cannot shut out his God; yea, rather that it shuts out all other things and companies, only that he may enjoy the more leisure for his God. Acquaint yourselves, therefore, with this exercise of prayer, and by it with God; that if days of trouble come, you may know whither to go, and what way; and if you know this way, whatever befalls you, you are not much to be bemoaned.' St. Paul having thus described the general duties, both active and passive, which the Christian is to be prepared to exercise amidst all the various relations, and under all the various trials, of human life, proceeds, in the three following verses, to enumerate some particular occasions for the offices of Christian love. 1. Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality. The Christian, therefore, is not to be satisfied with the general benefit derived to society from his more private and selfish labours; but he is to regard the work of distributing, or communicating, to the necessity of others, as a work on which he is bound to enter, and in which he is required to labour, according to his ability, as a diligent and faithful steward. I have said that the original word may be rendered communicating to the necessity of saints; and does not this imply that between the rich and the poor there ought to be a perpetual traffic or merchandize; the rich communicating temporal things, in making 8 Ver. 13. 9 κοινωνοῦντες. the poor partakers of their substance; and the poor communicating spiritual things, in making the rich partakers of their prayers.* 2. Passing on from this particular branch of Christian love, viz. attention to the wants of the poor and needy, to a still higher exercise of the same divine grace, St. Paul says, in the fourteenth verse, Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. By the earnestness of the above exhortation, in which we are twice urged to bless them which persecute us, and are afterwards warned not to curse, the apostle seems to declare to us, with peculiar emphasis, how difficult is the duty which he here enjoins. It is, as he seems to say, a work contrary to our corrupt nature. It is a work not of the flesh, but of the Spirit; and it is only through his gracious influences that believers learn to bless them which persecute them: to bless, and curse not. 3. And, assuredly, brethren, it is only through the assistance of the same Holy Spirit, that we can ever be disposed and enabled rightly to discharge that important office of Christian love which is mentioned in the last verse of the passage before us, viz. that of rejoicing with them that do rejoice, and of weeping with them that weep. The full scope of this exhortation will be best understood, when viewed with reference to that image of a body, which the apostle employs in this chapter, to denote the intimate connexion subsisting between the 1 1 Ver. 15. 66 true disciples of Jesus Christ. For if we are members one of another," then must it follow that, "if one member suffer, all the members will suffer with it," and that "if one member be honoured, all the members will rejoice with it." Let us consider, for instance, how impossible it is for any one part of the natural body to endure pain, or sickness, or languor, or cold, alone. How quick is the communication; how sharp the anguish; how general the disorder; how diligent the care to assuage or relieve any indisposition or injury of the least and most distant members! And, again, upon any return of health and ease, how sudden, how sensible, how general is the joy through all the members of that body! And does not all this point out to Christians the obligations which are upon them to take part in the joys and the sorrows of their brethren? insomuch that they may well begin to suspect whether they be really alive in the body of Christ, when such a narrow selfishness has hardened them, as shuts out all tender impressions; when they are cold, benumbed, and utterly bereft of that feeling of sympathy, which the different estates of our fellow-members ought to create in our bosoms!* Taught, therefore, by the Holy Spirit, the believer has a heart which easily opens, and which widely expands itself, to take in the sorrows and 2 See ver. 5. 31 Cor. xii. 26. Dean Stanhope in loc. sufferings of an afflicted race; and bountiful in giving, he is no less tender and soothing in the work of consolation. He administers that cordial, which is so welcome to every human soul, a real, heartfelt, and christian sympathy; that which abates the sting of suffering, and renders every blessing doubly blest; that which promotes the interchange of every kindly affection, and which, in its fullest exercise, proves its pure source, by partaking of the infinite compassion of Him, who is "not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." 5 SECTION XL. CHAP. XII. ver. 16-21. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. In the last section we were called upon to contemplate the Christian, as discharging several important duties, both active and passive, amidst the various relations, and under the various trials of 5 Heb. iv. 15. human life. In the present section, we are to contemplate the Christian, not only as studying generally to adorn the gospel in all things, but also, and more particularly, as exhibiting in one very important feature, I mean, in the love of peace, his resemblance to his divine and all-perfect model. My brethren, may we not say of peace, that it is the very style and phrase of the Scriptures? In several passages of the New Testament, God is emphatically entitled the "God of peace." It was expressly foretold of the Messiah, that he was to be the Prince of Peace;" and it should be remembered that, at the time of his nativity, Augustus Cæsar, in token of an universal peace, had shut up the mystical gates of the temple of Janus. Moreover, the first message which was sent from heaven, after his nativity, was a message of peace; "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward men." The whole doctrine which, by himself and his apostles, he preached to mankind, is called the "gospel of peace." + The last legacy which he bequeathed to his disciples, at his departure out of the world, was a legacy of peace; "My peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you."5 It is enumerated, also, among the blessed influences of the Holy Ghost in the hearts 1 Rom. xv. 33; Heb. xiii. 20; 1 Thess. v. 23. 2 Isa. ix. 6. 3 Luke ii. 14. 5 John xiv, 27. |