by the pious and intelligent worshipper as the sacred and sublime elements of Christian love, declaring and vindicating themselves in the moral and religious life of the sincere and appreciative disciple of Jesus Christ, who magnanimously assumed the praiseworthy and important position among mankind of "seeking and saving" the lost, by assigning to them their true stand-point or genuine, adaptive relation to the will of God and the wants of man!

PARAGRAPH I.

The Religion of the New Testament, considered as Love to God or the First, Great Commandment, Matthew, xxii. 34–40.

Christ unequivocally as well as most emphatically declares to the Jewish lawyer, mentioned in Matthew, xxii. 35-36, and who, it seems, craftily sought to tempt him with captious questions, that the undiɣided love of the heart, given to God, or as the case is expressed in the English version of the passage, the love to God "with all the heart, with all the soul, and with all the mind," is the supreme or highest form of Divine worship, and, therefore, the essential pre-requisite to carry out the will of God in relation to the duties, due more immediately and pre-eminently to himself. This love thus enjoined and illustrated, he pronounces to be synonymous in import, with the first, great commandment," being one of the "two commandments," on which-as upon a solid and immovable foundation, "hang" the whole Mosaic law and the prophecies of the Old Testament, as set forth and enforced in the words of Christ. The love to God differs from that which we owe to man, in being offered to a being of infinite perfection, and, therefore, self-sufficient. But it deserves to

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be borne in mind, that it is not the Divine being, considered simply as a being or entity, that claims or deserves our love, but the Divine being only in so far as it comprises the united attributes of wisdom and goodness. Wisdom alone, without goodness, might indeed be a just theme for admiration, but it would not be an object to be loved, whereas the being that excels in both respects in a preeminently exalted degree, like God, is supremely worthy of the highest, purest, and most indefatigable love. This definition of love admits of but a very partial application in its relation to man, as will be seen when we come to treat of it under the head of the "second, great commandment," and learn that it has quite as much to do with the wants and failings as with the virtues and well-being of mankind. The remark too may be appropriately made here, that the peculiar functions of the love which we owe to God, will be made thoroughly evident to us, when its admirable nature shall have been more fully explained. To love God, then, means simply to like him or think well of him, and hence-as a necessary consequence, to try to please him, or, in other words, to do his will; praise or magnify him on account of his beneficent and righteous character; and, finally, implicitly and affectionately to confide in him.

First, love to God requires that we should like him or be attached to him somewhat in the spirit and manner in which an affectionate child is attached to a beloved and dear parent. When we bear in mind, as it behooves us to do, how constantly and universally good, God is, it is impossible not to be powerfully drawn towards him: the good is always lovely, especially as an attribute of God,

in whom it ever exists and manifests itself in a most attractive as well as superlative degree. God then being decidedly the best Being, must-as such, be entitled to our purest and best, that is, our greatest and most exhaustive love. Hence to love God, as it is eminently proper that he should be loved, it seems but necessary to realize, as far as is possible, his unparalleled goodness, both in respect to his attributes and his moral character, as it stands related to us, or is visible in the acts of Divine providence, and the manner in which, by fixed and ever-operative laws, he graciously preserves and governs the world. This pleasing result can only be attained by diligent and careful study, and the nurture of a pious, child-like mind, that recognizes and adores that as good and lovely which presents to it the invaluable and inexhaustible means of happiness.

Secondly, love to God-in its normal strength and purity, inspires the soul with sentiments of profound gratitude. We spontaneously thank a person who has done us a kindness; as, when he has given us useful advice; when he has magnanimously warded off from us a threatening evil; when he has gently and assiduously borne with our infirmities; or when, again, he has manifested compassion for us and kindly-with great self-denial perhaps, ministered to us in our privations and afflictions. Thus it will be seen, all purely charitable deeds are worthy of our cordial thanksgiving, and the ingrate only will suppress or withhold sincere and spontaneous expressions of gratitude towards his disinterested friend and generous benefactor. So natural and facile it is, indeed, to exhibit unfeigned and hearty feelings of gratitude for benefits re

ceived or even for blessings still impending, that he that is insensible of the fact, may be justly regarded as a moral monster! These different propositions being-it must be conceded, incontrovertible, it follows that God, who is the adorable Giver of all good gifts, and "in whom we live, and move, and have our being," is ever deserving of our sincere and unbounded thanks and praises for his ceaseless, his unlimited, his, alas, often unmerited and frequently, besides, flagrantly abused goodness and mercy. Hence animated by a lively sense of devout fervor, the pious Psalmist thus gives pertinent utterance to a profound sense of obligation and gratitude, in language no less suitable than it is strikingly significant both of a great truth and a pious heart, when he exclaims: "O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever."

Thirdly, love to God justly fills our souls with praises towards him. The remark may be deemed common place, but it does, notwithstanding, not admit of a reasonable doubt, that when a person thinks well of any one, he will naturally also speak well of him, and, besides, wish and urge others to do the same. He takes great pleasure in commending him to the love and regard of his friends and neighbors, and thus loudly and assiduously proclaims his merits and sounds his praises abroad. Owing to this in fact instinctive or inborn manner of manifesting the benevolent affections of our hearts, in respect to the love we bear towards any one, it is certain that it must be no less right and proper than it is natural, to celebrate with holy ardor and joyful emotions the devout praises of God, in speech and song; with the harp and the psaltery; nay,

with the timbrel and the dance, for there is no being of whom either man or angel can think as well or say as much good as of God, the source of all good and the giver of every blessing; and, therefore, being the object of unbounded love as well as of the highest admiration, he should be the adored recipient of our most exalted praises, expressive, at once, of our profound veneration for him, as well as being the most appropriate means to induce others ever devoutly and gratefully to bless and magnify his name. Isaiah, the prince of Hebrew prophets, thus utters a pious strain of praise in the pithy, hope-inspiring sentence: "My soul shall be joyful in my God." Sentiments like these, have in all ages elicited among the religious part of mankind, outbursts of lyric strains or vocal lays in liturgic rites; in joyful reminiscences of past favors or pleasing anticipations of promised, or at least expected, future blessings. The pious hymnist, whose soul-ever tuned in sweet harmony with the celestial world, and buoyant with the hallowed spirit of devotion, exclaims with holy enthusiasm: "Praise God, from whom all blessings come!"

Fourthly, to love God denotes our obligation to do his will. We can indeed do the will of God only approximately. The will of God-in as far as it is binding on us, is therefore to be regarded rather as normative than strictly defined and circumscribed: yet if we will be but sincere and do what it is in our power to do, we shall be able to satisfy the Divine requirements, and will not fail, in due season, to receive adequate reward as the inevitable fruit or natural sequence of our obedience and fidelity, which, considered in an absolute point of view, must be necessarily