The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1962-12-14

Is.
New Kind Of Love
Lesson for December 16, 1862
There are three ways Of know
ing what a thing is. First is by
looking the word up in the die
tionary. or to have someone tell
us about it. Second comes the
knowing which comes by looking
at the thing itself. Best way of
all is to have it, so to speak. as
part Of yourself. For instance,
take strength" Any dictionary
will tell you what strength is. in
carefully c h S words. You
could then tell someone else
what strength means, only your
telling would be just a matter Of
remembering the right words. A
better way would be harder to
forget. Suppose you nearly
drowned at a bathing beach,
and a lfeguard rescued you.
Then you would know what
strength is, and you would al
ways remember it, even if you
forgot what the dictionary said.
But the best way Of all is to
grow strong yourself. Then even
if You lost your memory en-
tirely. you would know what
strength is.
is Your Heart True
to My Heart?"
All this is specially true of the
much-talked-about thing called,
in our language, Love. T h e
Bible has much to say about it.
But let no reader of the Bible
think that because he has read
about it, even on these inspired
pages. he now knows love.
Every writer of the Bible would
agree that to know love truly,
we have to be loved, and to
love. Nevertheless, the words
the Bible writer's use are not un-
important. They give us a clue
to how we may recognize love,
genuine love, from limitations.
The Apostle John gives US a
rather horrible example of what
hate is; and expects us to und-
erstand that love is its opposite.
Love is NOT like what Cain the
murderer felt for his brother
Abel. Why did he murder him?
John asks. Because his own
deeds were evil and his broth
er's righteous - in other words,
because he was bad and his
brother good. Hatred comes
from lack of unity. love comes
from unity of spirit.
Saint John is fond Of explain
ing a thing by naming its oppo-
site. Love, We have seen. is the
opposite of hate. It is also the
opposite of death. Most people
would say off-hand that the OPP
posite of death is life. John
would warn that life without
love is death. Not to love means
remaining in death.-And yet,
love may lead to death. liter
ally, and it must lead Tor be
marked counterfeit to devotion
Of life. How would you like to
be shut up for hours on end.
day after day, with Subnormal
children who can hardly even
talk. cannot hold a pencil, can
not play or move like normal
children? Most Of us would
think that a perfectly horrible
existence; but there is a little
lady some 70 years of age, who
does just that because she
loves children like that. And if
you think. well, that's an old
lady, she can do this, but a
young woman. no-if you think
that, you evidently have not met
a young woman this writer re-
members, one of the happiest
Young women he ever met, who
finds her happiness in helping
these helpless children. There is
more than one way to lay down
ones life.
Not in Talk but in Truth
Saint John is called the ApoS-
tie Of 1--we. but he has no ex-
elusive right to that honorable
title. No one can read what Paul
said in l Corinthians 10 for eX-
ample. or Peter in l Peter 3:8,
8. or our Lord Himself in the
Sermon on the Mount Matthew
81, to mention only a few of the
places rewarding careful study,
without seeing that all agree on
this: Love is real when it be-
comes living acts. something
more than a word. In fact, John
contrasts love lin word or
speech with love lin deed and
truth" AS we were saying about
strength. so with love. We know
it a little from reading or hear
ing about it. We know it better
when some one loves us: we
know it best of all, not when we
become eloquent about it but