[March 27th, 1864.]
Few words have a wider sense than love. The general sentiment may exist and does exist under the most diverse modifications. Its object may be some inanimate object, a house, a tree, our home, the land in which we were born. It may be some irrational animal. A man’s love for his horse, his faithful dog, or the shepherd’s love of his sheep is a strong and abiding sentiment. It may be a rational being, where the love of sympathy is only a natural relation, independent of the character of the object. It may be a companion or friend where the ground is congeniality of character and natural good offices. Or it may be a superior where the sentiment is founded on reverence for his character and benefits conferred. Or it may be God himself. In all cases the sentiment is love, although the word stands for very different states of mind. In its modifications love includes, 1. Delight in its object. 2. Desire for its well-being. 3. A desire for its possession and enjoyment.
Brotherly love is the love which arises out of the fraternal relations of men. There is a common brotherhood among all mankind, founded, 1. On their having God as a common Father. 2. Community of nature, being all descendants of the common parents of the race. 3. Common necessities, sympathies, affections and destiny. A man, therefore, who does not love his fellow-men, who does not estimate their value as men, recognize the bond of relationship between himself and them, desire their well-being, and seek appropriate intercourse with them, violates the first of all duties next to that of honoring God. The first command is, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God; the second is, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, thy fellow-man. Within this vast brotherhood of man there are more intimate bonds of relations. The people of one race, one nation, of the same tribe, of the same household, are bound by peculiar ties and have the general obligation of love modified and strengthened by these special relations.
In the Christian sense of the terms, brotherly love is the love which should exist among Christians as brethren in Christ. This is founded, 1. On their common relation to Christ. They are all united to him, and therefore are united to each other. They constitute his kingdom, his fold, his household, his body. He is their common Lord, common Saviour, their common portion, the object of supreme love to each, and therefore the bond of union between them.
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Upon the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; so that they have a common spiritual life, involving, (a.) one faith, (b.) one hope, (c.) one experience.
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Upon the congeniality of nature or feeling. They sympathize in all their likes and dislikes, in their aims, in their characteristic pursuits.
II. This love is not merely an obligation. It is a necessary result of the relation in which believers stand to each other; so that if this love does not exist, that relation does not exist. If a man does not love his Christian brethren, he does not love Christ; is none of his.
This love manifests itself, 1. In a disposition to recognize Christians. 2. In delight in their society. 3. In a desire to promote their welfare. 4. In a sympathy with them in all their joys and sorrows, in their trials and conflicts; in espousing their cause, standing by them and defending their character. 5. In forbearance. 6. In charitable judgment.
It stands opposed, 1. To hatred. 2. To a desire to degrade, or injure, or wound the feelings. 3. To envy or jealousy, regretting that they are honored or advanced. 4. To evil speaking and censoriousness. 5. To contemptuousness, or harshness of spirit or demeanor.
Love reduces men to a level. A man who is actuated by Christian love is a Christian gentleman. No matter what his birth, his culture or social position, he will be a gentleman in character and conduct; and on the other hand, a man not under the control of love will not be, and cannot be a gentleman, no matter what his birth or position may be. This love is the cement, the life, the blessedness of the Church, and of any society on earth. Its perfection is heaven. In proportion as it is wanting in a man, or a community, or a church, in that proportion do they approach the character and condition of the lost.
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