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SERMON

&c. &c.

ROMANS, XII. 5.

WE, BEING MANY, ARE ONE BODY IN CHRIST, AND EVERY ONE MEMBERS ONE OF ANOTHER.

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HE relative duties which man, as a social being, owes to those who are connected with him in the same community, have not been disregarded under any economy pretending to the character of a religious system. The reciprocal obligations of parent and child, of husband and wife, of master and servant, of ruler and subject, are nominally respected by the families of the world, whether Christian or Pagan; and acknowledged, to a certain extent at least, wherever the decencies and harmony and order of civilized life are holden in honour.

But it belonged to Him who first gave a more enlarged sense to the title of neighbour-to Him who inculcated on his followers a lesson as remarkable for its novelty as for the importance of its results-that all who name the name of Christ are brethren-to

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teach the world, that, in addition to the ties of friendship or of consanguinity or of national and local association, there is another more disinterested and spiritual bond, which connects in holy fellowship the children of widely-distant lands, sons of Shem and Ham and Japheth; which unites, as by a natural compact, those who have no other interest in common than what is derived from a consciousness of being mutually called in one hope of their calling.

The principle on which this catholic spirit is founded is explicitly stated by St. Paul, in the chapter whence the text is taken. He addresses himself, in the first verse, to his brethren; beseeching them, with a solemn and affectionate appeal, by the mercies of God. After urging the surrender of themselves, body and soul, to the Lord, he proceeds to illustrate, by a striking and natural similitude, the connection virtually existing, under the new dispensation, between all who, as sons of Adam, having originally inherited the same corruption, are made heirs, through the hope of the Gospel, of the same life in Christ : As we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office; so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. He afterwards subjoins the obvious practical inferences which result from this truth: Let love be without dissimulation. . . . Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love.... Be of the same mind one toward another.

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The Christian therefore, according to this doctrine, must look beyond the narrow sphere of his own immediate family not only to that larger circle with which he comes into personal contact by his engagements of business or of friendly intercourse, but to that still more extended universal community, gathered out of all nations under heaven, of which he himself forms an individual member, and whereof Christ is head. He is reminded of this duty by a special injunction: Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Nor is the exercise of this sympathy without its issue of good reflected on himself. It opens to him an enlarged view of the divine love. It elevates the character of his belief. It impresses on his mind a deeper sense of that comprehensive scheme of mercy, whereby the heathen are given for the inheritance of the Redeemer, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession. It inspires a livelier and better interest in the glories of that period, when, from the rising of the sun even to the going down of the same, the name of the Lord shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto His name, and a pure offering; for His name shall be great among the heathen.

Wonderful indeed is that spiritual economy, and worthy of the wisdom of the eternal mind, which has provided in this holy bond of attraction a counterpoise for the selfishness of the human heart! Take away this bond, and what a chaos would the world

present! what a scene of conflicting interests and jarring passions! what exclusiveness, and disunion, and want of sympathy! how much uncharitable and narrow policy! how many barriers between Esau and Jacob, brethren of one blood! The earth would become, what the Hindoo world is at present, a land of castes; where the hand of each would be, as that of Ishmael, against every man, and every man's hand against each.* But now, by virtue of that relationship on which the Apostle dwells, we, being many, are one body in Christ. Being many, and differing in certain circumstances-in spiritual gifts for instance, in external advantages, in opportunities of usefulness, yet all participate in certain common defects, all are offered certain common privileges. All are alike born in sin, and the children of wrath, as heirs of corruption. All are alike invited to partake of that remedy which Christ has provided against this deadly evil, by "opening the kingdom of heaven to all believers." Hence it is that Christians move not through the world as unconnected and independent beings; but are organized and knit together in love; branches, as it were, of one vine, grafted on one stock, fed from one root, planted in one vineyard. They meet in Christ, as the head of the body, and the centre of their unity.

"The system of castes.... tends, more than any thing else the Devil has yet invented, to destroy the feelings of general benevolence, and to make nine-tenths of mankind the hopeless slaves of the remainder."-Narrative of a Journey &c. by Bishop Heber, vol. II. p. 384.