name and to become the agents for the answer of their own prayer. Men pray for missions, and God makes them or their means answer their prayers. So the rich pray for the poor, and God sends them to dispense of their abundance unto them.

As one meditates on this rule, its grandeur grows. It brings the believer so very near God, and for this very reason it brings him so near his fellow-men. Is one in doubt what to do? Let him ask what God would do under the circumstances, and what he would desire of God. Especially does the believer go to God for spiritual gifts, and that teaches him what he himself is especially to bestow on others.

Since love is the controlling principle of Christian social ethics, it is not surprising that in love especially believers are exhorted to be like God. His love to his enemies is the model for the Christian, and in this love the believer proves himself a true child of God.* The exhortation, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect,”† is shown by the context to refer to love, and that love as specially manifested toward enemies. The love of the Father and of Christ is very frequently made the believer's model. "And be ye kind one to another, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Be ye followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour."‡

* Matt. 544, 45.

Eph. 4 32; 5: 1, 2.

† Matt. 5: 48.

THIRD DIVISION.

I.

CHAPTER XV.

CHRISTIAN LOVE IN ITS APPLICATION TO OTHER

CHRISTIANS.

What is it that the Christian loves in his fellowChristian? It cannot be his soul merely, for the Christian is to love the souls of all men. The Christian's love for the brother is peculiar, different from his love for others. Its source is spiritual, and its object is also spiritual. The Christian loves in his brother that which makes him a Christian. It is the image of God restored to its purity by Christ. The object of this spiritual affection is, therefore, the regenerated soul of the fellow-believer.

There is a marked difference between Christian love as directed to Christians and as directed to nonbelievers; and it is important to note the difference. Whatever the basis of natural affection may be, whether consanguinity, or acts of kindness, or personal qualities, Christian love or spiritual affection is always directed to man as either redeemed or as redeemable. While in the Christian brother this affection loves the soul as forgiven and as bearing the impress of Christ's image, it loves in the unregenerate

the soul as redeemable, though still sinful.* The difference in the objects loved-the redeemed soul, and the unredeemed but redeemable soul-makes the difference between spiritual affection as directed to believers and to non-believers. In the New Testament this difference is recognized. The word "agape"† is used for love in general, whatever its character may be. But for the love of one Christian for another, a special word is used, which is applicable to no other kind of love. That word is "philadelphia,” ‡ brotherly love, the love of the Christian for the Christian brother. "Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love." "But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you." "Let brotherly love continue."§ The use of this word solely for "brotherly love" shows that the apostles distinguish that love from all other kinds of affection.

This brotherly love is a love of consanguinity, as the name "brotherly" implies. But it is a spiritual consanguinity. It has already been sufficiently indicated, in a previous chapter, what the relationship is. Christians, as has been shown, are a family, in which the members are related as brothers and sisters. This relationship has its basis in the fact that all are united to Christ as the Elder Brother, and through him to God as the Father of the family. Now, just as in the natural family, when all the members are true to one

* Can the Christian cherish spiritual affection for a soul so abandoned as to be hopelessly lost-one, for instance, that has committed the sin against the Holy Ghost?

† ἀγάπη.

Η φιλαδελφία.

It is also used Rom. 12: 10; 1 Thess. 4:9; Heb. 13: 1; I Pet. 1: 22; 2 Pet. I : 7.

BROTHERLY LOVE.

299

another, natural love unites heart to heart; so, in this spiritual family, spiritual love binds together the souls of the members.

Owing to the imperfections of Christians, this spiritual affection is often very imperfect; just as natural affection is in the natural family. The love of the Christian for a Christian brother as a Christian, and simply because he is a Christian, is not sufficiently reflected on by Christ's disciples, and is not sufficiently cultivated. Our likes and dislikes, our mental and æsthetic preferences, and our prejudices, are apt to influence us far more than Christian love in its purity. That is, our natural inclinations are so strong as to interfere seriously with our spiritual affections. Instead of making Christ and his word the standard of affection, we are apt to make ourselves, with our imperfections, such standards. And we are apt to love others, not according to their worth, nor according to the impression they make on our spiritual natures, but according to the impression they make on our senses; which proves that the natural is not yet entirely subject to the spiritual. Where spiritual affection is pure, it will love all that are spiritual, will love them for the sake of their spirituality, and in proportion to their spirituality.

2.

Christian Fellowship.-Love naturally seeks the object loved. It seeks to possess this object, and also to communicate itself to that object. The Christian religion, with love as the controlling element, draws believers together. In the heart of the brother the believer finds the counterpart of much that reigns in his own heart, at least the fundamental principles of religion which make the Christian a Christian. Chris

tians can, therefore, understand one another, as the world cannot understand them. Every Christian has beliefs, emotions, impulses, and experiences, which the worldly man cannot appreciate. And to the ungodly these cannot be communicated. However intimate the believer and non-believer may be, that which is deepest and most precious to the believer must remain a mystery to the other. But to other Christians they are not a mystery, since there is something similar in their own hearts. Christians are kindred souls, and each in some measure reflects the other. All that is best calculated to beautify and ennoble the soul forms the basis of their spiritual affinity and of their real oneness. Christian communion is therefore natural. From the brother the believer may expect appreciation and sympathy and help.

But even to the brother the Christian does not reveal all the treasures of his heart. Even where the communication is the most perfect, it is not an exhaustive expression or revelation of the soul. Our very means of communication at best are so imperfect that much which is said is liable to make wrong impresssions; while often only hints can be given, from which the truth must be guessed at. And the deeper the experience of the Christian is, the more there is in him that is incommunicable. Every heart has its loneliness, in which it cannot communicate with others, and deep hearts have their vast and sublime solitudes, which the dearest friends cannot enter. While the Christian thus has a holy of holies within, which none but Christ, the great High Priest, enters, he must, of course, withhold something from even the most intimate brother.

But still there is much that seeks