T? 
 
 CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD: 
 ITS CLAIMS AND DUTIES, 
 
 WITH A SPECIAL REFERENCE TO 
 
 THE FRATRICIDAL WAR IN AMERICA. 
 
 PREACHED IN 
 
 S T PETER'S CHURCH, BELSIZE PARK, LONDON, 
 
 ON THE 
 
 1st NOVEMBEE, 1863, 
 BY THE 
 
 Rev. F. W. TREMLETT, M.A. 
 
 TENTH THOUSAND. 
 BY REQUEST 
 
 BOSWORTH & HARRISON, 215, REGENT STREET. 
 
 1863. 
 
WESTMINSTER I 
 
 PRINTED BY THOMAS BRETTELL, RUPERT STREET, HAYMARKET. 
 
JSC jg^rmon, 
 
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 " But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, and who 
 is my neighbour ? " St. Luke, x. 29. 
 
 That the Jewish doctor, who asked this question 
 of the Saviour, was perfectly sincere, my brethren, 
 we have no reason whatever to doubt. It is the 
 practice of some writers and preachers to regard 
 him as a type of a respectable Jew — cold, punctilious, 
 inflexible, moral ; — and the Saviour's reply as a 
 rebuke to such characters then and always. But 
 surely this idea is a mistaken one. There is nought 
 in the context to warrant any such conclusion. He 
 sought to " justify " himself, we are told ; but all 
 justification of self is not wrong, — is not, I mean, 
 necessarily wrong. It certainly is a great defect in 
 a man to be ready on all occasions to justify 
 himself, as if in his own estimation he could not be 
 wrong, whoever else might be; and such men we 
 frequently do meet with in daily life ; but this w r as 
 not necessarily the characteristic of him who stood 
 up and asked the Saviour the question which I 
 
4 
 
 have chosen for our consideration this morning. 
 He wished to be just — perhaps scrupulously just — 
 and therefore sought from the Divine teacher a 
 solution of that very difficult command of which he 
 had been reminded, viz. to " love his neighbour as 
 " himself." Can it be possible he might naturally 
 have thought, for me to love another as I love 
 myself? Love in the one case is an instinct,' — in 
 the other an accident. If I extend the affection to 
 another, I can only do so conditionally. The 
 recipient must have something in common with 
 myself. His preferences and predilections must be 
 in accord with my own. I cannot love an icicle 
 however much I may admire its elegance or its 
 purity ; my heart — my whole nature is sympa- 
 thetic. There must therefore be a reciprocity of 
 feeling and sentiment between myself and another, 
 or there cannot be love. And as this reciprocity 
 does not and cannot exist in all natures (for in 
 some there are instinctive aversions to each other) 
 it is impossible for every man to love every 
 neighbour as he loves himself. Who, then, in the 
 sense of the commandment, is my neighbour ? 
 Such, doubtless, was the spirit of the lawyer's 
 question, and in the same spirit our Lord directed 
 His reply, — giving at the same time a practical 
 illustration of His doctrine in the case of a man 
 who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell 
 
5 
 
 among thieves ; and who, passed over by those of 
 his own nation, kin, and speech, was left to perish 
 wounded and forsaken by the road side, till a 
 stranger came and ministered unto him, — one on 
 whom the world at that time thought the unfortunate 
 had no claim. 
 
 But, my brethren, this was of the essence of 
 the parable, — this question of claim to a stranger's 
 sympathy, and in that sense love. The wounded 
 man had a claim — a natural claim upon a stranger, 
 and because natural, i.e. springing from the instincts 
 of a common nature, no difference of religious 
 opinion, of speech, of character, of geographical 
 position could override that claim. And we all feel 
 somehow that this is truth, — essential truth. The 
 moment the idea is suggested our whole nature 
 seems to embrace it. We have an intuitive con- 
 sciousness that we were not sent into this world to 
 live and feel for ourselves only ; — to centre all our 
 affections — affections so capable of expansion — upon 
 one frail feeble being. And over and above this 
 conviction we have another, — that if this claim of 
 neighbourhood exists as a claim, it must originate 
 and exist in some principle or attribute of our 
 nature. In a word it exists in our humanity. But, 
 you will say perhaps, humanity is a sentiment. 
 True, it is a sentiment, but a sentiment which had 
 its origin in the domestic affections — the peculiar 
 
G 
 
 heritage of mankind, — which grew out of those 
 affections and which still embodies them. Adam 
 learned to love man in his son. His son learned to 
 love man in his father, brother, relative ; — his 
 neighbour was therefore his kinsman. Besides, 
 longevity, — a characteristic of the first families of 
 our race, enabled the parent to see his children and 
 grandchildren increase to such an extent, that the 
 family became a people — a people of brothers and 
 sisters and cousins ; and so all neighbours were 
 relatives, and the habit of seeing relatives in all 
 men gave permanence to the sentiment which we 
 term humanity". 
 
 Now just see what this leads to. It leads to the 
 idea of family, — of one vast family, all the members 
 of which are bound together by this bond of 
 humanity. And such was obviously the design of 
 the Creator when he endowed man with those 
 attributes which we term the domestic affections. 
 
 It gives rise also to another fact, viz. that this 
 neighbourhood or brotherhood or family (for the 
 words here are synonymous in meaning) establishes 
 a reciprocity of interests and personal rights, 
 
 * For this argument and also for that drawn from the 
 diversities of men, amplified at pages 7 & 8, the writer is indebted 
 to Professor Vinet, of Lausanne, whose thoughtful " Essays on 
 " the Religions of Man and the Religion of God," have supplied 
 the paragraphs marked by inverted commas. 
 
7 
 
 though over which, we see men so given to dispute 
 as to break the bonds of brotherhood altogether. 
 We find too that there are in the members of this 
 great family, diversities ; — a diversity of character 
 and a diversity of talent among individuals, — a 
 diversity of constitution among races, — and a 
 diversity of position and resources, arising from 
 the spread of the family members over divers 
 regions and climates. 
 
 Now this diversity was intended by the Creator 
 to render men necessary to one another. It was 
 designed to keep alive the idea of neighbourhood. 
 We all see and feel at the present moment how 
 necessary it is that there should be this diversity 
 of character, talent, position, and resources, and 
 how dependent we are upon each other's diversities 
 for our civilization and our happiness. 
 
 But how, then, you may be disposed to ask, did 
 it happen that this one great family broke up into 
 lesser communities which eventually became hostile 
 to one another '? My brethren, from these very 
 diversities. Man left to himself abuses everything 
 that is good. It is the natural expression and 
 proof of his fall. He began by degrees to dwell 
 upon the " diversities of men rather than their 
 " resemblances: notwithstanding there were un- 
 " deriving all diversities, the marks by which he 
 " might readily discover his neighbour and brother 
 
8 
 
 " in his fellow man. There was the same 
 " formation of body, the same countenance, faculty 
 " of speech, conscience, — the same sense of 
 " justice, — the same feeling for truth, — the same 
 " belief in a God, — the same need of a God, — 
 " the same sense of a higher life and higher 
 " happiness than that of this world, — the same 
 " hope of immortality." 
 
 In all these resemblances were the marks of 
 brotherhood stamped indelibly upon man. But, as 
 I said, he soon learned to dwell most upon the 
 diversities. " Inequalities of rank and wealth, 
 " external manners, opinions, language; — all these 
 " superficial accidents hid from view the funda- 
 (i mental resemblance. Till at last, in these 
 " accidents were sought those claims to brother- 
 " hood, which ought to have been sought for 
 " deeper. The neighbour henceforth consisted of 
 " the parent, the friend, the ally. Particular 
 " groups linked themselves closely together, but 
 " less as societies than as leagues. Men asso- 
 " ciated less out of mutual love, than out of 
 " common hatred. Families strengthened them- 
 " selves against families, classes against classes, 
 " and nations against nations." Such was the 
 state of the world when our Lord delivered the 
 parable which follows upon and answers the 
 question of our text, — "Who is my neighbour?" 
 
9 
 
 Well indeed might the Jewish doctor have been 
 perplexed at the command to love his neighbour as 
 he loved himself. Well might he have asked "Who 
 " is my neighbour " ? Born and educated at a time 
 when the original sentiment of humanity, the divine 
 idea of brotherhood had all but become extinct, the 
 Jew saw only in those who were not Jews, diversities 
 of nature rather than resemblances. Now it was to 
 reclasp this chain of brotherhood around the 
 shattered family of Adam, that Christ the Eternal 
 came down to us in the likeness and nature of man : 
 not in the likeness of any one man of any particular 
 race or age, but of every man who wears and shares 
 the human form. In Him all find a common centre, 
 a common Saviour, a common God. He came to 
 gather together in one mighty fold the children of 
 Adam scattered abroad, — to restore and develop 
 (as a second Adam) that which the Creator had 
 implanted in the first, but which the first in his 
 posterity had lost. And the restoration began like 
 the first creation in development : — a single family 
 small at first, then a gradual increase of 
 members ; — one here and another there, — each 
 accession going on multiplying in arithmetical 
 progression ; — but all animated by the same hopes, 
 influenced by the same considerations, constrained 
 by the same necessities. With the multiplication 
 of members arose a variety of needs, to meet and 
 
10 
 
 satisfy which, were given by the same Spirit that 
 created the diversities of which we spake in the 
 family of the First Adam, diversities also of gifts 
 in the family of the second. If you turn to 
 St. Paul's 1st Epistle to the Corinthians, you will 
 find the analogy perfect. " To one," he says, " is 
 " given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to 
 " another the word of knowledge by the same 
 " Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to 
 " another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit, 
 " to another the working of miracles, to another 
 " prophecy, to another discerning of Spirits, to 
 " another diversities of tongues, to another the 
 " interpretation of tongues. But all these worketh 
 " that one and the self-same Spirit dividing to 
 " every man severally as he will." And note 
 why, — " that every man may profit withal." " For as 
 " the body is one and hath many members, and all 
 " the members of that one body being many are 
 " one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit 
 " we are all baptized into one body, whether we be 
 " Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, 
 " and have all been made to drink into one 
 " Spirit." 
 
 Here then, in these two families you perceive a 
 perfect analogy. In the family of the first Adam 
 a common origin, common instincts, common 
 interests ; though diversities of character in indi- 
 
11 
 
 viduals, diversities of constitution, of race, of 
 language. 
 
 In the family of the second Adam a common 
 origin likewise, common hopes, common necessities, 
 though diversities of gifts in individuals, diversities 
 of ministration, of worship, and of tenet. 
 
 If you have followed this argument, my brethren, 
 you cannot fail to perceive in what principle the 
 claim of brotherhood is founded, and why conse- 
 quently it is, that we appeal to you from time to 
 time in behalf of other members of this one great 
 family of God ; — in behalf of friends near at home ; 
 — in behalf of strangers far away, but whom 
 misfortune, wrong, or common suffering has left 
 upon the road side of life to struggle on in 
 loneliness and sorrow. 
 
 A more appropriate subject I could not present 
 to you at the present season. We are on the 
 verge of another winter — a winter when urgent 
 demands will be made upon your bounty in behalf 
 of various kinds of sorrow and wretchedness. 
 You will hear the cry of the widow and orphan 
 whom the dispensations of Providence have thrown 
 upon your sympathy. — You will hear the cry of 
 the manufacturing districts, where, through the lust 
 of political ambition and territorial aggrandizement 
 in one section of the great human family, thousands 
 of our countrymen have been reduced to destitution, 
 
12 
 
 and but for Christian liberality would long since 
 have perished with hunger. — You will hear the cry 
 of neighbourhood nearer home still, - — in single 
 parishes, districts, and families ; and doubtless, in 
 all these cases you will recognise the claims of 
 Christian brotherhood. But it seems to me that 
 we ought to look also beyond the mere limits of 
 home and parish in discoursing on so great a 
 subject as that indicated by our text. 
 
 From the influential position which we occupy 
 among the nations of the earth, we ought to take a 
 view of what is going on in other lands,' — distant 
 perhaps in geographical locality, but knit to us in 
 blood and parentage, in common humanity and 
 Christian fellowship. Let us not forget that we 
 are not merely members of isolated Christian 
 households or Christian congregations, but members 
 also of a great Christian nation ; and surely if 
 Christian sympathy mean anything real, it means 
 that there are duties as well as feelings which we 
 owe to others, though strangers to us in vicinage, 
 in respect of this great family tie of Christian 
 brotherhood. 
 
 Now, you will perhaps have anticipated me 
 when I say, that of all the wails of woe which the 
 breezes are wafting to us from the different parts of 
 the habitable globe, there is one which has a special 
 claim upon us, and that is the wail from brothers 
 
13 
 
 and sisters whom the demon of war has made 
 orphans and widows in the Southern section of the 
 once great and flourishing American Kepublic. 
 This wail is the cry of a brave, but peace -loving 
 people, praying and striving to be allowed to live in 
 amity and friendship with all the world, — to cultivate 
 the arts of industry and peace ; and appealing to us in 
 bleeding hearts for Christian sympathy and succour. 
 
 Of this people, though descended for the most 
 part from English ancestors, we know comparatively 
 little. The practical interdiction of direct com- 
 mercial intercourse with us, on the part of their 
 arbitrary brothers and now implacable enemies, has 
 perhaps been the chief cause of this nescience. 
 But be that as it may, and apart from all questions 
 commercial or political, we do know this ; — we 
 know that they are a people who have cultivated in 
 no ordinary degree the domestic affections, — nay, 
 to such an extent as to have inspired a servile race, 
 which we originally planted on their shores, with a 
 love and affection for their masters, which have 
 astounded the whole world. We know too that 
 they have Christianized that race ; and when we 
 remember that there is scarcely a bondman among 
 the millions there, who might not be free to-morrow 
 if he chose to seek the protection of the invading 
 armies ; — and further, that of those whom capture 
 or bribery has carried away, many have gone, like 
 
14 
 
 Onesimus, the friend of St. Paul, voluntarily back 
 to their masters, — we may well believe that there 
 are questions connected with this mighty contest, 
 which we have hitherto very imperfectly understood. 
 
 But whatever views we may incline to politi- 
 cally, there is one aspect of the question which I do 
 commend to you, my brethren, and that is the 
 humane — the Christian — aspect. Has there not 
 been slaughter enough, spoliation of property, ruin 
 and devastation enough to satisfy even the Moloch 
 of Kepublican ambition ? Why, if you could stand 
 upon the dome of our Metropolitan Cathedral and 
 count the number of human beings, which shall 
 pour forth to-day from all the churches in this 
 great Metropolis, — that mighty host of well nigh a 
 million of souls would scarcely represent the number 
 of victims which this gigantic war has consumed in 
 the short space of two years ! There are among us 
 parents who know what it is to lose a promising 
 son ; — there are wives who know what it is to lay 
 the arm, on which for years they leant, in the cold 
 and mournful grave ; — there are children who can 
 understand what it is to be deprived of a beloved 
 parent; and we feel that all such afflictions are 
 terrible even when they come in the natural course 
 of human decay or inevitable sickness ; — but when 
 as the avenging scourge of an invading army 
 repleted from the dregs of European cities, and for 
 
15 
 
 no other purpose than that the invader may become 
 an overwhelming nation powerful enough to disturb 
 the peace and safety of the world, whenever political 
 considerations shall offer a plausible pretext, — we 
 feel, I say, that death and ruin inflicted thus carry 
 with them a far deeper and intenser sorrow. 
 
 I know it may be said, what can we as a 
 sympathising people do to arrest the further effusion 
 of blood ? My brethren, let each of the 20,000 
 parishes of England send up to our rulers a 
 request, as the expression of their Christian feeling, 
 that the demon of war should now sheathe his fiery 
 sword, and you would hear no more of slaughtered 
 brothers and burning towns. Other nations of 
 Europe, as you know, are not only awaiting our 
 action, but long to follow in our wake and issue the 
 humane decree. But alas ! the miserable spell of 
 party feeling in certain quarters has hitherto been 
 too strong for even Christian principles, and 
 sympathy in many has all but dwindled down to 
 apathy. Let each of us, however, in this matter 
 but think for himself, and with the Gospel of God's 
 love in our hands, we shall hardly fail to prove 
 ourselves, in act as well as in name, disciples and 
 followers of the Prince of Peace. 
 
 And now let me say, in conclusion, that it is in 
 the exercise of love and friendship and sympathy 
 towards others that we keep our own] hearts 
 
16 
 
 warm, our own pulse true. Talk not of affection 
 wasted. " Affection," says a thoughtful poet, 
 6 ' never was wasted, 
 
 If it enrich not the heart of another, its waters returning 
 Back to their springs, like the rain 
 Shall fill them full of refreshment. 
 That which the fountain sends forth, 
 Keturns again to the fountain." 
 
 And so it is of other feelings, other graces. 
 Exercise strengthens, developes, multiplies; — fills 
 the heart, as light fills the world, keeping it warm, 
 and sensitive, and fruitful. Just think what religion 
 would be in man, without man's heart, — exquisite 
 as a system, chaste as the icicle, but a cold 
 beautiful corpse ! 
 
 Oh, then, brethren, keep your hearts warm. 
 Heap fuel upon the flame, till the radiance and the 
 glow of Christian feeling light up every dark and 
 deep recess. Whether or not others see by the 
 reflection the adumbrations of their own hearts, 
 you will thus be living witnesses for humanity and for 
 God, — living witnesses, or, as the Apostle says, 
 " living epistles seen and read of all men," 
 attesting the perpetuity of the Divine command to 
 " love thy neighbour as thyself," by doing unto him 
 as you would have him, in like circumstances, do 
 unto you. 
 
 Printed by T. Brettell, Rupert Street, Haymarket, Westminster.