spirit of love and brotherhood to me? If I were to obey the Gospel, and
sacrifice my own interest for those around me, I should starve; what good
will my birthright do me?”
Oh! my friends, I pray God that some of you, at least, may change your
mind. I pray God that some of you may see at last, that all the misery
and the burdens of this time, spring from one root, which is selfishness;
and that the reason why we are selfish, is because we have not with us
the Spirit of God, which is the spirit of brotherhood and love. Let us
pray God now, and henceforth, to take that selfishness out of all our
hearts. Let us pray God now, and henceforth, to pour upon us, and upon
all our countrymen, ay, and upon the whole world, the spirit of
friendship and fellow-feeling, the spirit which when men have among them,
they need no laws to keep them from supplanting, and oppressing, and
devouring each other, because its fruits are love, cheerfulness, peace,
long suffering, gentleness, goodness, honesty, meekness, temperance Then
there will be no need, my friends, for me to call you to the Supper of
the Lord. You will no more think of staying away from it, than the
Apostles did, when the Spirit was poured out on them. For what do we
read that they did after the first Whit-Sunday? That altogether with one
accord, they broke bread daily; that is, partook of the Lord’s Supper
every day, from house to house. They did not need to be told to do it.
They did it, as I may say, by instinct. There was no question or
argument about it in their minds. They had found out that they were all
brothers, with one common cause in joy and sorrow—that they were all
members of one body—that the life of their souls came from one root and
spring, from one Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the light and the life of
men, in whom they were all one, members of each other; and therefore,
they delighted in that Lord’s Supper, just because it brought them
together; just because it was a sign and a token to them that they did
belong to each other, that they had one Lord, one faith, one interest,
one common cause for this life, and for all eternity. And therefore the
blessing of that Lord’s Supper did come to them, and in it they did
receive strength to live like children of God and members of Christ, and
brothers to each other and to all mankind. They proved by their actions
what that Communion Feast, that Sacrament of Brotherhood, had done for
them. They proved it by not counting their own lives dear to them, but
going forth in the face of poverty and persecution, and death itself, to
preach to the whole world the good news that Christ was their King. They
proved it by their conduct to each other when they had all things in
common, and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all, as
every man had need. They proved it by needing no laws to bind them to
each other from without, because they were bound to each other from
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