The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-08-24
IN THE RELIGIOUS WORLD
What the Church Folk Are Thinking About and Doing.
Religious News From Elsewhere

| hope, love these three. AND the great
est of these is love-"
A New Word.
The word which is the refrain of
this sublime passage was a new world
in Greece. The average reader does
not stop to consider how Christian
missionaries everywhere have to coin
new words. The languages of the
people to which they go do not have
the Technology for the lofty senti-
ments represented by Christianity. At
this time there is a debate among the
missionaries in China as to what Chi
nese words shall be used for God
and for Holy Spirit" It is sugges-
tive to consider that a hole body of
ethical and spiritual conceptions have
been given speech around the earth
by the teachers of Christianity Thus
word which it had not possessed be-
fore. The old English version rend-
cred this world as charity" which to-
day, of course, is utterly Inadequate,
because of the narrow meaning that
has become attached to charity"
There were several words for love"
in the cultured Greek speech of the
time, but that one which Jesus and
Paul employed is never found in the
classical Greek authors This "loveS
which he apotheosized is the word
which elsewhere in the New Testament
is used as a@synonym for God. 1t IS
a great, outgiving, selfess passion. It
is love without thought of sef-inter-
est. It is love that serves and sac
riices. The very word is Interpreted
best by Paups own treatise upon it in
the ep1st1e quoted. This kind of love
is oppose to all Journalism and mere
ceremoniousness. It is possible for
one to be a professional worker in
charitable and philanthropic causes.
- AN 80 - -~H o~I
selfish in ones dealings with the in
dividual.
1.-THE Greatest Thing in the World
The best analysis of this chapter,
and one that every Sunday school
teacher hould read in preparation for
this lesson-and, if possible, put in
the hands of the members of his class
is Professor Drummond's Greatest
Thing in the World" He says that
lin these few words we have what one
might call the spectrum of love, the
analysis of love. Will you observe
what it's elements are? Will you no.
tice that they AVE common names,
that they are virtues which we hear
about every day, that they are things
which can be practised by every man,
in every place in life. The picture
of love has nine ingredients:
Patience-.Love suffereth long"
Kindness-"And is kind"
Generosity-Love envieth not"
Humility-.Love vaunteth not it
self, is not pulled up"
not behave itself
unseem1y."
Unselfshness-"Seeketh not her
own"
Good Temper-'Is not easily pro-
voked."
Observation-Disclosures no evil"
Sincerity-'Rejoiceth not in iniquity
and rajnioath in tho trI1fh '
An Old reach For New Times
Love is easier to praise than to
practise. Henry Drummond prac-
tised it. That is why his essay lives
and giows. Let one read alongside of
it the essay on love by Bacon, prob
ably the greatest ~essayist that ever
lived. and ehold the h~olloWness and
emptiness of the latter.
The danger in considering this les
son is that the time will be given to
illustrations n panegyrics of the vir-
tue Of love, whereas It should be con-
sidered as Paul intended it to be, as
a practical life principle, and as a
dominant motive of character. He dill
igently called UP all that the Christian
Church held most worthy and con
trasted these with love, rendering the
verdict, THE greatest of these is
love-"
Our day is largely a '1ook out for
NUMBER one day. mat is chiefly
what ails us. It is the constant i'm
pact of this hard and cold reality
which almost disheartens the reform
er. For a self-serving life principle
there must be substituted the divine
principle Of love. It is in the love-
filed life that Christ is reincarnated.
To live his life over again in these
days, is simply to embody the teach
ings of this divine program for the
new order of society.
TIE MAN OF TOMORROW.