St. Paul, Minnesota, September 22, 1916'Pastor Russell announced for his text the familiar saying of Paul, "Let brotherly love continue," (Heb. 13:1) and made substantially the following remarks: -
The exhortation to let brotherly love continue implies that it has started. In fact, it is impossible to come into the Divine Family without it. It is a trait always to be found in every member of that family. It will be found to be so, not only among the earthly children of that family, but among all the Heavenly. Wherever the Spirit of God is, there will be found the Spirit of Love.
Brotherly love is a thing that is easily disturbed. It can be done with but a few words of envy, malice or hatred, and in less than five minutes of time. Such works are the works that emanate from the spirit of the Devil. We are not to incite each other with such a spirit, but are rather admonished to incite one another to love and good works. It is God's spirit that thus incites.
We often hear it said that we find it harder to obey this admonition as we come to be better acquainted with each other, because we come to see each others' faults so well. We get to know each other too well. But we are further reminded that we are not to know, not to recognize each other according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. And in this connection we are reminded that it is not an easy matter to judge according to the Spirit, it requires great carefulness, because we cannot see one another's hearts. How, then, are we to proceed? It is in this way: We are compelled to judge each other according to our professions. These professions will have to be taken at their face value. This would seem to be the only safe rule.
What do we as Christians profess? We all profess to be fighting the Devil and his works. He and his works surround us on every hand, and these are the things to which we profess hostility and which we profess we are trying to conquer. All our personal weaknesses are of the Adversary, and these are among the things we profess ourselves to be striving to overcome. If we are striving to gain the mastery over these things, certainly every one of us has his hands full and more than full.
We have our responsibilities as members of our earthly families, and we have our responsibilities as neighbors, and we profess to be devoted to these; but our chief concern is over the struggle with ourselves as individuals. This is our profession as brethren.
Our fleshly bodies, which we "put under" at consecration, fail to stay under. Hence it becomes necessary for us to put them under repeatedly, daily and hourly. If we do not do this, we prove that we are not thoroughly loyal to the Lord. And it is certain that He will not exalt us to glory and power if we are not loyal to Him. We must be loyal to the very moment of death. Such is our profession.
It may be said by some that this is a discouraging standard which we proclaim. But we reply that it will not discourage any true soldier, such as the Lord is calling. It may discourage shirkers. But the Lord is not looking for shirkers. He has no need for such. We should not be discouraged, however, at the weakness of our flesh, for the Lord has provided the gracious arrangement whereby that is covered from His sight by the Robe of
Righteousness. The Lord deals with our wills, and our wills are to deal with our flesh. If He dealt directly with our flesh, we might well be discouraged. The arrangement makes it possible for us to make a good fight.
We have been amazed as we have read in the newspapers of the loyalty displayed by the warring soldiers of Europe. They have rushed into the face of death, have made tremendous sacrifices under an impulse of loyalty that has been promoted, not by the grace of God, but by the spirit of demons. How much more should be the loyalty of those who are inspired and assisted by the grace of God, how much more eager they should be to sacrifice their lives even unto death, as they have covenanted. The soldiers of Europe do not really know what they are fighting for; whereas we know well what we are fighting for. They are paid about twenty cents a day for the sacrifices they are making; whereas we are getting far more than that at this present time, and have the guarantee of pay at the end of the way, glory, honor and immortality, adoption into the great Royal Family of the Universe. None of the soldiers who are fighting across the ocean can get into any royal family. They have no such hope. But the promise is given to us that if we are loyal soldiers, we will be adopted into that Royal Family. How it should nerve us to go on.
But we must suffer, even as they suffer, and we must go beyond them in suffering. The greater value of the prize well warrants this thought. And how much more glorious is our commission than theirs. They are commissioned to slay their fellow men. We are commissioned to do good unto all men as we have opportunity, especially to the household of faith, our brothers.
Let us keep the banner clearly before us. Let us notice what Jesus fought for. He is our Leader we are to walk in His steps. We are to suffer as He suffered. He was fighting for a Kingdom. He declared that He came to possess a kingdom. The Jews ridiculed Him. He did not look to them as if He has any show of a Kingdom. They said He was mad. And so with us. The world will not see anything to make them think that we are likely to inherit a kingdom. They will tell us we are mad, when in our devotion to the affairs of the Kingdom we refuse to follow them in the pursuit of things of time and of this present world. But let us be faithful soldiers of the Kingdom.
What are we living for? To get the best we can out of this life? Then we are not living as do those who are members of God's family. Those who are in God's family live for God. They do not live for time. A certain elder once had a chance to take a position in business that would increase his material prosperity very considerably, but would make such demands upon his time and energy as to seriously curtail his privileges for service as a soldier of the great King. He sought advice. His duty would seem clearly to [HGL850] be that of making sacrifices as a good soldier. And so with all of us.
If we are loyal to Him, we may be more than sure that He will be loyal to us. Let this thought inspire us in our every thought, our every word, our every act.