92SermonsofJonathanEdwards (continued)
and watch over them, and lead them to good pastures, and defend them from wolves and wild beasts that would devour them. And so, whatever the post of honor or influence we may be placed in, we should show that, in it, we are solicitous for the good of the public, so that the world may be better for our living in it, and that, when we are gone, it may be said of us, as it was so nobly said of David (Acts 13:36), that we "served our generation by the will of God." But,
2. The spirit of charity, or love, also disposes us, in many cases, to forego and part with our own things, for the sake of others. — It disposes us to part with our own private temporal interest, and totally and freely to renounce it, for the sake of the honor of God, and the advancement of the kingdom of Christ. Such was the spirit of the apostle Paul when he exclaimed (Acts 21:13), "I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." And the same spirit will dispose us often to forego or part with our own private interest for the good of our neighbors. It will make us ready on every occasion to aid or help them, leading us willingly to part with a lesser good of our own, for the sake of a greater good to them. And the case may even be such (1 John 3:16), that "we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." But I will not dwell longer on this point now, as I shall probably have occasion to speak more to it under some other part of the context. I pass, then, as proposed,
III. To notice some of the evidence sustaining the doctrine which has been stated. — And the truth of the doctrine, that the spirit of charity, or Christian love, is the opposite of a selfish spirit, will appear, if we consider the nature of love in general, the peculiar nature of Christian or divine love, and the nature of Christian love to God and to man in particular. And,
1. The nature of love in general. — This, so far as it is really and truly sincere, is of a diffusive nature, and espouses the interests of others.