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Have You Passed From Death to Life?, September 22
We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the
brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
1 John 3:14
.
I have been thinking how little we appreciate the decided declaration of
the Word of God to us in regard to our relation with each other. There is
that selfishness in the human heart that centers our thoughts upon ourselves;
and even [in] those who seem to have a connection with God, we are pained
sometimes to see how much of their thoughts are centered upon themselves,
not seeing nor sensing the needs of others. We are connected together as
in the great web of humanity, and in all our associations with one another
we should seek to have the mind of Christ. To close the eyes to the needy
and perishing, to leave sinners unwarned, and by indifference and selfishness
tempt them to say, “No man careth for my soul,” is to dishonor God and bring
reproach upon the cause of God. Our work is to build up one another in the
most holy faith.
If there is not that perfect harmony existing between us, we should not feel
that we ourselves are not at all to blame in the matter. If another’s thoughts
and feelings are not in the same channel as our own, we should not feel that
they are all wrong and we are right. We want to constantly keep the mind at
the right point, to answer the prayer of Christ in
John 17:21-23
. We want to
know what is the yoke Christ bids us take and the burdens we are to carry
at this time, and constantly seek in kindness and love to show our brother
that we have an interest in him, and bring love into our actions day by day.
This is the gold tried in the fire—faith and love. If we see one in error on
any point we should not pass along and say nothing, but we must try to bring
him out from darkness into light. We must guard each other’s interests as we
do our own. We do not value the soul as we should. We ought to be united
in one great brotherhood and be in that place where we can bear with the
faults of one another with all longsuffering and meekness, and seek to bear
one another’s burdens. (See
Ephesians 5:1, 2
.)
Well, you say this is the work of the minister. But it is also the work of each
of us.—
Manuscript 13, September 22, 1886
, “The Christian Brotherhood.”
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