"Let Us Love One Another.”

DURING the year now closing, (1883) the weighty words of not a few aged servants of God have been given in these pages, (The Golden Lamp) and we yet add another testimony from the pen of the late beloved and esteemed Lord Congleton.  He wrote the following letter to a friend nineteen days before he fell asleep, and it was read to many on the day of his burial as expressing some of the thoughts that occupied his heart at the end of a long pilgrimage.  While this parting exhortation relates to love, it may be added that during his whole Christian course, his firm adherence to the truth of God was very manifest.

"I have been considering much, since I have been away, that sweet saying of John's, 'Beloved, let us love one another.'  (There can be no question but that 'one another' means every one belonging to Christ, at least.)  This makes our duty to one another so simple.  Paul guards the statement by saying, 'Love worketh no ill to his neighbour,' but at the same time, he strengthens it, saying, 'Love is the fulfilling of the law.' (Rom. xiii. 9, 10)  That is, I am to love you, whether your words to me or ways towards me be this or that, and you are to love me, however I may treat you in my words or ways. How different would be the body of the saints if this were their rule!  How marked the distinction between them and nominal Christians!    'Beloved, let us love one another.'  There is to be no excuse for doing otherwise at any time.  The context would go to show that this rule is applicable to all the human family.  'Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.'  According to this, the original idea of the human family was a family of love, the offspring of the God of love.”           Yours affectionately, CONGLETON.  "October 4th, 1883."