The Supreme Virtue Series

Pitiram Sorokin in his book The Ways And Power Of Love tells

of how in 1918 he was hunted down by the Communist Government

of Russia. He was imprisoned and condemned to death. Everyday

he expected to be shot as he witnessed the shootings of his friends

and fellow prisoners. For 4 years he underwent endless horrors of

human cruelty, death, and destruction. In spite of all this he was an

excellent example of the power of positive thinking.

He wrote this in his diary while in prison: "Whatever may

happen in the future, I know that I have learned 3 things which will

remain forever convictions of my heart as well as my mind. Life,

even the hardest life, is the most beautiful, wonderful, and

miraculous treasure in the world. Fulfillment of duty is another

marvelous thing making life happy. This is my second conviction.

And my third is that cruelty, hatred, violence, and injustice never

can and never will be able to create a mental, moral, or material

millenium. The only way toward it is the royal road of all-giving

creative love, not only preached but consistently practiced."

This all-giving creative love he writes of is the agape love of the

New Testament. God spared Sorokin that he might preach and

practice this love. He became one of the most voluminous writers of

modern times in the area of Sociology. He established the Harvard

Research Center in Creative Altruism. Altruism is another word for

the love of others. After years of study and experiments Sorokin

believes he has established the following truth scientifically:

"Unselfish love has enormous creative and therapeutic

potentialities far greater than most people think. Love is a

life-giving force, necessary for physical, mental, and moral health.

Altruistic persons live longer than egoistic individuals.

Children deprived of love tend to become vitally, morally, and

socially defective.

Love is the most powerful antidote against criminal, morbid, and

suicidal tendencies; against hate, fear, psychoneuroses.

It is an indispensable condition for deep and lasting happiness.

Only the power of unbounded love practiced in regard to all

human beings can defeat the forces of interhuman strive.

It is goodness and freedom at their loftiest."

He feels he has established the fact scientifically which the New

Testament proclaims, and that is that love is the supreme virtue. It

is the pinnacle of perfection. It the weapon that will ultimately win

over all the forces of darkness. He says that the finest fruit of

scientific thinking is identical to the finest fruit of the Spirit, which is

agape love. Science is a precise method for interpreting and

controlling nature, and when it comes to human nature the key

factor in interpreting and controlling it is love. More and more

people in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, and sociology are

recognizing this fact that life without love just will not work.

Smiley Blanton, and American psychiatrist, has written a book

titled Love Or Perish. He writes, "For more than 40 years I have sat

in my office and listened while people of all ages and classes told me

of their hopes and fears, their likes and dislikes, and of what they

considered good or bad about themselves and the world around

them....As I look back over the long, full years, one truth emerges

clearly in my mind-the universal need for love. Whether they think

they do or not, all people want love.....They cannot survive without

love: they must have it or they will perish."

A psychiatrist at a mental institution in Peoria, Ill. Says: "No

matter what a psychiatrist knows he cannot cure a patient with

knowledge. Someone has to love that patient, for the lack of love

produced the neurosis. And only love can cure it." Dr. Karl

Menninger, the noted authority in the world of medicine and

psychiatry, said, "Love is the medicine for the sickness of the

world." He tells his staff, which includes doctors, nurses, orderlies,

and cleaning people, that the most important thing they can offer a

patient is love. When people learn to give an receive love they

recover from most of their illnesses. The biggest health problem in

the world is the inability to love and receive love. Love is the

greatest gift, and God gave us this gift in the giving of His Son.

Paul made it clear in I Cor. 13 that he could have all gifts and

powers that anyone could ever hope to have, but if he lacked love he

would be nothing. Peter agrees with Paul, and that is why he puts

love at the top. We can be a very fine person with many virtues, but

without this supreme virtue of love we can never be Christ-like in

the way that really counts. There would be no Gospel if God lacked