-r
1908.]
" in love ;" and, as the Apostle says, " Let all your things be done with charity."
If it be said, that to practise this is difficult ; true, it is so ; yea, and impossible to those who know not their relation to Christ, and to one another : but to those who look to Christ as their living Head, and who receive out of his fulness, nothing is impossible : " Through Christ strengthening us we can do all things." Nor, if we regard our brother as a member of our own body, shall we find this so difficult : for who ever was backward to assuage his own pains, or relieve his own neces- sities? If, moreover, we consider the Lord Jesus Christ him- self as relieved in the relief conferred on his distressed members, shall we then need any stimulus to exertion ? No : it will be our joy to perform towards him every office of love. Thvis think ye then, and thus act ; and know, that " not even a cup of cold water shall lose its reward."]
Rom. xii. 9 — 12. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love ; in honour preferring one another ; not slothful in busi- ness ; fervent in spirit ; serving the Lord ; rejoicing in hope ; patient in tribulation ; continuing instant in prayer.
THAT men, who wallow in all manner of unclean- ness, should not like to hear the precepts of religion, is easy to be accounted for : but that persons pro- fessing godliness should be averse to them, is sur- prising. Yet it is a fact, that many, whose lives, as far as we can see, are moral, pour contempt upon moral instructions, as having no part in evangelical religion. But these persons are directly at issue with that Apostle, whom they most exalt, and whom, in other respects, they affect to follow. Who is more diffuse, who more minute, than the Apostle Paul, in the instructions which he gives respecting Christian duties ? Let us attend to those which are here incul- cated. If we took them singly, every one of them would furnish matter for a separate discourse : but, as the Apostle has united them so closely together, we prefer taking them in their accumulated state ;