Matthew 22:30-40 For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.… I. Look to the testimony of the Bible and see whether I am right in saying that THE GREAT CONTROLLING INFLUENCE OF RELIGIOUS LIFE IS TO BE LOVE TO GOD AND MAN. Christian people spend much time watching their motives and actions that they have little or no time to attend to anything else. There is but one thing required of man, and that is, that he shall have love. If you take care of that, everything else will take care of itself. As in a watch there is a spring, which, if you coil it up, will of itself keep all the wheels in motion, so there is in the human soul a spring which, if you wind it up, will uncoil itself, and carry forward everything related to your duties and conduct in this world. II. WHAT IS INCLUDED IN THIS LOVE. God has made in the human soul a threefold provision for the exercise of affection: maternal love, personal affection, benevolence to men irrespective of character. To these forms of affection I must add a capacity for a higher love, by which we are able to develop out of ourselves a true love for that which is invisible and perfect — the ideal religious love. This is given us that we may find our way up to God, whom we have not seen, with love and trust. III. WHAT IS THE CONDITION IN WHICH THIS STATE OF MIND IS TO EXIST? We are conscious that our feelings exist in a two-fold way — first as impulses, and second as dispositions. The former are occasional, the latter are permanent. Love must be a disposition, our natural equilibrium and rest. Some men are habitually in a state of industry; they are idle sometimes, but idleness with them is special, the exception. Industry is their abiding state. Love must be our abiding condition. IV. I am to ask your attention to THE RELATIONS OF THIS DISPOSITION OF LOVE TO THE WORK OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE INDIVIDUAL AND IN THE WORLD. This disposition of love is the atmosphere in which all other qualities ripen, and in which only they are perfect. Those duties impelled by fear are usually caustic, those impelled by conscience are usually hard; but those which spring from love are always easy. We shall never be able to treat our fellow-men aright without the disposition of love; to correct their faults; without love we cannot correctly present Christianity to the world. (H. W. Beecher.) Parallel Verses KJV: For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. |
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