Love’s Labours

Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, September 4th, 1881, by

C. H. SPURGEON,

At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

Charity beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things,
endureth all things.''1 Corinthians 13:7.

THE grace of charity, or love, of which so much is most admirably
spoken in this chapter, is absolutely essential to true godliness. So
essential is it that, if we have everything beside, but have not
charity, it profiteth us nothing. The absence of charity is absolutely
fatal to vital godliness; so saith the Holy Ghost in this chapter.
When, then, you read the apostle's high encomiums of charity, do not
say, This is a fancy virtue to which certain special saints have
attained, and we are bound to admire them for it, but we need not
imitate them.' Far from it. This charity is the common, everyday livery
of the people of God. It is not the prerogative of a few; it must be
the possession of all. Do not, therefore, however lofty the model may
be, look up to it as though you could not reach it: you must reach it.
It is put before you not only as a thing greatly desirable, but as
absolutely needful; for if you excelled in every spiritual gift, yet if
you had not this all the rest would profit you nothing whatever. One
would think that such excellent gifts might benefit us a little, but
no, the apostle sums them all up, and saith of the whole, it profiteth
me nothing.' I pray that this may be understood of us at the very
beginning, lest we should manage to slip away from the truth taught us
by the Holy Ghost in this place, and should excuse ourselves from being
loving by the notion that we are so inconsiderable that such high
virtue cannot be required of us, or so feeble that we cannot be
expected to attain to it. You must attain it, or you cannot enter into
eternal life, for if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none
of his, and the Spirit of Christ is sure to beget the charity of our
text, which beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all
things, endureth all things.'

What does this teach us at the outset, but that a salvation which leads
to this must be of God, and must be wrought in us by his power? Such a
comely grace can never grow out of our fallen nature. Shall such a
clean thing as this be brought out of an unclean? This glorious
salvation unto pure love must be grasped by faith, and wrought in us by
the operation of the Spirit of God. If we consider salvation to be a
little thing, we bring it, as it were, within the sphere of human
possibility, but if we set it forth in its true proportions as
involving the possession of a pure, loving, elevated state of heart,
then we perceive that it is a divine wonder. When we estimate the
renewed nature aright we cry, This is the finger of God,' and right
gladly do we then subscribe to Jonah's creed, Salvation is of the
Lord.' If charity be in any man and abound, God must have the glory of
it; for assuredly it was never attained by mere natural effort, but
must have been bestowed by that same hand which made the heavens. So
then, brethren, I shall hope when I conclude to leave upon your minds
the impression of your need of the grace of God for the attainment of
love. I would not discourage you, but I would have you feel how great a
labour lies before you, and how impossible it will be unless you are
girt with a strength beyond your own. This shall be your solace that if
it cannot be the outcome of your own effort, yet the fruit of the
Spirit is love,' and the Spirit is ready and willing to bear fruit in
us also.

Notice then, first, the multitude of love's difficulties; it has to
bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, and endure all
things: secondly, observe the triumph of love's labour; it does all
these four things, it beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth
all things, endureth all things': and then, thirdly, this will bring us
back to the point we have started from, the sources of love's energy,
and how it is she is able thus to win her fourfold victory over
countless difficulties.

I. Consider well THE MULTITUDE OF LOVE'S DIFFICULTIES. When the grace
of God comes into a man he is born at once to love. He that loveth is
born of God, and he that is born of God loveth. He loveth him that
begat, even God, and he loveth him that is begotten of him, even all
the saved ones. He commences to obey the great command to love his
neighbour as himself. His motto is no longer that of an earthly
kingdom, Dieu et mon droitGod and my right; but he bears another word
on his escutcheon, Dieu et mon fr're'God and my brother.

No sooner is love born than she finds herself at war. Everything is
against her, for the world is full of envy, hate, and ill-will. I would
warn the most loving-hearted that they have entered upon a war for
peace, a strife for love: they are born to hate hatred, and to contend
against contention. As the lily among thorns, so is love among the sons
of men. As the hind among the dogs, so is charity among the selfish
multitude.

Evidently the difficulties of love are many, for the apostle speaks of
them as all things,' and as if this were not enough he repeats the
words, and sets forth the opposing armies as four times all things.' I
do not know whether you can calculate this mighty host. All things'
would seem to comprehend as much as can be, but here in the text you
have this amount multiplied by four. For, my brother, you will have to
contend with all that is within yourself. Nothing in your original
nature will help you. God has put within you a new life, but the old
life seeks to smother it. You will find it a severe struggle to master
yourself, and if you succeed therein you will be a conqueror indeed.
Besides that you will have to contend with all things' in the persons
whom you are called upon to love. You must have fervent charity towards
the saints, but you will find very much about the best of them which
will try your patience; for, like yourself, they are imperfect, and
they will not always turn their best side towards you, but sometimes
sadly exhibit their infirmities. Be prepared, therefore, to contend
with all things' in them. As for the ungodly whom you are to love to
Christ, you will find everything in them that will oppose the drawings
of your love, for they, like yourself, by nature are born in sin, and
they are rooted in their iniquities. When you have mastered that kind
of all things' you will have to contend with all things' in the world,
for the world lieth in the wicked one, and all its forces run towards
self, and contention, and hate. Every man's hand is against his fellow,
and few there be who honour the gentle laws of love; they know not that
divine charity which seeketh not her own.' The seed of the serpent is
at enmity with all that is kind, and tender, and self-sacrificing, for
these are the marks of the woman's seed. Marvel not, my brethren, if
the world hate you. And then remember that all things' in hell are
against you. What a seething mass of rebellious life, all venomous with
hate, is seen in the regions of darkness. The prince of the power of
the air leads the van, and the host of fallen spirits eagerly follow
him, like bloodhounds behind their leader. All these evil spirits will
endeavour to create dissension, and enmity, and malice, and oppression
among men, and the soldier of love must wrestle against all these. See,
O my brother, what a battle is yours! Speak of crusades against the
Paynim, what a crusade is this against hate and evil. Yet we shrink not
from the fray.

Happily, though love has many difficulties, it overcomes them all, and
overcomes them four times. There is such vitality in evil that it leaps
up from the field whereon it seemed to be slain, and rages with all its
former fury. First, we overcome evil by patience, which beareth all
things.' Let the injury be inflicted, we will forgive it, and not be
provoked: even seventy times seven will we bear in silence. If this
suffice not, by God's grace we will overcome by faith: we trust in
Jesus Christ, we rely upon our principles, we look for divine succour,
and so we believe all things.' We overcome a third time by hope: we
rest in expectation that gentleness will win, and that long-suffering
will wear out malice, for we look for the ultimate victory of
everything that is true and gracious, and so we hope all things.' We
finish the battle by perseverance: we abide faithful to our resolve to
love, we will not be irritated into unkindness, we will not be
perverted from generous, all-forgiving affection, and so we win the
battle by steadfast non-resistance. We have set our helm towards the
port of love, and towards it we will steer, come what may. Baffled
often, love endureth all things.'

Yes, brethren, and love conquers on all four sides. Love does, as it
were, make a hollow square, and she sets the face of her warriors
towards all quarters of the compass. Does God seem himself to smite
love with afflictions? She beareth all things.' Do her fellow
Christians misrepresent her, and treat her ill? She believes everything
that is good about them, and nothing that is injurious. Do the wicked
rise against her? When she tries to convert them, do they return evil
for good? She turns her hopefulness to the front in that direction, and
hopes that yet the Spirit of God will bring them to a better mind. And
does it happen that all her spiritual foes attack her with temptations
and desperate insinuations? She lifteth up the banner of patience
against them, and by the power of God's grace she putteth the infernal
enemy to the rout, for she endureth all things.' What a brave mode of
battle is this! Is not love a man-of-war? Is it not invincible? Hear
love's heroic cry as she shouts her defiance'

Come one, come all, this rock shall fly,

From its firm base as soon as I.'

If once taught in the school of Christ to turn love to every point of
the compass, and so to meet every assault against our heart, we have
learned the secret of victory.

It seems to me that I might read my text as if it said that love
conquers in all stages of her life. She begins in conversion, and
straightway those that mark her birth are angry, and the powers of evil
are at once aroused to seek her destruction. Then she beareth all
things.' Let them mock, love never renders railing for railing: Isaac
is not to be provoked by Ishmael's jeers.

She gathers strength and begins to tell out to others what she knows of
her Lord and his salvation. She believeth all things,' and so she
confesses her faith, and her fellow Christians are confirmed by her
witness. It is her time of energy, and so she tries to woo and win
others, by teaching them the things which she believes.

She advances a little farther; and, though often disappointed by the
unbelief of men and the coldness of her fellow Christians, she
nevertheless hopes all things,' and pushes on in the expectation of
winning more of them. Her dove's eyes see in the dark, and she advances
to victory through ever-growing conflict.

Ay, and when infirmities thicken upon her, and old age comes, and she
can do little else but sit still, and bear and believe and hope, she
still perseveres, and accepts even the stroke of death itself without
complaining, for love endureth all things.'

I do not think I need say more upon the difficulties of love. I am sure
that every experienced person knows that these difficulties are
supreme, and that we require superlative grace if we are to master
them. Love does not ask to have an easy life of it: self-love makes
that her aim. Love denies herself, sacrifices herself, that she may win
victories for God, and bring blessings on her fellow-men. Hers is no
easy pathway, and hers shall be no tinsel crown.

II. Secondly, let us survey THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE'S LABOUR. Her labours
are fourfold.

First, in bearing all things. The word here rendered bear' might as
correctly have been translated cover.' You that have the Revised
Version will find in the margin, Love covereth all things.' Covereth'
is the meaning of the word in ordinary Greek, but Paul generally uses
the word in the sense of bear.' Our translators, therefore, had to
choose between the usual meaning and the Pauline usage, and they
selected Paul's meaning, and put it down in the first place as
beareth,' giving us in the margin the other sense of covereth.' The two
ideas may be blended, if we understand it to mean that love bears all
things in silence, concealing injuries as much as possible even from
herself.

Let us just think of this word covers' in reference to the brethren.
True love refuses to see faults, unless it be that she may kindly help
in their removal. Love has no wish to see faults. Noah's younger son
discovered and declared the shame of his father, but his other sons
took a garment and went backward and covered the nakedness of their
father: after this fashion does love deal with the sins of her
brethren. She painfully fears that there may be something wrong, but
she is loath to be convinced of it: she ignores it as long as she can,
and wishes that she could deny it altogether. Love covers; that is, it
never proclaims the errors of good men. There are busybodies abroad who
never spy out a fault in a brother but they must needs hurry off to
their next neighbour with the savoury news, and then they run up and
down the street as though they had been elected common criers. It is by
no means honourable to men or women to set up to be common informers.
Yet I know some who are not half so eager to publish the gospel as to
publish slander. Love stands in the presence of a fault, with a finger
on her lip. If anyone is to smite a child of God, let it not be a
brother. Even if a professor be a hypocrite, love prefers that he
should fall by any hand rather than her own. Love covers all injuries
by being silent about them, and acting as if they had never been. She
sitteth alone, and keepeth silence. To speak and publish her wrong is
too painful for her, for she fears to offend against the Lord's people.
She would rather suffer than murmur, and so, like a sheep before her
shearers, she is dumb under injury.

I would, brothers and sisters, that we could all imitate the pearl
oyster. A hurtful particle intrudes itself into its shell, and this
vexes and grieves it. It cannot eject the evil, and what does it do but
cover it with a precious substance extracted out of its own life, by
which it turns the intruder into a pearl. Oh, that we could do so with
the provocations we receive from our fellow Christians, so that pearls
of patience, gentleness, long-suffering, and forgiveness might be bred
within us by that which else had harmed us. I would desire to keep
ready for my fellow Christians, a bath of silver, in which I could
electroplate all their mistakes into occasions for love. As the
dripping well covers with its own deposit all that is placed within its
drip, so would love cover all within its range with love, thus turning
even curses into blessings. Oh that we had such love that it would
cover all, and conceal all, so far as it is right and just that it
should be covered and concealed.

As to bearing all, taking the words as they stand in our version, I
wish to apply the text mainly to our trials in seeking the conversion
of the unconverted. Those who love the souls of men must be prepared to
cover much when they deal with them, and to bear much from them in
silence. When I begin to seek the conversion of anyone, I must try as
much as ever I can to ignore any repulsiveness that there may be in his
character. I know that he is a sinner, else I should not seek his
salvation; but if he happens to be one who has fallen very low in the
esteem of others, I must not treat him as such, but cover his worst
points. You cannot possibly bring the Samaritan woman who has had five
husbands into a right state of mind by wondering that he spake with the
woman.' Thus the disciples acted, but not so their Master, for he sat
on the well and talked with her, and made himself her willing companion
that he might be her gracious Saviour; he ignored her sin so far as to
converse with her for her good.

You will not long have begun this holy work before you will discover in
the heart you seek to win much ignorance of the gospel. Bear with it,
and bring forward the text which sheds light on that darkness, and
teach the truth which will remove that error. Ere long you will have to
contend with hardness of heart, for when a man knows the truth he is
not always willing to receive it. Bear it, and be not vexed. Did you
not expect the heart to be hard? Do not you know what business you are
upon? You are sent to turn men from darkness to light and from the
power of Satan unto God. Be not astonished if these things should not
prove to be child's play. In addition to this perhaps you will have
ridicule poured upon you; your attempts to convert will be converted
into jests. Bear it; bear all things! Remember how the multitude thrust
out the tongue at your Lord and Master when he was dying, and be not
you so proud as to think yourself too good to be laughed at. Still
speak concerning Christ, and whatever happens, bear all things. I will
not attempt to make a catalogue of your provocations, you shall make
one yourself after you have tried to convert men to Christ; but all
that you can possibly meet with is included in my text, for it says,
beareth all things.' If you should meet with some extraordinary sinner
who opens his mouth with cruel speeches such as you have never heard
before, and if by attempting to do him good you only excite him to
ribaldry and blasphemy, do not be astonished; have at him again, for
charity beareth all things,' whatever they may be. Push on and say,
Yes, all this proves to me how much you want saving. You are my man; if
I get you to Christ there will be all the greater glory to God.' O
blessed charity, which can thus cover all things and bear all things
for Christ's sake.

Do you want an example of it? Would you see the very mirror and
perfection of the charity that beareth all things? Behold your divine
Lord. Oh, what he has covered! It is a tempting topic, but I will not
dwell on it. How his glorious righteousness, his wondrous splendour of
love, has covered all our faults and all their consequences, treating
us as if he saw no sin in Jacob, neither perversity in Israel. Think
what he bore when he came unto his own and his own received him not!
What a covering was that when he said, Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do.' What a pitying sight of the fearful misery of
man our Lord Jesus had when holy tears bedewed those sacred eyes! What
a generous blindness to their infamous cruelty he manifested when he
prayed for his bloodthirsty enemies. O beloved, you will never be
tempted, and taunted, and tried as he was; yet in your own shorter
measure may you possess that love which can silently bear all things
for the elect's sake and for Christ's sake, that the multitude of the
redeemed may be accomplished, and that Christ through you may see of
the travail of his soul.

Now let us look at the second of love's great labours. You have heard
of the labours of Hercules, but the fabulous hero is far outdone by the
veritable achievements of love. Love works miracles which only grace
can enable her to perform. Here is the second of them'love believeth
all things.' In reference, first, to our fellow Christians, love always
believes the best of them. I wish we had more of this faith abroad in
all the churches, for a horrid blight falls upon some communities
through suspicion and mistrust. Though everything may be pure and
right, yet certain weak minds are suddenly fevered with anxiety through
the notion that all is wrong and rotten. This unholy mis-trust is in
the air, a blight upon all peace: it is a sort of fusty mildew of the
soul by which all sweet perfume of confidence is killed. The best man
is suspected of being a designing knave, though he is honest as the
day, and the smallest fault or error is frightfully exaggerated, till
we seem to dwell among criminals and to be all villains together. If I
did not believe in my brethren I would not profess to be one of them. I
believe that with all their faults they are the best people in the
world, and that, although the church of God is not perfect, yet she is
the bride of One who is. I have the utmost respect for her, for her
Lord's sake. The Roman matron said Where my husband is Caias I am
Caia'; where Christ is King, she who stands at his right hand is the
queen in gold of Ophir.' God forbid that I should rail at her of whom
her Lord says, Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been
honourable, and I have loved thee.' True love believes good of others
as long as ever it can, and when it is forced to fear that wrong has
been done, love will not readily yield to evidence, but she gives the
accused brother the benefit of many a doubt. When the thing is too
clear, love says, Yes, but the friend must have been under very strong
temptation, and if I had been there I dare say I should have done
worse;' or else love hopes that the erring one may have offended from a
good though mistaken motive; she believes that the good man must have
been mistaken, or he would not have acted so. Love, as far as she can,
believes in her fellows. I know some persons who habitually believe
everything that is bad, but they are not the children of love. Only
tell them that their minister or their brother has killed his wife, and
they would believe it immediately, and send out for a policeman: but if
you tell them anything good of their neighbour, they are in no such
hurry to believe you. Did you ever hear of gossips tittle-tattling
approval of their neighbours? I wish the chatterers would take a turn
at exaggerating other people's virtues, and go from house to house
trumping up pretty stories of their acquaintances. I do not recommend
lying even in kindness, but that side of it would be such a novelty
that I could almost bear with its evils for a change. Love, though it
will not speak an untruth in praise of another, yet has a quick eye to
see the best qualities of others, and it is habitually a little blind
to their failings. Her blind eye is to the fault, and her bright is for
the excellence. Somewhere or other I met with an old legend'I do not
suppose it to be literally true, but its spirit is correct. It is said
that, once upon a time, in the streets of Jerusalem, there lay a dead
dog, and everyone kicked at it and reviled it. One spoke of its currish
breed, another of its lean and ugly form, and so forth; but one passed
by who paused a moment over the dead dog, and said, What white teeth it
has.' Men said, as he went on his way, That is Jesus of Nazareth.'
Surely it is ever our Lord's way to see good points wherever he can.
Brethren, think as well as you can even of a dead dog. If you should
ever be led into disappointments and sorrows by thinking too well of
your fellow-men, you need not greatly blame yourself. I met, in Anthony
Farrindon's Sermons, a line which struck me. He says the old proverb
has it, Humanum est errare,' to err is human, but, saith he, when we
err by thinking too kindly of others we may say, Christianum est
errare,' it is Christian to err in such a fashion. I would not have you
credulous, but I would have you trustful, for suspicion is a cruel
evil. Few fall into the blessed error of valuing their fellow
Christians at too high a rate.

In reference to the unconverted this is a very important matter. Love
believeth all things' in their case. She does not believe that the
unconverted are converted, for, if so, she would not seek their
conversion. She believes that they are lost and ruined by the Fall, but
she believes that God can save them. Love believes that the precious
blood of Christ can redeem the bondslaves of sin and Satan, and break
their iron chains; she believes that the power of the Holy Spirit can
change a heart of granite into a heart of flesh. Love, therefore,
believing this, believes also that God can save this sinner by herself,
and she therefore begins to speak to him, expecting that the word she
speaks will be God's instrument of salvation. When she finds herself
sitting next to a sinner, she believes that there was a necessity for
her to be there, even as Christ must needs go through Samaria. She
saith to herself, Now will I tell to this poor soul what Christ hath
done, for I believe that even out of my poor lips eternal life may
flow, and in such a babe as I am God may perfect praise to his own
glory.' She does not refrain from preaching Christ through fear of
failure, but she believes in the great possibilities which lie in the
gospel and in the Spirit of God, and so she deals earnestly with the
man next her. She believes in her own principles, she believes in the
grace of God, she believes in the power of the Spirit of God, she
believes in the force of truth, she believes in the existence of
conscience, and so she is moved to set about her saving work. She
believeth all things.

Brethren, do you want a model of this? Then I beseech you look to your
divine Master once again. See him in the morning when the sheep are
counted, missing one of them, and so full of faith is he that he can
find the lost one, that he leaves the ninety and nine, and cheerfully
enters the pathless wilderness. See how he bounds over the mountains!
How he descends the ravines! He is seeking his sheep until he finds it,
for he is fully assured that he shall find it. He shall not fail nor be
discouraged, for his faith is great in the salvation of men, and he
goes forth to it believing that sinners shall be saved. I delight in
the deep, calm faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. He had no faith in man's
goodness, for he knew what was in man'; but he had great faith in what
could be done in men and what could be wrought for them, and for the
joy that was set before him in this he endured the cross, despising the
shame. He had faith that grand things would come of his salvation'men
would be purified, error would be driven out, false-hood would be
slain, and love would reign supreme.

Here is the second grand victory of love, she believeth all things.'
Herein let us exercise ourselves till we are skilled in it.

Love's third great labour is in hoping all things.' Love never
despairs. She believes in good things yet to come in her fellow-men,
even if she cannot believe in any present good in them. Hope all things
about your brethren. Suppose a friend is a member of the church, and
you cannot see any clear signs of grace in him, hope all things about
him. Many true believers are weak in faith, and the operations of grace
are dim in them; and some are placed in positions where the grace they
have is much hindered and hampered: let us take these things into
consideration. It is hard to tell how little grace may yet suffice for
salvation: it is not ours to judge. Hope all things, and if you should
be forced to see sad signs in them, which make you fear that they have
no grace, yet, remember that some of the brightest believers have had
their faults, and grave ones too. Remember yourself, lest you also be
tempted. If you cannot hope that these persons are saved at all, hope
that they will be, and do all that you can to promote so blessed an
end.

Hope all things. If thy brother has been very angry with thee without a
cause, hope that thou wilt win him; and set about the task. If thou
hast tried and failed, hope to succeed next time, and try again. Hope
that though thou hast failed seven times, and he still speaks bitterly,
yet in his heart he is really ashamed, or at least that he will be so
very soon. Never despair of your fellow Christians.

As to the unconverted, you will never do anything with them unless you
hope great things about them. When the good Samaritan found the poor
man half dead, if he had not hoped about him he would never have poured
in the oil and the wine, but would have left him there to die.
Cultivate great hopefulness about sinners. Always hope of them that
they will be saved yet: though no good signs are apparent in them. If
you have done your best for them, and have been disappointed and
defeated, still hope for them. Sometimes you will find cause for hope
in the fact that they begin to attend a place of worship. Grasp at
that, and say, Who can tell? God may bless them.' Or if they have long
been hearers, and no good has come of it, still hope that the minister
will one day have a shot at them, and the arrow shall pierce through
the joints of the harness. When you last spoke to them there seemed a
little tenderness: be thankful for it, and have hope. If there has been
a little amendment in their life, be hopeful about them. Even if you
can see nothing at all hopeful in them, yet hope that there may be
something which you cannot see, and perhaps an effect has been produced
which they are endeavouring to conceal. Hope because you are moved to
pray for them. Get other people to pray for them, for as long as they
have some one to pray for them their case is not given over. If you get
others to pray, there will be another string to your bow. If they are
very ill, and you cannot get at them, or they are on their dying beds,
still have hope about them, and try to send them a message in some form
or other. Pray the Lord to visit and save them; and always keep up your
hope about them. Till they are dead let not your hope be dead.

Would you see a model of this? Ah, look at our blessed Lord, and all
his hopefulness for US: how, despairing of none, he went after those
whom others would have given up. If you ask a proof, remember how he
went after you. Will you despair of anybody since Christ did not
despair of you? Wonders of grace belong to God, and all those wonders
have been displayed in many among us. If you and I had been there when
they brought the adulterous woman taken in the very act, I am afraid
that we should have said, This is too bad; put her away, she cannot be
borne with.' But oh, the hopefulness of the blessed Master when even to
her he said, Woman, where are thine accusers? Neither do I condemn
thee. Go, and sin no more.' What wonderful patience, and gentleness,
and hopefulness our Lord displayed in all his converse with the twelve!
It was a noble hopefulness in Christ which led him to trust Peter as he
did: after he had denied his Master with oaths, our Lord trusted him to
feed his sheep and lambs, and set him in the forefront of apostolic
service. He has also had compassion on some of us, putting us into the
ministry, and putting us in trust with the gospel, for he knew what
love would do for us, and he was certain he could yet make something of
us to his own glory.

The last victory of love is in enduring all things, by which I
understand a patient perseverance in loving. This is perhaps the
hardest work of all, for many people can be affectionate and patient
for a time, but the task is to hold on year after year. I have known
some men earnestly check their temper under provocation, and bear a
great many slights, but at last they have said, There is an end to
everything: I am not going to put up with it any longer. I cannot stand
it.' Blessed be God, the love that Christ gives us endureth all things.
As his love endured to the end, so does the love which the Spirit works
in us endure to the end.

In reference first to our fellow Christians, love holds out under all
rebuffs. You mean that I shall not love you, my good man, but I shall
love you. You give me the rough side of your tongue, and make me see
that you are not a very lovable person, but I can love you
notwithstanding all. What? Will you do me a further unkindness? I will
oppose you by doing you a greater kindness than before. You said a vile
thing about me; I will not hear it, but if it be possible I will say a
kind thing of you. I will cover you up with hot coals till I melt you;
I will war against you with flames of love till your anger is consumed.
I will master you by being kinder to you than you have been unkind to
me. What hosts of misrepresentations and unkindnesses there are; but if
you go on to be a true Christian you must endure all these. If you have
to deal with people who will put up with nothing from you, take care to
be doubly patient with them. What credit is there in bearing with those
who bear with you? If your brethren are angry without a cause, be sorry
for them, but do not let them conquer you by driving you into a bad
temper. Stand fast in love; endure not some things, but all things, for
Christ's sake; so shall you prove yourself to be a Christian indeed.

As to your dealing with the unconverted, if ever you go into the field
after souls, be sure to carry your gun with you, and that gun is love.
You gentlemen who go out shooting partridges and other birds at this
time of the year, no doubt find it a pleasant pastime; but for real
excitement, joy, and pleasure, commend me to soul-winning. What did our
Lord say, I will make you fishers of men.' If you go out fishing for
souls you will have to endure all things, for it will come to pass that
some whom you have been seeking for a long time will grow worse instead
of better. Endure this among the all things. Those whom you seek to
bless may seem to be altogether unteachable, they may shut their ears
and refuse to hear you; never mind, endure all things. They may grow
sour and sullen, and revile you in their anger, but be not put about by
them, let them struggle till they are wearied, and meanwhile do you
quietly wait, saying to yourself, I must save them.' A warder who has
to take care of insane persons will frequently be attacked by them, and
have to suffer hard blows; but what does he do? Strike the patient and
make a fight of it? No, he holds him down and pins him fast; but not in
anger, for he pities him too much to be angry with him. Does a nurse
with a delirious patient take any notice of his cross words, and
grumbling, and outcries? Not she. She says, I must try to save this
man's life,' and so with great kindness she endureth all things.' If
you were a fireman, and found a person in an upper room, and the house
was on fire, would you not struggle with him rather than let him remain
in the room and burn. You would say, I will save you in spite of
yourself.' Perhaps the foolish body would call you names, and say, Let
me alone, why should you intrude into my chamber?' But you would say,
Never mind my intrusion; I will apologize afterwards for my rudeness,
but you must be out of the fire first.' I pray God give you this
blessed unmannerliness, this sweet casting of all things to the wind,
if by any means you may save some.

If you desire to see the mirror and the paragon of persevering
endurance, look you there! I wish you could see it. I wish these eyes
could see the sight as I have sometimes seen it. Behold the cross! See
the patient Sufferer and that ribald multitude: they thrust out the
tongue, they sneer, they jest, they blaspheme; and there he hangs,
triumphant in his patience, conquering the world, and death and hell by
enduring all things.' O love, thou didst never sit on a throne so
imperial as the cross, when there, in the person of the Son of God,
thou didst all things endure. Oh that we might copy in some humble
measure that perfect pattern which is here set before us. If you would
be saviours, if you would bless your generation, let no unkindness
daunt you; let no considerations of your own character, or honour, or
peace of mind keep you back, but of you may it be said, even as of your
Lord, He saved others, himself he could not save.'

Have not I shown you four grand battles far excelling all the
Waterloos, and Trafalgars, and Almas, and Inkermans on record? Heroes
are they that fight and win them, and the Lord God of love shall crown
them.

III. I close by noting THE SOURCES OF LOVE'S ENERGY. The time is gone,
as I thought it would be, but it has brought us round in a circle to
where we started from. The Holy Ghost alone can teach men how to love,
and give them power to do so. Love's art is learned at no other school
but at the feet of Jesus, where the Spirit of love doth rest on those
who learn of him. Beloved, the Spirit of God puts love into us, and
helps us to maintain it, thus'first, love wins these victories, for it
is her nature. The nature of love is self-sacrifice. Love is the
reverse of seeking her own. Love is intense; love is burning; therefore
she burneth her way to victory. Love! Look at it in the mother. Is it
any hardship to her to lose rest and peace and comfort for her child?
If it costs her pain, she makes it pleasure by the ardour of her
affection. It is the nature of love to court difficulties, and to
rejoice in suffering for the beloved object. If you have fervent love
to the souls of men, you will know how true this is.

Next to this, love has four sweet companions. There are with her
tenderness that beareth all things,' faith that believeth all things,'
hope that hopeth all things,' and patience which endureth all things,'
and he that hath tenderness, and faith, and hope, and patience hath a
brave quaternion of graces to guard him, and he need not be afraid.
Best of all, love sucks her life from the wounds of Christ. Love can
bear, believe, hope, and endure because Christ has borne, believed, and
hoped, and endured for her. I have heard of one that had a twist: they
say that he saw something that others never saw, and heard a voice that
others never heard, and he became such a strange man that others
wondered at him. Oh, that I had more and more of that most solemn twist
which comes through feeling a pierced hand laid on my shoulder, and
hearing in my ear a sorrowful voice, that selfsame voice which cried,
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' I would see that vision and
hear that voice, and then'what then? Why, I must love; I must love; I
must love. That would be the soul's strange bias and sweet twist. Love
makes us love; love bought us, sought us, and brought us to the
Saviour's feet, and it shall henceforth constrain us to deeds which
else would be impossible. You have heard of men sometimes in a mad fit
doing things that ordinary flesh and blood could never have performed.
Oh to be distracted from selfishness by the love of Christ, and
maddened into self-oblivion by a supreme passion for the Crucified. I
know not how otherwise to put my thoughts into words so that they may
hint at my burning meaning. May the Lord of love look into your very
eyes with those eyes which once were red with weeping over human sin:
may he touch your hands with those hands that were nailed to the cross,
and impress the blessed nailmarks upon your feet, and then may he
pierce your heart till it pour forth a life for love, and flow out in
streams of kind desires, and generous deeds, and holy sacrifices for
God and for his people. God grant it, for Jesus' sake. Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'1 Corinthians 13.

HYMNS FROM OUR OWN HYMN BOOK''797, 264, 439.
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Holiness, The Law of God's House