fulfilled, which was to destroy the works of the devil, and to introduce, instead, "whatsoever things are true, and honest, and just, and lovely:" things approved of God, and profitable to men.

8

LECTURE LXVI.

BROTHERLY KINDNESS THE CHARACTERISTIC OF CHRISTIANS.

1 JOHN iii. 13-17.

13. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. 14. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

15. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

“In

The Gospel finds men in a state of death. Adam all died." It offers restoration. "He that hath the Son, hath life: and he that hath not the Son, hath not life." The passage from one state to the other, is like the passage from one country to another. There is a gulf which must be crossed. And herein, says St. John, is one sign that we have crossed it, have passed from death unto life, 1 because we love the brethren. They are not of the world, and the world does not love them. Nay, it is well if it does not hate them. Marvel not, my brethren, 1 μεταβέβηκαμεν.

8 Phil. iv. 8.

1

out of the

if the world hate you. The Lord Jesus has disclosed the secret. (John xv. 19.) "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you world, therefore the world hateth you." One who lives for the present world, cannot cherish cordial feelings towards another who lives for a different world. The two belong to a different family; to a different country. As the Lord said to his own brethren; (John vii. 7,) "The world cannot hate you;" there is nothing to excite such enmity: "but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil." We see an example of this hatred in the conduct of the Pharisees towards the man who had been restored to sight: and who had truly said, "If this man were not of God, he could do nothing." (John ix. 33.) (John ix. 33.) "They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out." The same feeling was shown towards Nicodemus; "Art thou also of Galilee?" And thoughts like these lead rapidly on to further signs of hatred, and prove that he that hateth his brother is a murderer. "The chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus to death: because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus." 2

But the same course of thought and feeling which affected the unbelieving Jews with hatred, would affect the Christians with love and kindness. They are those who are baptized into the same faith, and call upon the same Lord as ourselves. They have

2 John xii. 11.

renounced the world: are proceeding with us on the same journey are fellow travellers towards a heavenly kingdom. Let us help one another on the way; and by mutual sympathy, by "bearing one another's burthens," smooth difficulties and comfort sorrows.

And the consciousness of this brotherly feeling towards the followers of Christ, because they are his followers, is a sign of that state of heart which belongs to genuine faith. If I feel my kindly affections strongly drawn towards the relations and friends of an individual, it must be because I love that individual. If the home, the spot is dear to me where one has lived, for no other reason than because it was the spot in which he used to linger and the home in which he delighted, this can only be because that person is highly valued and dearly regarded by me. And so if I love the brother Christian who is working out his salvation in the world, for no other reason than because he is a brother Christian, I have an evidence in my own heart of an interest in Him, who is our common Saviour. Union of interest with my christian neighbour, is union of interest with my christian neighbour's Lord. And to have that interest, is to have passed from death unto life: to have been taken out of a country of desolation and destruction, to a country of security and peace. For Christ himself declared, (Matt. x. 41,) "He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man, shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whosoever shall

give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward."

But all these are active, manifest signs of love. And the apostle, having spoken thus strongly of love towards the brethren, will not leave it doubtful what he means by that love. Not merely a feeling which leads to no exertion, or evaporates in words : but charity which is energetic and self-denying: even like that love "which passeth knowledge," the love of Christ towards man. To that love we are directed, as our pattern, our standard.

3

16. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

By this we know the nature, we perceive the degree of real love, by the example which Christ has given. We ought to be animated by a like feeling, if we really love. We ought to be prepared to lay down our lives for the brethren. For such was the love of him who truly loved us. He showed that greatest of all proofs of love, that he laid down his life for his friends. But if we ought to do that which is greatest, what shall be thought of one who refuses to do that which is least?

17. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

What portion has such an one of that love, which dwelt in God the Father, when he sent his only 3 In the Greek, hereby perceive we love. By this we understand the nature and extent of genuine love, in the example of it which he (ekeɩvos, Christ) has given.

begotten Son to be the propitiation for our sins? Or which dwelt in God the Son, when he gave his life a ransom, and was bruised for our iniquities?

Take example from the well-known case of that rich man, who allowed Lazarus to remain at his gate hungry and full of sores, whilst living himelf in luxury and abundance. When God saw the case of all mankind to be such in regard to the soul, as the case of Lazarus in regard to the destitution of the body, he was moved with compassion towards them, and provided a way for their redemption. That was love. And what was there like this, in the neglect, the indifference of the rich man? How dwelt the love of God in him?

Take example, again, from the history of the man who "fell among thieves," and was left by the wayside, wounded and half dead. A priest and a Levite saw him lying in that condition, and passed by on the other side. How dwelt the love of God in them? What was there of that love which the Lord Jesus showed, when he left the bosom of the Father, and took upon him our nature, that he might "heal our sicknesses, and bear our infirmities?"

This, then, is real love so it shows itself, so it exerts itself. And if any man seeth his brother have need, sees him oppressed by wants which he is capable of relieving, and refuses thus to employ his means, how dwelleth in him that principle of love which belongs to God, and which ought to dwell in him, if he is a disciple of Christ? As a disciple of Christ, he is made "partaker of the divine nature." As a disciple of Christ, he is to be merciful, even as 5 Ib. x. 30, &c.

4 Luke xvi. 19-21.