True Unity Promoted
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, JANUARY 1, 1865,
BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Endea voring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."
Ephesians 4:3.
YOU will remember that for several years I have received my morning's
text for the first Sunday in the year from an esteemed Brother, a
clergyman of the Church of England. This year he very kindly sends me
this verse, which I hope will be useful to us all, reminding us of our
former faults and of our present duty in the matter of "endeavoring to
keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." The Pope has lately
been most lustily cursing us all. According to his nature, of course,
must be his utterances. We could not expect a blessing where no
blessing abides. And if we get a curse we only receive a polluted
stream from a polluted fountain. It is an old saying that England never
prospers so well as when the Pope curses her. I hope to see a year of
great prosperity this year!
Let the poor deluded priest curse as long as he will, our God shall
turn it into a blessing. In former days, when some of the Churches of
Christ began to shake off the yoke of Popedom from their necks, the
plea urged against reformation was the necessity of maintaining unity.
"You must bear with this ceremony and that dogma no matter how
antichristian and unholy, you must bear with it, 'endeavoring to keep
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.' " So spoke the old
serpent in those early days. "The Church is one, woe unto those who
shall create schism! It may be true that Mary is set up in the place of
Christ, that images are worshipped, sticks and rotten rags adored and
pardons bought and sold for crimes of every kind. It may be that the
so-called church has become an abomination and a nuisance upon the face
of the earth, but still, 'endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace,' you must lie down, restrain the testimony of the
Spirit of God within you, keep His Truth under a bushel and let the lie
prevail."
This was the grand sophistry of the church of Rome. When, however, she
could not seduce men by talking of love and union, she took upon
herself to use her natural tone of voice and cursed right and left
right heartily–and so let her curse till she expires! Brethren, there
was no reason in the argument of the Papist! If you will look at the
text for a moment, you will see the text bids us endeavor to keep the
unity of the Spirit–but it does not tell us to endeavor to maintain
the unity of evil, the unity of superstition–or the unity of spiritual
tyranny! The unity of error, of false doctrine, of priestcraft may have
in it the spirit of Satan–we do not doubt that–but that it is the
unity of the Spirit of God we do utterly deny!
The unity of evil we are to break down by every weapon which our hands
can grasp–the unity of the Spirit which we are to maintain and foster
is quite another thing. Remember that we are forbidden to do evil that
good may come. And it is evil to restrain the witness of the Spirit of
God within us! To conceal any Truth of God which we have learned by
revelation of God is evil! To hold back from testifying for God's Truth
and Word–against the sin and folly of man's inventions–would be sin
of the blackest hue. We dare not commit the sin of quenching the Holy
Spirit even though it were with the view of promoting unity!
The unity of the Spirit never requires any sinful support–that is
maintained not by suppressing the Truth of God, but by publishing it
abroad. The unity of the Spirit has for its pillars, among other
things, the witnessing of spiritually enlightened saints to the one
faith which God has revealed in His Word. That is quite another unity
which would gag our mouths and turn us all into dumb driven cattle to
be fed or slaughtered at the will of priestly masters. Dr. McNeil has,
very properly, said that a man can scarcely be an earnest Christian in
the recent day without being a controversialist. We are sent forth
today as sheep in the midst of wolves–can there be agreement? We are
kindled as lamps in the midst of darkness–can there be concord?
Has not Christ Himself said, "Think not that I am come to send peace on
earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword"? You understand how all
this is the truest method of endeavoring to keep the unity of the
Spirit, for Christ, the
Man of War, is Jesus the Peacemaker. But in order to the creation of
lasting, spiritual peace, the phalanx of evil must be broken and the
unity of darkness dashed to shivers. I pray God evermore to preserve us
from a unity in which Truth shall be considered valueless! In which
principle gives place to policy! In which the noble and masculine
virtues which adorn the Christian hero are to be supplemented by an
effeminate affectation of charity! May the Lord deliver us from
indifference to His Word and will! This only creates the cold unity of
masses of ice frozen into an iceberg chilling the air for miles
around–the unity of the dead as they sleep in their graves, contending
for nothing–because they have neither part nor lot in all that belongs
to living men.
There is a unity which is seldom broken–the unity of devils, who,
under the service of their great liege master, never disagree and
quarrel! From this terrible unity keep us, O God of Heaven! The unity
of locusts have one common object– the glutting of themselves to the
ruin of all around! The unity of the waves of Tophet's fire, sweeping
myriads into deeper misery–from this also, O King of Heaven, save us
forevermore! May God perpetually send some Prophet who shall cry aloud
to the world, "Your covenant with death shall be disannulled and your
agreement with Hell shall not stand." May there ever be found some men,
though they are rough as Amos, or stern as Haggai, who shall denounce
again and again all league with error and all compromise with sin and
declare that these are the abhorrence of God!
Never dream that holy contention is at all a violation of my text. The
destruction of every sort of union which is not based on the Truth of
God is a preliminary to the edification of the unity of the Spirit. We
must first sweep away these walls of untempered mortar–these tottering
fences of man's building–before there can be room to lay the goodly
stones of Jerusalem's walls one upon the other for lasting and enduring
prosperity!
In this spirit have I spoken to clear a way to reach my text. It is
clear from the text that there is a unity of the Spirit to be kept.
Secondly that it needs keeping. And thirdly, that a bond is to be used.
When we have enlarged upon these points we shall use the text in its
practical application–first to Christians in their connection with
other churches and then to members of the same Church in their
connection with each other.
I. First, THERE IS A UNITY OF THE SPIRIT OF WHICH THE TEXT SPEAKS WHICH
IS WORTHY TO BE KEPT. You will observe it is not an ecclesiastical
unity. It is not endeavoring to keep the unity of the denomination, the
community, the diocese, the parish–no, it is "endeavoring to keep the
unity of the Spirit." Men speak of the Episcopal Church, the Wesleyan
Church, or the Presbyterian Church. Now I hesitate not to say that
there is nothing whatever in Scripture at all parallel to such
language, for there I read of the seven Churches in Asia, the Church in
Corinth, Philippi, Antioch, etc.
In England, if I speak according to the Word of God, there are some
thousands of churches holding the Episcopal form of government. In
Scotland, some thousands of godly churches are ordered according to
Presbyterian rule. Among the Wesleyans, there are churches adhering to
the form of government first carried out by Mr. Wesley. But it is not
according to the method of Scripture, but only according to human
invention to speak of a whole cluster of churches as one church.
Although I myself am much inclined to a Presbyterian union among our
churches, I cannot but perceive in Holy Scripture that each church is
separate and distinct from every other church. The whole being is
connected by those different bonds and ligaments which keep all the
separate members together–but not so connected as to run into one
another to lose their separateness and individuality. There is nothing
in Scripture which says, "Endeavoring to keep up your ecclesiastical
arrangements for centralization." The exhortation runs
thus–"Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit."
Again, you will observe it does not say, "Endeavoring to keep the
uniformity of the Spirit." The Spirit does not recognize uniformity.
The analogy of His work in nature is against it. The flowers are not
all tinted with the same hue, nor do they exhale the same odors. There
is variety everywhere in the work of God. If I glance at Providence, I
do not perceive that any two events happen after the same form–the
page of history is varied. If, therefore, I look into the Church of
God, I do not expect to find that all Christians pronounce the same
shibboleth, or see with the same eyes.
The same, "one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of
all," we rejoice to recognize. But as to uniformity of dress,
liturgical verbiage, or form of worship, I find nothing of it in
Scripture. Men may pray acceptably standing, sitting, kneeling, or
lying with their faces upon the earth. They may meet with Jesus by the
river's side, in the temple porch, in a prison, or in a private house.
And they may be one in the same Spirit although the one regards a day
and the other regards it not.
So what is this unity of the Spirit? I trust, dear Brothers and
Sisters, that we know it by having it in possession. It is most certain
that we cannot keep the unity of the Spirit if we don't already have
it! Let us ask ourselves the question, "Have we the unity of the
Spirit?" None can have it but those who have the Spirit and the Spirit
dwells only in new-born believing souls. By virtue of his having the
Spirit, the Believer is in union with every other spiritual man and
this is the unity which he is to endeavor to keep.
This unity of the Spirit is manifested in love. A husband and wife may
be, through Providence, cast hundreds of miles from one another–but
there is a unity of spirit in them because their hearts are one. We,
Brethren, are divided many thousands of miles from the saints in
Australia, America and the South Seas–but loving as Brethren–we feel
the unity of the Spirit. I was never a member of a Church meeting in
the backwoods of America. I never worshipped God with the Samoans, or
with my Brethren in New Zealand–but notwithstanding all this, I feel
the unity of the Spirit in my soul with them and everything which
concerns their spiritual welfare is interesting to me.
This unity of the Spirit is caused by a similarity of nature. Find a
drop of water glittering in the rainbow, leaping in the waterfall,
rippling in the rivulet, lying silent in the stagnant pool or dashing
in spray against the vessel's side–that water claims kinship with
every drop of water the wide world over because it is the same in its
elements. And even so there is a unity of the Spirit which we cannot
imitate which consists in our being "begotten again unto a lively hope
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."
We bear in us the Holy Spirit as our daily Quickener and walk in the
path of faith in the living God. Here is the unity of spirit, a unity
of life working itself out in love. This is sustained daily by the
Spirit of God. He who makes us one, keeps us one. Every member of my
body must have a communion with every other member of my body. I say
must. The question never arises, that I know of, between the members of
my body whether they will do so or not. As long as there is life in my
frame, every separate portion of my body must have communion with every
other portion of it.
Here is my finger–I may discolor it with some noxious drug. My head
may not approve of the staining of my finger–it may suggest a thousand
ways by which that finger ought to be put through a purgation and this
may be all right and proper–but my head never says, "I will cut off
that finger from communion." My tongue speaks loudly against the
noxious fluid which has done my finger mischief and has blistered it so
as to cause pain to the whole body, yet the head cannot say, "I will
have that finger cut off," unless the body is willing to be forever
mutilated and incomplete.
Now, it is not possible to mutilate the body of Christ. Christ does not
lose His members or cast off parts of His mystical body. And therefore
it never ought to enter the head of any Christian whether or not he
shall have communion in spirit with any other Christian, for he cannot
do without it–as long as he lives he must have it. This does not stop
him in boldly denouncing the error into which his Brother may have
fallen, or in avoiding his intimate acquaintance while he continues to
sin. But it does forbid the thought that we can ever really sever any
true Believer from Christ, or even from us, if we are in Christ Jesus.
The unity of the Spirit is preserved, then, by the Holy Spirit infusing
daily life-floods into the one mystical body. And in proportion as the
life-floods become more strong, that union becomes more manifest. Let a
spirit of prayer be poured out on all our churches and
conventionalities will be dashed down–divisions will be forgotten and
locked in each others arms–the people of God will show to the world
that they are one in Christ Jesus! There are some points in which this
unity of the Spirit is certain to discover itself. In prayer, how truly
does Montgomery put it–
"The saints in prayer appear as one In word and deed and mind,
While with the Father and the Son, Sweet fellowship they find."
There is a unity of praise, too. Our hymn books differ, after all, very
little. We still sing the same songs and praise the same Savior. This
unity will soon discover itself in co-working–they have a union in
their conflict with the common foe and in their contention for the
common Truth of God. This will lead to communion–I do not mean sitting
down to the same table to eat bread and drink wine–that is only the
outward union–but I mean that communion which consists in heart
beating true to heart and in the feeling that they are one in Christ
Jesus. It was a motto with Bucer, "To love all in whom he could see
anything of Christ Jesus."
Be this your motto, Brothers and Sisters in Christ. Make not your love
an excuse for not offering stern rebuke, but rebuke because you love!
Some persons think that unless you smooth your tongue and cover your
words with sugar, no matter though it may be sugar of lead–unless you
cringe and compliment and conceal–there is no love in your heart. But
I trust it will be our privilege to show in our own persons, some of
us, how sternly we can dissent and yet love. How truly be
Nonconformists to our Brethren's error and yet in our very
nonconformity prove our affection to them and to our common Master.
It is said of some men that they appear to have been born upon the
mountains of Bether, for they do nothing but cause division. And
baptized in the waters of Meribah, for they delight in causing strife.
This is not the case with the genuine Christian–he cares only for the
Truth, for his Master, for the love of souls–and when these things are
not imperiled, his own private likes or dislikes never affect him. He
loves as much to see another Church prosper as his own–so long as he
can know that Christ is glorified, it is a matter of comparative
indifference to him by what minister God's arm is made bare, in what
place souls are converted, or to what particular form of worship men
addict themselves.
Yet ever does he hold to this–that there is no unity of the Spirit
where there is a lie in the teaching–that where the souls of men are
concerned he would be a traitor to God if he did not bear witness
against the error which damns, and testify to the Truth which saves.
And where the crown jewels of his Master's kingdom are concerned he
dares not traitorously hold his tongue. And though his fellow subjects
cast his name out as evil, he counts it all joy so long as he is
faithful to his Master and discharges his conscience as before the
Judge of the quick and the dead.
II. Secondly, THIS UNITY NEEDS KEEPING. It is a very difficult thing to
maintain and that for several reasons. Our sins would, very naturally,
break it. If we were all angels we should keep the unity of the Spirit
and not need even the exhortation to do so. But, alas, we are proud,
and pride is the mother of division! Diotrephes, who loves to have the
preeminence, is very sure to head a faction.
Envy, too, how that separates friends! When I cannot be satisfied with
anything which is not hammered on my anvil or run in my mold. When
another man's candle grieves me because it gives more light than mine.
And when another man troubles me because he has more Divine Grace than
I have–oh, there is no unity in this case! Anger–what a deadly foe is
that to unity! When we cannot take the smallest disrespect–when the
slightest thing brings the blood into our face– when we speak
unadvisedly with our lips–but surely I need not read the long list of
sins which spoil this unity of the Spirit, for they are legion! O, may
God cast them out from us, for only so can we keep the unity of the
Spirit!
But, Beloved, our very virtues may make it difficult for us to keep
this unity. Luther is brave and bold, hot and impetuous. He is just the
man to lead the van and clear the way for the Reformation. Calvin is
logical, clear, cool, precise– he seldom speaks rashly. It is not in
the order of things that Luther and Calvin should always agree. Their
very virtues cause them to fall out and, consequently, Luther, in a bad
temper, calls Calvin a pig and a devil. And, albeit, Calvin once
replied, "Luther may call me what he will, but I will always call him a
dear servant of Christ."
Yet John Calvin knew how to pierce Luther under the fifth rib when he
was in humor. In those days the courtesies of Christians to one another
were generally of the iron-gauntlet order rather than the naked hand.
All were so much called to war for the sake of the Truth of God that
even their fellow soldiers were treated with suspicion. And it may be
with us that the very watchfulness of Truth, which is so valuable, may
make us suspect where there is no need for suspicion and our courage
may take us as sometimes a fiery horse has carried a young warrior
beyond where he intended to have rid-den–where he may be taken
prisoner to his own damage.
We must watch–the best of us must watch–lest we fight the Lord's
battles with Satan's weapons and so even from love to God and His Truth
violate the unity of the Spirit. The unity of the Spirit ought to be
kept, dear Friends, because Satan is so busy to mar it. He knows that
the greatest Glory of Christ will spring from the unity of His Church.
"That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I in You. That
they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that You have
sent Me."
There is no Church happiness where there is not Church unity. Let a
Church be disaffected and divided, the schism in the body is death to
all hallowed fellowship. We cannot enjoy communion with each other
unless our hearts are one. Our work for God–how feebly it is done when
we are not agreed! The enemy cannot desire a better ally than strife in
the midst of our camp. "Can you not agree," said a warrior of old,
"when your enemy is in sight?" Christians, can you not agree to keep
the unity of the Spirit when a destroying Satan is ever on the watch
seeking to drag immortal souls down to perdition?
We must be more diligent in this matter! We must seek to purge out from
ourselves everything which would divide and to have in our hearts every
holy thought which would tend to unite us with our Brethren. I am not,
when I join a Christian Church, to say, "I am quite certain I shall
never break its unity." I am to suspect myself of a liability to that
evil and I am to watch with all diligence that I keep the unity of the
Spirit.
III. In the third place, in order to the keeping of this, THERE IS A
BOND PROVIDED, THE BOND OF PEACE. Beloved, there should be much peace,
perfect peace, unbounded peace between the people of God. We are not
aliens. We are "fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of
God." Realize your fellow citizenship! Treat not Christian people as
foreigners and this bond of fellow citizenship will be one bond of
peace. You are not enemies. Men may be fellow citizens and yet hate one
another, but you are friends, you are all friends to Christ and in Him
you are all friends to one another. Let that be another bond.
But you go farther–you are not mere friends, you are Brethren born of
the same parent–filled with the same life. And shall not this be a
bond? See that you fall not out by the way. Strive not one with
another, for you are Brethren. This is not all. You are closer than
this–you are members of the same body. Shall this mysterious union
fail to be a bond of peace to you? Will you, being the foot, contend
with the eye? Or will you, being the eye, contend with the hand and
say, "I have no need of you"?
If it is, indeed, the Truth of God and not a fiction that we are
members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones– because the
joints and bones in other men's bodies may not agree–let it never be
said of the mystical body of our blessed Lord that there was such a
monstrous thing in it! Let it never be said that the various parts
would not co-work but fell to battling with another! I believe I have
brought out the meaning of the text. There is a unity of the Spirit
which is worthy to be kept–we ought to keep it–we must try to keep it
in the bond of peace.
To come to the practical conclusion of the subject. First, in the
connection of one Church with another. And secondly, in the connection
of one Church member with another. It is not a desirable thing that all
churches should melt into one another and become one. The complete
fusion of all churches into one ecclesiastical corporation would
inevitably produce another form of Popery since history teaches us that
large ecclesiastical bodies grow more or less corrupt as a matter of
course.
Huge spiritual corporations are, as a whole, the strongholds of tyranny
and the refuges of abuse. And it is only a matter of time when they
shall break to pieces. Disruption and secession must occur and will
occur where a unity is attempted which is not meant in God's Word. But
it will be a blessed thing when all the churches walk together in the
unity of the Spirit! When this Church, although it has been baptized
into the Lord Jesus Christ and laments the neglect of that ordinance by
others, yet feels that the unity of the Spirit is not to be broken and
holds out its right hand to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in
sincerity.
When yonder Church, governed by its elders, feels a unity with another
Church which is presided over by its bishop. When a certain Church,
which holds with mutual edification and no ministry, is yet not
quarrelsome towards those who love the ministry of the Word! When, in
fact, we have agreed in this one thing–that we will search the Word
independently and act out according to our light what we find to be
true–but having so done we will keep the unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace. I say this is most desirable and this, it is, that we
are to seek after–not the fusion of all into one denomination! But the
keeping of each Church in its own distinct independent testimony in
love with every other Church that is doing the same.
Now, in order to this, I have a few suggestions to offer. It is quite
certain we shall never keep the unity of the Spirit if this Church
shall declare that it is superior to every other. If there is a Church
which says, "We are the Church and all others are mere sects. We are
established and others are only tolerated," then it is a troubler in
Israel and must hide its head when the unity of the Spirit is so much
as hinted at! Any Church which lifts up its head on high and boasts
over other churches has violated the unity of the Spirit. If other
churches reply, "One is our Master and all we are Brethren," they do
not violate the unity of the Spirit, for they simply claim their rights
and speak the Truth of God.
That other Church which forgets its true position as one in the family
and begins to set itself up as mistress and claim pre-eminence over its
fellow servants has put it out of its own power to keep the unity of
the Spirit, for it has violated it once and for all. A Church that
would keep the unity of the Spirit, again, must not consider itself to
be so infallible that not to belong to its membership is sin. What
right has any one Church to set itself up as the standard, so that
those who do not join it are necessarily Dissenters?
It is true my Episcopal brother is a Dissenter–he dissents from me! It
is true he is a Nonconformist, for he does not conform to me–I would
not, however, call him by such names lest I should arrogate to my own
Church to be the one true church and so should break the unity of the
Spirit. If I turn to history I may believe that my Church can claim a
long line of ancestors descending from the Apostles, without ever
running through the Church of Rome. But shall I therefore call a
Brother who does not quite see this succession, a schismatic and
denominate his assembly illegal? If he is a schismatic because he does
not come to my place, why am I not a schismatic because I do not go to
his?
Well, but he divides the church! He ought to come and worship with me.
Ought I not to go and worship with him? Ah, but we are the larger
number! Are Divine things to be ruled by the majority? Where would the
Church of God be any day if it came to polling? I am afraid the devil
would always be at the head of the poll. We wish to keep the unity of
the Spirit and if we have a little sister, we will treat her all the
more kindly, owing to the fewness of her members. If I want to "keep
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," I must never call in the
magistrate to force my Brother to pay for washing my surplice, ringing
my bell and winding up my clock.
I must not tell my Brother that he is bound to pay for the support of
my worship. "Oh," he says, "my dear Friend, I pay for the maintenance
of the worship which I believe to be correct and I am quite willing
that you should do the same for yours." I would voluntarily assist you
if you were poor. But you tell me you will put me in prison if I do not
pay and yet tell me to keep the unity of the Spirit? My dear Friend, it
is not keeping the unity of the Spirit to take away my stool and my
table and my candlestick, and say you will put me in "limbo," or hail
me before an ecclesiastical court. You send the constable after me. And
then if I say a word about it, you say, "Charity hopes all things."
Yes, among the rest it hopes that you will give up your sin in this
matter. If we should stand possessed of a piece of ground where we bury
our dead, and if there should happen to come a member of another
Christian Church who would wish to lay his poor dead baby in our
ground, there being no other convenient spot anywhere and he asks the
favor, I think we can hardly be thought to keep the unity of the Spirit
if we tell him, "No, nothing of the kind! You had your child sprinkled,
therefore it cannot be buried with us Christians! We will not have your
sprinkled baby lying alongside our baptized dead."
I do not think that is keeping the unity of the Spirit. And I do not
think when some churches have turned from their graveyard gate the
mourners who have brought an unbaptized infant–and the mourners have
gone back weeping to their homes–I do not think such churches have
been endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Again, if churches are to agree one with another they must not make
rules that ministers who are not of their own denomination shall not
occupy their pulpits. I should be ashamed of you, if you passed a
resolution that no one dissenting from us should stand in my pulpit.
But we know a church which says, "No matter how good a man may be. He
may be a man as venerated as John Angell James, or he may have all the
excellencies of a William Jay–we would not, perhaps, mind hearing him
in a Town Hall–but into the sacredness of our particular rostrum these
interlopers must not intrude."
For, says this church, "Ours are ministers, yours are only lay
teachers. Ours are sacraments–the cup of blessing which we bless is
the blood of Christ and the bread which we break is the body of
Christ–you have no sacramental efficacy with you. In fact, you are not
a church, but only a body of schismatics meeting together to carry out
what you think to be right. We tolerate you, but that is all we can
do." Where is the unity of the Spirit there?
My dear Friends, I received this text from one of the most holy men in
the Church of England–if I expound it slightly for her benefit, he
will, I trust, excuse me, for I do so in all honesty, desiring to aid
him and many others in revision and reform. If this Church were in the
same condition as the Church of England I would pray to be as plain in
my remarks. I say it is an anachronism! It is a thing out of date for
the nineteenth century for any one church in this land and that church
the only one which defiles her hand by taking State pay, to stand up
and say, "We are the church! Our ministers are the ministers! Our
people are the people! And now, dear Brethren, shake hands and endeavor
to keep the unity of the Spirit of God."
Why, it is preposterous! Let us meet on equal ground! Let us lay aside
all pretences to superiority! Let us really aid and not oppress each
other! Let us mingle in prayer. Let us unite in confession of sin. Let
us join heartily in reforming our errors and a true Evangelical
Alliance will cover our land! If any church will take the Bible as its
standard and in the power of the Spirit of God preach the name of
Jesus, there are thousands of us who will rejoice to give the right
hand of fellowship with a hearty greeting to all such! We are striving
every day to get other churches and ourselves more and more into that
condition in which, while holding our own, we can yet keep the unity of
the Spirit in the bond of peace!
Now, a few words to you in regard to your relationship to one another
as members of the same church. If we are to endeavor to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace in the same church, then we must
avoid everything that would mar it. Gossip–gossip is a very ready
means of separating friends from one another. Let us endeavor to talk
of something better than each other's characters. Dionysius went down
to the Academy to Plato. Plato asked what he came for. "Why," said
Dionysius, "I thought that you, Plato, would be talking against me to
your students."
Plato made this answer–"Do you think, Dionysius, we are so destitute
of matter to converse upon that we talk of you?" Truly we must be very
short of subjects when we begin to talk of one another. It is better
far that we magnify Christ than detract from the honor of His members.
We must lay aside all envy. Multitudes of good people liked the
Reformation, but they said they did not like the idea of its being done
by a poor miserable monk like Martin Luther. And so there are many who
like to see good things done and good works carried on, but do not care
to see it done by that upstart young Brother, or that poor man, or that
woman who has no particular rank or state.
As a Church let us shake off envy! Let us all rejoice in God's light.
And as for pride–if any of you have grown vainglorious of late, shake
it off. I hope to exercise a ministry in this place which will drive
out those of you who will not acknowledge your Brethren when they are
poorer or of less education than yourselves. What if the man does mar
the Queen's English when he talks–what does that matter, so long as
his heart is right? As long as you can feel he loves the Master, surely
you can put up with his faults of language–if he can put up with your
faults of action. Then let us cultivate everything that would tend to
unity.
Are any sick? Let us care for them. Are any suffering? Let us weep with
them. Do we know one who has less love than others? Then let us have
more, so as to make up the deficiency. Do we perceive faults in a
Brother? Let us admonish him in love and affection. I pray you be
peacemakers, every one of you! Let this Church go on as it has done for
the last eleven years in holy concord and blessed unity. Let us
remember that we cannot keep the unity of the Spirit unless we all
believe the Truth of God. Let us search our Bibles, therefore, and
conform our views and sentiments to the teaching of God's Word.
I have already told you that unity in error is unity in ruin. We want
unity in the Truth of God through the Spirit of God. This let us seek
after it! Let us live near to Christ, for this is the best way of
promoting unity. Divisions in churches never begin with those full of
love to the Savior. Cold hearts, unholy lives, inconsistent actions,
neglected closets–these are the seeds which sow schisms in the body!
But he who lives near to Jesus–wears His likeness and copies His
example–will be, wherever he goes, a sacred bond, a holy link to bind
the Church together more closely than ever.
May God give us this and from now on let us endeavor to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. I commend the text to all Believers
to be practiced through the coming year. And to those who are not
Believers, what can I say but that I trust their unity and their peace
may be broken forever and that they may be led to Christ Jesus to find
peace in His death! May faith be given and then love and every Divine
Grace will follow, so that they may be one with us in Christ Jesus our
Lord. Amen.