SUNDAY READING

Taranaki Daily News, 14 February 1931, Page 14 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING

By the late REV.

A. H. COLLINS

‘‘THE EXCELLENCE OF CHARITY.”

"He that covereth transgression aeeketh love.”—Proverbs 17, 0.

When the Revised x Version of the 1 New Testament first appeared, some 30 years ago, one of the changes that arrested the reader was the disappearance of the word “charity,” and its replacement by the word love. We may be sure the change was not made without serious reason; nor is it dimcult to surmise the reason. Nouns, like people, sometimes lose their character, and once lost it is not easy to regain. The word “charity” had come to.be applied to almsgiving, and almsgiving of a grudging and ungenerous kind. “Cold as Charity” had passed into a proverb by‘the ISth century and the phrase carries its own condemnation. Men bestowed charitable doles as a substitute for justice.- Coal and blankets at Christmas were made to do duty for a just wage throughout the year. “Charity” became an engine of political corruption, and social wrong, until the English peasantry revolted and . cried, “curse your charity; give us our rights. It was this degradation of the worn which probably led the Revision Committee to drop it, and replace it with another and less equivocal word. Yet I should like to put in a plea for the old word, and give back to charity its former and nobler meaning, for, truth to tell, the substituted word is not quite satisfactory. “Love,” as used in popular speech, and popular fiction, . lacks strength and sacredness, and dignity. It is often a synonym for passion and sentimental indulgence; 'but. “charity, in its root meaning, was neither alms- , giving nor sentimentality; it was not cold or soft, but warm and strong; it rested on insight and reality, and it issued in character which was like the 1 rocks for firmness and like the moss | for tenderness. And this book of wise counsels and sound maxims,, this proverbial philosophy, with its direct bearing on everyday affairs, would have been manifestly incomplete without some reference to this quality of unselfish love, which is best described as “charity.” Twice over the writers explain that “charity covereth transgression” and the New Testament echoes the same truth, “charity, covereth a multitude of sins.” what DOES CHARITY COVER? What are we to understand by the word “covereth” which is found twice in the Proverbs, and is repeated in the New Testament? We need to be clear here, for it involves the whole question of our treatment of wrongdoers. Plainly, charity does not mean a confusion of moral issues. God’s charity does not mean His indifference to moral distinctions. He does not treat all men alike. He does not say that black and white are the same.' Charity does not mean hushing things up; it does not mean uttering no word of censure, holding our peace, and sheltering the guilty from the consequences he has incurred. This is not charity, but weakness, and it involves the gravest consequences to the person concerned, and Ito the society of which he is a member. There is a spurious charity which softens the moral fibre, and 'blurs the moral sight, “peace at any price” is not Christian, and its apostles often lack robustness and principle. No! charity is not mere leniency which has its root in laxity. To let the offender go free may simply mean that we are too indolent or too indifferent to take any notice, and the Gospel condemns that. What is this divine charity which the Holy Book so highly exalts, and the ■I \

absence of which it so sternly condemns. If Ido not misconceive it, charity is a blend of sympathy, humility and redemption. First, sympathy, by . which I mean fellow suffering. Contrast the pharisee and the 'Saviour in ’their attitude to evil-doers. The one multiplied the injunctions and prohibitions, adding to the commandments of God,’ “the tradition of men.” Their chief pleasure seemed to lie in the detection and exposure of this and that trifling of this and that bit of ritualism, and in holding it up as a contrast to their own superior holiness. Even in relation to Jesus, their object was to prove Him wrong, to catch Him in His speech, and to’expose'His ignorance of things in which they were masters. Their teiflper was essentially loveless, unsympathetic and self-righteous; and they simply gloated over the public exposure of the men’s real or imaginary faults. ~ _ . Contrast all this with the Saviour. He suffered with the sinner, and for the sinner; aye! suffered more than the sinner. He never chuckled over the discomfiture of His foes; never put «n superior airs and said “I told you so, “serves him right.” He sighed and sorrowed; He was “moved with compassion”’ I know it is a far cry from the old time Pharisee and his modern equivalent, and yet because I scan my own heart, I know the difference is not so deep as the lapse of time would seem to suggest. It is quite possible to emphasise our blame, not so much because we hate the deed as because we' dislike the man. THE HUMILITY OF WISDOM. Second, humility, by which I mean the wisdom that comes with self-know-ledge the spirit of candour with ourj selves which prompts the question, who I art thou that judgest?” Our position I and our temperament may protect us against the particular fault we so whole-heartedly condemn in another; but are we so sure that if we had been exposed to the same strain, wo should have given a better account of ourselves? Should we not withhold blame and express thankfulness that we have been spared the testing which. might have been too severe for our principles or our habits? When John Newton saw a man hailed to prison for an ( offence/ instead of adverse judgment he said “But for the grace of God there goes John Newton.” Besides, though we have not fallen in one particular direction, have we not fallen short in others? You are very amiable; but are you firm? You do not worry; but are you weak? You are not moody; but are you serious? You never lose your temper; but are you slack? You have no doubts; but do you ponder? Ah! how near our virtues run to vices, and a- little self-examination would teach us charity. THE AIM OF REDEMPTION. But the chief thing is this, that charity is redemptive in ite essence and aim. It covers in order to recover; it seeks to supply a new chance and a new motive to better being and doing. . It goes out after the prodigal to win him back, and such loving means self-sacrifice, whereof Calvary is the most perfect example. All through His life, and most supremely in the act of dying, the Saviour manifested that disposition which, despite human weakness and sin, persists in its purpose to love and redeem. Sympathy, humility, redemption—these three will crown life with, that “most excellent grace of charity,” without which all our aims and strivings are nothing.