The Olive Branch and the Cross

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THE OLIVE BRANCH AND THE CROSS
or, Quarrels Settled and Trespasses
Forgiven According to the Law of Christ

A word of affectionate advice to professing Christians.

"First be reconciled to your brother."

DEDICATION.

My beloved flock,
It has been my practice, not infrequently, to deliver a few counsels from the press at the commencement of the new year. I now repeat this labor of love. By the present selection of a subject I would not have either you or the public imagine that there is anything in its nature peculiarly applicable to your state as a Christian community. In common however with every Christian minister of every religious denomination, I have occasionally had my surprise excited and my comfort disturbed by feuds and animosities; and like others, have seen the tranquility of the church in some degree jeopardized by the quarrels of some of its members. Both parts of this treatise came under consideration in a regular course of pulpit exposition, and it is now submitted to you in this form because of its great importance, and the too general neglect with which it is treated by those who make a profession of religion.

The church of God in general has yet failed to exhibit in any considerable and attractive prominence, that spirit of holy love, by which it was intended by its Divine Founder to be characterized. The thorn, the briar and the nettle, instead of the fir tree and the myrtle tree, still grow too luxuriantly in the precincts of the church; and the 'wolf and the serpent' are too often to be seen, where only the 'lamb and the dove' should be found. Christianity has not yet left the impression of its exceeding loveliness as deeply stamped as it should be on the characters of its professors—and of all its graces, none is so faintly and imperfectly traced as that which is the subject of this address. It has been found more easy, at any rate more common, to subdue the lustful than the irascible disposition—and yet it is as much the intention of Christ, that His people should be distinguished by meekness and gentleness, as it is by purity, truthfulness, and justice. Love is pre-eminently the Christian grace. Equity, chastity, and veracity, have been found in the list of heathen virtues, but not charity—they have sometimes "shed their fragrance on the desert air" of paganism, but where has love been found, except in the garden of the Lord? Alas, that even there this plant of Paradise, this heavenly exotic, should so often look shriveled and worm-eaten; and thus fail to procure for its Divine Curator all the praise it should, and in its more flourishing condition would do. My concern that Christian love should be cultivated with more care, and be seen with admiration in healthful vigor and in beauty—has led me to send forth this tract which is now offered first of all to you, and then to the churches in general, with the hope that this effort of pastoral fidelity may prevent in many cases the rupture, and promote in others the restoration, of Christian friendship, and thus bring upon its author from many a reconciled heart, the blessing of the peace-maker.

Commending you to God and to the word of His grace, and praying that He who has "made peace by the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things to Himself," would pour His own Spirit into your hearts, and unite you still more closely to one another,

I remain, your affectionate Pastor,
John Angell James

RECONCILIATION

"If your brother sins against you, go and rebuke him in private. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he won't listen, take one or two more with you, so that by the testimony of two or three witnesses every fact may be established. If he pays no attention to them, tell the church. But if he doesn't pay attention even to the church, let him be like an unbeliever and a tax collector to you. I assure you—Whatever you bind on earth is already bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth is already loosed in heaven." (Matthew 18:15-18)

Quarrels among Christians! Is there not a contradiction here? Do Christians ever quarrel with one another? Does not Christianity, where it is really possessed and felt in its proper influence, imply all that is loving, and kind, and peaceable? Certainly! And if every professor of it really lived under its influence, there would be no such thing as brother trespassing against brother. Christianity is, in every aspect of it—a religion of love. "God is love." Christ is love. The law is love. The gospel is love. Heaven is love. That one word "love," comprehends everything. Perfect love not only casts out fear, but malice. In heaven there will be no quarreling, because every one of its inhabitants is perfect in love. The design of Christianity is not only to conduct us to heaven, but to fit us for it—and it does this by imparting to us the spirit of love. The true spirit of Christianity is that which the apostle has, with such exquisite beauty, described in the thirteenth chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians.

Let it be supposed that everyone was perfectly under the influence of this spirit of love—what room would there be for quarrels? But all are not so, none are so. Those who have made the greatest advances in holiness have some remains of corruption, out of which there arise sometimes wars and fightings. "It must needs be," says our Lord, "that offences will come." That is, considering what human nature is, they must be looked for. Wherever there is sin there will be enmity on some occasion or other. This is not meant to excuse the quarrels of Christians—but merely to account for them.

Yes, Christians do quarrel. All pastors know they do—to the grief of their hearts. All denominations and all congregations of professing Christians know it to their disquiet. All people opposed to religion know it, and they stand by, and say, "Aha, so would we have it!" The Spirit of God knows it, and is grieved thereby; and the consequences of their quarrels are very sad; sad to the parties themselves, in the interruption of their peace, the injury of their religion, the discredit of their profession. Very few men come scatheless out of a quarrel, whether they were the aggressors or the aggrieved. The consequences of such disagreements extend to others, to the friends of the parties, and sometimes to the church of which they are members. Whole churches have been brought into strife contention and division, by a breach of the peace committed by two of their members. Solomon says, "Starting a quarrel is like opening a floodgate, so stop before the argument gets out of control!"

The New Testament says a great deal about offences, and the way of treating them. Here I must distinguish between the different kinds of offences alluded to. In the passage already quoted, "Woe to the world because of offences, it must needs be that offences come;" and in others, such as, "It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby your brother stumbles, or is offended, or is made weak;" the word signifies, as the context shows, not what in common discourse we mean by offence, but tempting a brother to sin by our conduct, doing that which would lead him into transgression, casting a stumbling-block in his way, or what the apostle calls, "causing our brother to sin." And it is very true we ought to be very concerned, prayerful, and watchful, that no part of our conduct may thus lead anyone into sin, lest through us our weak brother "should perish, for whom Christ died."

But I do not now refer to offences of this nature, but to the class of actions meant, when one man says of another, "He has greatly offended me!" and spoken of by our Lord in the passage which I have put at the head of this tract in which he says, "If your brother sins against you." This refers to some real or supposed injury inflicted by one Christian upon another, in his person, property, reputation, or peace of mind—to some sin of which the complainant is the direct object, and by which in some way or other he is a sufferer. It does not refer to sins in which we our selves have no individual and personal interest; but to such as particularly affect us. A man may have wronged us by some money transaction, may have made some aggression upon our property, may have treated us unkindly, may have spoken contemptuously to us, or falsely of us, and may thus have wounded our feelings—in each of these ways there has been a trespass against us. We are injured; and it is to such cases the law of Christ applies. It is true there may be other offences to which the rule may be extended. If we saw a brother living in sin, we ought, though his sin had no direct reference to our own interests, to go to him alone, and in a spirit of love warn him, and remonstrate with him—but this comes under that other law so beautifully expressed in the Old Testament code, "You shall not hate your brother in your heart—you shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not allow sin upon him."

I shall suppose that you have received an offence, real or imagined, from some brother Christian; how are you to act?

First, inquire whether it is worth while to notice it at all—whether it is not one of those cases in which you may have been mistaken as to the intention of the offender; and even if not, whether it is not one of the ten thousand little occurrences perpetually happening in the fellowship of society, of which a wise man would take no notice, and which a holy man would not allow to dwell upon his mind, so as to interrupt his good will or good feeling towards the aggressor. "He is a very miserable man," says Jeremy Taylor, "that is unquiet when a mouse runs over his shoe, or a fly does kiss his cheek." "Whatever is little and tolerable must be let alone," said Aristides. The moment that offence has been given, we should instantly guard against a disposition to magnify it, and summon all our wisdom to look at it as it really is. Such a frame of mind would prepare us to say, "Well, it is true he did not treat me very kindly, but it was not, I dare say, the effect of design, much less of premeditation, but of haste and inconsiderateness; and, after all, it was no very serious matter. I doubt not, that I have often been as incautious myself. I will let it pass. To meddle would only make matters worse, and I will not allow it to remain upon my mind, nor in the smallest degree affect my good opinion of, or my good feeling towards, the aggressor." In such manner very many of the offences ought to have been treated, which by less considerate and reasonable handling have been magnified into large bulk, and made the occasion of others far larger. There is great wisdom, as well as great humility in saying, to many incipient causes of disturbance, "O, let it pass!"

But still, if the matter and ground of offence be of greater consequence than is here supposed, or if it have produced an impression on the mind unfriendly to our own comfort, or obstructive of our pleasant fellowship with the offender, then comes in the law of Christ for settling it. What is to be done?

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