stead;" and that "in beseeching" them "not to receive the grace of God
in vain," he was but "a worker together with God?"

In this same spirit may we, and must we seek to do good to others.
We dare not look upon our brother as one belonging exclusively to
ourselves, or one dear to ourselves only, but as one belonging to God
his Creator, and dear to God his Father. We must ever keep before us
the fact, that there is a work which God wishes to have accomplished
in his soul, as well as in our own; and that our brother is given to
us in order that we should be workers _together_ with God in helping
on that good work. And if so, this will very clearly teach us at least
what we ought _not_ to do to our brother. We should never, by word or
by example, by silence or by speech, strengthen in his spirit the work
of evil: for that is not God's work. For when we flatter his vanity,
feed his pride, shake his convictions of the truth, or when, in any
way whatever, we lay stumbling blocks in his path, or tempt him to
evil, we are surely not workers together with God. In our conduct to
our brother, let us ask ourselves, Is this how Christ would have acted
to any one with whom He came in contact when on earth? Is this helping
on His work now? But, on the other hand, when our brother's soul is
dear to us,--when, at all hazards, we seek first, and above all,
his _good_,--when our love is such that we are willing to have its
existence suspected, and ourselves despised and rejected by him, even
as our loving Lord was by His "own whom He loved," rather than that we
should selfishly save ourselves, and lose our brother; then indeed we
are labourers together with God, and possess the spirit of Jesus! Oh,
little does the world understand the deep working of this kind of
love, which, however imperfect it may be, yet burns in the heart of
Christians only, because they only partake of that love which is
possessed in perfection by Him who loved us, and gave Himself for us!