ness will at once cease. And it is thus the gospel redresses all the evils and disorders of society. It assails no form of civil government, prescribing a better; but it enforces principles which will transform any government into a government of love. It does not seek to break up social and domestic relations; but it infuses. a spirit which will make these relations ties of affection and happiness.

I will only add one other remark here. It is love, my brethren, which is to secure the perpetuity, and final and universal triumph of the church of Christ. Force, stratagem, hereditary, prescriptive authority— • these are the foundations on which earthly kingdoms rest. Had Jesus been a competitor with worldly monarchs, had he accepted the crown offered him, and employed his miraculous power to establish a temporal empire, his throne, like that of the Cæsars, would have been an unsubstantial, perishable fabric. But he founded his empire on love; and as God alone is omnipotent, because he only is pure essential Love-so it is certain. that "the gates of hell can never prevail" against a church which embodies the love of God. Against it error and superstition and tyranny will set themselves, and for a time its progress may be arrested; it may even seem to be defeated; but it will possess the earth as the waters cover the face of the deep. You stand upon the sea-shore when the tide is in its flood. Wave after wave rolls up, is broken, and driven back; but the ocean is thundering in, and will sweep all before it.

Crowded as was the life of Napoleon with the mani

festations of genius, nothing ever done or uttered by him discloses more strikingly the greatness of his mind than those profound words recorded by Count Montholon: "I know men, and I tell you that Jesus is not a inan. The religion of Christ is a mystery which subsists by its own force, and proceeds from a mind which is not a human mind. We find in it a marked individuality, which originated a train of words and actions unknown before. Jesus borrowed nothing from our knowledge. He was not a philosopher, for his proofs were miracles, and from the first his followers* worshiped him. Alexander, Cæsar, Charlemagne and myself founded empires, but on what foundation did we rear the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ alone founded an empire upon love; and at this hour multitudes would die for him. I die before my time, and my body will be given back to the earth to become food for worms. Such is the fate of him who has been called the Great Napoleon! What an abyss between my end, and the eternal kingdom of Jesus Christ, which is proclaimed and loved and adored, which is extending over the whole earth!"

It is a significant fact, that Jesus left behind him no prescribed artificial organization; yet his teachings established a society compacted by ties firmer, more indissoluble, than those which consolidate states and kingdoms. Unlike earthly kings, he did not concern himself about a successor, nor like human teachers and philosopers, did he compose volumes containing a full and systematic exhibition of his doctrines. He simply

taught men to love. This was the lesson our common humanity was waiting to receive, and it at once penetrated to the depths of our nature. Uttered by an humble Hebrew youth, that imperial word, "Love," began directly and irresistibly to work out the most wonderful changes. Pride, prejudice, lodged and rooted superstitions, were soon vanquished by it. Thrones have crumbled and dynasties have expired, but the power of that word hath not been exhausted; it is inexhaustible; it will yet vanquish and renovate this fallen worldmaking all things new, creating a new earth and a new heaven bending over it.

There are other thoughts which I ought to present here; but I must sacrifice them. I ought to remind you that love is the glory, the happiness, the perfection of the church of Christ. Love is greater than faith and hope, not only because it is more enduring, but because it comprehends them both; for it "hopeth all things, believeth all things." It hath more hope than hope itself, more faith than faith itself. We every day see loving hearts hoping against hope, and trusting in spite of the basest perfidiousness. Love, indeed, is the crowning flower in which all the Christian graces will expand and bloom in eternity. It is the glory, the happiness, the perfection of the church triumphant. The highest heaven knows nothing more exalted and blessed than love. It is folly to speak of knowledge here. We mistake familiarity for knowledge, or we would confess our ignorance of everything. We think, and understand, and speak as children, and when "that which is perfect is come," these puerilities shall all "be done away." What

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we call knowledge.will not be perfected, but entirely superseded as so much imbecility and nescience. But love will be perfected in heaven. "Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. But love never faileth." The perfection of love is the beatific glory of heaven; and to be "made perfect in love" is to anticipate heaven while we are upon earth.

While, however, I must omit many thoughts upon which I would delight to dwell-for this is a subject very dear to me there is one question which I must put before leaving this topic. I must ask each of you, Do you belong to the true church of Christ? Have you this love for his people? "We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren." "He that loveth not his brother abideth in death." Ponder these solemn, searching, stripping words. Do not speak of your love for God. "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar." You love God, you are zealous, and liberal; you delight in prayer, in the Bible, the sanctuary, and all the exercises of devotion. Very well. But do you love your brother? Do you bear with his infirmities? Do you admire his excellencies? Is his reputation dear to you? Are you con cerned for his salvation? "But he has so many imperfections and faults." What? are you faultless then? Do you not love yourself in spite of conscious imperfections? Do you not expect Jesus to love you and bear with you, though loaded with defects? What if God should condemn you, as you well know you are compelled constantly to condemn yourself?

"Lord, many a time I am aweary quite
Of my own self, my sin, my vanity,
Yet be not thou-or I am lost outright-
Weary of me.

"And hate against myself I often bear,
And enter with myself in fierce debate.
Take thou no part against myself, nor share
In that just hate.

"Best friends might loathe us, if what things perverse
We know of our own selves, they also knew.
Lord, holy One, if thou, who knowest worse,
Should'st loathe us too."

This humbling confession of the poet, is it not yours?. And, after this, will you be eagle-sighted to detect blemishes in your brother-motes in your brother's eye? and plead his imperfections as a reason for not loving him? Ah! my dear hearer, how little have you been in the school of Christ; what a stranger are you to that love which he taught, and which his own life exemplified.

II. "That ye love one another." I have thus spoken of this parting injunction of the Redeemer. Of this heavenly grace we know, alas, little but the name. The models of greatness which we dream of in youth and which we admire in mature age, are they not men of the world, leaders in the world, who utterly despise this precept? And even in the Church our eulogiums of this love are, I had almost said, epitaphs upon a dead virtue. If a man complies with some natural impulses of humanity, if he expends some small sums in alms, he is regarded as a charitable man, though he indulge in cal