Sharing the Love of Christ

If we love God, we shall love his image.  Every one that loveth him that begat, loveth him that is begotten of him.  Our love to Christians, if genuine, must arise from the resemblance which they bear to Christ; and not from the comfort which we enjoy in their society, nor because they appear friendly to us.  This hypocrites also feel.  If we truly exercise that love, we shall be willing to make personal sacrifices for their benefit.  We are directed to love one another as Christ love us.  And how did Christ love us?  He laid down his life for us.  And the beloved apostle says, we ought, in imitation of him, to lay down our lives for the brethren; that is, if occasion require it.  Such is the strength of that love, which we are required to exercise for our Christian brethren.  But how can this exist in the heart, when we feel unwilling to make the least sacrifice of our own feelings or interests for their sakes?

In our family we have been putting an exerted effort to draw closer to Christ.  And one of the things we are doing is having a special family devotional aside from what we do in our homeschool.  I would like to share [when time permits] some of our devotionals with my readers.  This particular reading is from the book The Young Lady's Guide to the Harmonious Development of Christian Character.