would discern the shepherd's voice, receive with thankfulness such
messengers of peace, seeing by their fruits "that God was in them of
a truth".
Think not that this is carrying things too far. Our blessed Lord
says,--"This is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have
loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down
his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I
command you" (John 15. 12). Here our Blessed Lord tells us to love
one another, as He has loved us; and then points to the laying down
his life, as the most exalted proof of that love which could be
given. If then, as the example of our Saviour and the exhortation of
the Apostle testify, "we ought to lay down our lives for the
brethren"[10] how much more ought we to impart to them our substance.
We all know what a persuasive power the deaths of the Martyrs exerted
on the minds of those who witnessed them; and, in its just measure
and proportion, would the dedication of property, time and talents,
have a similar effect at the present day. It would convince those,
whom we are anxious to convince, of the reality of our faith in that
Redeemer and that inheritance, which they now think only a name, in
consequence of the secular spirit that disfigures the Christianity of
too many of its professors. How differently would the Heathen look on
our endeavours to publish the mercy of our glorified Lord, if the
hardy and suffering spirit of primitive times were to descend again
on the silken age into which we are fallen! and if they perceived in
us that love which led them to endure all things for the elect's
sake, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ
Jesus with eternal glory. Example is a far more fruitful source of
self-denial than the influence exerted on the mind by precept. If we
call on those, who know nothing of the savour of that Name which is
as ointment poured forth, to give up all for Christ, and this you
literally do to every Hindoo and Mahomedan; let us, who thus call,
and who profess to know much of the power of His Name, do so
likewise; that they may catch a kindred spirit from a living
exhibition. Let us evidence, in very deed, that we love not the
world, neither the things of the world, but that the love of the
Father is in us. "For all that is in the world, the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the
Father, but of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust
thereof; but he, that doeth the will of God, abideth for ever" (1
John 2. 15).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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