The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1899-07-21
AN INTERESTING SERMON.
Rev. DR.. Coultas' Discourse on "LOve'
Sunday Morning.

OOulbaS " u, are always interesting
but a sermon preached by the Methodist
divine on Sunday morning was express
sive of such beautiful thought and
sentiment that it is presented in part
below. The subject was Glove. and
the speakers text was from:
Matt. %: 1910. "Then one of them
which was lawyer asked him a ques-
ton, tempting him and saying Master
which is the great commandment in the
law Jesus said unto him. Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy
mind The second is like unto
it Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy
SELF
"The Talmud recognized six hundred
and thirteen precepts. Which OF these
was the greatest was in dispute among
the people. The question was put to
our Lord evidently to entangle him in the
controversy, for if he exalts one he will
thereby depreciate the others. But his
answer is not exclusive but inclusive
Since He announces as the great COM
mandment, that which is the life back
of all the precepts relating to practical
religion there can be no controversy.
Love is that state of the soul which keeps
the whole law, and obeys every COM
mandment of God not from compulsion
but from inclination.
eff God and man are loved supremacy
all the precepts of practical religion are
observed. This commandment then is
as great as all the others combined on
the principle that 'the whole is equal to
the sum of all its parts.
Love for God and man as sentiment
of the soul, and force in the life is that
which is supremely demanded in the
Gospel. God is not satisfied with
forced and unloving submission of the
will and conformity of the life to some
of his requirements He wants such
harmony of all the forces of the being
with him that the heart may see him,
and seeing him love him, with love
that becomes scepter controlling the
whole life God has always asked for
the human heart. All His command
ments have been to that end. The pur-
pose of law has ever been and still is to
prepare the way for the reign of love,
and ultimately to be absorbed in love.
Gods first great law was the law OF love,
and this lie designs as the last. Com
partnership with himself the companion
ship of love was his original government
over the sinless pair. All the law he
has ever given has been designed to re-
store that companionship, and find in
that its ful6llment He did not intend
that the commandments of Sinai should
be final. He intends only that they
shall arrest man in his rebellion until he
can speak to him again@speak from
Calvary, speak in love, and win once
more the obedience of the heart. It is to
this Paul refers when he speaks about
being ''dead to the law" and delivered
from the law" We express it in a re-
frain we sing:
Free from the law o happy condition.
"Jesus hath died and there Is remission.
1--WE do not mean that we are free
to violate the commandments OF the
Decalogue because Christ has died for
the remission Of our sins, but that in
proportion as by our faith in the saliva
ton of the Gospel we are brought under
the new law, or rather the old law, the
original law of love, we are free from the
law of commandments. We are dead to
the law in proportion as we live in Christ.
We are delivered from the law il pro-
portion as we serve in newness of spirit.
We are free from the law in proportion
as we do the things required in the law
out of love. The whole scheme of the
Gospel is to win man to the dominion
of love. The purpose of God in Jesus
Christ is to bring human life and con-
duct from under the compulsion of
Sinai-and put them under the drawings
of Calvary, so that man will no longer
be driven by law but drawn by love.
1.-THE mission of Christ contemplates
not merely the reformation of mans
outer life, but the winning of his affec-
ton to God, so that the obedience OF the
life will be but expression of the complete
conquest of the heart.
s'The new birth then is the greatest
doctrine of the Gospel. To be born
means to come into life but it means al
so to come into a family. To be born
of grace means to come into new
spiritual life, but it means also to come
into the family of God, back again I'M
der the government of the family rela-
ton. God wants us to be born again;
to come into the beginning of that life,
the complete development of which will
make unnecessary the law of command
ments, because we are under the do
minion of love.
"In the feelings of earthly parents we
find interpreted something of the senti-
ment of the great Father respecting us.
Where is the father who does not desire
more than the obedience of his son
Though there is the most perfect obedi-
ence, if with it there is suspicion on the
part of the father that the motive is that
of compulsion that his son has no love
for him, his heart is well nigh broken.
He wants more than obedience; he wants
the love of a son.
81 know man, whose child is
deaf and dumb. and as is often
the case with the weakest of the house
hold is an object of peculiar affection.
The father sent his child to an institution
for the education of the deaf and dumb
He did not know that in these modern
times the dumb are taught to actually
speak. He thought only of his child
lnarnino the sion 1anouaOa ftar