The Capacity For Loving Folks


Beloved, let us love one another.--1 John 4:7.

It is a great thing to love people--the greatest thing in the world!

There is nothing that ennobles life like love. There is nothing that so blesses our lives, and nothing that makes us such a blessing to the world.

Love is the supreme factor in the development of a character which attempts to be like that of Jesus Christ. It is the supreme factor in the attainment of happiness. The happiest hours we ever experience are those in which we try to give someone else the very best that love can give.

There are some who have a genius for loving people. They have a passion for humanity. Their hearts overflow with the milk of human kindness. Among these you will find the great philanthropists and the great servants of the race. Many of them you will find in hidden places, but there are nevertheless pouring out their hearts in love and devotion and helpfulness to those around them.

Someone wrote of Prof. Henry Drummond: “His large capacity for loving folks made him a living magnet.” It is said that when he entered a room his presence seemed to change the atmosphere.

Where love is you can always feel it. And if it isn’t there, you can feel that, too--you feel its absence.

What a benediction they are to the world, these great hearts with a genius for loving humanity! The world has been blessed by many types of genius, but its crowning benefactions have sprung from the genius for loving people.

“He that loveth” (1 John 2:10)--he is the man possessed with the crowning genius.

The motivating power behind all that Christ did for this sinful world was His great love and passion for humanity. And to all His disciples, He says, “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you” (John 15:13).

The church could use larger wealth and larger facilities, but what it needs more than anything else is a larger capacity for loving folks.