The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1903-08-20

New. lnOu SnalC love the LOrQ Jny 0ou
with all thy heart and with all thy mind
and with all thy strength, and thy neigh
Dor as myself. But this is not defini-
ton of love; nor would it apply, especi-
ally the former part of it to the love under
consideration now. It is not the reverent
love 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 common CONNIE spiritual experience sr nee
ment by which the BODY Of Jesus Christ
is bound together. 1t is the cement by
which the stones in the temple are united
into one. That is as near a definition as
you will be able to get from any known
writing. It has Christianity in it. And
SO we sing, and we sing it heartily:
Blessed be the tie that binds our hearts
in Christian love,
The fellowship Of kindred minds is like to
that above"
But though we may not be able to de-
fine this Christian love, we know it when
we see it, when we hear it, and we know
how it appears in the earth. We know
that love seeks with total self-forgetful-
ness the happiness of the object loved,
and so long as we know what it does and
how it behaves itself in the social fabric,
we ought to be quite content. And want
you to notice at this point wherein love
is superior to the most eloquent speech.
Eloquent speech may mean self advertise
ment. Love always means self placement.
''The gift in question:" says the brilliant
Drummond, in his book entitled "The
Greatest Thing in the World" and which
commend to you to read, 'was once
splendid and dazzling. 1t was a brilliant
faculty drawing all eyes to the speaker
and all ears to his voice." 1t is the gift of
eloquence by which a man sways the
He ho IF hoo
Now you can see how man without love,
possessing such a power, gives to himself
advertisement, and the fact is that some
of the most brilliant orators of fame, and
among them occupants of pulpits, are so
fond of themselves and glory so much in
their eloquence, that they forget the other
elements that go to make up manly Chris
tian character. And / want to say to
you that the man possessing that eloquence
is in constant danger. The attraction
which he has for the people always tends
to centre his mind upon himself; and by
and by he gets to be greater if he is not
aware, than the Master Himself whom he
processes to serve and represent.
Love, on the other hand, is self-efface-
istry, alternating the wounds of broken
lives all around. In perfect harmony
with this thought is the teaching of the
Master Himself You remember that
marvellous sermon in the mountain, in
which He says: Gwen so, let your light
shine before men that they shall see your
good works and may glorify your Father
in heaven" The word so" is to be en-
paasized as indicating the manner of the
the eyes as to dazzle the eyes, light may
De held SO close before the eyes of the
world as to dazzle the eyes of the world
You are not to see the shining one, but
you are to see the fruits, the results of the
shining. This is the way with the old
sun itself. You look out upon the lawns
in the parks and the country side, and
than when | visited them soon after my
, ;"rival in this city a few days ago. You
| ,ooh out upon the grass and the growing
grains and the vegetation and the flowers
and you feast your eyes on the beauty and
the wealth of the earth's surface; and you
oegin to say, whence came all this; who is
tue worker; who produced all this; and
| ing yonder in the zenith OF the heavens
| And the old sun, for your termerity, vii
dart his red hot fire into your eyes ano
will leave a mark upon you that you viii
not forget for many day. DO not look
at me; look at the grass; look at the grow
ing grain; look. at the trees--look at the
work, not at the worker. So with God
llulSel. mo HAL Has seen 0Ou dC any
time; we see Him only in Jesus Christ
No man has seen God the eternal, at any
time; but we count the stars that bejen
| the dome above us, when the great daylight
| is gone, and the more we study them the
more are we thrown back on the teaching
of our childhood, when we learned tc
! sing: Twinkle, twinkle, little. star, how
| | wonder what you are, up above the world
SO high like diamond in the sky" You
| ocytor nd tho olo Of froT
| ports your wondering soul, but you dc
not see Him who made and keeps the
| stars. If God is invisible in Himself, Ell
is not invisible in His ministry. You
and I, beloved, who have been born anew
are sons and daughters of God, and we
| please Him most when like Him, we efface
ourselves and are seen only in the benef
cent ministry of our lives, in our homes
in our communities, In our churches, in
our city; in the world. Then under this
first point, we say again that love is o!
greater value to the church and to. the
world than the most eloquent speech. Now
[ may not say that eloquence is. pot valu
able. No one of us would refuse it il
| profered to us. [ may not say-neithel
would Paul say-that eloquence, even the
gift of tongues, was anything to ba de
spised. In the apostolic age it served tc
| attract the attention of men to the divine
manifestations among the sons of men; ano
it was greatly coveted because of this
force resident in it. But l want ybu te
notice that only few people can be elo
quent and the great majority of US in. &c
gard to speech win haye,to exhibit reality
rather. than eloquence in speech, and sesvt
our generation IN the most practical nan
ner available to Us. Now might eaSab
ish this point by argument and by declam
alton, but prefer to. give you a few Illus
trations, to fasten what I mean In you
mind
A woman over here IN New York City
tsome years ago, caSio to- the City Mission
Society and soughs the secretary. 81
4would like to do something for God. an
not eloquent in speech, but I think
could distribute tracts among the poor
and needy. Give me suitable supply ane
| will render this service To my Lord. >
She was supplied abundantly. On going
down the street she saw a policemen tax
ing a poor, woman to the station; SHE
went to the station house and there
learned the facts in the woman's case ant
when the woman was to be discharged
When she came out she was met by this
good woman, who threw her arms around
her neck and kissed her. and the woman
said: 'My God! Why did you do that
No one has kissed me since my mother
died; why did you do thatw And the
humble Christian woman said: II do moi
know, unless it was Jesus sent me to de
it." Without going into further detail