J.C. Ryle: The True Church Loves the Friends of Christ

"If we love a person, we like his friends.  We are favorably inclined to them, even before we know them.  We are drawn to them by the common tie of common love to one and the same person.  When we meet them we do not feel that we are altogether strangers.  There is a bond of union between us.  They love the person that we love, and that alone is an introduction.  Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ!  The true Christian regards all Christ's friends as his friends, members of the same body, children of the same family, soldiers in the same army, travelers to the same home.  When he meets them, he feels as if he had long known them.  He is more at home with them in a few minutes than he is with many worldly people after an acquaintance of several years.  And what is the secret of this?  It is simply affection to the same Savior and love to the same Lord" (Holiness, JC Ryle).