The Penn's Grove record., 1903-08-14
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE BY THE
REV. DONALD D. MacLAuRlN.
The Distinguished Divine Delivers a
Sermon Which is as Scholarly and


Sermon Which is as Scholarly ant
Readable as Any of Recent Years.
New York CfTY.-Dr. Donald D. Mac
| morning in st. Johns M. E. Church to I
large audience. His sermon was the frs
in a series on "The Greatest Thing in the
World" DIR. MacLaurin said:
l have most earnestly sought to brine
you on successive Sundays the best min
istry I have yet been able to give you
that your lives may be broadened anC
deepened and lifted up into higher realm:
of spiritual achievement; and ] could find
that which is suggested by the chapter
which I read to you, the thirteenth chap
Ter of Paups first epistle of the church al
Corinth. And so for eight weeks, we shall
have our texts from this chapter; and this
morning you will find our text in the first
verse Of the first chapter of First CORN.
thians: eft l speak with the tongues Of
men and angels, but have not love, I am
become sounding brass or a changing
cymbal."
Nor must we not think that we shall be.
come tired of this wonderful theme. Did
you ever know any one to become weary OF
9 diamond? Among the gems of the Lord
God is found this chapter, and though ]
do not profess to be a skillful lapidary to
bring out its flashing facets, I think, with
the aid of the divine spirit, we shall find
in each service something fresh and helpful
and new.
This chapter has been in all ages of the
church especially admired; would that it
had received in all the ages of Christian
history that more practical and valuable
appreciation which would have been ex-
perienced by a practice Of its principles
and an acceptance of its precepts. Ter
f,1H1op said tsTf - ,,4toroI x,,tL II IL
force Of the spirit" and the great thinker
is right. As l have pondered it for several
years with ever growing interest, I have
come to feel that, indeed, mortal faculty
could never have written it. It never
could have sprung from the brain or heart
of even so great a man as Paul, unless hea-
ven had given him the inspiration. 1t is,
dear friends, an utterance of heaven,
1t is a glorious hymn or pean in honor
of Christian love, sung, as we have inti-
mated, by the Apostle Paul when soaring
up or the wings of inspiration into the
very heights of Christian eloquence. Like
the Forty-ffth Psalm, it may be f~ttingly
called the Psalm of Love-" and not in
frequently your speaker will so designate
it~in these Sunday morning services. 1t
has the form of poetry; it has the inspira-
ton of poetry; it has the coloring of the
finest poetry. And if you could read it in
W. HOoAo tAN lit VI
its imagery, as it is impossible for you to
do in the best English version. 1t seems
a PROCLAMATION to attempt its exposition.
1t seems like Analysing a rose or dissect-
ing a nightingale to take these principles
apart one from another for the necessary
analysis in the progress of our work. But
it is SO full of the very heart of the gospel
message that we would be cowardly were
We not to attempt the exposition.
The n0cltinn of the nca1ro in +ha bnol-
in which it is found heightens its effect.
You find it in the midst of lengthy argu-
ment. 1t reminds US very much of an
oasis of towering palm trees and spring
ing. flowers and running brooks in the
midst Of a desert of sand. On either side
is argument. is tumult; and right in the
midst of all bursts forth his sublime song.
1t is very much like the song of the sweet
voiced school children in the midst of
their hard work and the babel of their
fagfsa gg g Rs & ssiassn El se9t5saf 4 the PIT Of
easily imagine the deepening hush that
must have fallen on the Corinthian church
as they read this chapter, and we can
imagine, too, the CONSERVATION produced
IN the minds of those Christians as they
discovered one after another their favorite
gifts or favorite possessions swept away
by the great teacher. For Paul here
shows that love is the one essential of
Christian life. Love did you say? Love.
that soft sentiment that ~hard-headed men
say belongs to women and children. Do
you mean to say that this is the spirit Of
his language? That is precisely what the
apostle formulated. He afirms most ex-
plicitly the absolute worthlessness OF life
without love. Love at the beginning of it;
love at the end of it; love filing the whole
space between. Love at the end is not
the same as love at the beginning. 1t is
richer, grander, nobler, diviner. But
without the first love the other could never
be. The blossom and the f~ruitage be-
speak the rootage, and the seed and the
flower and the tree. And unless o have
the first love-1ove for God-in your heart,
the love that shall engage our attention on
Sunday mornings will be a stranger to your
experience. IF / speak with the tongues
OF men and angels, but have not love, 1
am become sounding brass or a Changing
cymbal." 1t would seem as if all the
Corinthian church were eloquent speakers,
or at least were eloquent hearers; and let
me say that eloquent hearers are as essen
tai as eloquent speech. The Corinthian
Christians were distinguished for their gifts
IN this direction: and so the apostle, know
ing 1t, knowing them right well, for he
was their father in the gospel, he imposes
them capable of speaking In every tongue
that rose from the lips of men or angels.
That were they to have all and were des-
titute OF love they were nothing but sound
ing brass or changing cymbals. How hard
tins must have been on those people who
cherlshed ~eloquence as more easy to I'M
aglne than to describe. for they placed
great store by their gift of tongues and
their eloquence of speech. And do you
know we are often placing the emphasis
at their wrong place. We are often guilty
Of that characteristic folly. These CORN
thians were often putting the emphasis
where the emphais should not be. What
Paul affirms and what the Gospel afirms
over and over again is that it is not speech,
that it IS not doing but being, that God re-
CARDS. Being is finer than doing; finer
than saying; finer than any expression
which it is possible for it to make of itself.
Now, let US consider, if you please, in
the first place, wherein love is superior to
the most eloquent speech. eff / speak
with the tongues of men and angels, but
have not love, | am become sounding brass
or a Changing cymbal." What is Chris
tran love! It is more easily described than
defined. That is precisely what the
apostle has done in this great psalm of
love. He nowhere defines it. He simply
describes 1T, giving som fifteen character
lstics of it. Indeed, I do not know where
love Is defined in the entire Bible, nor do
| know a definition for it. You have heard
the STORY OF the Iedchef or psychol0gy, VINO
upon receiving a new class at the begin
ming of the term, instead Of giving them a
lecture, he asked one of the members of
the class to define the human soul; and
the young man rose and said: ''The human
soul is that faculty that thinks and feels
and determine;" another member of the
class added that the soul is immaterial.
And then he said, will you tell me what
the soul is not; and the young man had
the sense to say, II do not know" and
the great professor, whose familiarity with
the subject is felt throughout the contin-
ent, replied, Nor more do l." And l
in the world,
were he asked to define IoSse, and if he was
honest and candid as the teacher of psy-
GEOLOGY he would say, mo more do J."
That which comes nearest to being a de-
fnition of love is the summary of the di-
vine law of the Old Testament and the
New. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart and with all thy mind,
and with all thy strength, and thy neigh
Dor as myself. But this is not a defini-
ton Of love; nor would it apply, especi-
ally the former part of it to the love under
consideration now. 1t is not the reverent
lore of the heart to God, but it is that
mysterious bond that unites men, the one
to the other. A love that exists between
people OF a common spiritual experience.
It is as DR.. Dodds well SAYS: seThe liga-
~noo{ h- xphtoL Al, l1x~ S Jor.-- CL,-.&