ask, of this one principle of Christian morals being fully acted on! How great would be the change in the aspect of the world! How would our families and neighborhoods be blessed! How ornamental and honorable would our common Christianity appear in the eyes of Heathens and Mohammedans.

And it is to produce more and more of this holy love to our fellow creatures that the whole mystery of redemption-next to the pardon of sin and the immediate glory of God thereby-is revealed.

2. Let us proceed then to point out the force of the connection here intimated by the word, " as ;" "Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us and given himself for us."

This connection, we first observe, is not one of merit. Our good works are not to overturn the doctrine of our pardon and justification by the death of Christ, but to follow from it. The exhortation of the text is addressed to the Ephesians, already quickened from the death of sin, already illuminated by God's Holy Spirit, already renewed and created again after the image of God in righteousness and true holiness, already pardoned in the blood of Christ. If we attempt to lay the foundation of good works in pride, ingratitude and self-dependence, we shall utterly fail. Our love to our brethren is the fruit of God's grace to us; is a consequence flowing from Christ's love in his atonement; is, after all, so full of imperfections that it never can stand the severity of God's justice; and is required of us in its utmost exercise by the holy law of God every moment we breathe, and can therefore never expiate by its feeble and mixed efforts our unnumbered offences-nay in itself must augment their amount.

The connection is, therefore, not one of merit-our justification is by faith only through the redemption and atonement of our Lord; but it is a connection which, in the circumstances of fallen man,

is infinitely stronger-of indispensable gratitude; of example and exhortation; of measure and per

manence.

It is a connection of indispensable gratitude. It is the becoming return; it is the obligation arising from infinite mercy. "Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us." It is surely fit that being so loved, we should love in return. If the highest benefits can touch our hearts, if the most undeserved love, the most expansive and costly benevolence, then indeed I will the love of Christ excite us to love our brother. The obligations we are under as creatures, are strengthened in a tenfold measure by the blessings of Christianity. Faith also in those blessings can only be known to be a living and salutary one by the fruits of love to our fellow men; if it be without them, it is a dead, historical, worthless principle, which neither unites to Christ nor conveys to the soul the benefits of his atonement.

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So fixed is this connection, that we are taught by our Lord to pray for the divine forgiveness, only as we forgive others. And the very badge and mark of his disciples is this, By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another:" whilst at the last solemn judgment, the fruits of love, and of no other grace, are exhibited in our Savior's description of that day as the proofs of faith and the evidences of our adoption as the children of God. Love is indeed the end of the commandment, the general root and principle of all morals, the sum and abridgment of the law, the chief of the theological virtues, the prime fruit of the divine Spirit, the bond of perfection and consummation of grace, and the royal and sovereign command of Christ's spiritual kingdom.

But the connection is also one of example and exhortation. For where was there ever such a pattern of love as that displayed by our Lord, both in his sufferings for us, and in the whole tenor of his

benevolent life? Example moves man more than mere precept. Was there ever such an example? Was there ever such a ground laid for exhortation ? Was not our Savior's whole heart full of love in his incarnation, sufferings, agony, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, glory, kingdom, gift of the Holy Ghost, erection of the church, appointment of divers orders of ministers therein !

And then in the tenor of his life-what tenderness, what compassion to the sorrowful, what humility, what forbearance, what consideration for his adver saries, what meekness under reproach, what condescension to the dulness of his disciples, what care for their support when about to leave them! Here our exhortations are bottomed. "Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us; for even hereunto are ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps; who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him who judgeth righteously."

4

But what shall I say of the measure and degree of this obligation to holy love to our fellowcreatures, to which Christ thus calls us by the motive of indispensable gratitude and of attractive example? "Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us"-in something of the same measure; with a like intenseness; and under similar circumstances of sorrow and self-denial. We are often contented with easy and perfunctory acts of charity. But we should aim at something resembling that fervent, costly, never-failing charity which appeared in our divine Lord. We cannot indeed rise to the same elevation-the cases are in many important respects incapable of being compared. But we ought to labor after a less faint

4 1 Peter ii. 21-23.

and less distant imitation of it. We may and ought to approach vastly nearer than we have ever yet done. Our conduct and spirit may not be dishonorable to our profession; but it is not so honorable as it might be. We should study our Lord's character, as a painter studies an exquisite portrait, endeavoring to lessen the differences and improve the likeness stroke by stroke. We should be particularly careful to let the degree of Christ's love to us outweigh the objections and difficulties which arise as impediments to the duty. When we are in danger of dwelling too much in our own minds on the injuries done us by others; on the unworthiness of the objects of our bounty; on the number of applications which have been made to us; on the differences of taste and sentiment between us and others; on the trouble and cost imposed on us; on the loss occasioned to ourselves; on the reproaches we may incur, and similar topics, let us ask ourselves if any injuries we have received can be compared with our own offences against God; if any want of desert in our neighbor can equal our guilt and demerit before Almighty God; whether any pains or difficulties or losses or reproaches to which we can be called can be named with the sufferings of his life and the anguish of his death.

What, then, is the tendency on the whole of the Christian doctrine we have been considering? It is mysterious, indeed, and incomprehensible in many respects-which is only to say we are ignorant, finite creatures. But, allowing that we cannot fathom the mysteries of the divine nature, of the incarnation and death of our Lord, of the permission of evil, and of the times and seasons for revealing gradually during nearly six thousand years the healing truth; still can any one doubt that in all practical respects—that is, in all the respects with

which we are concerned-it is replete with benevolence to man; or can any one for a moment question whether the command of loving our neighbor as ourselves, is not infinitely strengthened by the obligations of gratitude to our divine Lord by this particular method of redemption? Is it not deserving of all admiration that the greatest mystery of Christianity should be inseparably connected with the greatest duty; and that what is at once the most difficult to fallen man, and most obviously conducive to his peace and tranquillity, should be joined on to the most inconceivable instance of our Savior's love in dying as a sacrifice for sins? Does it not mark a divine religion that the very act of faith which sues for pardon of sin and acceptance with God, and thus touches on the deepest mysteries of Christianity, should require at the same moment, for the proof of its sincerity, the forgiveness of injuries, and the love of our neighbor?

It deserves notice, that these two points of Christianity, the atonement of Christ's love, and our charity to others as its fruit, as connected in the manner we have been describing, are also visibly represented in this very connection in the holy sacrament of the body and blood of Christ.

Few are the external symbols of the universal religion. This you would expect. The holy Scriptures, the holy sabbath, the holy worship of almighty God, the holy sacraments, the holy ministry of the word, include nearly all: and these are equally practicable in all ages, in all countries, by all classes of men.

And amongst these assuredly the most awful is the mystery of the Eucharist, wherein the body and blood of our Lord are verily and indeed taken and received by the faith of the humble communicant.

And what does this celebration exhibit before the

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