My Brother

All men, of all ages, climes, and complexions, have a common parentage; all are involved in a common fall; all are regarded by a common salvation. Wherever he comes within the range of our help, every human creature is entitled to our beneficence. It is the law of the Old Testament and of the New. Second only to the love of God, is the love of man. The true maxim of philanthropy is: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself The Spirit of Grace awakens and perpetuates this disposition in every subject of renewal.

But while the Law of Love enjoins this temper of helpful kindness towards all the children of Adam, it nowhere commands a chimerical and impracticable regard for all alike. It has no levelling philosophy, to equalize affection for all objects, and thus diffuse emotions so thinly as to reduce them to an inefficient indifference. The Gospel recog- ’ nizes degrees in the outgoings of the heart. It owns the names of husband and wife, parent and child, brother and sister, friend and neighbor, coeval and countryman. It lays on us the duty — rather it confers the privilege, of loving some more than others, and brethren in Christ more than all. And as if for a guide and permission in all ages, even among the apostles there was one disciple whom Jesus loved, preeminently, and with’a singular glow of melting affection. So that the way is prepared for us to consider yet more nearly the lesson of the Scriptures.

1. In our little analysis of this Christian love, it may be well to begin with one of the lowest, and therefore most intelligible principles of the attachment. We find that affection springs up among those who have intercourse association and community of thoughts and interests. The inquiry becomes abstruse if we push it too far into recondite sources; but the fact is open to all the world. You have — unless you are the most forlorn of men — 2^ friend. You carry him often in your willing thoughts; you crave his presence,. 1-tS and are drawn toward him by an irresistible fascination; you are complacent when be is near you, even in silence and inaction; you sigb when long separated; you plan what shall give him pleasure; you reproacb yourself when be is pained. In the degree of your regard, you are willing to labor, to dare, to suffer for bis sake. You take fire wbeiiMfc is calumniated; you are happy when be’’*Is praised. But I will not rebearse the manifold operations of fiiendsbip. Wbehce came all this? As bas been admitted, some of the springs are remote and obscure; but some of them are fully in view. There bas been some companionship. Without this there may be respect, admiration, even distant love; but oh! how different from the fervors which kindle after delightful society, and the long commerce of heart with heart! This indeed would scarcely exist for so long a time, unless there were some congeniality of views and tempers, some opportunities of interview, some community of pursuit and aim. But day by day the band of wreathed attachments acquires new strands, till the fondness of youth becomes the sober but inviolable friendship of old age. Now all this finds its place in the association of Christian minds. Not, however, in the same degree, and therefore the amount even of religious love must vary. In a certain humbler sense, I may love the whole Church, as the unknown follower of Christ in Russia or Hindostan; but not as I love the companion of prayers and tears and sacraments. The

•panionship of Christian service, devotion, daily life tends directly to the increase of this peculiar tie. And hence the most important practical rule — that if we would love the brotherhood we must cultivate Christian society. There is such a thing as a too insulated experience. That disciple must be crippled ii his growth, who knows nothing of spiritual communion, “We are not to make our pilgrimage as solitaries, nor to live out our days as hermits. Evangelical piety is eminently social. The constitution of the Church and all the means of grace evince this. What are our Sabbath assemblies, our social meetings for devotion, our common prayers, our mingled songs of praise, above all our sacramental communions, but so many ministries of holy fellowship? Despise them not; neglect them not; nor yet those more frequent and more informal interviews of friend with friend, in which the Christian character acts itself out, in the confidential flow of unstudied converse and tender reciprocal affection. If we have unfortunately allowed our emotions to be pent up, and our religion to become recluse and hidden, let us own the fault, and endeavor to flow together with at least one kindred mind, which seeks and prizes the same great objects with ourselves.

2. The principle is much the same, though operating in a higher plane, where we perceive, further, that Christian brotherhood is promoted by a common object of affection. Disciples agree in loving the Lord Jesus Christ, and this increases their love to one another. We see the effect of this cause, in common life. Attachment to the same friend or superior, knits hearts together. There are cases, indeed, where the result seems to be opposite, and where pursuit of the same object engenders rivalship, jealousy, and hate. It will be readily observed, however, that these are cases where the object is limited, and where only one canave possession. Not so with the great centre of the believer’s hope. As milHons may bask in the vivifying rays of 151

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the natural sun, so all believers, without collision or envy, may look towards the same infinite God and Saviour. Thus it is in many a domestic instance. Who can doubt that the mutual affection of children is cemented by regard for the same parents? On the other hand, where unnatural divisions arise between one parent and the other, the little commonwealth falls into factions, or draws asunder in cold dislike. Soldiers of the same favorite commander, subjects of the same beloved sovereign, are by this very community of aim drawn into one. It were strange if this should not hold good in religion; where all adore and serve the same God, and all unite in devotion to the same Lord and Kedeemer. Every disciple is a lover of the Lord Jesus Christ. The affection is characteristic and influential. Pervading great numbers with a common glow, it can not but fuse them together. They must grow in likeness. As crowds that press towards some one central object thereby are compacted together, so Christians come nearer to one another by coming nearer to Christ. That congeniality, which is inseparable from all friendship, is secured by the tender and awakened contemplation of the “one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus,” especially when holy love, heightened by the sympathy of multitudes, gazes on his dying compassion, and gathers around the sacrifice of the Cross. Then it is, that “our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.”

3. Love of the brethren is promoted by the consideration that all the brethren are objects of Christ s love. I am naturally predisposed to love him whom my friend loves. All Christtians are children of God, through Jesus Christ; and hence their relation is that of fraternity. The more we value the mercy and grace of the Redeemer, the more shall we cherish those who are its objects. Ascertain that any human creature belongs to Christ, and you have made him near to you; though he were an Indian barbarian, whose language you could not comprehend. Therefore we can not love God and Christ without loving the brotherhood. Hence the apostle who reposed on Jesus’ breast, makes it a test of sincerity. “He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness, even until now.” “Whosoever loveth not is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.”

“He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.” And, referring it to the very principle of the text, he adds: “For he that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how shall he love God, whom he hath not seen?” It ought forever to drive away our selfish indifference toward fellow-Christians, that there is not one of them whom the tlessed Lord has not loved even unto death. Can any paltry reason of self-interest be pleaded, in comparison with such a claim as this? Whatever the poor, contemned creature may be in earthly respects,.. Christ loves Thin... that should be enough. But this cause becomes greatly more operative, when numerous believers consciously join at the same moment in acts of homage and affection, towards the Chief among ten thousand. Then, when all eyes have one direction, when all pulses swell with one sacred passion, when all voices flow together in concordant utterance of one name, when all tears combine to celebrate one feast of sacriffce, the sense of brotherhood is stronger than any where on earth. And this is the true glory of church-assemblies. For this the panting disciple longs to be gathered with the great congregation; to meet his Lord and to meet his hretkren. Even the neglected, unknown, and depressed servant of Christ, feels at such a time that his sohtude is broken by the fellowship of adoring saints, and believes anew in the unity of the Lord’s body. From which we learn how much brotherly love is cultivated by a diligent, hopeful and ardent attendance on acts of common worship, first in the sabbath assembly, and then in the more select and fraternal associations of piety. Either way then, by our love to Christ, by Christ’s love to us, we are made to grow together in the bond of perfectness.

4. The hroiherhood all hear the resemblance of the Lord Jesus and therefore are dear to one another. The principle is thus stated by the apostle John: “Every one that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him.” The love of Christ is essentially the same with the love of infinite moral perfection, or the beauty of holiness of which he is the highest impersonation. Every true believer is joined to Christ, receives his Spirit, and has the beginnings of a spiritual resemblance, which shall go on to perfect assimilation, according to the measure of each. The new nature craves this holy beauty, and loves it

wherever descried. This is the chief source of Christian attachment. It is the affection for Christ, as mirrored in his members. “We hang with interest over the miniature of one who is beloved; and we value the living portrait of Jesus, even faintly drawn on the tablet of a fellow -saint. Christian love is determined to be such, when the attraction is something spiritual, and not any thing adventitious and earthly. The statement is simple, and can not now be dwelt on, but it is matter for reflection, and might penetrate the conscience, and reveal us to ourselves. It is obvious that, on this ground, a general increase of piety throughout the Church, or any part of it, will directly tend to the growth of mutual affection. That which is most for a lamentation is, that we bear so little of Christ’s image, as to hold out scarcely any thing on which the strong regard of brother Christians can fasten. And this affords another motive for growth in grace. Yet we must not, on this account, excuse ourselves from the great social duty of our profession, nor indulge a censorious turn for detecting blemishes in our neighbor, as a reason for our own churlish apathy. Let it suffice that Christ receives a brother; let us beware how we reject him. None will affirm that all holiness has vanished from the Church; and wherever it is, even in the slightest degrees, and with the greatest admixture, it ought to be amiable in our eyes. We should search for it, cherish it, and admire it. He who is inhabited bj the Spirit can not be an object of indifference to the spiritual man. It is beautifully related of Origen, a great Christian author among the Greeks, that while he was yet an infant, his father used sometimes to approach his cradle, and uncovering his little bosom, would kiss it, saying, ^’ Here is a temple of the Holy Grhost! “Somewhat similar should be our reverence for the work of Grod in every human soul. We should feel a profound awe in regard to that secret energy which goes forward in all saints. And wherever we discover the slightest lineament of our beloved Lord, we should be attracted, and won over. 0 that the day were come, when each of us might see in every other the infallible marks of that new life, ‘’which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness!”

5. The love of brethren is peculiarly becoming to those who expect to share the blessings of the

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future world. In the way of similitude or parable, we might represent to ourselves a company of persons fighting their passage through an enemy’s country to their beloved home. Could any thing be more natural than that they should cling to one another? The Christians of the present state are to be” gathered in one glorious community, in that which is coming. Unless we have persuaded ourselves of the eventual salvation of all mankind, we know that from all but true Christians, there must be a final separation. Those who shall be our companions forever, may reasonably engage our affections now. On this point, as on all that respects the future glory, there is a sad skepticism among the professed followers of Christ. If we had more lively apprehensions of that state towards which we are tending, we should conform ourselves to it in affection and life. The brotherhood of Christ’s people would so grow in our estimation, that we should never become weary of cultivating their friendship, and enjoying their society.