THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD

The Sunday before Lent used to be called Quinquagesima Sunday, i.e. fifty days before Easter. The epistle to be read on that Sunday was 1 Corinthians 13, Paul’s great hymn of love. The emphasis on the spirit of love is intended to show us the true spirit of Lenten self-discipline and self-denial and to counter the medieval practice of Pharisaic self-righteouness, legalism and superstitious self-torment. A study of 1 Cor.13 would be a good discipline for Lent. Paul sums up his thoughts with these immortal words:

“And now [in conclusion], these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13).

These three qualities are commonly listed together in the New Testament. They form a trinity of virtues which are to be desired in all believers. The entire Christian life is a life of faith. Jesus commended faith as necessary for healing and salvation. It is the medicine for doubt, agnosticism and skepticism. Hope is a blazing certainty rather than a cautious optimism. It looks forward to the time when God will bring about a new order of creation. It is the antidote to fear and despair. But Paul, while emphasizing the importance of faith and hope (love always trusts, love always hopes), says that love encompasses these two and is pre-eminent. In heaven faith will give way to sight, and hope will be realized, leaving only love. What matters most of all, what remains after other spiritual gifts, are the great qualities of faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Henry Drummond was born in Stirling, Scotland on August 17, 1851. When he died, aged 45 in 1897, his life was described by his friends and admirers, as the most Christian life they ever knew. His biographer, the noted biblical scholar, George Adam Smith, wrote that he “was one of the purest, most unselfish, most reverent souls you ever knew; but you would not have called him saint. The name he went by among younger men was ‘The Prince’; there was a distinction and a radiance upon him that compelled the title.” He studied for the Free Church of Scotland ministry and became active in the evangelistic mission of Dwight L. Moody and Ira Sankey to England and Scotland 1873-1875. He counseled hundreds of enquirers who stayed behind for the after-meetings and became a great friend of Moody. Interested in biology and geology he went on to become Professor of Natural Science at Glasgow University. His desire was to explain Christianity in terms of Science and to demonstrate that there was no conflict between the new scientific discoveries and the Bible. He gave evangelistic addresses on Sunday nights to hundreds of students at Edinburgh University, and to a standing room only upper class audience in the ballroom of Grosvenor House, the London residence of the Duke of Westminster.

He conducted scientific expeditions to the Rocky Mountains, Central Africa, and the New Hebrides. In 1883 he published Natural Law in the Spiritual World which made him famous and went through several editions. It was considered ‘the most important contribution to the relations of science and religion which the century had produced.’ It was read almost everywhere. He traveled to the United States and Australia speaking at universities and Chautauquas. He gave the Lowell Institute Lectures in Boston in 1893 where, for every one person who received a ticket of admission, there were ten turned away. They were published under the title of The Ascent of Man, a deliberate response to Darwin’s 1881 work, The Descent of Man. His thesis was that Nature is the sphere of the God of Love, and sought to prove the presence of the characteristic forces of Christianity – sympathy and self-sacrifice – to complement Darwin’s theory of the survival of the fittest. Today Henry Drummond is remembered not for his scientific work, but for an address he gave to students in 1890 at Moody’s school in Northfield, Mass. entitled The Greatest Thing in the World. It is an exposition of 1 Corinthians 13, and it is still in print.

This is what Dwight L. Moody says about its author. “No words of mine can better describe his life and character than those in which he has presented to us The Greatest Thing in the World. Some men take an occasional journey into the thirteenth of First Corinthians, but Henry Drummond was a man who lived there constantly, appropriating its blessings and exemplifying its teachings. As you read what he terms the analysis of love, you find that all its ingredients were interwoven into his daily life, making him one of the most lovable men I have ever known. Was it courtesy you looked for; he was a perfect gentleman. Was it kindness; he was always preferring another [putting others before himself]. Was it humility; he was simple and not courting favor. It could be said of him truthfully, as it was said of the early apostles, ‘that men took knowledge of him, that he had been with Jesus.’ Nor was this love and kindness only shown to those who were his close friends. His face was an index to his inner life. It was genial and kind, and made him, like his Master, a favorite with children… Never have I known a man who, in my opinion, lived nearer the Master, or sought to do His will more fully.”

Drummond divides his exposition into three parts The first part is headed, Love Contrasted. He contrasts love with eloquence, with prophecy, with sacrifice and martyrdom. The second part is headed, Love Analyzed. He uses the analogy of light, which when passed through a crystal prism is broken up into its component colors. So Paul passes love through the magnificent prism of his inspired intellect, and it comes out on the other side broken up into its elements. He describes this spectrum of Love as Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Humility, Courtesy, Unselfishness, Good Temper, Guilelessness and Sincerity. Life is full of opportunities for learning Love. The world is a schoolroom in which to learn to love. Life is not a holiday, but an education in love. The one eternal lesson for us all is how better we can love. Love is not a thing of enthusiastic emotion. It is a rich, strong, vigorous expression of the whole round Christian character – the Christ-like nature in its fullest development. And the constituents of this great character are only to be built up by ceaseless practice. He asks how we can bring Love into our nature. Love is an effect. The cause of Love is: “We love, because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) Our heart is slowly changed by Christ. Contemplate the love of Christ and you will live. Stand before that mirror, reflect Christ’s character, and you will be changed into the same image. There is no other way. You cannot love to order. You can only look at the Perfect Character, this Perfect Life. Look at the great Sacrifice as he laid down himself, all through life, and upon the Cross of Calvary; and you must love Him. And loving Him, you must become like Him. Love begets love. We love others, we love everybody, we love our enemies, because He first loved us.

The third part is headed Love’s Defense. Love lasts. To love abundantly is to live abundantly, and to love for ever is to live for ever. Eternal life is inextricably bound up with love. We want to live for ever for the same reason that we want to live tomorrow. Why do we want to live tomorrow? It is because there is some one who loves you, and whom you want to see tomorrow, and be with, and love back. There is no other reason why we should live on than that we love and are beloved. Eternal life also is to know God, and God is love. Love must be eternal. It is what God is. On the last analysis, then, love is life. Love should be the supreme thing – because it is going to last; because in the nature of things it is an Eternal Life.

Read 1 Corinthians 13 for Lent. It will change your life. Love is the greatest thing in the world. Love is worth doing. Love is worth giving time to. Address yourself to that one thing. Everything else in all our lives is transitory. Every other good is visionary. But the acts of love which no one knows about, or can ever know about – they never fail.

The prayer for the Sunday before Lent in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer which was used in my home church during my childhood is the following:

“O Lord, who has taught us that all our doings without charity [love] are nothing worth; send your Holy Spirit, and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the very bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before thee: Grant this for thine only Son Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.”