Hence,
"If I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, but have not love it
profiteth me nothing."
Then Paul contrasts it with SACRIFICE and martyrdom: "If I give
my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing."
Missionaries can take nothing greater to the heathen world than the
impress and reflection of the Love of God upon their own character.
That is the universal language. It will take them years to speak
in Chinese, or in the dialects of India. From the day they land,
that language of Love, understood by all, will be pouring forth
its unconscious eloquence.
It is the man who is the missionary, it is not his words. His
character is his message. In the heart of Africa, among the great
Lakes, I have come across black men and women who remembered the
only white man they ever saw before--David Livingstone; and as you
cross his footsteps in that dark continent,
Men's faces light up
As they speak of the kind doctor who passed there years ago. They
could not understand him; but they felt the love that beat in his
heart. They knew that it was love, although he spoke no word.
Take into your sphere of labor, where you also mean to lay down
your life, that simple charm, and your lifework must succeed. You
can take nothing greater, you need take nothing less.
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