Paul's Love-Song
” God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” — Galatians vi. 14.
Can anything make the bearing of a cross glorious? Many things can make a cross endurable; patience can, pride can, despair itself can. But can anything make it a glory? I know of only one thing that can — love! It has been often said that love will go through fire and water for its object. But Paul says a great deal more than that. He says that love courts the fire and water. I think he is right. I believe’ the morning stage of all love is a craving for the cross. Peter is no abnormal specimen when he cries, “Bid me that I come to Thee on the water!” He has been charged with the love of display; it was really the love of Jesus. All love, secular and sacred, begins with the cry for martyrdom. The earliest imagination in the heart of love is not that of a gilded palace; it is that of a terrible battle in which it is fighting for its object’s life and joy. Its morning picture is the den of lions; its opening fancy is the fiery furnace; its primitive desire is to brave the Sea of Galilee. Its birth-cry is the cry for privation. Its morning note is always, everywhere, a sentiment which has been clothed in words by a Scottish poet and set to the music of a German master:
“Oh, wert thou in the cauld blast,
On yonder lea, on yonder lea,
My plaidie to the angry airt,
I’d shelter thee, I’d shelter thee;
Or did misfortune’s bitter storms
Around thee blaw, around thee blaw,
Thy shield should be my bosom,
To share it a’, to share it a’.”
My soul, thy love for Jesus is but the perpetuation of love’s natural morning! There are not two kinds of love. Pure love is like pure water — the same in bay as in mid ocean’s deep. Thy love for Jesus is the prolonging of the morning star. Hast thou considered this love-song of Paul’s. It is a love-song to Jesus — the oldest in the world. Hast thou considered how like it is to all pure songs of love. Listen to its music! —” I should glory to be with Thee in the garden; I should revel to be near Thee on Thy cross. Oh that Thy wilderness were mine to share’; oh that Thy waters were m.ine to tread! Meet me in some spot where I can help Thee, in some hour when I can aid Thee! Not under the dome of night where Thou art strong and I am weak — not in the gorgeous palaces where Thou art rich and I am poor, would I meet Thee! But at the Garden gate where still Thou sufferest, on the Dolorous Way where still Thou climbest, in the Bethany church-yard where still Thou weepest, at Samaria’s well where still Thou thirstest, in Jerusalem’s streets where still Thy heart is broken — I would meet Thee there! Meet me in Thy lane and alley; meet me in Thy garret and hovel; meet me in Thy wards of sickness; meet me in Thy vigils with the sad; meet me on Thy road to the prodigal; meet me in Thy house of the leper; meet me on Thy track ot the fallen! My proudest height of glory will be the foot of Thy Cross! ‘*