we may all do in some measure, yea, and must do, if we would approve ourselves faithful to the trust reposed in us.]
That we may be stimulated to this duty, let me endeavour to impress upon your minds,
II. The consideration by which it is enforced —
In executing this office, we " fulfil the law of Christ"—
\_TJie Lord Jesus Christ has enjoined it as our duty : "These things I command you, that ye love one anotherf." He has gone further ; and proposed himself to us as the pattern to which, in our exercise of love, we should be conformed : " A new command I give unto you, that ye love one another: as I have loved you, that ye also love one another g." He has gone further still ; and declared, that the love which we are here called to exercise is the distinctive badge of all his followers : " By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." Nay more ; he has told us that it is the test whereby he ivill try our fidelity to him in the day of judgment : to those who have administered to the necessities of others he will give a suitable reward ; and to those who have neglected this great duty, a just and fearful doomh.
Now, if he had only expressed it as a ivish that we would perform such services for him, methinks it were abundantly sufficient to call forth all our exertions in his service. But when he issues it as his command, as his command which we must obey at the peril of our souls, who will venture to dis- obey it? Think but a moment what Christ has done for you: " Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich1." Has He, the God of heaven, left his throne of glory, that, through his own sufferings unto death he might exalt you to it : and will not you, a redeemed sinner, forego some small comforts, in order to administer to the necessities of your afflicted brethren ; and especially when called to it by your Redeemer himself? — ]
This law, then, I now call you to obey —
[Let the affluent bear the burthens of the poor
The healthy, of the sick — — — • The enlightened, of the ig- norant The saved, of those who are perishing in
their sins And let those who are not able to enerag-e
actively in the duties of benevolence spread the cases of their afflicted brethren before God in prayer, and bring down from God the help which they themselves are unable to im- part ]
f John xv. 17. g John xiii. 34.
11 Matt, xxv, 34—46. j 2 Cor. viii. 9.