Brotherly Love

Brethren,

With all the positive and hopeful talk at church nowadays, and the desire to flesh out the gospel, let's hear a challenge from a Puritan brother, Thomas Watson. In his book, All Things For Good, written in 1663 under the name A Divine Cordial (what a title!), Watson writes, "We love a saint, though he be poor. A man that loves gold, loves a piece of gold, though it be in a rag; so, though a saint be in rags, we love him, because there is something of Christ in him.

We love a saint, though he has many personal failings. There is no perfection here. In some, rash anger prevails; in some, inconstancy; in some, too much love of the world, A saint in this life is like gold in the ore, much dross of infirmity cleaves to him, yet we love him for the grace that is in him. A saint is like a fair face with a scar; we love the beautiful face of holiness, though there be a scar in it. The best emerald has its blemishes, the brightest stars their twinklings, and the best of the saints have their failings. You that cannot love another because of his infirmities, how would you have God love you?

We love the saints though in some lesser things they differ from us. Perhaps another Christian has not so much light as you, and that may make him err in some things; will you presently unsaint him because he cannot come up to your light? Where there is union in fundamentals, there ought to be union in affections.

We love the saints, though they are persecuted. We love precious metal, though it be in the furnace. The apostle Paul did bear in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Those marks were, like the soldier's scars, honourable. We must love a saint as well in chains as in scarlet. If we love Christ, we love His persecuted members.

If this be love to God, when we love His image sparkling in the saints, oh then, how few lovers of God are to be found! Do they love God, who hate them that are like God? Do they love Christ's person, who are filled with a spirit of revenge against His people? How can that wife be said to love her husband, who tears his picture? Surely Judas and Julian are not yet dead, their spirit yet lives in the world. Who are guilty but the innocent! What greater crime than holiness, if the devil may be one of the grand jury! Wicked men seem to bear great reverence to the saints departed; they canonize dead saints, but persecute living saints. In vain do men stand up at the creed, and tell the world they believe in God, when they abonimate one of the articles of the Creed, namely, the communion of saints. Surely, there is not a greater sign of a man ripe for hell, than this, not only to lack grace, but to hate it.