Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1908-08-14
CHRISTIAN GROWTH.
By Rev. H. Macmillan, D. D., LII. D.

NY L.. ~ i4S>
TeNt.-"Adl to your faith virtue, and
to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge
temperance, and to temperance pa
thence. and to patience g~Odliness, and
to gOdliness b%rOtherly kindness, and to
brothcrly Kindness charity.'-II. Peter
l., ), :.
Love to God and love to man must
spring out of the same root. In our
godlincss. us the apostle says, we must
have Drotherly kindness; our Drotherly
kindness must De an essential element
of our godliness. We are to show our
godliness by our brotherly kindness. Sin
separates between God and man, and
between man and man. Grace unites
man to God and man to man. 1t is
only when the higher relation is form
ed that we are able to fulfill perfectly
the lower. Our brOtherly kindness will
be purified of all it's came and self
ishnesS when it springs from goodness,
and, on the other hand, our goodness
will AVE impaired to it when it is COM
bined with brotherly kindness an ele-
ment of reality and tenderness which
will save it from formality and Phari-
saism. How can we love God whom
we see not if we love not the brother
whom we see? How can WI love God
Himself if we love not the image Of
Him which we see in every human
brother? We wrong God when we are
unkind, ungenerOus, and ~uncourteous to
each other. "InaSmuch as We have done
it unto one of the least Of these my
brethren, ye have don it unto me-" is
a saying of wide import and applica-
ton. "Why ~persecutest thou me?'
God says to every one whose goodness
is not accompanied and manifested by
brotherly kindness.
But brotherly kindness is apt to be
restricted towards friends only-to-
wards those who belong to the
same place or the same church,
or who are Christians. 1t must,
therefore, be conjsined with charity. In
our brotherly Kindness we are to exer-
else a large-hearted charity. We are
to mingle with it godliness in order to
expand our charity, to make it like His
who maketh His sun to rise on the evil
and the good, and sendeth rain on the
just and on the unjust. Universal kind
ness of thought, word, and deed is
what is implied in this charity.
The spiritual force acquired by the
exercise of one gracious quality in
creases in momentum, and prepares the
soul for the exercise OF another. The
spiritual life is thus cumulative in its
|. influences; and the more we grow the
easier do we find it to grow; the more
faith we have, the more do we abound
in all the Christian qualities. 1t should,
therefore, be the prayer of each of us
to seek the help of Him who is the true
Orpheus, the mighty Master of all
spiritual melodies. whose WI life,
freed from one jarring note, made per-
feet music in the ears of God, to re-
move all the discords of our souls and
lives. and attune our being to the har-
monies of heaven. 1t should be the
effort of each of us. as fellow-workers
with God in the formation of the new
creation in ourselves and others, hat
the God of peace may sanctify us Who'll
". and preserve us 'blameless,' or, as
The word in the original should be
translated "symmetrical"-in the full
beauty and completeness of the Chris
tian type of excellence, while we are
| growing in grace-may preserve us
symmetrical unto the coming of Christ