04A.09. RULE VIII. Tender and affectionate participation with one another in their ...

RULE VIII. Tender and affectionate participation with one another in their several states and conditions,—bearing each other’s burdens.

Galatians 6:2, "Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ."

Hebrews 13:3, "Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body."

1 Corinthians 12:25-26, "That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it."

2 Corinthians 11:29, "Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?"

James 1:27, "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction," etc.

Matthew 25:35-36; Matthew 25:40, "I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

2 Timothy 1:16-17, "The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain: but, when be was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me."

Acts 20:35, "I have showed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak," etc.

EXPLICATION VIII. The former rule concerned the carriage and frame of spirit towards our brethren in their failings; this is in their miseries and afflictions. In this, also, conformity to Christ is required, who in all the afflictions of his people is afflicted, Isaiah 63:9, and persecuted in their distresses, Acts 9:4. Could we bring up our spiritual union to hold any proportion with the mutual union of many members in one body, to which it is frequently compared, this duty would be excellently performed. No man ever yet hated his own flesh. If one member be in pain, the rest have little comfort or ease. It is a rotten member which is not affected with the anguish of its companions. They are marked particularly for destruction who, in the midst of plentiful enjoyments, forget the miseries of their brethren, Amos 6:6. If we will not feel the weight of our brethren’s afflictions, burdens, and sorrow, it is a righteous thing that our own should be doubled. The desolations of the church make Nehemiah grow pale in the court of a great king, Nehemiah 2:1-3. They who are not concerned in the troubles, sorrows, visitations, wants, poverties, persecutions of the saints, not so far as to pity their wounding, to feel their strokes, to refresh their spirits, help bear their burdens upon their own shoulders, can never assure themselves that they are united to the Head of those saints. Now, to a right performance of this duty, and in the discharge of it, are required,—