The more excellent way which Paul said he would show unto the faithful followers of Christ at Corinth, is to be found in the thirteenth chapter of his first epistle. The Apostle concludes this short, but most remarkable, dissertation on charity with these words, "and now abideth faith, hope, charity [love, Rev. Ver.], these three; but the greatest of these is charity [love]."
No one can read this short chapter, thoughtfully and prayerfully, without concluding that the manifestation of divine Love in human consciousness is indeed "the greatest thing in the world." There is an aching void in the human heart, yearning for something above and beyound itself, which nothing but divine Love can fill. Love has a work to perform, not only in the religious world, but in the social world as well, which nothing else can accomplish. Its mission will not be fulfilled until "we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."
When the Master was asked, what is the great commandment in the law he replied, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." In Romans we read, "Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." Paul writes in his first epistle to Timothy, "Now the end of the commandment is charity [love, Rev. Ver.] out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned." Thus we see that all law, that is, all law which has divine sanction, is based upon love for God and man, and this love expressed in thought, word, and deed is the fulfilling of the law. Even the laws of our land, national, state, and municipal, point to the love of Truth and right, and a desire to deal justly with all men, as an ideal toward which all the institutions of a liberty-loving and a liberty-bestowing people should tend. If these Institutions do not, in some degree at least, succeed in this, no matter what else they may accomplish, they fail in the great work for which they were established.
