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THE KING’S BUSINESS
find in a remarkable way, three times over, an emphasis on ‘‘one another.” There is the, newness, the object of the love, “ one another.” That was the new thing, not the love of men because they are united to us by patri otism, by family, or even by philan thropy, but because they are united to us in Christ, in brother-love.” Observe how this new command ment of “ brother-love” is found pretty prominently in the New ‘TeStatment. It is just the word “ Philadelphia,” “ Brother-love.” You remember how the Apostie ..says in Hebrews 13:1, ■“ Let brother-love continue.” You re member how Peter says in 1 Peter 2: 17, “ Love the brotherhood.” And in that long list of graces in 2 Peter 1 :5-7, we are to add to our faith one point after ' another, until we come to brother-love, the specific love that Christians ought to have for one another, and last of all to love. When this is exercised, it will, as our text, 1 John 3:19, shows, give us assurance. The more it is ex ercised, the deeper and fuller will be our assurance. We are to love not in word and in tongue, but- in deed and in truth, “ and hereby we . . . . . . . . shall assure our hearts before Him.” Perhaps it is the absence of this “ brother-love” in our churches that is one of the main causes o f our lack of assurance. If in our congregations we had more of it, what a difference it would make. Still more among the various churches, what a difference it would make if we had more and more of this “ brother-love.” The wider, the deeper, the stronger our love to our fellow-Christians, the stronger and deeper and profounder will be our assurance. I suppose it must be about fifty or sixty years ago that two men of dif ferent churches used to meet as they Went each to his own church on Sun day mornings. One church was St.
George’s, Bloomsbury; the other across the road was the Baptist Chap el, or Church, Blodmsbury. The Rec tor of St. George’s was the Hon. and Rev. ;Montague Villiers, afterwards Bishop o f Durham. The minister of the Baptist Church was the Rev. Wil liam Brock. They met every Sunday morning, and Villiers would say to Brock,' “ The Lord be with you,” and Brock would reply, “ And with thy spirit.” • That was their greeting, I believe, week after week, for years and years. “ But then,” some one says, “ it is im possible for us to love everybody!” Is that so? We do not love things; we like them. I know we say we “ love” flowers. No, we do not ; we like them! And “ like” is a much stronger word than love, if we will only realize it. Now, it is impossible, to like everybody, but it is not impos sible to.love everybody. We are never called upon to like everybody, because in some people there is nothing “ alike” to us, nothing of affinity which we can like. But we are to love, as Christ loved. You remember He loved the world with compassion, but He loved His obedient disciples with complac ency! If we cannot love and also like, we must love only. The love of this Epistle and the love of Christianity is the opposite of hate. ■ If you look at chapter 3:16-18 and 4 :10, you will see, “Herein is love” and “Hereby we perceive love.” It was because of what Christ did for those who were His enemies that He ministered His love; and the love here, whether it is associated with liking or not, is the bounden duty of every one of us. So I come back again to this, that if you and I will only put into practice this “ brother-love,” it will act and re-act upon our assurance in Christ. Here let me mention in passing that Bishop Westcott calls attention to the fact that the word translated “ broth-
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