Love and Faith in Christian Character
The reader will be interested in the sermon in this number. All that is said about love, in itself considered, is true. It cannot be exalted too highly. But we have supposed, and we understand it to be the opinion generally received among S. D. Adventists, that the gold of Rev. iii, 18, embraces more than love. We think the points of analogy can be made to appear more striking by letting faith stand as its leading representative. And even the achievements of God's people in past ages, which Bro. T. refers to as instances in which love has been tried in the fire, Paul says, Heb. xi, were accomplished “through faith.” But we have no disposition to contend on this point, till we see more of the heavenly grace of love manifested among us. Granted that we all have too little of it, and that we cannot possess it in too large measure, nor seek it too earnestly; and then we have something to occupy our attention more important than theory. Far rather would we see a person make love the all in all of the gold, and then possess this heavenly grace in its fullness, letting its warming influence flow out upon all surrounding hearts, than to see him barren of this lovely quality, though he might seem to us to be more scriptural in theory. What we do not like to see is, a person extolling love and holding that love is the gold we are counseled to buy, and then, if his brethren do not at once adopt his view, manifesting such feelings toward them, as to show that he is himself utterly destitute of it. We long for, we pray for, and we extend a hearty hand to any one who with us will labor to reach, a state in which love in the plenitude of its uniting power shall flow from heart to heart, and in which the Saviour’s prayer may be fulfilled in us: “That they all may be one; as thou Father art in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us.”