"TO GODLINESS, ADD BROTHERLY-KINDNESS."
By John Pulsford
Must we then have faith, and virtue, and knowledge, and temperance, and patience, and godliness, before we can show forth the heavenly grace of brotherly-love? Even so. And therefore there is so little brotherly-love in the church. We can pray solemnly and do great works, we can teach and contend for the faith, we can give generously and show great zeal for God, we can control our passions and suffer patiently, sooner than we can love each other with pure hearts and fervently. If brotherly-love were the love of our fellow-members for our own sakes, we could find that; but love to them for the Lord's sake and their own sakes is not to be met with every day. It is something added even to godliness; for it is easier for the soul to move freely towards God than towards his erring children. But God will not endorse our godliness until it gives proof of itself in unfeigned love to the brethren. Every sincere and loving child of God must become a sincere and loving brother. To love our fellow Christians because they are like us, or because they agree with us, is but self-love, not brotherly-love. Very little brotherly-love is possible in a divided church. We must be careful, therefore, that the divisions in Christendom have not a place in our heart. If our affections are subject to the limits of our creed, or of our own denomination, or of any human compact, it will happen that we shall exclude from our sympathy many true brethren of Christ, and on the other hand embrace "false brethren" because they belong to our party. Brotherly-love does not consist in loving those who follow with us, and in disliking those who follow not with us. Brotherly-love is to love men because they are Christ's. If we desire to bring any one into bondage to our views, or to our forms of worship, or methods of labor, it shows that our own spirit, rather than the Spirit of Christ, is Lord over us. "Who art thou that judgest thy brother?" His Lord and thy Lord requires thee not to judge him, but to love him. Follow thou the Master. And leave John to follow the Master not according to thy liberty, but according to the liberty which the Master gives to him. He is the Lord's freeman. If he has less freedom than thou hast, love him; if he has greater, love him; if he is a strong brother, love him; if he is a weak brother, love him. Love will work no ill to him. Beware that thou judge him not. Love him. Brotherly-love should unite east and west; for the same sun which rises in the east visits also the west. In the morning, the east has more light, in the evening, the west has more. At noon-day, east and west are equal. It remains yet for brotherly-love to bring about the noon-day of the church.—Rev. John Pulsford.