Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1872-01-05
The Power Of Love.
ny HENRY WARD BEEcHER.

ny HENRY WARD BEECHER.
IT Is easier, I think, to persuade a
thousand people to believe in the doctrine
of the Trinity it is easier to take thou
sand people through all the intricaces of
the old forensic view of the at0nement
IL is easier to indoctrinate men in the
whole of the Calvinistic scheme-the five
points of Calvinism it is easier to take
them through the whole routine of tech.
nical theology, than to ground them in
this one truth, that the law of force
is the law of kindness--first, middle, and
last, kindness.
Our impulse is to press matters, first
outwardly, and then, as the next higher
step, we press them passionately. And
we organize so as to compel men with
seventies. There are very few who feel
that every step in life, taken when we are
| dealing with the sentient souls of our fell
low men, is better taken when we take
il in the gentleness of love, than when we
take it by any form of rude force. There
are very few who feel that you are to be
kind to the erring; kind to those who
offend you kind TO those that persecute
you, that despitefully use you, and hate
you kind to those who would send you
to hell if they could. There are very
few who feel that you are to be kind all
the time, and that you should make no
| progress but that which you can make by
kindness and gentleness, and that it is
anti-C Christian to slap and pinch, and
knock, and pierce, and hurt, and annoy.
How hard it is to get this into mems
minds ,',.
Well, here l sit, talking as though /
were penetrated with this feeling and
| yet it may be that the first thing ! do to-
morrow morning will be to overthrow my
whole doctrine, by severely judging some
| tellow-man who has done wrong, and
| speaking harshly of him, and iustifying
myself by saying, Well, he deserves it"
| go among good men, and | see some
who teach me lesson every time meet
them. Their patience is my master. Their
| forbearance is my model. Their sweet
ness is my despair. | see some persons
who think have the mind and will of
| Christ. They are full of benevolence and
| goodness, Their influence upon men is that
which can only be produced by kindness.
! There are a great many others who are
! good in the main, who in the main live
| right, who have very high ideal of life,
! but into whom you can hardly beat the
/ thought that it is not their province to
smite somewhere, or sometime, or some
how; that kindness is the disposition
which every man should forever carry,
and that it is by the continuous force of
! goodness, well applied and necessarily
| applied, that yon are to make your way
among men.
The beauty of it is that when it is done,
and where it is dsne, it is invariably con-
| sistent with truth-speaking. Was there
ever anybody in this world that spoke the
truth more fully than mother to little
child? When was there ever in speaking
! the truth love more tender and more gen
| tie than mothers whose eyes are full of
tears when the child's are dry, in speak
ing the truth to the child? This spirit of
kindness and gentleness is not inconsis
tent with justice, for love is the highest
| justice in the universe. God is just be-
cause he loves. A God without love Gf
you can conceive of such GOd) is a God
of infinite injustice
! Most leotJiv tliIIlA IIIdt wnen We spc'th
| of love and Kindness, we mean mere in
difference; that we mean benevolence
which is mere moonshine; that we mean
a religion which is than and unfructify-
ing; that we mean an amiableness which
! is without force. No, that is not what we
mean. The love which was in Christ
Jesus, which wrought in the councils of
heaven, which brought the Son Of God to
earth, and which bore him through his
human experience, and led him into
| Gethsemane, and from Gethsemane to
Calvary, and from Calvary to Bethany
and from Bethany, by his ascension, back
to heaven, where he now holds matter by
the right hand of universal power-that
love is replete with force, and is edged
with truth, and is radiant with justice,
and is itself supernal 1t is glorious in
heaven, and full of wonderful blessed
ness on earth. And when we are disci-
pies of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall
know it by this, that we love our fellow
men, and that our hearts so out, not only
to those who are good, but to those who
are bad; and more to those who are bad
than to those who are good, that we may
love them out of their imperfections, and
and make them like the sons 81 God.
Now, to be able to look at everybody
without Disgusting the truth, to be able
to see things in their true light, but to be
able to see them in such large spirit of
true human sympathy that you wish every
body well-that though they do wrong
you wish them well, and wish they
might be taught to do better; to be
able to bear and forbear with men,
and to be just, especially toward those
who have no chance to speak for
themselves-toward the absent; to be
able to be just in yourthoughts, and never
to severely judge your fellow men in that
silent court where we arraign people with
out witnesses, and examine them, and try
them, and form our judgments of them
to be able at all times, and under all cir
cumstances, to exercise a feeling of sym
pathy and love toward men-that is hard.
1t may be easy to you, but it is hard for
me and there are some other folks that
see in theyorld whom it is hard for, too.
Christian Union.