LOVE is exemplified by works as well as faith. People will show the amount of their faith by their works. They will live out all the faith they have, and in the same manner they will live out their love. Deception in this respect is very difficult, but mark, we are not to judge by their profession, but by their works.
LOVE is generally excited by good qualities in the object loved. Our love should bear some proportion to the excellent qualities of the object. We should not love that which is not good; and again we should love that most which is the best. Carrying out this principle we shall love God supremely. And now let us notice one feature in which love is shown by words and actions.
He that really loves God will not think or speak ill of him, or do that which is contrary to his wishes. If you should hear a person speak reproachfully of the Most High, would you think that he loved him? Certainly not. It is he that hates God who thinks and speaks ill of him, and works against his government. He that loves God speaks of him with tenderness and respect.
The child that loves its parents will have the greatest respect for them, and is filled with pain when anything is said which reflects on their character. The mother that loves her son treats with contempt the slanderous reports circulated about him. What would you think of a mother that would take apparent satisfaction in listening to an evil report of her child? If she loves her children she will look on what they say and do in the most favorable light possible, and although she may see some things in them which are wrong, she concludes it is only an error of the judgment, that their motives are sincere. She will not criticize everything they say, and talk it over and over to see if something bad can be made out of it. I do not see how this conclusion can be avoided, and now I want to make an application of it.
If this rule is correct it will apply with equal force to the church. The church is the family of God, and it is just as bad for his children to injure one another, as it is for the children of earthly parents to do so. Take care how you talk about his little ones, for a jealous Father watches over them, and will take vengeance on those who offend. If you love your brethren and sisters, you will not be talking over their failings. The Lord has not told us to cover up the faults of others, neither has he told us to publish them abroad. If you see a fault in a brother or sister, go to the person in the spirit of meekness, and talk about it; but if you refuse to do this, hold your peace, and not talk with all the rest about it. Some are in the habit of taking particular notice of what a brother or sister may say, especially in meeting, that does not agree with their notions; and then they will go home and talk it over with this one and that one, and find as much fault as possible. No matter whether the brother meant them or not, they will be offended, and they sometimes call him reproachful names. Does he love his brother? Nay, verily. It is a moral impossibility for one man to love another and speak ill of him. I care not what he professes, his works will show what he possesses, and it sometimes happens that he that has the least practical love will talk the most about it. Let backbiting and whispering forever cease from among the remnant. “Love worketh no ill to his neighbor.”
H.