him or of her, through whom their earthly life was given. But though this be the worst and most dreadful case, still it is not the only one. St. Paul does not only speak against marriage with the unbelievers; he speaks also no less strongly against holding friendly intercourse with those who call themselves Christ's, yet in their lives deny him. “I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat; but put away from among yourselves that wicked person." Here, again, it is true, that the altered state of things around us has hindered these words also from applying to us in the letter. The church having no power in our days to shut out unworthy members from its society, individuals cannot take such a power upon themselves; and therefore we do in the world very commonly keep company, as far as the common civilities of life go, with those whose lives we know to be unchristian. Yet here, too, the spirit of the command applies to us, when we cannot fulfil it in the letter. We need not actually refuse to eat with those whose lives are evil; but woe to us if we do not shrink from any closer intimacy with them; if their society, when we must partake of it, be not painfully endured by us, rather than enjoyed. We may put away from among ourselves that wicked person; put him away, that is, from our confidence, put him away from our esteem, put him altogether away from our sympathy. We are on services wholly different; our masters are God and mammon; and we cannot be united closely with those to whom our dearest hopes are their worst fears, and to whom that resurrection which, to the true servant of Christ, will be his perfect consummation of bliss, will be but the first dawning of an eternity of shame and misery. But whilst, above all other things, I would desire for every one of us an intense abhorrence of evil, yet we must not forget how fatally we may deceive ourselves by hating evil for our own sake, and not for God's. Here, indeed, we had need to examine ourselves carefully, lest we do but serve our own passions under the name of God. what this means, I will explain it And if you ask more clearly. I call it serving our own passions under the name of God, if we shrink from those kinds of evil only which we ourselves happen to dislike, while we do not shrink from all that God abhors. It is very easy for one who is of a generous nature to keep away from those who are mean and niggardly; for one of a high and active understanding to despise the grossness and lowness which accompany ignorance and folly. But if the generous person, while he avoids the company of the mean and low-spirited, has no such objection to the sensual or the extravagant; if the strong understanding, while it revolts from the low vices of ignorance, has no distaste for those who unite with great abilities and knowledge an indifference for the service of God, then we are but pleasing ourselves in what we like, and in what we dislike; we are not trying to please God. But his is a true and sincere love of God, who, passing by all else in a character, whether it be of good or of evil, merely asks whether there be contained in it the one thing needful. Infinite, indeed, are our differences of taste and of knowledge. Rudeness and coarseness may pain us, ignorance may disgust us; but let us strive to find out Christ's mark, and, wherever found, to love it; to think that as our neighbour has his imperfections, so have we ours; that these may be as painful to him as his to us; but that both his and ours have been washed away in the sight of God in the same most precious blood, and that what God will not condemn in his judgment, we ought to forgive in ours. It is indeed a grievous thing to know and to feel how many good men are divided from one another by trifling differences, not of opinion only, but of temper, of taste, and of manner. It is a fault which besets us all; one of the last, perhaps, which our nature, ripening into Christ's full resemblance, can cast away. But as our faith becomes stronger, as Christ becomes more and more to us our all in all, as eternity seems more real and more enduring, and as earth and earthly things dwindle into their proper proportions, then our eye fixes upon the one pearl of great price which is to be discerned on our neighbour's breast; and although it be not set off by the other parts of his dress, nay, though its lustre be somewhat obscured by their poverty, still it is the seal of Christ's Spirit, the pledge that he who wears it shall be our companion for ever, that our ears shall drink in together, our voices eternally join in the same hymns of praise, our eyes and hearts and perfected spirits for ever repose in the incomprehensible communion of the same God and Saviour. And not less grievous is it, that for the love of any perishable thing we should be drawn closely to him who loves not Christ. Our tastes may be the same, our knowledge kindred, our faculties alike vigorous, our prevailing feelings towards earthly things may all beat in harmony. But all these things must be destroyed; and where is the pledge that we shall with equal joy awake to the call of his trump, who shall bid the dead arise? Be that our only bond of friendship, the only communion which our souls shall thoroughly acknowledge. All else is but the slight acquaintance formed on a journey, with one who is to part from us at the next town to meet us no more. Whoso loves Christ, may we love him to the death, in spite of unkindness, in spite of all differences of earthly tastes and opinions; for the hour will come when all these things shall pass away. Whoso loves not Christ, and Christ's Spirit, may |
