The World's Great Sermons, Volume 10 - Drummond to Jowett, and General Index by Unknown
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page 9 of 178 (05%)
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observe what its elements are? Will you notice that they have common
names; that they are virtues which we hear about every day, that they are things which can be practised by every man in every place in life; and how, by a multitude of small things and ordinary virtues, the supreme thing, the _summum bonum_, is made up? The spectrum of love has nine ingredients: Patience--"Love suffereth long." Kindness--"And is kind." Generosity--"Love envieth not." Humility--"Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up." Courtesy--"Doth not behave itself unseemly." Unselfishness--"Seeketh not her own." Good temper--"Is not easily provoked." Guilelessness--"Thinketh no evil." Sincerity--"Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth." Patience, kindness, generosity, humility, courtesy, unselfishness, good temper, guilelessness, sincerity--these make up the supreme gift, the stature of the perfect man. You will observe that all are in relation to men, in relation to life, in relation to the known to-day and the near to-morrow, and not to the unknown eternity. We hear much of love to God; Christ spoke much of love to man. We make a great deal of peace with heaven; Christ made much of peace on earth. Religion is not a strange or added thing, but the inspiration of the secular life, the breathing of an eternal spirit through this temporal world. The supreme thing, in short, is not a thing at all, but the giving of a further finish to the multitudinous words and acts which make up the sum of every common day. |
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