as it has no scope for elsewhere. It is in the family alone that the one thing we call affec- tion or love, is divided and spread out, like a sunbeam into the rainbow's seven-fold hues, there to display itself in all the rich tints of hidden beauty. So it is in the Church alone, that the love of God is fully seen, not merely in all its intensity, but in all its varied riches. All kinds of love are unfolded there. There is room for such wide variety of affection, both between the Head and the members, and be- tween the members one with the other, that it seems as if there had been given new powers of loving, as well as new objects to love.
No doubt there are other names for the saints besides this one. But none of them ex- presses what this is intended to do. God calls them his flock, which implies tender watchful- ness on his part and dependent helplessness on theirs. He calls them a vine, denoting their oneness, as well as the unceasing nourishment that is ever circulating through them from the parent stern. He calls them a temple, signi- fying their compactness of structuie, symmetry of design, beauty of form, and above all, fitness for the inhabitation and worship of Jehovah. He calls them a body, to set forth, not merely 2*
18 THE FAMILY.
their comely proportions, but their marvellous unity and conscious vitality of being, as well as the closeness of the binding tie, and their various serviceableness to each other. He calls them a city, intimating their happy com- munity of privileges and rights and well or- dered government; the security, peace, abun- dance which they enjoy ; the comforts of neighborhood with all its cheerful greetings and mutual offices of love. He calls them a kingdom, as expressive of their high and honorable estate, of the royalty, the glory, the dominion, of which they have been made the heirs.
But various and expressive as are these well-known names, they are still imperfect. They describe as it were only the outer circles, each name a circle of its own. But the inner circle — the inner region of our spiritual being they do not touch upon. It is that well-known word, that magic name, a. family, which alone ^ can express all that God sees of what is comely and tender, loving and loveable in the Church of Christ, into which he is pouring his love, through which he delights to see that love circulate unhindered, and out of which he ex- pects tha t love to flow abroad.
THE FAMILY. 19
There is one thing that strikes us much concerning this family. It is the way in which Christ speaks of the special interest which he takes in each member. "Those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost."* How like the family feeling ! Each name, each face is known ; known so fami- liarly that the least and youngest would at once be missed. The place where each sits, the room which each occupies, the time of their going out and coming in ; their looks, their habits, their tones, are so thoroughly known, that the moment any one is absent he is missed. And then no other can supply his place. His absence makes a blank which none but himself can fill. An acquaintance or fellow-townsman may drop away and never be missed. His place is easily filled up by another. Not so with a member of the family. A break there is a dismal blank : and when death has carried off a brother, a sister, or a parent, who, or what, can ever fill their room ? When one flower fades, another springs up, fresher per- haps and more fragrant — and we forget the faded one. But the withered family flower can have no successor : it dies, and there is a * John xvii. 12.
20 THE FAMILY.
blank for ever. Might it not be with some such feeling that Jesus looked round upon his vast household circle, and, while surveying each well-known face, gave thanks that not one was lost : as if he could not have spared so much as one of those whom the Father had given him.
Oh, the deep interest which Jesus takes in each ! Truly it is a personal and peculiar at- tachment to each member. Do we not lose much by forgetting this? Even in human things we are apt to overlook this. We call the feeling which the Father entertains to each of his children, love ; and well we call it so ; but this is not all. There is a difference in the love he bears to his eldest and his youngest born ; a difference in the case of each, called forth by the peculiar character of each. It is this minute and special love which is so precious. Were it not for this, we should feel as if we had only part of our Father's heart, as if we had not all that of right belongs to us. But, realizing this, we feel as if we had his whole heart, and yet our having die whole did not rob our brothers and sisters of any. It is with a family as with the sun in the firma- ment. It is the property of all, and yet each
THE FAMILY. 21