Scripture: "The greatest of these is Love."—1 COR. xiii. 13.
During the Boer War, when there was much unrest in the country, a certain minister asked his brother-minister, who was a leader in the church, to do his best to calm the minds of those around him. His answer was: "I have enough trouble with myself; my own mind is unsettled. How can I quiet others?" If there were a revival of the preaching of love, more than one of our ministers would have to say: "There is such a lack of love in my own heart; how can I teach others?"
Yet there is a remedy. Let me tell you what I have learned from John Wesley. During the first fourteen years of his ministry he had no insight into what a free and full salvation by faith meant. After he had been convicted of the sin of unbelief, by means of a conversation with one of the Moravian Brethren, he began to preach with such power that many were converted. But he felt that it was too much a matter of the intellect; he had not yet experienced the full joy and love which the Moravian pos¬sessed. He asked the Brother what he should do. The answer was: "Preach it because you believe that it is what God's Word teaches: you will soon find what you are seeking, and will then preach it because you possess it."
This has been my own experience. Often in preaching, or in writing, I have asked myself: But do you possess what you preach to others? And I have followed the advice: Preach it, because you believe it to be the teaching of God's Word, and heartily desire it. Preach the truth by faith, and the experience will follow. Let the minister who feels impelled to preach about love, not hesitate to do so, and he will soon be able to preach it because he has himself received that which he commends.
