DUTY TO OUR NEIGHBOUR.

(Inadvertently omitted in its proper order.)

Preached July 1st, 1860.

“Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."-Matt. xxii. 39.

THE love of our neighbour, that is, of every fellowcreature, whom God has made partaker of a like nature with ourselves and has gifted with an immortal soul, is at once the fruit and the proof of the love of God within us. God is the Father of us all, and in a second and yet higher sense He is the Father of every baptized Christian and every faithful believer. "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments." We are all represented to be of one family, children of Him, "of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,” and we may be quite sure, that those members of a family, who cannot agree with their brothers and sisters here, will not be permitted to enter with their unholy passions into the kingdom of peace hereafter..

"Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," said Jesus to the inquiring Scribe; that is, we are to do unto all others, as we would desire that all others should do unto ourselves. Upon all occasions we are to act towards them, as if their case were our own. For instance, if we are speaking about anything which another person has done, it should be as if we had done the very same thing, and were passing judgment on ourselves. We shall then be influenced by a very lenient and friendly spirit, trying to make the best of everything, making the largest allowances, desiring to pass over what we cannot satisfactorily explain, very tender of our fame and jealous of our reputation. We should thus act if the case were actually our own, and we should desire others to act in the same manner by us; we should wish them to pass the same favourable judgment on us, which we had passed on ourselves. But the case is that of another. We are sitting in judgment upon him. And it is our duty to do by him as we should have done by ourselves, and as we would have desired that he should do by us. So there will be no groundless suspicions on our part, no unfavourable constructions, no whispering to his disadvantage, no proclaiming of his faults, no ready ears to hear, and no ready tongue to tell, (whether it be a false and base calumny, or a sad and real truth,) the shame and misery of his dishonour. Whatever be the case supposed, we must have our neighbour's honour, character, advantage, interest, comfort, happiness as much at heart as we have our own; and then, and not till then, do we love him as is our duty to do. And so, not fulfilling

the second commandment, we give proof that we do not fulfil the first ;-that as we do not our duty by our neighbour, so neither do we our duty by God. If we love not the one, we love not the other. The sentence of Scripture is too plain and precise to be evaded; "He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from Him, that he who loveth God love his brother also." We cannot really love God, and be at enmity with a brother, or bear him ill-will, or do him an unkind action, or speak of him an unfriendly word.

And has any one, then, ever so loved his brother and his neighbour, (that is, a fellow-creature not bound to himself by any personal ties of kindred or affection,) as Scripture thus tells us all that we ought to do? I answer, Yes; some have done so; some in whom grace has so abounded from their great and unfeigned love towards God Himself, that they really have loved others as they have loved themselves, and have even preferred others to themselves in what concerned either their honour, or their interest, or their present comfort, or the relief of their wants. Some have been so far transported with brotherly love towards their fellows, that they have expressed their glowing feelings almost as if they were ready to sacrifice even their eternal interests to insure the salvation of others. Thus Moses pleads with God for the disobedient and idolatrous Israelites: "Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive

their sin;—and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written." So St. Paul says in respect of the same stiff-necked people; "I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." The Apostle did not mean, any more than the meek and pious Moses, that he would really be under the eternal wrath of God, or be for ever separated from Christ, or be forsaken by the Holy Spirit; but that he would willingly, like his Divine Master, "submit to be treated as accursed'; to be disgraced, crucified, and even for a time in the deepest horror and distress, if by so suffering he could rescue his nation from the destruction about to come upon them for their obstinate unbelief." History is full of examples of the most genuine and exalted brotherly love. Jonathan loved David as his own soul; and he stripped himself of his princely robe, and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and his bow, and his girdle; and it was a pleasure to him to think that David should be King of Israel in his stead. How many have rescued others from the dark dungeon, and worn the galling chains themselves! Who has not read of the man so desirous to die for his friend, for whose return he had made himself surety, that he urged on the executioner to strike the blow, and reproached him for the tardiness and delay which brought back that faithful friend, true to his engagement, to undergo his own sentence? But you may say, perhaps, "These latter were instances of friendship, not of common brotherhood; and the

former had reference to persons in such immediate communion with God, and blessed with such revelations from Him, that they are not cases in point." I reply, "It is easy to find others that are so." As Lentulus was escaping from the disastrous defeat at Cannæ, he suddenly reined up his panting steed, for he saw the wounded consul on foot and the enemy close behind: "Emilius," he exclaimed, "mount my horse and fly." "I thank you, noble Lentulus," replied the other, "but this must not be, hasten on and save your own life." "Take this cup of water," said the gallant Sidney, as he was expiring on the field of battle, and just raising it to his lips to allay his burning thirst;-"take it to that poor soldier yonder who is looking so wistfully at it, his necessity is greater than mine." Oh! my brethren, how ought

these, and ten thousand other instances we meet with or read of, to shame some of ourselves for our want of love and forbearance with one another! How apt are we to resent every little affront, and ready to pay off every injury in kind! And surely, nothing can more strongly show how far we fall short of the Christian standard, than the too frequent absence of all wish or endeavour to tread in the steps of Him, who has left us an example to do as He did; who gave Himself, the just for the unjust to reconcile us to God; who, while we were yet sinners, died for us; "Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously: who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead