The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-03-28

TN this great chapter of Paul, we
get many rich sermons. Here we
find the declaration that love is a
deathless principle in the human
soul. Qaenchless its flame. Eter-
nal its GLOW. In it are hidden the
imperishable qualities that are
pledge of mans Immortality. 1t is
the deep undercurrent that will flow
on when all other streams have spent
themselves. 1t is the one great mys-
terry in which are shrined all other
mysteries of human life. 1t is the
deep that has never been sounded.
It's sweep is back of all worlds. Its
scope is as vast as the Universe, for
"God is Love-" 1t is therefore the
only deathless principle in the Uni
verse.
What world of gloom and desola-
ton this would be without love-a
scene of perpetual darkness. All
the beauty of this outer world would
be a hollow mockery. Its music
would be discord. Its light would
be darkness. Perpetual strife would
rage in the human breast-a storm
there would be no voice to calm.
Hope would die. Weary searchers
after peace would seek in vain. Only
80 many receptions would be the
teeming beauties of this world and
the glory of the sky. No ties to bind,
no warmth to blend, what harmony
could exist between soul and soul?
Human life would be a painless
wilderness, desert of without
love. The most regal home is a
palace of ice without love. Oh what
frigged cline! Existence how
merciless Its every boundary weary
wastel Infinitely preferable world
of pain with love, than a world of
pleasure without it.
Let all other gifts fail and there
will be happiness if love remains; in
the humblest home, peace. Love is
the root of happiness. Binding souls
together in deathless union, feeding
the deepest sympathies and the holt
est affections, answering the strongest
yearnings, giving itself in sacrifice
oh what a mysterious thing love isl
In the mothers heart it is only faint
type of what it is in the heart Of God.
However deformed, the mother will
see something in her child to love.
Love is Gods mission, and down be-
meath all that blights he sees some
thing in his children to love.
It seems hard for men to compre-
bend the wondrous truth that love is
the supreme power in this universe,
and the noblest quality in the souls
of men. In the truest sense love
makes human life human-the love
that lifts its tendrils to take hold on
God and heaven.
Take love out of the human heart
and all its humanity will be gone,
all life's beauty, all its melody, all
it's sweetness. A discordant note will
be the softest key you touch. The
ties are sundered that bind heart to
heart, man to man, nation to nation,
earth to heaven. All fraternal cords
are broken. Destroyed for ever the
ties of friendship that unite the home
circle in deathless fidelity. The
father will disown his child; the
mother will forsake her helpless
babe; what a spectacle of desolation
is this world if robbed of love! The
altar fires of the heart gone out;
gone all sympathy and tenderness
and warmth. Gone the gentle min
istries that bind up the broken heart.
Gone the immortal beauty of the
soul, gone the image of God
Strange that doctrines are held
teaching that the future world will be
like this! Loving natures here to be
heartless beings there. If true the
doctrines we have heard, heaven will
be a place OF eternal heartlessness.
Here in this life without love the
soul would wither and die. Here in
this life it is love that gives nobility
and strength to manhood, grace and
sweetness to womanhood. What will
it do for us in the futures Will it
slumber there? Will it change?
Will it fade out of the soul' Will it
perish7 Will it fail2 Love never
faileth." Prophecies may fail, tom
CUES may cease, knowledge may van
ish away; but "love never faileth,"
Other gifts may be supplanted by
higher and grander possessions, but
love will remain the same. 1t will
grow in strength; it will increase in
fervor; it will expand in its reaches;
it will become more effulgent and
intense, richer in divine sweetness; it