XVI. trayed. Charity again is used in popular language in SERMON one of two limited senses. Sometimes it means almsgiving, which, as we are expressly told, may be entirely separated from the grace here sketched for us by the Apostle, and which many false religions, especially those of this country, have set up in an absurd and exaggerated form as a substitute for it. Sometimes again charity means leniency or toleration, as when we speak of a charitable judgement, or construction of another's conduct, which sense indeed corresponds to the feature of believing and hoping all things, but still is merely one form of Christian love wholly unequal to its divine fulness. Let us then from the imperfection of human language to represent this crowning gift of the Gospel, learn to appreciate better its infinite greatness, and to recognize in it that pervading principle, absolutely unknown in any moral system till Christ and His apostles preached it, which has been well described* as "benevolence taken up into religion, the union of God with man, the union of religion with morality, love to man for the sake of love to God, love to God shewing itself in love to man." lessons. 4. And now, brethren, let me close by remind- Concluding ing you of two lessons, to some extent opposite, which the chapter as a whole suggests to us. • By Stanley, On the Epistles to the Corinthians. Other thoughts in this sermon have been suggested by his masterly commentary on this chapter, which, like most of his writings, is marked throughout by the features of charity here described. 202 SERMON Love more i. We should learn from it that the essence of Christianity does not consist in minute correctness of important doctrine. We are told that knowledge shall vanish, rectness of but that love never fails, and that even faith and than cor doctrine. hope are but the attendant handmaidens of love. In fact doctrine is the means, love the end: the object of all Christian teaching is to make us love one another. Yet, undoubtedly, it is much easier for us to use religious language rigidly correct than to maintain inviolate this principle of love. So, in spite of the teaching of this chapter, we are apt to condemn with greater severity those whose doctrinal views appear unsound than those who are deficient in the chief of Christian graces. We are readier to do battle for correctness of opinion than for love unfeigned. We define, and discriminate, and dogmatize, perhaps even where Scripture is silent, we are extreme to mark the least slip in an adversary's language, while we pay little heed to the Apostle's Gal. v. 6. warning, that circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but faith which worketh by love. Let us then henceforth think and act more according to the scriptural estimate of these things, and remember that the end of the commandment is charity. i Tim. i. 5. Yet a fruit of Christianity alone. ii. But on the other hand we must draw one more lesson from the chapter before us, or rather perhaps from the history of its acceptance among men. St Paul's description of charity or love may be called the most popular chapter in the Bible. It is the best known, the most frequently quoted, the XVI. most admired in theory, but also one of the most SERMON perverted. For many persons, who positively reject Christianity, or at least avow indifference to its revealed truths, accept this chapter, and declare that by this only they are content to be bound. This, they say, and this alone, is our religion. Rightly judging that it presents to them the perfection of Christianity, they forget that many steps must be taken before perfection is attained. And thus their assent remains a mere theoretical admiration, they never realize in practice what they profess to approve. For if the chapter warns us against the undue exaltation of Christian doctrines, as contrasted with the Christian life, it also impresses deeply upon the hearts of all, who enter into its spirit, that Christian doctrines are all important for those who desire the Christian life. Only it impresses them upon us, not intellectually, not theoretically, but in a practical spiritual form corresponding to the deepest needs and cravings of the soul. First among these doctrines are the Incarnation and Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. For without His example and His teaching we are sure this the Christian idea of love could not even have been conceived. We feel that if we are ever to approach this idea in our practice, that mind must be in us which was also Phil. ii. 5. in Christ Jesus. We see that His life and character are as it were concentrated in this chapter, and that its teaching is perfectly realized in His own saying, Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay Joh. xv.13. XVI. SERMON down his life for his friends. And another doctrine which it brings before us, with a new and living force, is the conversion of the human heart by the Spirit of God. For it is idle to place before fallen man an ideal standard of excellence, unless the means are given by which he may fulfil it. If we know anything of ourselves, we are sure that in our own strength we cannot obey these precepts, and therefore we seek anxiously for a strength better than our own. We remember that when St James, like St Paul here, was protesting against bitter envying, and strife, and confusion, and every evil work, he spoke of the corrective for them as the wisdom that James iii. cometh from above. The wisdom that is from above, he says, is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy, and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And so we anxiously look above to Him, who is the only source of love and wisdom, and pray Him so to change and sanctify our hearts and inclinations, that we may be enabled to fulfil, in its broadest and deepest sense, Joh. xiii. Christ's new commandment, to love one another. 16, 17. 34. ST JOHN'S, CALCUTTA, 1862. XVII. DANGERS OF PROSPERITY. FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT. 2 COR. VI. 9, 10. As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things, It may be considered a mere truism to say that SERMON XVII. all ages of history, and all circumstances in which Good and we can be placed, have their peculiar dangers, and evil of the yet, in times of fancied security, we are apt to for- present age. get this. Many persons regard this century, in which our lot is cast, with peculiar complacency, they rejoice (and justly) in some of its most striking features, in the progress of civilization, the diminution of open violence, the increased regard for decorum and outward morality, the growing sense of duty, the general acknowledgement that gifts and advantages involve responsibilities. It cannot, I think, be denied that wealth, and power, and this world's comforts are, on the whole, enjoyed less selfishly, certainly less grossly and insolently, in our days than |