Although I have often alluded, in the course of these letters, to the work of the Holy Spirit, and his blessed fruit in the heart and life, yet so deeply do I feel impressed with the excellency and amiable sweetness of the grace of Charity, that I feel constrained to commend it to your notice in a separate letter.  Charity is the queen of the graces, excelling even faith and hope, and enduring when all those gifts which add brilliancy to the character shall cease their attractions; and, though you may not possess great personal charms, superior accomplishments, or great powers of mind, yet if you do but “put on charity,” you will, like the blessed Saviour, “grow in favor both with God and man.”

The apostle calls charity the “bond of perfectness;” alluding to the girdle of the Orientals, which was not only ornamental and expensive, but was put on last, serving to adjust the other parts of the dress, and keep the whole together.  It is a bond which holds all the Christian graces in harmonious union, and, by keeping them together, secures a permanent completeness and consistency of character.  Without the girdle, the flowing robes of Oriental dress would present a sad appearance; hardly serving the purposes of decency.  So the apostle concludes that the most brilliant gifts and heroic actions are all nothing without charity.

Charity, however, is not to be understood in the popular sense of almsgiving.  It is the same word which is elsewhere rendered love.  It means a benevolent disposition of heart—­love to God and good will to man, diffused through the whole character and conduct.  But the description of charity given by the apostle relates chiefly to its manifestations in our intercourse with our fellow-men.  My principal object in this letter will be to apply this description so as to discover negatively what conduct is inconsistent with charity, and positively the effect of charity on the human character.

I. Charity suffereth long.  It will endure ill-treatment, and prefer suffering to strife.  It will not resent the first encroachments, but patiently bear with injuries as long as they can be borne.  If charity reigns in your heart, you will consider how many and aggravated are your offences against God, and yet that his long-suffering bears with your perverseness, and he is daily loading you with benefits; and shall you be impatient of the slightest offences from a fellow worm?  Consider also how liable you are to encroach upon the rights of others, and to try their patience by your infirmities.  Do not, therefore, be hasty in the indulgence of hard thoughts of others, nor impatient of their faults and infirmities.  How much contention and strife might be avoided by a little forbearance! and who is there so perfect as not sometimes to need it to be extended toward himself?  The ills of social life are greatly mitigated by the exercise of mutual forbearance; and they find no place under the sweet reign of charity.