He contrasts it with FAITH. He contrasts it with CHARITY. Why
is Love greater than faith? Because the end is greater than the
means. And why is it greater than charity? Because the whole is
greater than the part.
Love is greater than FAITH, because the end is greater than the
means. What is the use of having faith? It is to connect the
soul with God. And what is the object of connecting man with God?
That he may become like God. But God is Love. Hence Faith, the
means, is in order to Love, the end. Love, therefore, obviously
is greater than faith. "If I have all faith, so as to remove
mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."
It is greater than CHARITY, again, because the whole is greater
than a part. Charity is only a little bit of Love, one of the
innumerable avenues of Love, and there may even be, and there is,
a great deal of charity without Love. It is a very easy thing
to toss a copper to a beggar on the street; it is generally an
easier thing than not to do it. Yet Love is just as often in the
withholding. We purchase relief from the sympathetic feelings
roused by the spectacle of misery, at the copper's cost. It is too
cheap--too cheap for us, and often too dear for the beggar. If we
really loved him we would either do more for him, or less.
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