AFTER the close of the Crimean war, our government, in the name of our late beloved Queen Victoria, appointed a day of national thanksgiving and rejoicing to celebrate peace. We remember going with our late brother on the morning of the national holiday to hear Mr. John Kershaw preach at Zoar Chapel, Great Alie Street, London. His text was, “the Prince of peace,” a very suitable word to set forth Him who in the fullness of time came into the world, heralded by the sudden appearance of a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
A skeptic might say, if the Christ of God came to send peace on earth, how is it that there has been perhaps more blood shed, and more strife and contention through religion and professing Christianity than in any other profession in the world? We answer that to profess to be Christians and to be Christians are two distinct things. There are multitudes call themselves Christians by professing Christianity, who in their life, walk, and conversation bear no resemblance to Him whose name they own. They may call Him Lord, Lord; but if they do not the things which He saith, they are none of His.
Jesus Christ, the Prince of peace, never taught men to hate one another, but rather that love should be the golden rule of their life, “for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.” Therefore saith our blessed Lord to His disciples, and through them to those who believe in Him through their word: “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.” And the evidence of being a disciple of Christ is thus given by Him: “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
Further scriptural proof might be given concerning love being an exercise becoming all who profess faith in Jesus Christ, but it seems unnecessary to multiply evidences of what is so clearly revealed as a Christian duty to walk in, even towards such as we might regard as our enemies. Our Lord says in His sermon on the mount: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.”
That this grace of love was walked in by the early Christian churches is evident. The Apostle Paul, in writing to the Colossians, gave thanks to God for their faith in the Lord Jesus, and for their love which they had to all saints. He also commends the Thessalonians as follows: “Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father.” Further evidence might be given from the other epistles that the saints in early days manifested this grace of love towards each other, and were thus distinguished from “the children of the devil.”
Nearly two thousand years have passed away since this message of love “from the beginning” was given; and the lapse of time has not diminished its force as a gracious command. We therefore do well to examine ourselves by this true test of discipleship.
If the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts, it has been exercised towards our fellow men, and especially towards those who bear Christ’s image to whom we are united. Such unity existed in the days of old, hence we read: “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments. As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the Lord commanded blessing, even life for evermore.”
We remember the time when the love of God was first shed abroad in our own soul. We possessed the grace in measure before that time, but on that occasion it endeared the people of God to us in a way not previously felt. We then
“Loved the Lord with mind and heart,
His people and His ways.”
Love is not a grace that dies; but it may decay. One of the signs of the last days is given that, because iniquity abounds, the love many waxes cold. The Psalmist prayed to be delivered from the strife of tongues. Where strife and contention through party spirits exists, professedly to defend what men call truth, “Mr. God’s-peace,” as Bunyan terms him, will lay down his commission, and ceases to act. Contention proceeds from pride and self-conceit, as saith the proverb: “Only by pride cometh contention.” Where it exists among brethren in the Lord, the Holy Spirit is grieved, and the devil is gratified. Hence says the word: “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil-speaking, be put away from you, with all malice; and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”
We are told to “try the spirits.” If this were done, instead of contending about words and phrases, strife would be much avoided, and a man would not be made an offender for a word.
We will suppose the case of two ministers, one a believer in the doctrines of grace, and consistent in his life; the other, what is termed an Arminian, and does not manifest grace. Say they each in preaching quote “Repent ye, and believe the gospel;” or, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved”; or warn sinners to flee from the wrath to come. In the first case the minister of truth knows that none but the Lord can make the word effectual to its reception, but the word which he utters being right, he in a right spirit gives the exhortation, and leaves the result with the Lord.
But in the other supposed case, we presume the false teacher ignores the Sovereignty of God in the call of the gospel, and in quoting the self same scriptures believe it is in the power of the creature as to its being made effectual. His spirit therefore being wrong, he improperly uses the word of exhortation.
By such a hypothesis, we can heartily approve the writings of the godly Puritans, or the sermons of John Bunyan, Ralph Erskine, and others, who believed that the general declaration of the gospel is to be made to all men, according to the commission given by our blessed Lord: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature”; which witnesses against men as well as for men.
To try the spirits is not to examine them by a doctrinal code put together by men. The apostle John gives the test thus; “Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God”; which confession separates from the world, erroneous teachers and mere nominal professors of the truth.
Further: it is a spirit which abides in Jesus Christ, and walks in the means of grace, which instrumentally maintains the abiding. “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.” “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings; but he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.”
The Spirit of Christ is far removed from wrath, bitterness, and strife. Hence saith the apostle Peter; “Laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby.” And what is this milk but the truth in love? And it is manifested by love to the brethren, which is given in the word of God as an evidence of having passed from death unto life. The apostle John, in his third epistle says: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth,” which is “to believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another.”
“Of all that God bestows,
In earth, or heav’n above,
The best gift saint or angel knows,
Or e’er will know, is love.
“Love, all defects supplies,
Makes great obstructions small;
‘Tis prayer, ‘tis praise, ‘tis sacrifice;
‘Tis holiness; ‘tis all.
“Descend, celestial Dove,
With Jesu’s flock abide;
Give us that best of blessings, love;
Whate’er we want beside.”
New Cross, April 17th. S. B.