The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-04-01
CHARITY The SUM OE RELIGION.

People OF the SOuIhs
IsPEo1AL REPORT FOR THE EVENING TELEGRAPH
love is the fulfilling OF the Law"Romans xiii 10.
When Moses, and the blessed Saviour after
him, would sum up religion IN cne or two preg-
nant and glorious sentences, crowding together
both tables of the law, mans duties to God and
his -uttering both the principle and che
practice OF religion, they tell us that the first
great commandment is, " Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy
soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy
strength" and that the second is like unto 1t,
namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy
SELF" that ION these two commandments hang
all the law aud the prophets" The Apostle Paul,
reducing tho law to a still narrower compass,
declares that it is fulfilled IN Que word namely,
love. And the Apostle John, animated by the
same spirit, and taxing even subllmer
fight, tells u.s. as if in holy song, "God is love,
and he that ,dwelleth in love dwclleth in God
and God in him.
The meaning of all which seems to be not
only that holy, blessed, glorious charity is the
chief grace IN all the range of being-not only
that it IS the very eye and heart and soul of
religion, but also its very essence its COM
pleted sum. This one divine word. holds
aud means aud utters it all. Oh,
TO get the worldwide meaning of that utterance,
so catch and be ravshed by the sweetness oft
Divine note, to experience IL in the depths of the
heart to 1--we il in the daily doingl But let us
address ourselves to our text. The theme it
furnishes is that love or charity is the sum Of
religion. "
This will appearif we remember that religion
has its source its inspiration, and its pattern in
the Divine nature. Shall we dare attempt to set
forth what that nature is? Snail we lift our
feeble pencil TO draw the Divine character? In
a aTeverent and humble spirit we think we may.
Searching the Almighty we cannot find Him
out to perfection" and yet to come
undcrstaDdingy to God, to copy Him. at our
great and humble distance, into ourselves, we
must have some truthful conception of His
character. With our souls in the dust let us
then ask what is God2 The common sense of
Chrisendom returns answer:-"An infinite and
eIernal Spirit, almighty, omnlpresent, omnl-
scient, all holy" How do His works
speak? What is their voice as to His
character? We reply the world is beautiful;
and beauty is the natural roDiug of goodness
Ii sin and cruelty sometimes arm themselves
with the power of beauty, it Is only as
the robber wears q handsome mask, or as
Satan comes to his work in the dress
OF an angel of light. Whatever hardness or
pain, or suffering, may be Ong to the creation
of God IS exceptional, and not in the original
idea, Nothing, for example, was put into the
animal frame of man for the ultimate purpose
of producing pain, but the contrary. The eye
As capable Of the keenest suffering from even
slight injury, and yet 1t was evidently Termed,
with all its beauty, skill, and delicacy, not tor
suffering but for the delights OF seeing, and as
a means of gathering knowledge and making
man happy Only think of the oceans, of the
through the eye! The glories OF sky, earth,
and sea, the varying faces of friends ali
picture themselves on the eye and thence
send Their thrilling pleasures to the soul. The
and made to ache; but it was intended as the
music gallery, the orchestra of the mint, to
appropriate the hum OF the zephyr, the trill of
birds of everv note, the twang of the harp, the
touch of the piano, the rich blast of the trum-
pet, the silver peal of churCh-bells, the voices
OF singing men and singing women in the sub
lime oratorio, the gentle melody, the holy songs
and anthems OF the Church, and the sweet
voices of husband and wife, brother
and sister, and the fairy, melting prattle
OF our little chIldren Oh, what love there
was n 10 IF
How the Creator laid the foundations of enjoy
ment tor His creatul es when He gave seeing and
hearing TO the SOUL The same is true in a
lower degree, but not less maniestly, OF the in
ferlor senses, Take, for example, the taste
Divine munifcence has not on given US the
substantials of life, the fields of corn and wheat
the cattle and sheep; these gratty the taste in
coarser way. Besides and above these He has
provided the beautiful and luscious peach, the
pear, with its almost melting sweetness, the
delicious strawberry and raspberry, and other
berries with the nama Of legion, grapes in
uncOunted variety, color, and flavor;
melons without number of the most gratifying
taste. These gifts, and others like them too
numerous to be counted, present the great
Father to us in the light not merely or bene-
factor and provider, but as revelling in the
joy and delight OF gratifying, of pleasing our
fancy, Of giving us more than is needful, more
than is merely comfortable and excellent OF
pouring upon us superfuous blessing even the
very highest luxury of innocent qualification.
Do we not see in all this the heart of tenderest
ana most delicate love! Is III not Ike a
father, who, besides feeding, clothing,
educating his children in comfort, buys
the choicest toys for the little ones
pocket-knives, skates, and ponies tor the boys
and extra adornments for the girls? God has
added to the world of the useful another world
of the beautiful. Who can look on all the
beauty OF the world, who can hear the warble
OF its melody, who can think of its aboundlng
luxury, without feeling, without having 1t sink
into MS soul that God is love? True, as we have
said the eye and the ear may suffer; true the
delicacies of the palate are capable Of abuse,
and may become lead IN the stomach and poison
in the blood, but they were evidently made for
our delight and impress upon us the molly,
blessed lesson of the Divine love.
But even the Affections of life have a side
where love discloses itself. IT the eye which
paints beauty on the souls canvas may smart.
If the ear which is rayished by music may ache
ii the palate which Is gratifed by peach and
strawberry may become diseased, is it not
because sin has come into the gworld? Is not
all suffering in some sense penal? Can ii De
otherwise under q wise and righteous Proyi
dence? We may not be able to show how. Il
the world had never sinned, 1t had never sut
fered; but the whole scheme OF what We
call nature seems 70 have benevolent
drift the pain and suffering seem tC
be incidental, something brought in uDor
and counter to the scheme of nature
trammelling and crippling its operation, anC
making the impression Of an alien and hostile
force from which itproceeds. What is that hos
tile force but sin That force removed, or haVm!
never entered, the Divine scheme had dOubtes
proceeded according to its fundamental idea 0
perfect righteousness yoked with perfect happt
But sin having entered, pain had to folio
as a Vndcation of the perfect righteousness 0
God. And as parents are as full Of genuine low
when they wisely chastise their children as whei
Iney caress them, as often chastise
NJ no mt To