+I. The end of man's life is to serve God in serving others.+
+II. True godliness is to love and serve God in serving man.+--To
live out of all society of men, though it be in prayer and fasting in
monkish fashion, is no state of perfection, but mere superstition.
That is true and perfect love of God that is showed in duties of love
and in the edification of our neighbour. It is not enough for thee to
be holy in church; thou mayest be a saint in church and a devil at
home.--_Ibid._
_Regard for a Neighbour's Rights._--Speaking of the early American
prairie settlements a modern historian says: "Theft was almost
unknown. The pioneers brought with them the same rigid notions of
honesty which they had previously maintained. A man in Mancoupin
county left his waggon loaded with corn stuck in the prairie mud for
two weeks near a frequented road. When he returned he found some of
his corn gone, but there was money enough tied in the sacks to pay
for what was taken."
Ver. 15. _Church Quarrels._--1. When schism in a Church is not only
maintained on the one hand with passion, strife, reproaches, and real
injuries, but also impugned on the other hand, not so much with the
sword of the Spirit as with the same fleshly means, then is it the
forerunner and procuring cause of desolation and ruin to both parties
and to the whole Church. 2. As it is a matter of great difficulty to
make men of credit and parts, being once engaged in contentious
debates, to foresee the consequence of their doing so further than
the hoped-for victory against the contrary party, so it were no small
wisdom, before folk meddle with strife, seriously to consider what
woeful effects may follow to the Church of God.--_Fergusson._