that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. Hereby perceive we the love of God, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. This is his commandment, That we believe in his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. If a man say, I love God, and hate his brother, he is a liar; for he who loveth not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we of him, That he who loveth God love his neighbor also." That we should love one another, this is the commandment which we have received from the beginning, that we should walk in it.1

My beloved brethren, "if ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." We have much cause to be thankful for that measure of the spirit of love which our Father has been pleased to shed on us as a congregation, through Christ Jesus, and for that peace which is springing out of it. Let us carefully guard against whatever may cool our love or break our harmony. Let us all seek to be kept near Christ, that we may be kept near each other; and let us pray that our love to our Lord, to one another, to all the saints, to all men, may abound yet more and more in knowledge, and in all judgment,' and may become more and more effectual in producing personal and mutual edification, and in promoting the prosperity and extension of the kingdom which is not of this world, making us to be of one mind -his mind; of one heart-his heart; a mind all light, a heart all love.

IL-THE MANIFESTATION OF BROTHERLY LOVE.

Let us now proceed to the consideration of the apostle's injunction and recommendation of the manifestation of christian brotherly love. The fervent love which they were to cherish among themselves was to be manifested in performing kind offices to each other as men, and in promoting the spiritual interests of each other as Christians. They were to employ their worldly property in the first of these manifestations of brotherly love, and their spiritual gifts in the second; and the grand motive influencing them in both was to be that they were stewards, and ought to be good stewards of the manifold grace of God; and "that God in all things might be glorified through Jesus Christ." Let us attend, then, in succession to these two enjoined manifestations of christian brotherly love, and to the powerful motives by which both are enforced. "Use hospitality one to another without grudging.

1 John xiii. 34, 1, 2. Col. iii. 12. 1 Pet. i. 22; iii. 8.

35. Rom. xii. 10. Eph. iv. 3. Gal. v. 22, 25. Eph. iv. 30-32; v. 1 Thess. iv. 9. 1 Tim. i. 5; vi. 11. Heb. xiii. 1. James iii. 17. 1 John ii. 9, 11; iii. 14-16, 23; iv. 7, 11, 20, 21. 2 John 5.

As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth; that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ: to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever.

Amen."

§ 1.-Christians are to manifest brotherly love, by employing their property for each other's good as men, as in ungrudging hospi tality.

We observe, then, in the first place, that Christians are to manifest the fervent love which they have among themselves, by employing their worldly property in performing kind offices to each other as men. Of these kind offices we have a specimen in the ungrudging hospitality which is here enjoined, "Use hospitality one to another without grudging."

The habit of inviting, in considerable numbers, to our houses and tables, neighbors, acquaintances, and friends, in rank equal or superior to ourselves, and giving them a sumptuous entertainment, is what in our times generally passes by the name of hospitality. Where God's good creatures are not abused, which they often are, as stimulants and gratifications to intemperate appetite, and when these entertainments are not so expensive or so frequent as to waste an undue proportion of our substance and time, and to interfere with the right discharge of the duties of family instruction and devotion, there is nothing wrong in them. I believe we may go a little further and say, that in this case they are fitted to serve a good purpose in keeping up friendly intercourse among relations and friends.

But they are put out of their place altogether, when they are considered as a substitute for the christian duty of hospitality. It is plain that our Lord did not condemn such meetings, for we find him not unfrequently present at them; but he obviously looked on them as capable of being better managed, and turned to more useful purposes, than they commonly were among the Jews in his time. "When thou makest a dinner or a supper," said our Lord to one of the chief pharisees who had invited him to his table, "call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.'

We are certainly not to consider these words of our Lord as a prohibition of convivial intercourse among equals, the entertaining on proper occasions, in a suitable manner, of our wealthy neighbors, friends, and relatives; but we are to understand that, in doing so, we are rather complying with an innocent and useful social usage than performing an important christian duty; and that the proportion of our property devoted to feeding the poor, should very much exceed that expended in feasting the rich. What are termed hospitable en

'Luke xiv. 12-14.

tertainments are very generally manifestations of vanity and pride on the part of those who give them. In a very limited degree are they the real expression of even a very low form of benevolent regard to those to whom they are given. The expense at which they are made is not incurred from love to God, regard to his authority, or a wish to promote his glory. Reward from him is altogether out of the question; and the applause, or, what is in some instances more relished still, the envy, of others, and a similar banquet in return, are the appropriate and the wished-for recompense. It is deeply to be regretted that so many professors of Christianity are in this respect unduly conformed to the world, and lavish on these thankless and profitless entertainments sums which might so easily be turned to so much better account in relieving the wants, and adding to the comforts of the poor and destitute; or in promoting the glory of God, and the highest interests of mankind, by diffusing "the knowledge of salvation through the remission of sins."

But the occasional entertainment of our acquaintances, whether poor or rich, however unobjectionably, and even usefully, conducted, is not the christian duty which, under the name of hospitality, is here and in so many other passages of the New Testament recommended. Hospitality is kindness to strangers, to persons not generally resident in the same place with ourselves, to persons with whom we are not on habits of intimate acquaintanceship; and this kindness is manifested by bringing them to our houses, and furnishing them with suitable entertainment there.

We have this duty strikingly illustrated in the case of Abraham and of Lot, when they "entertained angels unawares." Nothing can be more beautifully simple than the inspired narrative: "And Abraham sat in the door of his tent in Mamre, in the heat of the day; and he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and, when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent-door, and bowed himself toward the ground, and said, My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant. Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree: and I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do as thou hast said. And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth. And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetched a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man; and he hasted to dress it. And he took butter and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat." And when two of these illustrious strangers entered Sodom, "Lot, sitting in the gate, rose up to meet them; and bowed himself with his face toward the ground: and he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your way. And when they said, Nay, but we will abide in the street all night, he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and

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did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat." This was ancient hospitality.

In the same spirit we find Jethro saying to his daughters, in reference to the stranger who had assisted them in watering their flocks, "And where is he? why is it that ye left the man? call him that he may eat bread." a

An instance of this virtue, not less interesting, is to be found in the case of the aged "working man" of Gibeah: "Behold, there came an old man from his work out of the field at even. And when he had lifted up his eyes, he saw a wayfaring man in the street of the city: and the old man said, Whither goest thou? and whence comest thou? And he said unto him, We are passing from Bethlehem-Judah toward the side of Mount Ephraim; from thence am I; and I went to Bethlehem, but I am now going to the house of the Lord; and there is no man that receiveth me into his house. Yet is there both straw and provender for our asses; and there is bread and wine also for me, and thine handmaid, and for the young man with thy servant; there is no want of anything. And the old man said, Peace be with thee: howsoever let all thy wants lie upon me; only lodge not in the street. So he brought him into the house, and gave provender to the asses; and they washed their feet, and did eat and drink."

Kindness to strangers was not only included in the second great command, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," but was the subject of express legislation in the Mosaic code. "If a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord thy God. The Levite, because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied," at the feast made on the tithe of the increase being set apart, at the end of every third year, "that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the works of thine hand which thou doest."

In the New Testament, a disposition to entertain strangers is represented as a necessary qualification of a christian bishop. He must be "given to hospitality," "a lover of hospitality;" and it is mentioned as one of the characteristics of "the widow indeed," that she has "lodged strangers, and washed the saints' feet." And Christians generally are expected to be "given to hospitality," and not to be "forgetful to entertain strangers."

Nor is the duty only enjoined in the New Testament; it is also exemplified. When Lydia was baptized, "she besought Paul and his companions," strangers in Philippi, "saying, If ye have judged me faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there; and she constrained them." Mnason from Cyprus, "the old disciple," entertained Paul and his associates in Jerusalem. Gaius, at Corinth, was so remarkable for his hospitality, that Paul calls him his host and the * Judges xix. 16-21.

Gen. xviii. 1-8; xix. 1-3.
Exod. xxii. 21; xxiii. 9.

⚫ 1 Tim. iii. 2. Tit. i. 8.

2 Exod. ii. 18-20.

Lev. xix. 33.

1 Tim. v. 10. Rom. xii. 13.

host of the whole church; and Philemon refreshed the bowels of the saints, and prepared Paul a lodging.'

There can be no doubt that Christians are bound to exercise kindness to strangers generally, though they should not belong to the christian society. In every way in their power, they ought to "do good to all men, as they have opportunity;" but it is quite plain that the injunction before us has an especial reference to the "household of faith," "Use hospitality among yourselves." When Christians in the course of their ordinary business went from home, as the means for accommodating strangers were not at all so abundant as in modern times, their brethren in the countries or cities they visited were expected to minister to their wants and convenience. "I commend unto you Phebe, our sister," says the apostle to the church at Rome, not only "that ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints," that is, admit her to fellowship with you in the ordinances of religion, but also "that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you; for she hath been a succorer of many, and of myself also;" that is, be hospitable to her who has been hospitable to me, and many others. Christians driven from their homes by persecution, were those who had the strongest claims on the hospitality of their more favored brethren; and next to, or it may be equal to, their claim, was that of those who had devoted their lives to the service of Christ among the heathen. It is in reference to them that the Apostle John speaks to the beloved Gaius: "Beloved, thou doest faithfully," or thou actest the part of a believer, "whatsoever thou doest to the brethren, and to strangers; which have borne witness of thy charity before the church; whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well because that for his name's sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellow-helpers to the truth.""

2

The abundant accommodation which the habits of modern times have secured for strangers sojourning for a season from home, and the extent to which movement from place to place now prevails, makes hospitality, in the same sense and in the same measure as in the primitive times, unnecessary, and indeed impracticable. But christian morality in its spirit is for all countries and for all ages. It is like its Author, unchanged and unchangeable. It is a proof that love has waxed cold, when Christians are not disposed to pay kind attention to their brethren from other places, who have no claim on their attention but that they are "one with them in Christ."

The prevalence of such an inhospitable spirit is, in more ways than one, a proof that the purity of christian communion in these last days has declined from its primitive standard; and it has often seemed to me a token that things are not as they should be among us, when Christians from foreign lands, agents of our christianly benevolent institutions, prosecuting their objects, and office-bearers of the various christian churches visiting our large cities on business connected with the maintenance and extension of the kingdom of Christ, in so many instances, at an expense they can often ill afford, have to take up their Acts xvi. 14, 15; xxi. 16. Rom. xvi. 23. Philemon 7, 22. * Rom. xvi. 1, 2.

3 3 John 5-8. See note A.