MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

THE NEW COMMANDMENT OF OUR LORD.

(To the Editor of the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine.)

THERE are few periods in the Saviour's history, to which the mind of the devout Christian turns with so deep an interest, as to the eventful evening on which he was betrayed into the hands of his enemies. On that evening, his intercourse with his disciples assumed, if possible, a character of yet more engaging love; and its closing hours were spent by him amidst the solitudes of Gethsemane, where an anguish the most intense and overwhelming came upon him, as the substitute of our guilty race.

It is instructive to place ourselves, in thought, amidst the scenes of that memorable evening; and, as we read the sayings which fell from the lips of the Redeemer, to regard them in the light of the attendant circumstances, and to think of the impression which they must have produced on the minds of those who listened to them. While all mere suggestions of the imagination are to be viewed with distrust, in the exposition of the Saviour's words, it becomes us to preserve a lively recollection of the facts which the sacred historians narrate, and to mark the connexion and bearing of the circumstances which they record. These will often be found to illustrate the peculiar force and beauty of our Lord's declarations, and will, in some instances, enable us to appreciate more fully their deep spiritual meaning. Let us adopt this course of inquiry and reflection, in relation to that new commandment which our Lord gave to his Apostles, and which his supreme authority and his condescending love concur to bind on the consciences of all his people.

The Lord Jesus had sat down with the twelve, in the room prepared for them in Jerusalem, to eat the paschal supper. In the course of the repast, he rose, laid aside his robe, girded himself with a towel, and began to wash his disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. This action was calculated to awaken in their breasts emotions of astonishment; nor can we wonder at the earnest feeling with which Peter inquired, "Lord, dost thou wash my feet?" The Saviour had indeed mingled with them with great condescension and humility; the glory of his higher nature had been veiled in that "form of a servant," which he had assumed for our redemption; and even its occasional manifestations had been softened, so that they should not oppress and overwhelm them. And yet, on various occasions, he had adverted, in his conversations with them, to that higher nature; he had spoken of himself as the Son, in a peculiar and exclusive sense; he had affirmed that no human mind could fully understand the mystery of his person; and he had claimed an authority to which all his people must unhesitatingly bow, and which the whole family of man, and even the whole host of heaven, should at last openly acknowledge. Yet He now stooped to perform for his disciples a menial service. But the surprise which filled the minds of the Apostles, as the Saviour went round among them, was soon displaced by other sentiments and feelings, when they heard his declaration to Peter, "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me ;" and when they listened to the beautiful and impressive explanation which he gave them of the reason of his conduct. For when he had washed the feet of all, and had put on his garments,

he again took his place at their head, and said to them with inimitable dignity and tenderness, "Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord and ye say well ;* for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them."

In reflecting on these words, we must not omit to mark the distinct and emphatic manner in which our Lord affirmed his own sovereignty over his people. There was no retracting of any of his claims; no lessening of his demand of universal and unqualified obedience. He declared that he was indeed their Lord; and he gave prominence to this fact in enforcing the moral lesson which his conduct on that evening was intended to convey. The point of his address was, that if he, who justly claimed their implicit submission, whose teaching was authoritative, and all whose commands were binding, had condescended to render to them a menial service, they should be willing thus to serve each other; nor should any unholy rivalry, or love of pre-eminence, be permitted to interrupt their fraternal intercourse, or weaken their mutual love.

In the course of that evening, also, our Lord instituted the Christian sacrament of his supper. This indeed is a portion of the history on which we cannot now dwell at length. It would occupy far too much space, were we to attempt to explain the nature and design of this institution, or to unfold the deep meaning of the Redeemer's words, when he gave to his Apostles the emblems of his body and his blood, so soon to be offered as the sacrifice for human guilt. We can only invite attention to the fact, that before our Lord issued to his Apostles his new commandment, he did with peculiar solemnity institute a new rite, in which they and all his people were to commemorate his sacrificial death, to avow their common faith in him, and gratefully to acknowledge their common relation to that new and better covenant which should be established through his blood. And often, as they sat around his table, in subsequent years, would they recall to mind his words of power and love, obscure, perhaps, at first, but now placed in the clearest light by the facts of his death, and resurrection, and ascension, as well as by the influence of the promised "Spirit of truth;" and they would trace in that sacrament a beautiful illustration of their common privileges and their spiritual oneness.

There is another circumstance, also, which is distinctly marked in the narrative of St. John, and which is worthy of our attention. It is, that before our Lord gave utterance to his charge of mutual love, Judas had retired from the company, and Jesus was left alone with the eleven who had continued faithfully attached to him. There was no treacherous heart in the little band that listened to his last discourse, so rich in heavenly wisdom and condescending love; no one, secretly alienated from him, was present, when he laid open some of the deepest feelings of his soul, assured his Apostles of the gift of the Comforter, and carried forward their views beyond the sufferings which they should endure on earth in his cause, and the triumphs of his truth which they should be permitted to witness, to

* It might, perhaps, have been better to render this clause, "And ye speak rightly for so I am." : This translation seems to express more clearly and forcibly the meaning of the Saviour's words, that his Apostles, in calling him their Teacher and their Lord, only paid him an homage to which he was justly entitled.

their eternal reunion with himself, in that world of light and glory to which he was about to ascend.

Deep and emphatic were the sayings with which our Lord introduced this last conversation with his disciples, before he suffered. "Now,"

he observed, " is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him." In these words, he taught his Apostles that his state of humiliation was just about to terminate. Its deepest shadows, indeed, were now beginning to encircle him, and an anguish far more intense than any that had yet oppressed his pure and benevolent spirit was almost immediately to come upon him; but these shadows were soon to give place to the brightness of his resurrection, and he who had been “the man of sorrows" was to become the exalted Lord, to reign, in his glorified humanity, over a redeemed world, and to receive the lowly homage of every created intelligence. Even in those scenes of suffering and shame, upon which he was about to enter, the moral glory of the divine nature was to shine forth, and the inviolable justice and holiness of God were to appear in intimate union with his tender and condescending love; but when God had thus been "glorified in him," he should also "glorify him in himself,” and raise him, as the Mediator, to a pre-eminence and majesty, in comparison of which the highest angelic dignity sinks into insignificance. But this mediatorial exaltation of our Lord implied his ascension to heaven; and thus he proceeded to remind his Apostles, though in a strain of great tenderness and affection, that very soon he should be withdrawn from their view, and that they would cease to enjoy that privilege of personal converse with him on earth which they so highly valued. "Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me; and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you." And then, with immediate reference to his own ascension to heaven, and the altered position in which his disciples would be placed by that event, he said to them, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."

The attentive student of the evangelical history can scarcely have failed to perceive, that hitherto the bond of union between the Apostles had been our Lord's own presence with them. They had all been sincerely attached to him; they had marked with interest the developments of his character ; they had listened to his sayings of truth and grace; they had beheld his miracles of surpassing might and pitying tenderness; and they had felt their minds attracted to him, and had esteemed it to be their highest privilege to be in constant attendance upon a Master so wise, and powerful, and good. But they had only partially entered into his great spiritual designs ; they were "slow of heart" to understand his declarations relative to his death and resurrection; and on some occasions they even disputed among themselves as to their precedence in rank when their Master should establish his glorious kingdom. When he should be removed from their head, their natural tendency would be to separate from each other, remembering only, each in his own sphere of effort and influence, the lessons which they had heard from the lips of their beloved and honoured Lord. Deprived of him, they would feel that the bond of their union was gone; and strong would be their temptation to stand aloof from each other, or only to meet in occasional intercourse, and without any peculiar or warm attachment to cement their hearts.

VOL. IV.-FOURTH SERIES.

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And now the Saviour, having reached the last evening of his intercourse with them, before the sorrows of the garden and the cross came upon him, and having referred, in a manner peculiarly affectionate and tender, to his almost immediate removal from their sight, proceeded to give to them his charge; to issue to them a precept which they should ever remember as specially his commandment, and to the observance of which they should feel bound by every sentiment of reverence for his authority, and grateful attachment to his person. "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." He charged them, in effect, to remain united ; to love one another with a peculiar love; to regard his own deep, and constant, and forbearing, and self-sacrificing love to them, as the rule and model of that which they should cherish towards each other; and to convince the world, by the manifestation of this peculiar love, that they had been his disciples, and had imbibed the lessons of truth and grace which he had inculcated.

It is only necessary to go back, in thought, to the circumstances under which this precept of mutual love was delivered, to perceive, that it was indeed "a new commandment." It referred to an affection, different, in many of its elements, from that general benevolence towards mankind, which had been enjoined under every dispensation of religion. The love of which our Lord now spoke, was one of spiritual attachment and sympathy, one which should have respect to our common relation to him, as his people, his friends, and his brethren. While the disposition of general benevolence is to be cherished towards those whose character we are to view with disapprobation, and whose society we are to avoid rather than to seek; this love supposes a union of mind and heart, as the result of the common possession of spiritual life. The Apostles, to whom the new commandment of our Lord was first addressed, could not but feel, that it enjoined on them a peculiar affection towards each other, an affection emulous of that deep and heavenly love which their Master had ever shown to them, while it still left them under an obligation to seek the welfare of all men, and to cherish kind emotions towards those who might even reject their Lord, and treat his grace with disdain.

It surely cannot be necessary to prove, in a formal and explicit manner, that the precept of mutual love, thus originally addressed to the eleven, is binding on all the sincere followers of the Redeemer in every age. Were the point likely to be brought into controversy, we might appeal to the Saviour's own words, to the general spirit and tenor of his religion, and to the fact, that his inspired Apostles recognised and enforced this command of his, in their letters to the churches. When we listen to the solemn prayer, which our Lord offered up at the conclusion of this conversation with the eleven, we not only find him requesting that they might be one, even as he and the Father were one, but we hear him saying, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." The Apostles everywhere inculcated "the love of the brethren," distinguishing that affection from the general benevolence which we are to cherish towards mankind at large; and referring to it as an element of character, by the vigour and prevalence of which, the spiritual prosperity of any church might be satisfactorily tested. And while they exhorted the members of

the several churches to cultivate and manifest a peculiar love to each other, and "to all saints," they referred to "the law of Christ," requiring us to "bear one another's burdens," and even to imitate, in our conduct towards each other, his own condescending and self-sacrificing love to us. "Hereby perceive we the love of Christ, because he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."

It might be an instructive exercise, to trace the connexion of this brotherly love, with the other principles and affections of the Christian character, and to show, that it will necessarily be vigorous or feeble, just as the spiritual life is maintained in its fulness and power, or is allowed to languish and decline. But without entering on so wide a field of thought, we may remark, that the very existence of this love implies a lively apprehension of the truths which relate to Christ, and of their transcendent importance; and a right state of the heart towards Him as our Saviour and our Lord. In order that we may love each other, even as he loved his people while on earth, and as he still loves them in heaven, it is necessary that our deepest and strongest affections should gather round his cross, and that that cross should be a source of attraction to us, more powerful than all the influences which may tend to sever us from each other. If this is not the case, if the plan of our redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ does not hold the first place in our estimate of truth, and if it calls forth but feeble emotions in our hearts, the diversities of sentiment and feeling, which arise from natural temperament, from education, from the collision of worldly interests, and from the different aspects in which we may contemplate various questions of social and political importance, will necessarily prevail to separate us. "The truth as it is in Jesus" must really, and not in profession only, exert a governing influence over all our habits of thought; and the love of Christ must be really enthroned in our hearts; or our love to each other will be a mere name, and not the living sympathy which is proper to the members of the mystical body of Christ. Devotion to his cause, implying an earnest desire to be ourselves conformed to his image, and to behold that image reflected from every human mind, must be our cherished state of feeling; or a thousand incidents will have power to estrange us from each other, and unholy rivalry, or bitter dislike, will take the place of that mutual attachment by which the religion of Christ is to be recommended to the world.

To every spiritual mind it must be a cause of deep sorrow, to reflect how little the professed followers of the Redeemer have cherished and manifested that brotherly love which he so earnestly enjoined, and which is ever the object of his complacency and delight. Gratefully do we acknowledge that in every age there have been minds imbued with this holy affection, and that have longed to exhibit to the world its purity and power; minds that have sympathized with the Redeemer in that love of his to all the members of his spiritual church, which marks his mediatorial government. Nor can we fail to look upon it as one of the most hopeful signs of the present day, that the attention of believers has been more generally called to the subject of Christian union, and a deeper interest in that subject has been awakened in the breasts of thousands, who are sincerely devoted to the Redeemer. Yet even now, how far are the churches of Christ from presenting that spectacle to the world, which his own new commandment requires! In how many cases does the brotherly love of believers seem to be a feeble and fluctuating principle, in comparison of those stirring emotions, which