The Secret of Brotherly Love by Andrew Murray

SIXTEENTH DAY.
:a Song of '.lLO\?e.
" But now abideth faith, hope, love,
these three ; and the greatest of these is
love."-r CoR. xiii. 13.
T
HIS chapter is wholly devoted to
the praise of love. The first three
verses speak of the absolute necessity
of love, as the chief thing in our
religion. " If I speak with the tongues
of angels, if I have the gift of prophecy,
if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains,
and if I bestow all my goods on
the poor, and if I give my body to be
burned, but have not love " ; then,
three times repeated, " I am become
sounding brass, I am nothing, it profi.teth
me nothing." If I have not love,
it all profiteth me nothing. .
Then follows the Song of Love (vers.
4-8). There are fift een things said
about love-what it is and what it is not.
In this description one sentence sums up
the whole nature of love: " It seeketh
not its own." And again: "Love
never faileth." Prophecies, tongues, and
knowledge shall vanish away. Even
faith and hope shall be changed into
sight. But Love abides to all eternity,
as long as God endures. Love is the
greatest thing in the world.
We should read this chapter oftener
than we do, and commit the Song to
32