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2 (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.)