The times., 1901-04-22
THE GOLDEN RULE OF LIFE
Rev. Frank VI. Bristol breaches
About Love and Its Influence.
Text Taken From PauI's Teachings-
Faith Not the keynote of Happf-
ness - Leads TO Intolerance - The
History of Divine Beneyolence.

ness - Leads to Intolerance - The
| History of Divine BenevoIence.
| AT tho Metropolitan Methodist Episcopal
| Church yesterday morning Rev. Frank NJ.
! Bristol spoke on the subject. The Great
| est Of These Is Love-" his text being
! taken from the thirteenth verse. the thir
/ teenth chapter of Corinthians. He said,
| in part:
Words such as these have a peculiar
| significance coming from the mouth of
Paul, who. before his enlightenment was
a preacher of persecution. Formerly he
thought that of all great virtues loyalty
to the authorized creed and dogma was
the greatest. He would have said in his
first days OF preaching The greatest of
these is faith He thought that he was
| doing service to his religion. and his
Lord when he consented to the death of
Stephen He thought that it was right
to breathe out death and destruction to
all who believed otherwise than he be-
ieved.
The people who think that the great
est Of these is faith are always bigots
and harsh. There were the Jews, who
| cIucihed Christ, and sacrificed him to
their idea OF faith because he did not be-
! lievc as they did. There were the Cath
! olics who sent Savanarola to the stake
| because he dared to take liberties with
! his own thoughts, and to intimate that
! Catholicism might not be iHNulnerable at
/ all points There was the Protestant
| Church. which drove away the Pilgrims.
and finally there are the Pilgrims in our
! own land who drove away Roger Will
| Jams. They were all intolerant because
they believed that the greatest of these
| is faith
| There is no intolerance in those who
believe that the greatest of these is love
Believe that love is the highest, and the
| scales fail from your eyes as they did
from Paul's Then you can see the great
er kindness of God, his glory, and life's
best significance. 1t was so with the
apostle. and he went forth to preach with
quite new religion in his heart. He
had accepted a new faith, and he did not
breathe forth any more OF his thundcrous
denunciations against all who believed not
as he did. He had no more threats with
which To frighten. He went forth in
spirit of Kindness to preach doctrine of
charity. His own past Intolerance made
him emphasize more and more the doc
trine of love. He had to preach down all
the evil he had done in the years of his
preaching. and he had TO make amends
by exhibiting in it's highest light the
greatest glory of a Christian life-God's
love-'God is love.
That is the condensation OF the entire
Christian doctrine. 1t means more than
any one thing that has ever been said.
Love is the concentration of all the great
and wonderful qualities of God All
created being reflects the goodness of
God, just as the picture reflects the art
of the painter, and the statue reflects the
| cleverness OF the sculptor's chisel.
In this great day when there is so
much that is beautiful In the world, one
cannot go far abroad and not realize that
| it was created out OF goodness. Who can
see the lily and not be sure that God
| created it 10 rejoice the eyes of the
| human creature, 1t is so everywhere As
! the world moves on. it finds that kind
| friend has been along the path preparing
! the way. 1t was love that stored the
I gold in the bowels OF the earth, and that
| stored layer over layer Of coal for future
] ages. Love put everything where il would
appear with the touch Of the magic wand
! OF science. Every miracle that the Saw
lOur wrought was an evidence of his holy
sympathy with the world.
'Christs wisdom. which was all divine
ana potent, was at the beck and call of
| his love. The Bible is d history of di-
vine beneVolence-the tale of Gods love
.
Tor moment; the most conspicuous char
acterlstic Of the human race is their in
gratitude for all this loving benevolence
Ihe Bible breaches love eVeryWhere-
! the whole decalogue is to be condensed
into one statute, Thou must love Cod
with al thy might and thy neighbor as
myself The Golden Rule is nothing more
than a new version of the decaIoeIIe a nd
the doctrine Of love. Yet again in the
Bible 1t is said that God gave his only
Degotten Son to save the world because
ne loved it-not because he was so power
fui.
All this seems to argue in favor of an
emotional religion. 1t seems TO me that
the only satisfactory religion is an emo
elonsi eooasi,, religion. Christianity is an
emotional religion, for love is at the bot
tom or II all, Yet all wise men must
Know the difference between ernotionaI-
ISM and fanaticism. Pity, JOY, pleasure.
pam, sorrow love repentance-all are
integral parts of life and religion, and all
are emotions. If you take the emotions
from life II is as a grape that has been
through the wine press. II one man re-
fuses 10 give his intellect to his religion
ne becomes too emotional and a fanatic
lie VINO gives too much intellect becomes
dry and lOVelesS. The broad Christian
gives his whole existence and reaches
the perfection through a deyeloDuent of
all his faculties In the light of religious
truth
The whole purpose Of Christianity is
10 clip, prune, develop and sanctify the
emotions. II we We're able to do that
carefully and completely there would be
no need for Jails. Above all things nut
love, which Is the leader of all Since
the first man committed murder the
"hole history Of the world has been hung
with crepe. eras have been born in the
! wombs Of beiching cannon. all because
the world would persistently crush under
FOOT the great law Of love Yet more and
more men are coming into a reaIizatIon
or what the great love means and The
dawn OF the day when it will reign su-