Greatest
Thing in the
World
The
Contrast
By:
Henry Drummond
PAUL begins
by contrasting Love with other
things that men in those days
thought much of. I shall not
attempt to go over those things
in detail. Their inferiority is
already obvious.
He
contrasts it with eloquence. And
what a noble gift it is, the
power of playing upon the souls
and wills of men, and rousing
them to lofty purposes and holy
deeds.
Paul says,
“If I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels, and have
not love, I am become as sounding
brass, or a tinkling
cymbal.” And we all know
why. We have all felt the
brazenness of words without
emotion, the hollowness, the
unaccountable unpersuasiveness,
of eloquence behind which lies no
Love.
He
contrasts it with prophecy. He
contrasts it with mysteries. He
contrasts it with faith. He
contrasts it with charity. Why is
Love greater than faith? Because
the end is greater than the
means.
And why is
it greater than charity? Because
the whole is greater than the
part. Love is greater than faith,
because the end is greater than
the means. What is the use of
having faith? It is to connect
the soul with God. And what is
the object of connecting man with
God? That he may become like God.
But God is Love.
Hence
Faith, the means, is in order to
Love, the end. Love, therefore,
obviously is greater than faith.
It is greater than charity,
again, because the whole is
greater than a part. Charity is
only a little bit of Love, one of
the innumerable avenues of Love,
and there may even be, and there
is, a great deal of charity
without Love.
It is a
very easy thing to toss a copper
to a beggar on the street; it is
generally an easier thing than
not to do it. Yet Love is just as
often in the withholding. We
purchase relief from the
sympathetic feelings roused by
the spectacle of misery, at the
copper’s cost. It is too
cheap—too cheap for us, and
often too dear for the beggar.
If we
really loved him we would either
do more for him, or
less.
Then Paul
contrasts it with sacrifice and
martyrdom.
And I beg
the little band of would-be
missionaries and I have the
honour to call some of you by
this name for the first
time—to remember that though
you give your bodies to be
burned, and have not Love, it
profits nothing—nothing!
You can
take nothing greater to the
heathen world than the impress
and reflection of the Love of God
upon your own character. That is
the universal language. It will
take you years to speak in
Chinese, or in the dialects of
India.
From the
day you land, that language of
Love, understood by all, will be
pouring forth its unconscious
eloquence. It is the man who is
the missionary, it is not his
words. His character is his
message.
In the
heart of Africa, among the great
Lakes, I have come across black
men and women who remembered the
only white man they ever saw
before—David Livingstone;
and as you cross his footsteps in
that dark continent, men’s
faces light up as they speak of
the kind Doctor who passed there
years ago.
They could
not understand him; but they felt
the Love that beat in his heart.
Take into your new sphere of
labour, where you also mean to
lay down your life, that simple
charm, and your lifework must
succeed. You can take nothing
greater, you need take nothing
less.
It is-not
worth while going if you take
anything less. You may take every
accomplishment; you may be braced
for every sacrifice; but if you
give your body to be burned, and
have not Love, it will profit you
and the cause of Christ
nothing.
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