SERMON XIX.

CHRISTIAN MEMBERSHIP.

EPH. iv. 25.

We are members one of another.

Ir an angel were to be suddenly introduced into the world which we inhabit, what is the conception which he would be likely to form of the circumstances and mutual connexion of those who dwell on its surface?

Carry him, for example, into the prisons of the Inquisition, and show him one fallen creature torturing another for some slight deviation from his own opinions in religion. Or carry him to the hold of a slave-ship, and show him one human being stowing other human beings into a dark, fœtid, pestilential hole, for the purposes of commercial speculation.-Carry him even into private families, and show him the scenes of irritation and bitterness which too often interrupt the harmony and love which ought to characterize the professed followers of the meek and lowly Jesus. Show him scenes and circumstances such as these, and what would be the inference to which he would be almost necessarily led by the contemplation of them? Must it not be, that he had descended upon a world where the inhabitants, instead of being designed as instruments of usefulness and happiness to each other, were the intended instruments of each other's misery and

ruin? But how different, my brethren, is the fact! The end for which mankind are really designed, can be determined only by a reference to the will of their Maker. And how distinctly is that will stated in the sacred Scriptures! To name no other passage, how powerful is the image employed in the text! We are there represented, not simply as distinct bodies having a strong claim to dependence one on the other, but as the different "members" or limbs of the same body. Christ is the head, we are the "members." It is not more monstrous, therefore, in the sight of God and of his angels, that one limb of the body should erect itself in hostility against another, than that one man should be found in a state of enmity and opposition to the other.

It is on this view of the circumstances of man, my Christian brethren, that I propose on the present occasion to dwell; and may the God of mercy be pleased to bless our inquiries!

In pursuing this examination, it is my wish to notice,

I. THE SOURCE OF THAT MEMBERSHIP OF WHICH THE TEXT SPEAKS.

II. SOME OF THE DUTIES WHICH ARISE OUT OF

IT.

I. In the first place, we are to notice THE SOURCE

OF THAT MEMBERSHIP OF WHICH THE TEXT

1. And here, first, "we are members one of another," as being the children of a common parent."Doubtless," exclaims the outcast family of Gentiles, "Thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not." It is difficult for members of the same earthly family to forget their relationship to a common father. In most instances, they occupy nearly the same level in society; they speak a common language; they bear, perhaps, a close

family resemblance; they have a thousand common interests, tastes, and pursuits. But the remembrance of our relationship to mankind at large is not so easily retained. In this case, distance, the division of interests, a difference of language, feature, complexion, interrupt the feelings of sympathy and brotherhood. Nevertheless, my Christian brethren, this relationship also is to be recognised and felt. You acknowledge the bonds of brotherhood as the children of an earthly parent. You consider such a relationship as a decisive motive for kindness, and an invincible objection to unkindness. Behold, then, in every man a brother. The savage shivering at the pole, or burning at the line, is bound to you by ties that ought never to be broken. "God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.”

2. A second source of this membership is the dependence of one man upon another.-Of all animals, it is probable that man is the most dependent upon his own species. The lion of the forest and the herd of the stall are nursed up to maturity with very little aid from creatures of their own kind; and after a short time, every creature, but man, casts off its young, and leaves them to their own resources. But, in every stage of human existence, man is made to feel his absolute need of man. From the infant in arms to the man in a state of second infancy, through all the stages of our varied life, every one wants his brother. The young need to be taught by the wisdom of age, and the old to be sustained by the vigour of youth. The strong in mind need the strong in body; the rich, the poor; and the poor, the rich. The barrenness of one country is supplied by the superfluities of another.The individual who thinks that he can dissolve this membership, and that he can live on in surly independence of his brother, soon finds that he has few comforts, and many wants; that his strength is, after all, in union; and that to be alone, is in a sense to be VOL. II. Hh

miserable. It is declared of the tenderest of all unions, "God said, It is not good that the man should be alone: I will make him an help meet for him.” And next to the joy which springs from union with God himself, is that which arises from the intimate blending of soul with soul in the service of the Lord, and in the service of one another. "Now," says the Apostle, of the whole race of mankind," are they many members, yet but one body, and the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you:" "Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it."

3. A third source of this membership is supplied by our common nature, trials, and dangers.-Behold the great family of man, by whom you are surrounded. You are heirs to the same infirmities. The same blood circles in your veins: the same machinery impels it into action. The same wind warms and chills you; fills you with disease, or releases you from its grasp. The same appetites rage in the system: the same passions knock at the heart. "The flesh," in every man, "lusteth against the spirit." Corruption is the natural inheritance of every child of Adam: as it is said, "The heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil."-In like manner, the dangers and trials of men are the same. That world, my brethren, which is a snare to you, is a snare to me: that great enemy, the devil, is our common enemy: those temptations, which have robbed you of your birthright and privileges, your spiritual relationship to God, your hopes of heaven, and your fitness for it, have inflicted the same evils upon every man; and each and all of us stand, till washed by the blood of Christ and sanctified by his Spirit, the miserable objects of the displeasure of an insulted God. What a bond of union, my Christian brethren, is supplied by this consideration! We have a deep interest in the man who has fought with

us in the same battle; has been wounded by the same weapon; has been chained in the same dungeon. But, my brethren, your fellow-creature, be he whom he may -prosperous or poor, honoured or dishonoured, ignorant or learned, attractive or unattractive-is a person who has fought on the same field with yourself, and has been exposed to the same enemy. The same infirmities harass him; the same corruptions beset him; the same tempter from hour to hour assails him. Can we fail to sympathize in circumstances so entirely our own?

4. The last source of membership to which I shall refer, is that of our dependence upon the mercies of the same God and Saviour.-In those who, under the guidance of the Spirit of God, have availed themselves of the compassionate offers of the Gospel; have sought to be washed in the Blood of Atonement, and sanctified by the Spirit of God; there is a double bond of union. They are, as it were, twice born of the same Parent; are "born, not of blood....nor of the will of man.... but of God;" and are, through this new and spiritual birth, united by the most intimate of all bonds,-the bond, I may say, which unites the spirits in glory to God and to one another. But I am here more especially speaking of those common bonds of union which bind together all the scattered creatures of God. And such a bond is our common dependence upon the mercy of God in Christ. If, my brethren, we are interested in the individual who has suffered with us, that interest is much deepened if the same individual has also escaped with us. And such are the precise circumstances of all the creatures of God. We are wrecked by the same storm of sin; and, if saved at all, we must be saved by the same Redeemer; for "there is none other name under heaven given among inen, whereby we must be saved." That beggar in your path is as free to avail himself of the atonement of Christ, or the agency of his Spirit, as yourself. That