He cannot see any one sick, poor, in prison, naked, or wounded, but love hastens to his relief. It does not say -Be ye well, be ye relieved, &c. but it freely gives them such things as they have need of. My Christian brethren, you know that these are the proper offices of brotherly love. Oh! be careful then in the practice of them. If you would have your evidences kept clear for heaven, and your peace and comfort abiding, let your faith be continually working. Exercise it upon Christ's distressed members. Go about doing them good. Refuse no labour of love; for he has commanded, and he has encouraged you to embrace every opportunity. This is the commandment of God, that you should believe on the name of his only begotten Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave you commandment; and the day is approaching, when you will hear him say " "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of "the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto "me." Keep your faith then working by love; for they cannot be separated. Faith is the root, and love is the fruit; if the root be alive, it will bear fruit, even the abundant fruits of love and charity, to God's glory, and to man's profit. And as the believer is kindly affectioned with brotherly love to relieve the bodily wants of his neighbour, so is he influenced towards his spiritual wants with more affection, because the soul is more precious than the body; at least, if he be not, he ought however to be thus influenced. There is in men a strange remissness and backwardness to the performance of the offices of love, relating to the souls of their neighbours: but grace makes them willing and able. It sweetly inclines and mightily enables them to the spiritual acts of brotherly love; but one cannot help lamenting how little grace is exercised this way. While worldly people are erecting magnificent hospitals, and doing princely acts of charity, oh! how short of them do professors come in their works of charity? You are a professor, you call yourself a Christian, and do you not know one of your do neighbours who lives in open sin, and yet you never speak to him of it? You thought, indeed, sometimes of reproving him; but then, fear, or shame, or indolence prevented you. These passions were stronger in you than brotherly love. And does not this convince you how unlike you are to your blessed master? Did he ever decline doing good for fear of some little inconvenience which might attend it? No, he went about doing good, although at the hazard of his life; and yet your love to Christ, and to precious souls, is so very cold, that you can suffer your neighbour to live in sin, yea, perhaps to die in it, without one kind reproof, and hast thou not then boasting professor, great reason to examine thyself, whether thou be in the faith? For how canst thou prove it to be true and alive, since it does not work by love? May this humble thee, and put thee upon seeking more of the spirit and power of Jesus Christ. Perhaps you are the master of a family, how you shew your love to your servants? You see they do your work, and you take care to pay them their wages, and what more do you than publicans and sinners? But do you watch over their souls, instructing and admonishing them with all gentleness and diligence? Have you any family worship? Do you pray constantly with them, and for them? so that the Lord may justly say of you, as he did of the father of the faithful, "I "know Abraham, that he will command his children, "and his household after him, and they shall keep the 66 way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment." God knows, there are few heads of families, who take any care at all of the souls of their servants; and few indeed do their duty by them in brotherly love. The Lord pardon what is past, and reform us for the future in this respect. Perhaps you may be a parent, and you take pains enough to provide for the temporal welfare of your children. You rise up early, and late take rest, and eat the bread of carefulness, that you may get a great fortune for them. And what more do you for them than for your beasts? You provide for your chil dren's well-being in the world, and do you not the same for your cattle? Christian love would put you upon another work, and would stir you up to catechise them, to teach them to know themselves, to become early acquainted with their corrupt and sinful nature, and to see the necessity of their salvation by Jesus Christ. This is your bounden duty as a parent. The blessing upon the discharge of it is in God's hand; but he requires you to use the means; and if love be alive and active in your heart, you will strive more to have your children rich in grace, than rich in those things which perish in the using. In whatever other station of life God has placed you, do you perform the offices of brotherly love in it? Do you love your neighbour as yourself? Search diligently, and watch your heart narrowly. If you have any true love, pray for more of it, and may the Lord God Almighty help you to subdue self, and all your selfish tempers, that love may increase and abound in your soul. May you grow up unto him in all things, who is the head, even Christ; from whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. Hear us thou God of love, and answer; and grant that all men may know us to be thy disciples by our edifying one another in love. May no selfish temper, no bigotry, or party spirit, hinder us from relieving the spiritual or bodily wants of any of our distressed brethren, but unite all thy members closely among themselves. Make us, Lord, of one mind and of one heart, and may all that love thee in sincerity, think and speak the same things. O give us that love which never faileth, We ask it for thy mercy's sake, to the honour of the holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, three persons in one Jehovah, whose is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen. |