tian love go wandering
away abroad only, but keep some for home consumption.

Again, how simply, and with what unconscious beauty, the deep reason
for our Christian unity is given in that one word, a 'Brother.' As if
he had said, Never mind telling them anything about what I am, what
place I hold, or what I do. Tell them I am a brother, that will be
enough. It is the only name by which I care to be known; it is the
name which explains my love to them.

We are brethren because we are sons of one Father. So that favourite
name, by which the early Christians knew each other, rested upon and
proclaimed the deep truth that they knew themselves to be all
partakers of a common life derived from one Parent. When they said
they were brethren, they implied, 'We have been born again by the
word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.' The great Christian
truth of regeneration, the communication of a divine life from God
the Father, through Christ the Son, by the Holy Spirit, is the
foundation of Christian brotherhood. So the name is no mere piece of
effusive sentiment, but expresses a profound fact. 'To as many as
received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God,' and
therein to become the brethren of all His sons. That is the true
ground of our unity, and of our obligation to love all who are
begotten of Him. You cannot safely put them on any other footing. All
else--identity of opinion, similarity of practice and ceremonial,
local or national ties, and the like--all else is insufficient. It
may be necessary for Christian communities to require in addition a
general identity of opinion, and even some uniformity in government
and form of worship; but if ever they come to fancy that such
subordinate conditions of visible oneness are the grounds of their
spiritual unity, and to enforce these as such, they are slipping off
the real foundation, and are perilling their character as Churches of
Christ. The true ground of the unity of all Christians is here: 'Have
we not all one Father?' We possess a kindred life derived from Him.
We are a family of brethren because we are sons.

Another remark is, how strangely and unwittingly this good man has
got himself an immortality by that passing thought of his. One loving
message has won for him the prize for which men have joyfully given
life itself,--an eternal place in history. Wheresoever the Gospel is
preached there also shall this be told as a memorial of him. How much