The Progress., 1893-09-02

cross. Her he commended to the loved
disciple.
In spite Of faults. of deSertion, of de-
NAL. of unfaithfuluess and of cruelty he
loved them. The pharisees hated him
The common people profcssed allegiance.
Judas to be his disciple, Peter sworc
that he would never desert him, and yet
all alike were found with scribe and
pharisee in the end. The common peo-
pie cried. Cruelty him." Judas be
traycd him. and Peter sworc he never
/ knew him. Even his loved disciple he
/ found asleep when he asked that they
watch with him while with anguish of
soul he prayed in the garden. They all
forsook him in the hour of his supreme
trial. and yet he died for them. And on
his return after the resurrection not
single rebuke, only new joy. only as
surance, only love.
Such was the love of Christ. II il
commanded that we shall love men thus
in vital ways; that we shall not love
them merely in sentimental ways. We
shall love one another thus in our bust
ness relations, in our social relations, in
our political relations.
INHUMANITY OF SIN.
On what was this divine love based?
On the intrinsic divinity and nobility of
human life. that it belongs to God. is the
utterance of Gods life and is i'm that
sense an incarnation of the divine. Ev-
erything that is not pure and noble is
4 hal 70 hn
lower nature, to the soil. Jesus Christ
saw in the vilest of the vile this element
of the divine. Hence the love which en-
wrapped his soul and was the main
spring of his mission. He loved the thief
on the cross not for what the thief was.
but for what the aspiration of his soul
declared him to be capable of. Not for
what he had attained, but for what he
might attain. Not for his actual char
acter, but for the image of God, in whose
form he was fashioned.
THE WEAK.
SO we are commanded to love the /
weak, and the criminal, and the helpless, |
and the imprOvident, and the despair /
ing; so we are to bear their burdens in /
= boundless love that shall include the .
race; so we should love with mothers
undying hope. And, if humanity can
not reach this ideal. human life must be-
come starless. orphaned one The ca
pacity of the heart is the measure of the
depth of human need. The object may
be all unworthy. but love loves on. SO
Jesus loved the unworthy. So he min
istered unto them. So he lived for them
and died for them.
THE POOR ALWAYS WITH US.
II is tlis principle that must solve the
problem of the poor, who will always be
with US. 1t is this divine aspect of love
that makes life as worthy as we find it
today even in the midst of sin and of
shame and of sorrow. Bill Sykes could
slay the woman who had given every
thing for him. and yet while he slays
her, while he brltally beats her from day
10 day, she crawls back to his den. faith
ful to that higher. to that holier instinct.
which calls in love for sacrifice-sacri-
ice at all hazards. Love suffereth long
md is kind because of the greatness OF
he heart.
If we could only infuse this great
thought into the heart of the race. the
problem is solved. A mother recently
)etitioned the governor of state for the
pardon of a boy. The boy was guilty of
he crime for which he was serving the
sentence. Ii was case of most aggra-
rating circumstances. But the mother
vas so persistent in her appeals, so elo-
Iucnt in her expressions of love, that her
devotion so moved tn
leart of the governor that he wrote out
he pardon for the boy. And when the
10Y came into his presence he said to
i'm: Young man, you do not deserve
he pardon. Your crime is without ex-
use But for the sake of this mother and
or the matchless love she bears for you,
nd the possibility of that love working
our salvation, give to you this par
on
A DRUNKEN MOTHER.
Such love is the power unto salvation,
10Th for the individual and for society.
l mother was arraigned in police
ourt charged with drunkenness. She
4. :