6. It is that good-will to man which, while its proximate object is the welfare of our fellow-creatures, is ultimately directed to the glory of God.

It is the sublime characteristic of every truly Christian virtue, that whatever inferior ends it may seek, and through whatever intervening medium it may pass, it is directed ultimately to the praise of Jehovah: it may put forth its excellences before the admiring eyes of mortals, and exert its energies for their happiness; but neither to attract their applause, nor to build up their interests, must be its highest aim. The rule of our conduct, as to its chief end, is thus explicitly and comprehensively laid down: "Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."This is not mere advice, but a command-and it is a command extending to all our conduct. To glorify God is to act so as that his authority shall be recognized and upheld by us in the world; it is to be seen submitting to his will, and behaving so as that his word and ways shall be better thought of by mankind. Our actions must appear to have a reference to God; and without this, they cannot partake of the character of religion, however excellent and beneficial they may seem.

deeds of excellence. His very opinions seemed under the influence of his love; and, as he wished well, he believed well, or hoped well, of many of ness and patience were touching, his kindness inwhom he had formerly thought evil. His meekdescribable; the trouble he gave, and the favors he received, drew tears from his own eyes, and were acknowledged in expressions that drew tears from all around. There was an ineffable tenderness in his looks, and his words were the very accents of benignity. He lay a pattern of all the passive virtues; and having thus thrown off much that was of the earth, earthy, and put on charity as a garment, and dressed himself for heaven, in his antechamber, his sick room, he departed to be with Christ, and to be for ever perfect in Love.

There was a man in whom this was realized, and some extracts from his invaluable Memoir, will prove it; I mean Mr. SCOTT, the author of the Commentary.

"His mind," says his biographer, "dwelt much upon love: God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Faith worketh by love. He seemed full of tenderness and affection to all around him. One evidence,'

he said, "I have of meetness for heaven: I feel
much love to all mankind-to every man upon
dered me.' To his servant he said, 'I thank you
earth-to those who have most opposed and slan-
If at any time I have
for all your kindness to me.
been hasty and short, forgive me, and pray to God
to forgive me; but lay the blame upon me, not
upon religion.""

But perhaps this disposition of mind will be best illustrated by exhibiting an example of it; and where shall we find one suited to our purpose? Every mind will perhaps immediately revert to HIM who was love incarnate; and we might indeed point to every action of his benevolent career as a display of the purest philanthropy: but as his example will hereafter be considered, we shall now select one from men of like passions with ourselves; "His tender affection for us all is astonishing in but we must go for it to "the chamber where the such a state of extreme suffering, and cuts us to the good man meets his fate," rather than to the resorts heart. He begged his curate to forgive him, if he of the healthy and the active; for it seems as if the had been occasionally rough and sharp. I meant brightest beauties of this love were reserved, like it for your good, but, like every thing of mine, it those of the setting sun, for the eve of its departure was mixed with sin; impute it not, however, to my to another hemisphere. How often have we beheld religion, but to my want of religion.' He is so the dying Christian, who, during long and mortal gentle and loving-it is so delightful to attend upon sickness, has exhibited, as he stood on the verge of him,-that his servants, finding themselves in danheaven, something of the spirit of a glorified im-ger of contention which should wait upon him, mortal. The natural infirmities of temper, which agreed to take it by turns, that each might have her attended him through life, and which sometimes due share of the pleasure and benefit; and yet he dimmed the lustre of his piety, disquieted his own is continually begging our forgiveness for his want peace, and lessened the pleasure of his friends, had of patience and thankfulness. His kindness and all departed, or had sunk into the shade of those affection to all who approached him were carried 'holy graces which then stood out in bold and com- to the greatest height, and showed themselves in a manding relief upon his soul. The beams of singularly minute attention to all their feelings, heaven now falling upon his spirit were reflected, and, whatever might be for their comfort, to a denot only in the faith that is the confidence of things gree that was quite affecting-especially when he not seen-not only in the hope which entereth with- was suffering so much himself, often in mind as in the veil, but in the love which is the greatest in well as body. There was an astonishing absence the trinity of Christian virtues. How lowly in the of selfish feelings: even in his worst hours he heart did he seem-how entirely clothed with hu- thought of the health of us all; observed if we sat mility! Instead of being puffed up with any thing up long, and insisted on our retiring; and was much of his own, or uttering a single boasting expres- afraid of paining or hurting us in any way. Mr. sion, it was like a wound in his heart to hear any D. said something on the permanency of his Comone remind him either of his good deeds or dispo-mentary; Ah! he cried, with a semi-contemptusitions; and he appeared in his own eyes less than ever, while, like his emblem, the setting sun, he expanded every moment into greater magnitude in the view of every spectator. Instead of envying the possessions or the excellences of other men, it was a cordial to his departing spirit that he was leaving them thus distinguished: how kind was he to his friends!-and as for his enemies, he had none; enmity had died in his heart, he forgave all that was manifestly evil, and kindly interpreted all that was only equivocally so. Nothing lived in his recollection, as to the conduct of others, but their acts of kindness. When intelligence reached his ear of the misconduct of those who had been his adversaries, he grieved in spirit, even as he rejoiced when told of their coming back to public esteem by

ous smile; and added, 'you know not what a proud
heart I have, and how you help the Devil.' He
proceeded: "There is one feeling I cannot have, if
I would: those that have opposed my doctrine, have/
slandered me sadly; but I cannot feel any resent-
ment; I can only love and pity them, and pray for
their salvation. I never did feel any resentment
towards them; I only regret that I did not more
ardently long and pray for their salvation.'-This
is love, and how lovely is it?"

Can we conceive of a more beautiful exemplification of the virtue I am describing? and this is the temper we ought all to seek. This is the grace, blended with all our living habits, diffused through all our conduct, forming our character, breathing in our desires, speaking in our words, beaming in

our eyes; in short, a living part of our living selves. | And this, be it remembered, is religion-practical religion.

A SEPARATE and entire section is devoted to this dis-
tinction of love from a counterfeit resemblance of
it, because of the importance of the subject, and
the frequency with which the mistake is made of
confounding things which are so different from
each other. No terms have been more misunder-
stood or abused than candor and charity. Some
have found in them an act of toleration for all reli-
gious opinions, however opposed to one another or
to the word of God, and a bull of indulgences for
all sinful practices which do not transgress the laws
of our country: so that, by the aid of these two
words, all truth and holiness may be driven out of
the world; for if error be innocent, truth must be
unimportant; and if we are to be indulgent towards
the sins of others, under the sanction and by the
command of Scripture, holiness can be of no con-
sequence either to them or ourselves.

If we were to hearken to some, we should con-
ceive of Charity, not as she really is-a spirit of
ineffable beauty, descending from heaven upon our
distracted earth, holding in her hand the torch of
truth, which she had lighted at the fountain of ce-
lestial radiance, and clad in a vest of unsullied
purity; and who, as she entered upon the scene of
discord, proclaimed "glory to God in the highest,"
as well as peace on earth, good-will to men;"
and having with these magic words healed the
troubled waters of strife, proceeding to draw men
closer to each other, by drawing them closer to
Christ, the common centre of believers; and then
hushing the clamors of contention, by removing
the pride, the ignorance, and the depravity, which
produced them. No: but we should think of her
as a lying spirit-clad, indeed, in some of the attire
of an angel of light, but bearing no heavenly im-
press, holding no torch of truth, wearing no robe
of holiness; smiling, perhaps, but like a sycophant,
upon all without distinction; calling upon men, as
they are combating for truth and striving against
sin, to sheathe their swords and cast away their
shields, to be indulgent towards each other's vices
and tolerant of each other's errors; because they
all mean and feel so substantially alike, though
they have different modes of expressing their opi-
nions and of giving utterance to their feelings. Is
this charity ?-No: it is Satan in the habiliments
of Gabriel.

An anonymous American writer has given the following eloquent description.

"Her thrones seemed ivory, and over her white robes floated an azure mantle besprinkled with drops of heavenly lustre. On her head was a chaplet of such flowers as spring in the regions of bliss; and the summit of the diadem, was distinguished by a centre of rays that resembled the morning star. The bloom of eternal youth was in her countenance, but her majestic form can only be described in the language of that world where she is fully known. In her right hand was "the Sword of the Spirit," and at her side the symbols of power and majesty. Beneath her feet the clouds were condensed in awful darkness, and her chariot was borne along by the breath of the Almighty."

The well-known metrical adage of this poet is adapted, to the full extent of its spirit and design, by great multitudes who suppose that they are quite orthodox both in opinion and practice, and who perhaps boast of their charity, while they exclaim

"For modes of faith, let graceless zealots fight;
His can't be wrong, whose life is in the right."

It is, I imagine, generally thought, by at least a
great part of mankind, that it is of little conse-
quence what a man's religious opinions are, pro-
vided his conduct be tolerably correct; that charity
requires us to think well of his state; and that it is
the very essence of bigotry to question the validity
of his claim to the character of a Christian, or to
doubt of the safety of his soul; in other words, it
is pretended that benevolence requires us to think
well of men, irrespective of religious opinions; and
that it is almost a violation of the rule of love to
attempt to unsettle their convictions, or to render
them uneasy in the possession of their sentiments,
although we may conclude them to be fundament-
ally wrong. But does this disregard of all opi-
nions-at least, this disposition to think well of per-
sons as to their religious character, and the safety
of their souls, whatever may be the doctrines they
hold,-enter essentially into the nature of love?
Most certainly not; but actually opposes it. Be-
nevolence is good-will to men, but this is a very
different thing from a good opinion of their princi-
ples and practices; so different, that the former
may not only exist in all its force without the latter,
but be actually incompatible with it; for if I believe
that a man holds opinions that endanger his safety,
benevolence requires, not that I should shut my
eyes to his danger, and lull him into false confi-
dence, but that I should bear my testimony and ex-
press my fears concerning his situation. Benevo-
lence is a very different thing from complacency
or esteem. These are founded on approbation of
character; the other is nothing more than a desire
to promote happiness.

The question, whether love is to be confounded with indifference to religious principle,-for such does the spurious candor I am contending against amount to,-is best decided by an appeal to Scrip"Ye shall know the truth," said Christ; ture. " and the truth shall make you free." "This is "He that belife eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." lieveth on the Son, hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." With what emphasis did the apostle speak of the conduct of those who attempted to pervert the great doctrine

only contrary to revelation, but no less contrary to reason. If truth sanctify, error must in some way or other pollute; for to suppose that two causes, not only so distinct but so opposite, can produce the same effect, is absurd; and the Scriptures every where insist upon the importance of the truth, not merely on its own account, but on account of its moral effect upon the soul.

If this view of the subject be correct, Christian charity cannot mean indifference to religious sentiment; for if so, it would be a temper of mind in direct opposition to a large portion of Scripture: nor are we required, by this virtue, to give the least countenance to what we think is error. We may, indeed, be called bigots; for this term in the lips of many, means nothing more than a reproach for attaching importance to right sentiments. No word has been more misunderstood than this. If by bigotry is meant such an overweening attachment to our opinions, as makes us refuse to listen to argument; such a blind regard to our own views, as closes the avenues of conviction; such a selfish zeal for our creed, as actually destroys benevolence, and causes us to hate those who differ from us ;-it is an evil state of mind, manifestly at variance with love: but if, as is generally the case, it means, by those who use it, only zeal for truth, it is perfectly consistent with love, and actually a part of it; for "charity rejoiceth in the truth.' It is quite compatible with good will to men, therefore, to attach high importance to doctrines, to condemn error, to deny the Christianity and safety of those who withhold their assent from fundamental truths, and to abstain from all such religious communion with them as would imply, in the least possible degree, any thing like indifference to opinion. It does appear to me, that the most perfect benevolence to men, is that which, instead of looking with complacency on their errors, warns them of their danger, and admonishes them to escape. It is no matter that they think they are in the right—this only makes their case the more alarming; and to act towards them as if we thought their mistaken views of no consequence, is only to confirm their delusion, and to aid their destruction.

of justification by faith, by introducing the obsolete | duced in the soul as well by error as by truth, is not ceremonies of the Jewish law. "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." Now, certainly, this is any thing but indifference to religious opinion; for, be it observed, it was matter of opinion, and not the duties of morality, or of practical religion, that was here so strenuously opposed. The apostle commands Timothy "To hold fast the form of sound words; and to give himself to doctrine." The apostle John has this strong language:-"Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, | hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine, of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed; for he that biddeth him God speed, is partaker of his evil deeds." Jude commands us to "contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints." From these, and many other passages which might be quoted, it is evident, not only that truth is important and necessary to salvation, but that error is guilty, and in many instances is connected with the loss of the soul. "If a man may disbelieve one truth, and yet be free from sin for so doing, he may disbelieve two; and if two, four; and if four, ten; and if ten, half the Bible; and if half the Bible, the whole and if he may be a Deist, and yet be in a safe state; he may be an Athiest and still go to heaven." To such awful lengths may the principle be pushed, that there is no guilt in mental error. "Let those," says Dr. Priestley," who maintain that the mere holding of opinions (without regard to the motives and state of the mind through which men may have been led to form them,) will necessarily exclude them from the favor of God, be particularly careful with respect to the premises from which they draw so alarming a conclusion." Nothing can be more sophistical than this passage; for we do not in maintaining the guiltiness of a false opinion, leave out the state of the heart; but contend that all errors in the judgment have their origin in the depravity of our nature, and, in so far as they prevail, discover a heart not brought into subjection to Christ. A perfectly holy mind could not err in the opinion it derived from the word of God: and it may be most fairly presumed that there are certain fundamental truths, which cannot be rejected, without such a degree of depravity of heart, as is utterly incom-ness. We are to bear, with unruffled meekness, all patible with true piety towards God.

It is to be recollected, that the holiness required in the word of God, is a very superior thing to what is called morality. Holiness is a right state of mind towards God, and it is enforced by motives drawn from the view which the Scriptures give us of the Divine nature, and of the Divine conduct towards us. If our views of God, and of his scheme of mercy, be incorrect, the motives which influence us cannot be correct. Hence all right feeling and conduct are traced up by the sacred writers to the truth. Do they speak of regeneration? they tell us we are "begotten by the incorruptible seed of the word." Do they speak of sanctification? they ascribe it, so far as instrumentality is concerned, to the truth; and the truth itself is characterized as a "doctrine according to godliness." It is evident, that without the truth, or in other words, without right opinions, we can neither be born again of the Spirit, nor partake of true holiness. The whole process of practical and experimental religion is carried on by the instrumentality of right sentiments; and to suppose that holiness could be pro

It is true we are neither to despise them nor persecute them; we are neither to oppress nor ridicule them; we are neither to look upon them with haughty scorn, nor with callous indifference;-but while we set ourselves against their errors, we are to pity them with unaffected compassion, and to labor for their conversion with disinterested kind

their provoking sarcasms; and to sustain, with deep humility, the consciousness of our clearer perceptions; and to convince them that, with the steadiest resistance of their principles, we unite the tenderest concern for their persons.

And, if charity do not imply indifference to religious opinions, so neither does it mean connivance at sin. There are some persons whose views of the evil of sin are so dim and contracted, or their good nature is so accommodating and unscriptural, that they make all kinds of excuses for men's transgressions, and allow of any latitude that is asked, for human frailty. The greatest sins, if they are not committed against the laws of society, are reduced to the mere infirmities of our fallen nature, which should not be visited with harsh censure; and as for the lesser ones, they are mere specks upon a bright and polished surface, which nothing but a most fastidious precision would ever notice. Such persons condemn, as sour and rigid ascetics, all who oppose and condemn iniquity; revile them as uniting in a kind of malignant opposition to the cheerfulness of society, the very dregs of puritan

11

THE INDISPENSABLE NECESSITY OF CHRISTIAN LOVE.

A DISTINCTION has been introduced into the subject
of religion, which, although not wholly free from
objection, is sufficient to answer the purpose for
which it is employed; I mean that which exists be-
tween essentials and non-essentials. It would be a
difficult task to trace the boundary line by which
these classes are divided; but the truth of the gene-
ral idea cannot be questioned-that there are some
things, both in faith and practice, which, for want
of perceiving the grounds of their obligations, we
may neglect, and yet not be destitute of true reli-
gion; while there are others, the absence of which
necessarily implies an unrenewed heart. Among
the essentials of true piety, must be reckoned the
disposition we are now considering. It is not to be
classed with those observances and views, which,
though important, are not absolutely essential to sal-
vation: we must possess it, or we are not Christians
now, and shall not be admitted into heaven hereaf-
ter. The apostle has expressed this necessity in the
clearest and the strongest manner. He has put a
hypothetical case of the most impressive kind, which
I shall now illustrate.

"Though I speak with the tongues of men or of angels, and have not CHARITY, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal."-Verse 1.

By the tongues of men and of angels, we are not to understand the powers of the loftiest eloquence, but the miraculous gift of tongues, accompanied by an ability to convey ideas according to the method of celestial beings. Should a man be invested with these stupendous endowments, and employ them in the service of the gospel; still, if his heart were not a partaker of love, he would be no more acceptable to God, than was the clangor of the brazen instruments employed in the idolatrous worship of the Egyptian Isis, or the noise of the tinkling cymbals which accompanied the orgies of the Grecian Cybele. Such a man's profession of religion is not only worthless in the sight of God, but disagreeable and disgusting. The comparison is remarkably strong, inasmuch as it refers not to soft melodious scunds, as of the flute or of the harp-not to the harmonious chords of a concert-but to the harsh dissonance of instruments of the most inharmonious character:

and if, as is probable, the allusion be to the noisy | nor the courage that endured them, nor the seemclank of idolatrous musicians, the idea is as strongly ing zeal for religion which led to them, would be presented as it is possible for the force of language accepted in lieu of love to man. Such an instance to express it. of self-devotedness must have been the result either of that self-righteousness which substitutes its own sufferings for those of Christ, or of that love of fame which scruples not to seek it even in the fires of martyrdom;-in either case it partakes not of the nature, nor will it receive the reward, of true religion. It will help to convince us, not only of the necessity, but of the importance, of this temper of mind, if we bring into a narrow compass the many and various representations of it which are to be found in the New Testament.