Love Thy Neighbor
“Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” — Matthew, xii. 19.
OtTP. Saviour very often preached upon the moral precepts of the law. Many of the sermons of Christ — and what ser. mons shall compare with them — have not what is now curi’eutly called “the gospel” in them at all. Our Saviour did not every time he stood up to preach, declare the doctrine of election, or of atonement, or of efiectual calling, or of final perseverance. No, he just as frequently spoke upon the duties of human life, and upon those precious fruits of the Spirit, which are begotten in us by the grace of God. Mark this word that I have just uttered. You may have started at it at first, but upon diligent reading of the four evangelists, you will find I am correct in stating that very much of our Saviour’s time was occupied in telling the people what they ought to do towards one another; and many of his sermons are not what our precise critics would in these times call sermons full of unction and savor; for certainly they would be far from savory to the sickly sentimental Christians who do not care about the practical part of religion. Beloved, it is as much the business of God’s minister to preach man’s duty, as it is to preach Christ’s atonement; and unless he doth preach man’s duty, he will never be blessed of God to bring man into the proper state to see the beauty of the atonement. Unless he sometimes thunders out the law, and claims for his Master the right of obedience to it, he will never be very likely to produce conviction — certainly, not that conviction which afterwards leads to conversion. This morning, I am aware, my sermon will not be very unctuous and savory to you that are always wanting the same round of doctrines, but of this I hava but little care. This rough world sometimes needs to be rebuked, and if we can get at the ears of the people, it is our business to reprove them; and I think if ever there was a time when this text need to be enlarged upon, it is just now, It is so often forgotten, so seldom remembered, “Thou sLalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
I shall notice, first of all, the command; secondly, I shall try and bring some reasons for yoar obedience to it j and afterwards, I shall draw some suggestions from the laio itself
I. First, then, the commajto. It is the second great commandment. The first if, “Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God,” and there, the proper standard is, thou shalt love thy God more than thyself. The second commandment is, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor,” and the standard there is a little lower, but still pre eminently high, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” There is the command. We can split it into three parts. Whom am I to love? My neighbor. ‘WJiat am I to do f I am to love him. Uoio am I to do itf I am to love him as m.yself
First, whom am I to love? I am to love my neighbor. By the word neighbor, we are to understand any person who is near us. It comes from two old words, nae or near, (near) and buer, (to dwell) persons residing, or being near us, and if any on6 in the world is near us, he is our neighbor. The Samaritan, when he saw the wounded man on the road to Jericho, felt that he was in his neighborhood, and that therefore he was his neighbor, and he was bound to love him. “Love thy neighbor.” Perhaps he is in riches, and thou art poor, and thou livest in thy little cot side-by-side with hia lordly mansion. Thou seest his estates, thou markest his fine linen, and his sumptuous raiment. God has given him these girts, and if he has not given them to thee, covet not his wealth, and think no hard thoughts concerning him. There will ever be difierences in the circumstances of man, so let it be. Be content with thy own lot, if thou canst not better it, but do not look upon thy neighbor, and wish that he were poor as thyself, and do not aid or abet any who would rid hiiu
430 LOVE THY NKIGnnOR.
of bis weallli, to make thee hastily rich. Love him, and then thou canst not envy him. Mayhap, on the other hand, tnou art rich, and near thee reside the poor. Do not scorn to call them neighbors. Do not scoi’n to own that thou art bound to love even them. The world calls them thy mteriors. In what are they inferior? They are thine equals really, though not 19o in station. “God hath made of one blood all people that dwell on the face of the earth,” Thou art by no means better than they. They are men, and what art thou more than that? They may be men in rags, but men in rags are men; and if thou be a man ari-ayed in scarlet, tb.ou art no more than a man. Take heed that thou love thy neighbor, even though he be in rags, and scorn him not, though sunken in the depths of poverty.
Love thy neighbor, too, albeit that he he of a different religion. Thou thinkest thyself to be of that sect which is the nearest to the truth, and thou hast hope that thou and thy compeers who think so well, shall certainly be saved. Thy neighbor thinketh diiferently. His religion thou sayest is unsound and untrue; love him, for all that. Let not thy difterences separate him from thee. Perhaps he may be right, or he may be wrong; he shall be the rightest in practice, who loves the most. Possibly he has no religion at all. He disi-egards thy God; he breaks the Sabbath; he is confessedly an atheist; love him still. Hard words will not convert him, hard deeds will not make him a Christian. Love him straight on; his sin is not against thee, but against thy God. Thy God takes vengeance for sins committed against himself, and leave thou him in God’s hands. But if thou canst do him a kind turn, if thou canst find aught whereby thou caast serve him, do it, be it day or night. And if thou makest any distinction, make ii thus: Because thou art not of my religion, I will serve thee the more, that thou mayest be converted to the right; where a? thou art a heretic Samaritan, and I an orthodox Jew, thou art 8till my neighbor, and I will love thee with the hope that thou mayest give up thy temple in Gerizim, and come to bow in the temple of God in Jerusalem. Love thy neighbor, despite dif fercnces in reli<>ion
LOVE TirV NEIGHBOR. 41)1
Love thy neighbor, although he oiyjwse thee in trade. It wDl be a Tim’to hnrd to introduce upon the exchange, or m trade; but, ii«- vortlioless, it is one I am bound to preach to you that are niercliants and tradesmen. A young man has lately started a shop which you are afraid will damage you. You must not hurt hini; you must neither think nor say anything to injure him. Your business is to love him, for though he oppose you in your business, he is your neighbor still. There is another one residing near you, who is indebted to you, and if you should take fiom him all that he owes you, you will ruin him; but if you let him keep your money for a little, he may weather the storm, and succeed in his endeavors. It is your business to love him as yourself. Let him have your money, let him try again, and perhaps you shall have your own, and he shall be helped too. With whomsoever thou hast dealings in thy business, he is thy neighbor. With whomsoever thou tradest, be he gi-eater or less than thou, he is thy neighbor, and the Christian law commands that thou shalt love thy neighbor. It doth not merely say that thou art not to hate him, but it tells thee to love him; and though he should thwart thy projects, though he should prevent thy obtahiing wealth, though he should rob thee of thy custom — ay, though he should obscure thy fame, yet thou art bound to love him as thyself. This law makes no exception, la lie near thee, and hast thou any dealings with him? Thus says the law, “Thou shalt love him.”
Again, thou art bound to love thy neighbor, though he offend thee with his sin. Sometimes our spirits are overwhelmed, and our hearts are grieved, when we see the wickedness of our streets. The common habit with the harlot or the profligate, is to drive them out of society as a cui-se. It is not light, it is not Christian-like. We are bound to love even Burners, and not to drive them from the land of hope, but seek to reclaim even these. Is a man a rogue, a thief, or a Uar? I cannot love his roguery, or I should be a rogue myself. I cannot love his lyhig, or I should be untrue; but I am l)uund to love him still, and even though I am wronged by him, yet I must not harbor one vindictive feelmg. but as I would de
432 LOVE Tnr prEiGnBOE.
sire God to forgive me, so I must forgive him. And if he sc. sins against the law of the land, that he is to be punished (and rightly so,) I am to love him in the punishment; for I am not to condemn him to imprisonment vindictively, but I am to do it for his good, that he may be led to repent through the puiiislunent; I am to give him such a measure of punishment as shall be adequate, not as an atonement foY his crime, but to teach him the evil of it, and induce him to forsake it. But let me condemn him with a tear in my eye, because I love him still. And let me, when he is thrust into piison, take care that all his keepers attend to him with kindness, and although there be a necessity for sternness and seventy in prison discipline, let it not go too far, lest it merge into cruelty, and become wanton, instead of useful. I am bound to love him, though he be sunken in vice, and degraded. The law knows of no exception. It claims my love ibr him. I must love him. I am not bound to take him to my house; I am not bound to treat him as one of my family. There may be some acts of kindness which would be imprudent, seeing shat by doing them I might ruin others, and reward vice. I am bound to set my Jace against him, as I am just, but I feel I ought not to set my heai’t against him, for he is my brotherman, and though the devil has besmeared his face, and spits his venom in his mouth, so that when he speaks he sieaks in oaths, and when he walks, his feet are swift to shed blood, yet he is a man, and as a man he is my brother, and as a brother I am bound to love him, and if by stooping I can lift him up to something like moral dignity, I am wrong if I do not do It, for I am bound to love him as I love myself 0, I would to God that this great law were fully carried out. Ah, my hearers, you do not love your neighbors, you know you do not. You do not hardly love all the people who go to the same chapel. Certainly, you would not think of loving those who differ from you in opinion — would you? That would bcp tou strange a charity. Why, you hardly love your own brothers and sisters. Some of you to-day are at daggers drawing tvith ihem that hung on the same breast. O, how can I expect you !•> I:?”^ vour e’)4»nics if you do not love youi
LOVE Tlir XEIGIIBOB. 4SJ
Viends? Some of you have come here angered at your parents, and here is a brother who is angry with his sister for a word she said before he left home. O, if you can not love your brothers and sisters you are worse than licathen men ajid publicans. How can I expect you to ol)ey this liioh and mighty command, “Love your neighbors?” But whether you obey it or not, it is mine to preach it, and not shift it to a gainsaying generation’s taste. First, we are bound to love find honor all men, simply because they are men; and we are to love, next, all those who dwell near us, not for their goodness or serviceableness toward us, but simply because the law demands it, and they are our neighbors. “Love thy neig’ubor as thyself.”
2. But, now, what am I to do to ray neighbor? Love him — it is a hard word — love him. “Well I believe,” says one, “I never speak an unkind word of any of my neighbors. I do not know that I ever hurt a person’s reputation in my life. I am very careful to do my neighbor no damage. When I start in business I do not let my spirit of compethion over, throw my spirit of charity. I try not to hui-t anybody.” My dear friend, that is right as far as it goes, but it does not go the whole way. It is not enough for you to say, you do not hate your neighbor, you are to love him. When you see him in the street it is not sufficieni, that you keep out of his way, and do not knock him down. Ii is not sufficient that you do not molest him by night, nor disturb his quiet. It is not a negative, it is a positive command. It ip not tJie not doing it is the doing. Thou must not injure him it is true, but thou hast not done all when thou hast not done that. Thou oughtest to love him. “Well,” says one, “when my neighbors are sick lound about; if they be poor, I take a piece from the iomt for dinner, and send it to them, that they may have a little food and be refreshed, and if they be exceedingly poor, I lay out my money, and see that they are taken care of.” Yes, but thou mayest do this, and not love them. I have seen charity thrown to a poor man as a bone is thrown to a dog, and there was no love in it. I have seen money given to those who needed it with not one half the politeness with which hay is given to a horse. “There it is, you want it 1 suppose I must give it to you, or people will not think me liberal. Take it, I am sorry you came here. Why don’t yK)u go to somebody else’s house? I am always having paupers hanging on me.” 0, this is not loving our neighbor, and thia is not making him love us. If we had spoken a kind word to him, and refused him, he would have loved us better than when we gave to him in an unkind manner. No, though thou feedest the poor, and visitest the sick, thou hast not obeyed the command, unless thy heart goes with thy hand, and the kindness of thy life bespeaks the kindness of thy soul. “Thou shalt love thy neighbor.”
And now some one here may say, “Sir, I can not love my neighbor, you may love your’s perhaps, because they may be better than mine, but mine are such an odd set of neighbors, and I try to love them, and for all I do they do but return insult.” So much the more room for heroism. Wouldst thou be some feather-bed warrior, instead of bearing the rough fight of love? Sir, he who dares the most — shall win the most; and if rough be thy path of love, tread it boldly, and still on, loving thy neighbors through thick and thin. Heap coals of fire on their heads, and if they be hard to please, seek not to please them but to please thy Master and remember if they spurn thj love, thy Master hath not spurned it, and thy deed is as acceptable to him as if it had been acceptable to them. “Thou shalt love thy neighbor.”
Now, if this love for our neighbor were carried out — love, real love — it would prohibit all rash anger. Who is ever angry with himself? I suppose all wise men are now and then, and I suspect we should not be righteous if we were not sometimes angry. A man who is never angry is not worth a button. He can not be a good man, for he will oflen see things so bad that he must be a:.gry at them. But, remember, thou hast no right to be more angry with thy neighbor than thou art with thyself. Thou art sometimes vexed with thyself, and thou mayest sometimes be vexed with him if he has done wrong. But thine anger toward thyself is very short-hved: thou soon forgivest thine own dear self; welL
LOVB Tlir pfKlGIIBOE. 4^j
tnou ail bound just as soon to forgive him, and though then speakest a rough word, if it be too rough, withdraw it, and il it be but rough enough, do not add more to it to make it too much so. State the truth if thou art obUged to do it, as kindly as thou canst. Be no more stern than there is need to be. Deal with others as thou wouldst deal with thyself Above all, harbor no revenge. Never let the sun set on thine anger — it is impossible to love thy neighbor if thou dost that. Kevciige renders obedience to this command entirely out oJ the question.
Thou art bound to love thy neighbor, then do not neglect him. He may be sick, he may live very near thy house, and he does not send for thee to call on him, for he says, “No, I do not like to trouble him.” Remember, it is thy business to find him out. The most worthy of all poverty is that which never asks for pity. See where thy neighbors are in need; do not wait to be told of it, but find it out thyself, and give them some help. Do not neglect them; and when thou goest, go not with the haughty pride which charity often assumes, not as some superior being about to bestow a benefaction; but go to thy brother as if thou were about to pay him a debt wdiich nature makes his due, and sit by his side, and talk to him; and if he be one that hath a high spirit, give him not thy charity as a charity, give it to him in sorae other way, lest thou break his head with the very box of omtment with which thou hadst intended to have anointed him. Be thou very hary how thou speakest to him: break not his spirit. Leave thy charity behind thee, and he shall forget that, but he shall remember well thy khidness toward him in thy speech.
Love to our neighbors puts aside every sin that is akin to covetousness, and envy, and it makes us at all times ready to serve them, ready to be their f-^otstool, if so it must be, that we may be so proved to bii the children of Christ.
“Well,” says one, “I can not see that I am always to forgive; you know a worm will turn if it is trodden upon.” And is a worm to be your exemplar? A worm will turn; but a Christian will not. I think it foul scorn to take a worm fo* my cxemilar, when I have got Christ for my copy. Christ did not turn — when be was reviled, he reviled not again; when they crucified him, and nailed him to the tree, he cried, “Father, forgive them.” Let love, unconquerable love, dwell in thy bosom, love which many vvatei-s can not quench, love which the floods can not drown. Love thy neighbors.
3. And now we have done with this command, when wo have noticed how ice are to love our nelgJibor. It would be a good thing if some ladies loved their neighbors as much as they loved theii- lap-dogs. It would be a fine thing I’or many a country squire if he loved his neighbors as much as he loved his pack of hounds. I think it might be a high pitch of virtue, if some of you were to love your neighbors as much as you love some favorite animal in your house. What an inferior grade of virtue, however, that a])pears to be I And yet it were something far superior to what some of you have attained to. You do not love your neighbor as you love your house, your estate, or your purse. How high then is, “Love thy neighbor as thyself” the gospel standard? How much does a man love himself? None of us too little, some of us too much. Thou mayest love thyself as much as thou pleasest, but take care that thou lovest thy neighbor as much. 1 am certain thou needest no exhortation to love thyself, thine own case will be seen to, thine own comfort will be a very primary theme of thine anxiety. Thou wUt line thine own nest well with downy feathers, if thou canst. There is no need to exhort thee to love thyself. Thou wilt do that well enough. Well, then, as much as thou lovest thyself love thy neighboi”. And mark, by this is meant — thine enemy, the man who opposes thee in trade, and the man of another class. Thou oughtest to love him as thou lovest thyself.
Oh, it would turn the world upside down indeed, if this were pi-acticed. A fine lever this would be for upsetting many things that have now become the custom of the land. In England we have a caste almost as sirong as in Hindostan. My lord will not speak to anyone who is a little beneath himself in dignity, and he who hath the next degree of dignity thinks the tradesman infinitely below him, and he who is a tradesman thinks a mechanic s»,.aLrcely worth his notice, and
LOVK THY XEIOIIBOR. 43?
mechanics according to their grades have their castes and classes too. Oh, for the day when these shall be broken down, when the impulse of the one blood shall be felt, and wh€,a as one family each shall lovQ the other, and feel that one clasa depends ujjon the other! It were well if each would strive to help and love the other as he ought. My tine lady, ia your silks and satins, you have gone to church many a day and sat side by side with a poor old woman in her red cloak, who is as good a samt as you could be. hut do you eve. speak to her? Never in your life. You would not speak to her, poor soul, because you happen to be worth more hundreds of pounds a-year thaQ she is shillings. There are you, Sir John, you come to your place, and you expect every one to be eminently respectful to you, as indeed they ought to be, for we are all honorable men, and the same text that says, “Honor the king,” says also, “Honor all men.” And so we are bound to honor every one of them. But you think that you, above all men, are to be Avorshiy)ped. You do not condescend to men of mean estate. My dear sir, you would bo a greater man by one-half if you were not to appear so great. Oh, I say again, blessed be Christ, blessed be his Father for this commandment, and blessed be the world when the commandment shall be obeyed, and we shall love our neighbors as ourselves!
n. And now shall I have to give keasons “why we should
OBEY THIS COMMAND.
The best reason in all the world is that with which we will begin. We are boimd to love our neighbors because Goa conimand it. To the Christian there is no argument so potent as God’s will. God’s will is the believer’s law. He doth not ask what shaH it profit him, what shall be the good effi!Ct of it upon others, but he simply says, doth ray Father say it? Oh, Holy Spirit, help me to obey, not because I may see how it shall be always good for me, but simply because thou commandest. It is the Christian’s privilege to do God’s cominandments, “hearkening to the voice of his Word.” But some other reasons may prevail more with others of you wb ) are not Christians.
Lot me remark, then, that selfishness itselj would bid yoi love your neighbor. Oh, strange that selfishness should preach a suicidal sermon; but yet if self could speak, it might, if it were wise, deliver an oration like this, “Self, love thy neighbor, for then thy neighbor will love thee. Self, help thy neighbor, for then thy neighbor will help thee. Make t( thyself, O self, fiiends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when thou failest they may receive thee mto abiding habitations. Self, thou wautest ease; make thyself easy by treating everbody well. Self, thou wantest yleasure, thou canst get no pleasure if those around thee hate thee. Make them love thee, dear self, and so shalt thou bless thyself.” Ay, even if ye are selfish, I would ye were so pre-eminently selfish, and so wisely selfish that ye would love others to make yourselves happy.
The short cut to be happy yourself is to try to make others happy. The world is bad enough, but it is not so bad as not to feel the power of kindness. Treat servants well. There are some of them that you can’t mend at all, but treat them well, and as a rule they will treat you well. Treat your masters well. Some of them are gruff and bad enough, but as a class they know good servants, and they will treat you well. There, now, if I would wish to be happy, I would not ask to have the wealth of this world, nor the things that men call comforts; the best comforts that I should desire would be loving ones round about me, and a sense that where I went I scattered happiness,’ and made men glad. That is the way to be happy, and selfishness itself might say, “Love thy neighbor,” for in so doing thou dost love thyself; for there is such a connection between him and thee, that in loving him the stream of thy love returns into thine own heart again.
But I shall not assail you with such a paltry motive as that; it is too poor for a Cln-istian; it should be too base even for a man. Love your neighbor, in the next place, because that icill be the way to do good in the loorld. You are y)hi!anthrapists, some of you subscribe to missionary societies, you sub Bcribe to the society for orphans, and other chaiitable objects, I am persuaded that these institutions, though they be excel
LOVK THY NEiailBOK. 439
lent and good tilings, arc in some respects a loss, for now a man gives to a society one-tenth of what hft would have given himself, and where an orphan would have been kept by a single family, ten families join together to keep that orphan, and so there is about one-tenth of the charity. I think the man who has the time is bound to give nothing at all to societies, but to give all away himself. Be your own society. If there be a society for the sick, then if you have enough money, be your own sick society. If you have the time go and visit the sick yourself, you will know money is well spent then, and you will spare the expense of a secretary. There is a society for finding soup for the poor. Make your o-wn own soup. Give it yourself; and if every one who gives his halfa-crown to the society would just spend half-a-sovereign to give the soup away himself, there would be more done Societies are good; God forbid that I should speak against them; do all you can for them: but rtill I am afraid that they sometimes thwart individual eflbrt, and I know they rob us of a part of the pleasure which we should have in our own benefactions — the pleasure of seeing the gleaming eye, and of hearing the grateful word when we have been our own almoners.
Dear friends, remember that man’s good requires that you should be kind to your fellow creatures. The best way for you to make the world better is to be kind yourself. Art you a preacher? Preach in a surly way and in a surly tone to your church; a pretty church you will make of it before long! Are you a Sunday-school teacher? Teach your children with a frown on your face; a fine lot they will learn I Are you a master? Do you hold family prayer? Get in a passion with your servants, and say “Let us pray.” A vast amount of devotion you will develop in such a manner as that, i re you a warder of a jail, and have prisoners under you? Abuse them and ill-treat them, and then send the chaplain to them. A fine preparation for the reception of the Word of God! You have poor around you; you wish to see them elevated, you say. You are always grumbling about the pov* eily of their dwellings, and the meanness of their tastes. Gc
440 LOVE THY NEIGIIliOU.
and make a great row at them all — a fine way that wouM b* to improve tiiein! Now, just wash your face of that black frown, and buy a little essence of summer somewhere, and put it on your face, and have a smile on your lip, and say, “I love you. I am no cant, but I love you, and as far as I can I wil’ prove my love to you. What can I do for you? Can I help you over a stile? Can I give you any assistance, or speak a kind word to you? Methinks I could see after your little daughter. Can I fetch the doctor to your wife now sht is ill?” All these kind things would be making the world a little better. Your jails and gibbets, and all that, never made the world better yet. You may hang men as long as you like; you will never stop murder. Hang us all, we should not be much the better for it. There is no necessity for hanging any; it will never improve the world. Deal gently, deal kindly, deal lovingly, and there is not a wolf in human shiipe but will be melted by kindness; and there is not a tiger in woman’s form but will break down and sue for pardon, if God should bless the love that is brought to bear upon her by her friend. I say again, for the world’s good, love your neighbors.
And now, once more, love your neighbor, for there is a deal of misery in the world that you do not know of. We have often spoken hard words to poor miserable souls; Ave did not know their misery, but we should have known it, we sh nild have found it out. Shall I tell you, my friend landlord, you went yesterday to get a warrant against a poor woman that has got three children. Her husband died a long while ago. She was three weeks back in her i-ent; the last time, to pay you, she sold oft* her late husband’s watch and her own weddmg ring; it was all that she had that was dear to her, and she paid you; and you went to her the next week, and she begged a little patience, and you think yourself highly exemplary because you had that little patience. “The woman,” you have said, “I dare say is good for nothing, and if not, it is no particular business of mine whether she has got three children, or none; rent is rent, and business is business.” Out she goes directly. Oh, if you could have seen that woman’s heart when she stood penniless and houseless, and knew not
LOVK THY NKI(i:iBOB. 441
where to send the children for the night, you would have eaid, “Never mind, my good woman, stop there; I can not turn a widow out of house and home.” You did not do it yourself, did you? No, but you sent your agent to do it and the sin lay on you just as much for all that. You had no right to do it; you had a right in the eye of man’s law but God’s law says, “Thou shalt love thy neigbor as thy self.”
A young man called upon you a little time ago. He said, “Sir, you know my little business. I have been struggling veiT hard, and you have kindly let me have some things on credit. But through the pressure of the times, I don’t know how it is, I seem to get very hard up. I think, sir, if I could weather the next m.onth, I might be able to get on well. I have every prospect of having a trade yet, if I could but have a’ little more credit, if you could possibly allow it.” “Young man,” you have said, “I have had a great many bad debts lately. Besides you do not bring me any good security; I can not trust you.” The young man bowed, and lett you. You did not know how he bowed in spirit as well as in body. That young man had a poor old mother and two sisters in the house, and he had tried to establish a little business that ho might earn biead and cheese for them as well as for himself. For the last month they have eaten scarcely anything but bread and butter, and the weakest tea has been their drink, and he has been striving hard; but some one, poorer than he seemed to be, did not pay him the little debt that was due to him, and he could not pay you. And if you had helped hun, it might have been all well with him; and now what to do he can not tell. His heart is broken, his soul is swollen within him. That aged mother of his, and those girls, what shall become of them? You did not know his agony, or else you tvould have helped him. But you ought to have known You never should have dismissed his case until you had known a little more about him. It would not be business-like, would it? No, sir, to be business-like is sometimes to be devil-like. But I would not have you business-like when it i» 80. Out on your business; be Christian-like. If you be pio fessors, seek to serve God in obeying his command.’y — “Thoa elialt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
“Nay,” says another, “but I am alwq’S very kind to the poor.” There is a lady here who has got a tolerable share of money to spare, and to her, money is about as common aa y)ins. And she goes to see the poor; and when she gets in, they set her a chair, and she sits down, and begins to talk to them about economy, and gives them a tolerably good lecture on that. The poor souls wonder hov,” they are to economise any more than they do; for they eat nothing but bread, and they can not see that they can get anything much cheaper. Then he begins to exhort them about cl’ laiilmess, and makes about fifty imjjertinent remarks about tb”? children’s clothes. “Now,” says she, “my good woman, before X leave you I will give you this tract, it is about drunkennes..*: perhaps you will give it to your husband.” If she does hj will beat her, you may depend upon it. “Come iiow,“sl.e says, “there is a shilling for you.” And now, my lady thinks, “I love my neighbor,” Did you shake bands wit -t her? “No, sir.” ]Jid you speak lovingly to her? “Of course not. She is an inferior.” Then you did not obey this command, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Shall I tell you what happened after you left? That woman as soon as ever you were gone, began to cry. She stai-ted oft” to the minister for consolation. She said to him, “Do you know, sir, I am very thankful to God that I have had a little relief given me this morning, but my spirit was almost broken. Do you know, sir, we used to be in better circumstances. This morning Mrs. So-and-so came and talked to me in such a way, as if I had been a dog, or as if I had been a child, and though she gave me a shilling I did not know what to do. I wanted the shilling bad enough, or else I really think I should have thrown it after her. She did talk in such a way, I could not bear it. Now, if you come to see me, sir, I know you will speak kindly to me, and if you give me nothing you will not abuse me and find fault with me.” “Oh,” she said, “my heart is broken withm me. I can not bear this, for we have seen better days, and we have been used to dift’erent treatment to this.” Now, you did not lov«
LOVE THY NEIGHBOB. 44d
her. Your shilling, what was the good of that, if you did not put a little love on it. You might have made it as good as a golden sovereign if you had spread a little love upon it. She would have thought far more of it. “Love thy neighbors.” Oh! would to God that I could always practice it myself, and would that I could impress it into every one of youi hearts. Love thy neighbor as thou lovest thyself.
And now the last argument I shall use is one especially appropriate to the Christian. Christian, your religion claims your love — Christ loved you before you loved him. He loved you when there was nothing good in you. He lovod you though you insulted him, though you despised him ;md rebelled against him. He has loved you right on, and never ceased to love you. He has loved you in your backslidings and loved you out of them. He has loved you in your sins, in your wickedness and folly. His loving heart was still eternally the same, and he shed his heart’s blood to prove his love for you. He has given you what you want on earth, and provided for you an habitation in heaven. Now Christian, your religion claims from you, that you should love as your Master loved. How can you imitate him, unless you love too? We will leave to the Mahometans, to the Jew, and to the infidel, coldheartedness and unkindness; ‘twere more in keeping with their views, but with you unkindness is a strange anomaly. It is a gross contradiction to the spirit of your religion, and if you love not your neigbboi, I see not how you can be a true follower of the Lord Jesus.
And now I conclude with just a weighty suggestion or two, and I will not weary you. My text suggests first, the guilt oj us oM. My friends, if this be God’s law, who here can plead that he is not guilty? If God’s law demands I should love my neighbor, I must stand in my pulpit, and confess my guilt. In thinking of this text yesterday, my eyes ran with tears at the recollection of many a hard thing I had spoken in unwary moments I thought of many an opportunity of loving my neighbor that I had slighted, and I labored to confess the sin. I am certain there is not one of all this immense audience who would not do the same, if he felt this law applied by the Spirit in power to his soul.
Oh! are we not guilty? Kindest of spirits, most beuevolen i of souls, are you not guilty? Will you not confess it? And then that suggests this remark. If no man can be saved by his works, unless he keeps this law perfectly, who can be saved by his works? Have any of you loved your neighbor all your life with all your heart? Then shall you be saved by your own deeds, if you have not broken any other command But if you have not done it, and can not do it, then hear the sentence of the law. You have sinned, and you shall perish for your sin. Hope not to be saved by the mandate of the law. And oh! how this endears the gospel to me 1 If I have broken this law, and I have — and if I can not enter heaven with this law broken, precious is the Saviour who can wash me from all my sins in his blood! Precious is he that can forgive my want of charity, and pardon my want of kindness — can forgive my roughness and my rudeness, can put away all my harsh speaking, my bigotry and imkindness, and can through his all-atoning sacrifice give me a seat in heaven, notwithstanding all my sins. You are sinners this morning — you must feel it: my sermon, if blessed of God, must convince you all sf guilt. Well, then, as sinners, let me preach to you the gOc*pel. “Whosoever believeth in the Lord Jesus shall be saved.” Though he hath hitherto broken this law God shall forgive him, and put a new heart and a right spii’it into his bosom, whereby he shall be enabled to keep the law in future, at least to an eminent degree, and shall, by-and-by, attain to a crown of life in glory everlasting.
Now, I do not know whether I have been personal to any body this morning. I sincerely hope I have. I meant to be. A. know there are a great many characters in the world that must have a cap made exactly to fit them, or else they will never wear it, and I have tried as near as I could to do it. If you would not say, “How well that applied to my neighbor,” but just for once say, “How well it applied to me,” I shall hope that there will be some good follow from this exhorta
L&VJt THY mtlQllBOA. **A
li«n; and though the Antinomian may turn away, and say, “Ah! it was only a legal sermon,” my love to that precious Antinomian. I do not care about his opinion. My Saviour preached like that, and I shall do the same. I believe it is right that Christiana should be told what they should do, and that worldUngs should know what Christianity will lead us to do; that the highest standard of love, of kindness, and of law, should be uplifted m the world, and kept constantly be fore the people’s eyes.
May God bless you, and be with you, for Jesus* uke I
I012 01090 4714
Date Due
f,” f
V 20
Sm
-fa> — 4 — 31
-J.-..
-UU1^
4-
!,-’
m2B’5t
J!! L
f)
f-”iKirzvit.