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Burden Bearers in the Church
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not be accepted without the heart. The will must be brought into
subjection. The Lord requires of you a greater consecration to Him
and a greater separation from the spirit and influence of the world.
“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy
nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of
Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
Christ has called you to be His followers, to imitate His life of self-
sacrifice and self-denial, to be interested in the great work of the
redemption of the fallen race. You have no just sense of the work that
God requires you to perform. Christ is your pattern. That in which
you are deficient is love. This pure and holy principle distinguishes
the character and conduct of Christians from those of worldlings.
Divine love has a powerful, purifying influence. It is to be found
only in renewed hearts, and naturally flows out to their fellow men.
“Love one another,” says our Saviour, “as I have loved you.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for
his friends.” Christ has given us an example of pure, disinterested
love. You have not as yet seen your deficiency in this respect, and
your great need of this heavenly attainment, without which all your
good purposes, and your zeal, even if it be of that nature that you
could give your goods to feed the poor and your body to be burned,
is nothing. You need that charity which suffereth long, is not easily
provoked, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things,
endureth all things. Without the spirit of love, no one can be like
Christ. With this living principle in the soul, no one can be like the
world.
The conduct of Christians is like that of their Lord. He erected
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the standard, and it is left for us to say whether or not we will rally
around it. Our Lord and Saviour laid aside His dominion, His riches
and glory, and sought after us, that He might save us from misery
and make us like Himself. He humbled Himself and took our nature
that we might be able to learn of Him and, imitating His life of
benevolence and self-denial, follow Him step by step to heaven. You
cannot equal the copy; but you can resemble it and, according to
your ability, do likewise. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all
thy heart, and with
all
thy soul, and with
all
thy strength, and with
all
thy mind; and thy neighbor as
thyself
.” Such love must dwell in
your hearts, that you will be ready to give the treasures and honors