Charles Spurgeon
1866
John 17:20-21
I converse with a spiritual man and no matter what he calls himself, when we talk of sin, pardon, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and such like themes, we are agreed. We speak of our blessed Lord. My Friend says that Jesus is fair and lovely: so do I. He says that he has nothing else to trust to but the precious blood: nor have I anything else. I tell him that I find myself a poor, weak creature: he laments the same. I live in his house a little while: we pray together at the family altar—you could not tell which it was that prayed— Calvinist or Arminian. We pray so exactly alike and when we open the hymn book, very likely if he happens to be a Wesleyan he chooses to sing, "Jesus, lover of my soul." I will sing it, and then next morning he will sing with me, "Rock of Ages, cleft for me."
If the Spirit of God is in us we are all agreed upon great points. Let me say that among true saints the points of union, even in matters of judgment, are ninety-nine, and the points of difference are only as one. In experimental points, as face answers to face, so does the heart of man to man. Only get upon experimental topics concerning soul-dealings with God—leave the letter and get to the spirit, crack the shells and eat the kernel of spiritual truth—and you will find that the points of agreement between genuine Christians are something marvelous!
But this union is to be seen most plainly in union of heart. I am told that Christians do not love each other. I am very sorry if that is true, but I rather doubt it, for I suspect that those who do not love each other are not Christians. Where the Spirit of God is there must be love, and if I have once known and recognized any man to be my Brother in Christ Jesus, the love of Christ constrains me no more to think of him as a stranger or foreigner, but a fellow citizen with the saints.
© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible
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