious that 1
will give my body to be burned, and in be
stowing my goods lo feed the poor and of
fering my ‘body to be burned at the stake, if
I have not unselfish love it profiteth me noth
ing. 1 will still remain undeveloped. So in
the construction of individual character unsel
fish love is the most powerful factor. Elo
quence and joy will not take its place. The
gift ol speech will not take its place. Faith
that performs miracles will not take its place.
Even benevolence that prompts you to give
your goods to feed the poor, prompted by sym
pathy, and a conscientiousness that leads you
to give your body to the stake, without love,
will avail nothing.
Unselfish Love.
in the second place, in construe.big society
unselfish love is the most powerful factor.
From the 4th to the 7th verse we have fifteen
things that this love does in its relation to
people about, in the formation of the com
munity. "Love suffereth long and is kind.”
If you will make a summary of the fifteen
things that love does you will have heaven,
you will have the millenium. A society with
out a flaw. After the individual has been
made by unselfish love ,to bring these individ
uals together and make a community it is
without a flaw, every individual with the spirit
of unselfish love as portrayed in this verse.
Love seeketh not its own. Have I not a right
to seek my own? Oh, yes, you can defend
yotur rights, but unselfish love goes beyond
right and seeketh not its own, but the good of
others. It is willing to place itself on the al
tar for the good of the community. “Believ
eth all things, hopeth all things.” Optimistic
all the time.
A Test.
An Oriental chief, we are told, became very
popular wth his clan, and one day the multi
tude were following him down the road shout
ing his praises. He picked up a stone and
flung it into the crowd. They yelled and scat
tered, and the chief said: “A love that ean
•not stand a stone is not worth having.” He
regarded that as a test of love. A love that
lieving, hopeful, in spite of all things. But
is not willing to be misrepresented, to be be-
Hiat is impossible, you say. Well, not impos
sible in God’s idealism for he is going to give
us that state of affairs when by and by we
"'<> into glory. Hence he describes the perfect,
society. “Love never faileth.” The perfect
will come by and by. We see now in a mirror
darkly the reflection of things not very clear
ly, then we shall see him and each other face
to face. There is a transfiguration of charac
ter. As we see in the mirror here we get
a blurred image of our Lord, but by and by
i he image will be clear.
A Mother’s Love.
A mother’s love is about the only love that
seems to stand for this within the range of
our observation. The mother can love her child
when the child is ungrateful. The mother can
love the child when the child strikes back.
A mother can love when there is no thought
of ministry from the child. I have in my mind
the picture of a mother with grey hair in the
city of Brooklyn, sitting by the side of her
son who was then thirty-seven years old, a
poor, idiotic boy, and friends tried to induce
her to send him to a home for the feeble-mind
ed. but she persisted in his childhood in keep
ing him, ministering to him and he was there
thirty-seven years old as weak and helpless
as a baby, and that mother like an angel of
ministry day and night. I can think of noth
ing else on earth to compare to it. ft is the
love of Jesus Christ reflected from the mirror
of a mother’s heart, and now ami then upon
earth you find something like that. David and
Jonathan had something akin to it. Jonathan
so loved David that he was willing that he
should be king; that he should occupy his own
throne. And David so loved Jonathan that he
was not careful about his own interests; he
wanted to seek Jonathan’s.
When we were in the Lake district last sum
mer I was impressed with the fact that but for
an unselfish friendship Coleridge would not
have been the man he was, or Wordsworth
would not have been the man he was. It was
the friendship behind that made it possible for
them to devote themselves to their life work.
Napoleon Bonaparte stands out as a colossal
example of selfishness, political selffishness at
least, and yet, down underneath the crust of
his political ambition, prompted by selfishness,
there is something like love that his own men
could be wrapped about him with such ten
drils of affection that they were willing to live
or die for him.
The Lord Jesus Christ has given us the ex
ample of love that towers up above everything
else. He is the incarnation of the 13th chap
ter of Ist Corinthians. When you have read
it through write after it “Jesus loved like
that.” That is what makes Jesus what he is,
so perfect, in character ,and Jesus what he is.
ing in the heart and life creates redemption.
Are we willing to serve Jesus Christ with
out any reward? A friend of mine in America
preached for some time to the cowboys in the
West. One day he preached on “Steward
ship.” Five or six hundred of those cowboys
Were converted in the meeting, and among the
audience was a rich ranchman that owned sev
eral acres of land, covered with cattle and
horses, herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, and
droves of horses. And when ray friend had
finished that sermon this rich ranchman came
up to him and said, “I would like a word with
you, sir.” They walked out down the hill till
they came to a sheltering rock, with a beauti
ful landscape stretched out before them. The
ranchman seemed deeply moved. He was
trembling from head to foot as he looked up
into the face of my friend and said, “Mr.
Trewitt, this morning I thought these acres of
land were mine, I thought those flocks of
sheep were mine, but I have learned that the
cattle and the sheep and the land and my poor
soul as well, all belong to Jesus Christ, and
from this time on he shall have them. And I
shall not ask him any return. Just because
I love him I want to give him everything I
have and am.”
There came before our official board years
(Continued on page 16.)