CHAPTER V.

CHARITY AND CONFLICT.


And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest
of these is charity.--1 COR. xiii. 13.

Another characteristic of this Divine Charity is, that it OFTEN
INVOLVES CONFLICT.

It was so with our Lord. He was the very personification of it. He
was love itself, and grace and truth poured from His lips
incessantly. His blessed feet went about doing good, and His hands
ministering to the necessities and happiness of His creatures, yet
His whole course through this degenerate world was one of conflict,
opposition, and persecution. His proper mission was to bring peace on
earth; but the result of it was a sword! Why? That was not His fault.
He would, doubtless, have enjoyed being at peace with all men, as His
ambassador exhorts us--"as much as lieth in us to be." More, He was
the Prince of Peace! Then, how was it that wherever He went, there
was sword, opposition, and conflict to the death? Because men
_resisted_ and _rejected_ His Divine and Heavenly ministrations. They
would not hear His rebukes and His teaching, because they condemned
them. They would not listen to His voice, because they were of their
father the devil, and the works of their father they would do; and,
therefore, they went about to persecute Him, and to kill Him.

This was the reason--not that _He_ wanted it to be so, but it
was the consequence of their resistance to the beautiful, heavenly,