THE relation of church membership is not, now, generally, regarded as it was in the primitive church, but has deteriorated in proportion as the pure fountains of truth have been perverted; and the laxity and superstition of successive ages have weakened its significance, until we have scarcely any of its original genius left. Love, which was the magnet of union among the early disciples, has degenerated into almost sheer selfishness in the churches of the nineteenth century. Most of the professors of the religion of the Cross, carry too much of the repulsive coldness of the world into their high and holy calling, instead of a warm and glowing heart, expanding with love to God and enkindling a burning zeal for the constant exercise of kind offices towards each other, and think that they have done all, when they have related their “experience,” submitted to the initiatory ordinances, and had their names enrolled on the church books. We are too apt to look upon our religious profession as a mere personal affair, without understanding or rightly appreciating the mystical union of the individual members to each other, and all with Christ, the head of the church. When we, upon a slight exercise of faith and repentance, imagine that offended Deity looks propitiously upon us in the face of Jesus, we rejoice for a season and then settle down in listlessness, and think all is right, all secure; and should we experience in our hearts, in the faintest degree, that we love the Lord with all our heart, and all our soul, and all our strength, and all our mind, we fancy that we have the Spirit bearing witness with our spirits, that we are accepted of God, and we have no other concern in the matter. It was not so with those of old “hewn from the rock,” and those “digged out of the hole of the pit,” when their hearts were touched with fire from off the altar, and upon whose lips was put the “new song,” they slumbered not, neither kept they silence, but were found “with one accord,” walking and working together, “heirs with God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ.”
Identity among believers is one of the binding laws of the kingdom of Christ. “This is my commandment,” says our divine Master, “that ye love one another as I have loved you.” And in another place he says, “A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another.” “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” “This injunction,” says J. A. James, “is denominated the new commandment of the Christian economy; not that love was no duty before the coming of Christ; but it is now placed more pre-eminently amongst the duties of believers; it is urged on fresh grounds, enforced by a more perfect example, and constrained by stronger motives. The dispensation of Jesus Christ is a system of most wonderful, most mysterious grace; it is a manifestation, commendation, and perfection of divine love. It originated in the love of the Father, and is accomplished by the love of the Son. Jesus Christ was an incarnation of love in our world. He was love, living, breathing, speaking, acting amongst men. His birth was the nativity of love, his sermons the words of love, his miracles the wonders of love, his tears the meltings of love, his crucifixion the agonies of love, his resurrection the triumph of love. Hence it was natural that love should be the cardinal virtue in the character of his saints, and that it should be the law which regulates their conduct towards each other. And it is worthy of remark, that he has made his love to us, not only the motive, but the pattern of our love to each other. “This is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you.” The Apostles echoed the language of their Master, and continually enjoined the churches which they had planted, to love one another, and to let brotherly love abound and increase. It is a grace so important that, like holiness, no measure of it is sufficient to satisfy the requirement of the Word of God. It is the basis, and cement, and beauty of the Christian union. The church where it is wanting, whatever may be the number or gifts of its members, is nothing better than a heap of stones, which, however polished, want the coherence and similitude of a palace.”
Our blessed Saviour illustrates this intimate union between himself and his disciples, by the beautiful and endearing simile of the vine and its branches, of which “the Father is the husbandman;” and Paul represents the believers as the “body of Christ and members in particular;” in reference to which he says, “There should be no schism in the body; but the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it.”
From the whole tenor of the Scriptures, it is manifest that they design to inculcate and enjoin the cultivation of an affectionate solicitude for each other, far above mere human sympathy. A very excellent writer, Miss Caroline Fry, correctly remarks: “Surely, if Christians, re-united to one stem, planted together in the likeness of one life and death, are only just, only benevolent, and in intention kind, it may well be said to them, ‘What do ye more than others; do not the Scribes and Pharisees the same?’ The word that requires us to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, says also, ‘Weep with those that weep, and rejoice with those that do rejoice.’” Jesus the Righteous, dwells particularly upon this subject in all his teachings; and it is enforced by all the divinely inspired amanuenses of the Holy Spirit. John says, “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. 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.”
What a wide departure from this love, this holy confraternity, which the church was designed to be, is seen, on every hand, in the present day, and in all sects of Christendom. We are too easily satisfied with the fancied evidences of our own safety, and manifest too little concern for the advancement of piety and the welfare of the brotherhood. We take a name and sit down and fold our hands in almost perfect indifference in regard to the extension of the Redeemer’s kingdom, and caring less about “bearing one another’s burdens, and so fulfilling the law as we are commanded.” This was not the case in the early ages of Christianity. When the disciples entered the ranks of the “Captain of our salvation,” they entered for the whole war—they rallied round the standard with their whole heart, and left the world entirely behind. Impelled by an all-absorbing love, they knew nothing, nor cared for anything, but love to God and love to man. They enjoyed all things “with singleness of heart;” lived as one family, and strengthened each other’s hands in doing good and in glorifying God their Maker. “All that believed were together, and had all things in common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted to all men as every man had need. And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart, and of one soul; neither said any of them that aught of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things in common.” Acts ii, 44, 45; iv, 32. This was prompted by the spontaneous feelings of the disciples—their voluntary act, springing from love toward each other, and not from any requirement. When dedicating themselves to the Lord, by a public profession of his name, they regarded themselves as a family—the Lord’s children, the household of faith.