The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-01-09


endearment-how hungry and wan
are their little facesl and how shall
they be able to find any real sweet
ness in life7 Everywhere it is love
that brings gladness; everywhere it
is its absence that brings sadness.
Love softens all hardship, soothes all
suffering, alleviates all sorrow. With
out it, all our other best instincts Ian
guish; with it, they are refreshed and
invigorated 1t cheers and sweetens
every soul, it beauties and glorifies
every earthly lot; and all who feel
its gracious influence are able to be-
lieve that life is worth living, how
ever dark or hard the pathway over
which their feet may have to pass.
So long as love builds houses for the
children of men and reigns within
them this world will be full of bless
ing, and the world to come will have
an imperishable attraction for those
whose dear ones have entered behind
the veil.
| Social Value of Love.
Furthermore, it is becoming in
creasingly clear with the lapse Of
time and the widening experience of
mankind that there is great social
value in love. If two individuals
hate each other they are very likely
to iuiure each other. The same thing
is true of classes, tribes, races, ma
tions. Much of the history of the
world is the history of strifes, feuds
and wars, largely engendered by ami
mostly, and in turn engendering this.
great deal of the crime and social
conflict of modern times springs from
a similar source. All this would be
allayed and stopped if Love could
have her voice needed. Love is the
surest peacemaker, pleading with
men to cease quarreling and to deal
justly one with another. And in
these days, when justice needs to be
administered with great wisdom and
fairness, so that the rights and inter
ests Of different classes in modern
society may be secured against the
encroachments of wrong and SO that
some of our difficult social problems
may be rightly and happily solved,
think there is no appeal that needs
to be more strongly and steadily
made to all the people than that they
should let the spirit of love rule in
their hearts while the process of set
thing differences goes on. How shall
men deal justly with one another
when they hate one another? Love
is the true arbitrator, and the strifes
of the world will cease permanently
only when she establishes her reign
side by side with righteousness.
Thus shall all shackles fall; the stormy
clangor
OF wild war music DER the earth shall
| cease;
Love shall tread out the baleful fires of
anger,
And in it's ashes plant tree of peace.
Because of this personal, domestic
and social value of love it is easy to
understand the Importance which
| Jesus attached to it. He summed
up the teachings of the Old Testa-
ment in the two commandments en-
| joining love to God and love to man,
and thereby implied that such was
the essence and substance of his own
Gospel. His meaning is made per-
fectly plain to us by his own rever-
ent and loving life, and as we our
selves enter into deep experience of
the power and beauty of the same
great spirit which characterized him
we feel that his doctrine was indeed
divine message to needy world.
Knowledge of God Through Love.
But now the author of our text
seems to go a step farther than the
Master; or perhaps he presents the
same truth in new light. He tells
us that our surest, if not our only
knowledge of God, comes through
loving our fellowmen, and that when
we have learned to do this Gods
love has accomplished its one great
work. For the Greek verb here rem
dered perfected" is very strong,
meaning completed, consummated,
finished so that the language declares
that, if we love one another, we find
God within ourselves, and his love
fully establishes its reign in our
hearts. In other words, our human
love is none other than the power of
God working within our souls-the
real, felt, conscious presence of the
Divine life within our own lives.
We have hardly been accustomed
to think in this way. We are apt to
suppose that we are to find God by
searching the Scriptures, by study
ing the material universe and by wor-