Brotherly Love
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hatred, selfishness, must be cleansed from the heart. With many these
evil traits are partially subdued, but not thoroughly uprooted from the
heart. Under favorable circumstances they spring up anew and ripen
into rebellion against God. Here lies a terrible danger. To spare any
sin is to cherish a foe that only awaits an unguarded moment to cause
our ruin.
“Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let
him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of
wisdom.” My brethren and sisters, how are you employing the gift of
speech? Have you learned so to control the tongue that it shall ever
obey the dictates of an enlightened conscience and holy affections?
Is your conversation free from levity, pride and malice, deceit and
impurity? Are you without guile before God? Words exert a telling
power. Satan will, if possible, keep the tongue active in his service.
Of ourselves we cannot control the unruly member. Divine grace is
our only hope.
Those who are eagerly studying how they may secure the pre-
eminence should study rather how they may gain that wisdom which
is “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full
of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.”
I have been shown that many ministers need to have these words
imprinted on the tablets of the soul. He who has Christ formed within,
the hope of glory, will “show out of a good conversation his works
with meekness of wisdom.”
Peter exhorts the believers: “Be ye all of one mind, having com-
passion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: not
rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing;
knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.
For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue
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from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: let him eschew evil,
and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord
are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers: but
the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.”
When the right way is so plainly marked out, why do not the
professed people of God walk in it? Why do they not study and pray
and labor earnestly to be of one mind? Why do they not seek to cherish
compassion for one another, to love as brethren, instead of rendering
evil for evil and railing for railing? Who does not love life and desire