Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1898-07-01

ident Brainerd Before the Graduating
Glass of 90, NIiddlebury College, sun
day. June &c.
FRomans xii:1o.-Love worketh no i'll to his
neighbor therefore love is the fulfilling Of the
law.
Love and law have had each its partial aCvo-
Gates The partisans of law claim that
natural affection is not a trustworthy guide in
life; that in fact it often impels to wrong
doing. Natural affection inclines the Judge to
pity and pardon the culprt, when Justice and
the public good require his imprisonment; it
leads the father to screen his guilty son from
merited punishment. Love for friends and
associates often influences one to follow them in
wrong doing, even to plunge with them into
crime and treason. No. it is not safe, they
say, to follow love as the supreme motive Of
action; the law Of right is the sovereign power;
she is always to be obeyed and she alone
Why do men honor the name OF Brutus, the
elder consul? Because when his two sons
were found guilty of treason his sense Of duty
as a chief magistrate of Rome overcame, after
brief struggle, his feelings as father, and he
babe the lctors put his own sons the first to
death. 1t is not, they say, the soft hand and
the gentle voice of love that should guide us
in life; it is rather stern-faced duty, the SOW
ereign voice of conscience, the eternal law Of
right
But on the other hand the advocates Of
love claim that law alone produces a cold,
repulsvc morality The man who is actuated
solely by a regard for right may be very grand
and holy, but he is likely to be removed from
human sympathes. to lack the grace and
sweetness which attract and win and mould
the hearts Of others He stands out from
among men like some isolated mountain peak
with its snowy summit in the sunlight-sub-
lime and pure, but unapproachable, cold and
barren. Such a man. they say. is not the one
best fitted to do good to his fellow men; he
has not the love to impel him. lie may be
always Just, but not often generous. such
man does not appreciate others, for only the
eye Of love can see all Of another's good quail
ties. Such man may not censure and de
prccatc a nclghbors faults with profit; for re-
| proof must be surcharged with love, if 1t is to
reach the heart and mend the life. The aus
tere servant of conscience, they say, is GER
tainly not the ideal set before us in the life and
teaching of Christ. In all his actions men did
not see so much his reverence for duty as his
love for man. Love is made in his gospel the
central, all-embracing principle the origin of
all commandments the fulfilling of the law,
the choicest Of the graces.
With such arguments men are accustomed
to contend for the supremacy Of law, or OF
love; and as often happens in human contests,
b0H are for the most part IN the right. 1t is
the old story of the two men who quarreled
over the painting on a double-faced sign
board which hung out over the way. The one
insisted that it was a unicorn; the other, that
it was a horse. But when in the scutfle which
ensued they had changed places, each saw
that the other was correct.
Love and duty are not rival claimants to our
service. We are not called upon to hate the
one and love the other, or else hold to'the one
and despise the other. Each of these SOW
ereign powers has its separate domain; and
we may serve the one and at the same time be
loyal to the other. Our love for others can
not be too strong and active, nor on the other
hand can our reverence for conscience be too
great. We can have BOTH we should have
both, or we fail of an ideal Christian manhood.
Let us then look more closely into the rela-
tons of love and law as active forces in the
human heart.
l. We shall find, for one thing, that love is
an imbel2ing power, while law is rather
gwiaiRg power. Affection is something in the
heart which is ever stirring us up to action.
1t makes us pity the distressed and seek to re-
ieve them; it starts US off to the bedside of
sick acquaintance to nurse and soothe; it
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