Greatest
Thing in the
World
The
Greatest Thing in the
World
By:
Henry Drummond
EVERY one
has asked himself the great
question of antiquity as of the
modern world: What is the summum
bonum—the supreme good? You
have life before you. Once only
you can live it. What is the
noblest object of desire, the
supreme gift to covet?
We have
been accustomed to be told that
the greatest thing in the
religious world is Faith. That
great word has been the key-note
for centuries of the popular
religion; and we have easily
learned to look upon it as the
greatest thing in the world.
Well, we are wrong. If we have
been told that, we may miss the
mark. I have taken you, in the
chapter which I have just read,
to Christianity at its source;
and there we have seen, “The
greatest of these is love.”
It is not an oversight.
Paul was
speaking of faith just a moment
before. He says, “If I have
all faith, so that I can remove
mountains, and have not love, I
am nothing. “So far from
forgetting, he deliberately
contrasts them, “Now abideth
Faith, Hope, Love,” and
without a moment’s
hesitation, the decision falls,
“The greatest of these is
Love.”
And it is
not prejudice. A man is apt to
recommend to others his own
strong point. Love was not
Paul’s strong point. The
observing student can detect a
beautiful tenderness growing and
ripening all through his
character as Paul gets old; but
the hand that wrote, “The
greatest of these is love,”
when we meet it first, is stained
with blood.
Nor is this
letter to the Corinthians
peculiar in singling out love as
the summum bonum. The
masterpieces of Christianity are
agreed about it. Peter says,
“Above all things have
fervent love among
yourselves.” Above all
things. And John goes farther,
“God is love.” And you
remember the profound remark
which Paul makes elsewhere,
“Love is the fulfilling of
the law.” Did you ever think
what he meant by that?
In those
days men were working their
passage to Heaven by keeping the
Ten Commandments, and the hundred
and ten other commandments which
they had manufactured out of
them. Christ said, I will show
you a more simple way. If you do
one thing, you will do these
hundred and ten things, without
ever thinking about them. If you
love, you will unconsciously
fulfil the whole law.
And you can
readily see for yourselves how
that must be so. Take any of the
commandments. “Thou shalt
have no other gods before
Me.” If a man love God, you
will not require to tell him
that. Love is the fulfilling of
that law. “Take not His name
in vain.” Would he ever
dream of taking His name in vain
if he loved Him?
“Remember
the Sabbath day to keep it
holy.” Would he not be too
glad to have one day in seven to
dedicate more exclusively to the
object of his affection? Love
would fulfil all these laws
regarding God. And so, if he
loved Man, you would never think
of telling him to honour his
father and mother. He could not
do anything else. It would be
preposterous to tell him not to
kill. You could only insult him
if you suggested that he should
not steal -.how could he steal
from those he loved? It would be
superfluous to beg him not to
bear false witness against his
neighbour. If he loved him it
would be the last thing he would
do.
And you
would never dream of urging him
not to covet what his neighbours
had. He would rather they
possessed it than himself. In
this way “Love is the
fulfilling of the law.” It
is the rule for fulfilling all
rules, the new commandment for
keeping all the old commandments,
Christ’s one secret of the
Christian life.
Now Paul
had learned that; and in this
noble eulogy he has given us the
most wonderful and original
account extant of the summum
bonum.
We may
divide it into three parts. In
the beginning of the short
chapter, we have Love contrasted;
in the heart of it, we have Love
analysed; towards the end we have
Love defended as the supreme
gift.
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