Love is the central, animating force in true religion. It is to the moral system what the sun is to the solar system, the warming, illuminating, moving power to every part. In the natural world every growing tree, flowing stream, breeze of wind, floating cloud, falling shower, opening bud, tossing wave is produced by the force of the sun. So in the spiritual realm every fervent prayer, act of charity, resistance to evil, gentle word, courageous act is a product of love. It is to the soul what
blood is to the body. As the health and vigor of the body depend on the blood, so the health of the soul, the vigor of its righteousness, the bloom and color of its excellences depend on the quality and degree of love that pervades the spirit and prompts its movements. The term "walk " applies to all the movements of the spirit and life; it is the ever-going, never-ceasing locomotion of the moral and mental nature. We walk in our words, our desires, our tempers, plans, purposes, prayers, sermons, opinions, business dealings, every unfolding of the spirit in an outward act, or an intention to act, constitutes a distinct step in the everlasting march of the soul on its journey through eternity. Footprints on the ocean shore may be erased by the next wave, but our souls are putting footprints into the passing hours which are indelibly preserved in our history.
To walk in love, to speak, to act, to purpose, with the love of God pervading all our movements, is the best and sublimest form of existence. To do this there must be a thorough abnegation of self-will, self-opinion and self-desire.
It is so easy for us to indulge in a spirit contrary to Christ's love under the guise of zeal or some other form of virtue. Let us apply walking in love to our preaching, teaching, exhortation, reproving. In all such deliverances we may be rigidly orthodox, severely truthful, forgetting that we break the truth the very moment we cease to hold the truth in love. How long it takes us to learn that "the letter killeth," that is, the exact, strict, doctrinal truth, when separated from the proper spirit which should go with it, becomes the instrument of death. Even the doctrine of holiness may be held and taught in such a spirit as to break the law of holiness. Without love the doctrines of salvation may be presented in a ruinous way, and with love the doctrine of hell may be presented in such Scriptural unction as to save souls. Apply tiffs walking in love to prayer. Are not a great many prayers worse than wasted because uttered in a sharp, condemnatory or peevish and in spirit? Have we not heard prayers which sounded like judging others or reprimanding others, or addressed to some individual in the company more than to God?
Do we ever catch ourselves uttering a prayer for the gratification of self, or either for the commendation or the condemnation of some one present? Let us remember that no prayers ascend to heaven with prevailing effect except in the same proportion as they have the spirit of heaven in them. That which comes from heaven will return thither. This is just as .true of prayers as of persons. It is the love force in our prayers that makes them telling with God or with men. If we pray thoughtfully, God will give us an inward light to detect any deviation from the spirit of love. It will often happen that we shall find ourselves about to utter some word or petition which is unwise or expresses a wrong sentiment, and before it escapes our lips the Spirit will lead us to utter something quite different, or else to so modify the tone of our voice and the manner of expression as to produce an effect just the opposite to what it would have been but for His gentle touch and illumination. To use either flattery or recrimination in our prayers may not be equally offensive to men, but it is equally offensive to God; and in either case poisons our petitions. The thoughtfulness which is requisite in prayer is not that of intense intellectuality, but that tranquil kind of thoughtfulness which watches the outgoings of our heart to see that they are in harmony with the Scripture and pleasing to God. If this form of walking in love were observed, how many kinds of prayers it would weed out from religious services, and even from some holiness conventions and meetings. Apply this walking in love to our feelings toward and opinions of others. What my heart feels toward another, or what my opinion of him is, implies the activity of my moral nature and is a form of walking. Prejudice is an opinion formed beforehand, or without knowing the facts in the case, and if my mind walks in love, it will prevent prejudice, for love forms its estimate on the basis of knowledge. Ill our views of other people, other churches, other localities of country, other races, other forms of living, other kinds of meetings, other sorts of revival than those of our own, if our judgments were formed under the guidance of love, how tolerant they would be, how free from rash denunciation.
In that case our opinions would coincide with the Word of God. Apply this walking in love to matters of business, which would not only imply that we transacted our affairs honestly, but that the honesty and fair dealing were the outflow of a loving heart which, from its loving nature, preferred and delighted in fair dealing. We hear it said, that "honesty is the best policy," but the person that is honest for that reason is, at heart, a thief, for the same grounds he would steal, providing stealing was the best policy. To walk in love in buying and selling, in borrowing and lending, in begging and giving, in hiring and being hired, in being masters or servants would constitute an ideal society, and if all will not accept of this rule we can each have the privilege of forming one that does it, and if we should be the only one it will be to us just the same as if all the world did. The Holy Spirit has chosen to feed us with such verses as the following: "We should be without blame before Him in love," "Being rooted and grounded in love," "Forbearing one another in love," "Speaking the truth in love," "The church edifying itself in love," "Being knit together in love," "Esteem them highly in love," "Walk in love," "He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God." When we look back over our lives, and see the times and places where another disposition has governed our words and actions, they look like salt spots upon which no lovely fruit has grown.
We may depend upon it no form of religion will succeed except that which springs from the blessed author of religion.
