The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1903-08-13
A SERMON, FOR SUNDAY
An ELcaUENT DISCOURSE BY THE
REV. DONALD D. MacLAuRiN.
Subject: The Greatest Thing in the World
The Distinguished Divine Delivers u
Sermon Which is as Scholarly and
Readable "a Any of Recent Years.

The Distinguished Divine Delivers u
Sermon Which is as Scholarly and
Readable "a Any of Recent Years.
New York CirY.-Dr. Donald D. Mac
Laurin, OF Rochester. preached Sunday
morning in St. Johns NJ. E. Church TO a
large audience. His sermon was the hrst
in a series on The Greatest Thing in the
World" DIR. MacLaurin said:
| have most earnestly sought to BRING
you on successive Sundays the best min
istry l have yet been able TO give you;
that your lives may be broadened and
deepened and lifted up into higher realms
of spiritual achievement; and | could find
no theme OF greater value, as saw It, than
that which is suggested by the chapter
which | read to YOU, the thirteenth chap
ter OF Paul's first epistle OF the church at
Corinth. And so for eight weeks, we shall
have our texts from this chapter; AID this
morning YOU will fiad our text in the first
verse of the first chapter OF First Corin-
thians: III 1 speak with the tongues of
men and angels. but have not love, l 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
q diamond: Among the gems OF the Lord
God is found this chapter. and though l
do not profess to be a skillful lapidary to
bring ont its flashing facets, / think. with
the aid OF the divine spirit, we shall lind
in each service something fresh and helpful
n new.
This chapter has been in al ages OF the
church especially admired; would that it
had received in all the ages of Christian
historc that more practical and valuable
appreciation which would have been eX-
perieneed by a practice OF its PRINCIPLES
and an acceptance Of its precepts. Ter
tullian said:' 1T is uttered with all the
force Of the spirit" and the great thinker
is right. As l have pondered it Tor several
years with ever growing interest: | have
come to feel that, indeed. mortal faculty
could never nave written it. 1t never
could have sprung from the brain or heart
of even SO great n nan as Paul. unless 6ea-
ven had given him the inspiration. 1t is.
dear friends. an utterance of heaven.
through Paul, a servant of God, 20 the
sons of men.
1t is a glorious hymn or pean in honor
of Christian love, sung. as we have init
mated, by the Apostle Pau when soaring
up on the wings OF inspiration into the
very heights of Christian e~loauence. Like
the Forthwith Psalm, it NAV be dtting,y
called the Psalm of Love-" and not in
lESIutUllN NOl. SpSINtt III sV NSs!SHotS
it in these S"nday morning services. 1t
has the form OF poetry: 1t has the inspira-
ton of poetry; it has the coloring of the
finest poetry. And if YOU could read it in
the Greek YOU would catch the fullness OF
its imagery, as it is impossible for YOU to
do in the bes: English version. 1t seems
a proclamation to attempt ats exposition.
1t seems ike ana,yzlng 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
1t is SO full OF the very heart of the gospel
message that we would DC cowardly were
we not to attempt the exposition.
The position OF the psalm in the book
in which it is found nelghteus 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
games Or, petter, like the very sound of
the song of heavens choir in the pit of
Wall Street on a panicky day. We can
easily imacine 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 minus 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 worth.cssness OF life
without love. Love at the beginning OF IT:
love at tie 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 you have
the first love-love for God-in u heart,
the love that shall engage our attention on
Sunday mornings will be a stranger to your
experience. III ] speak with the tongues
of men and angels. but have not love: /
cymbal." it would seem as il all the
Corinthian church were eloquent speakers,
or at least were eloquent hearers; and let
me say that eloquent hearers are as essen.
tial as eloquent speech. The Corinthian
Christians were distinguished for their gifts
in this direction; aud so the apostle, know
ing it. knowing them right we'll, for he
was their father in the gospel, he supposes
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
this must have been on those people who
cherished eloquence as more easy to i'm
agine than to describe. for they placed
great store by their gift Of tongues and
their ~cioquence 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 Gorin-
tbians were often putting the emphasis
where the emphsis should not be. What
Paul afirms and what the Gospel affirms
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.
So it is not speech but reality that God
looks fer and the church waits for. and
the world is hungry for in You and in me.
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