believed. No man can receive the truth in the love of it, without bringing forth the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory of God. It is the delight of this pure and heavenly grace to contemplate holiness wherever it is to be found. Ascending to the celestial world, it joins the choirs of the cherubim, to look upon the spotless One, and with them to give utterance to its ecstasies, in the short but sublime anthem, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty." Undismayed by the roar of thunder, and the sound of the trumpet, and the voice of words; by the thick darkness, and the vivid lightnings, and the agitation of the quaking earth;-it ventures near the base of Sinai, and, for the delight that it has in holiness, rejoices in the law which is the rule of righteousness. The angels are pleasant to behold, because they are clad in garments of unsullied purity; and the crown of glory which Adam wore before his fall was his innocence; and the deep degradation into which he fell by his apostacy, was loss of holiness, in which consisted the image of God. The ceremonial law has an excellence in the eye of charity, because it teaches the value of holiness in the view of God, and the necessity of it for man. The prophetic visions are all delighted in, because they are distinguished by the beauties of holiness; and the whole Gospel of Jesus is dear to the heart of love, because it is intended to purify unto Christ a Church, which he will present to the Father without spot, wrinkle, or blemish. Men are esteemed and loved on earth as they have this moral excellence enstamped upon their souls; and in looking

for a heaven which shall satisfy all its desires, it can think of nothing higher and better than a state of sinless purity.

So ardent and so uniform is charity's regard to holiness, that it rejoices in it when it is found in an enemy or a rival. Yes; if we are under the influence of this divine virtue as we ought to be, we shall desire, and desire very fervently too, that those who have displeased or injured us were better than they are. We shall wish to see every speck of imperfection gone from their conduct, and their whole character standing out to the admiration of the world, and receiving the approbation of those by whom they are now condemned. We shall be willing to do anything by which they may conciliate to themselves the favour of the alienated multitude, and also raise themselves to the vantage ground on which their misconduct has placed us above them. This is charity, to rejoice in those moral excellences, and gaze upon them with gratitude and complacency, which invest the character of one that opposes us with loveliness and beauty, and by which his cause is promoted, in some degree, to the detriment of ours. Men of little virtue may sometimes join from policy in those commendations of another's goodness, the justice of which they cannot dispute, and the harmony of which they dare not disturb; but it is only the Christian, who is far advanced in the practice of all that is difficult in religion, who can secretly rejoice, without envy or jealousy, in those very virtues which draw away the public attention from himself, and cause him and his party to pass into eclipse and to sink into

shadow. "O Charity! this is thy work, and this thy glory;-a work too rarely performed-a glory too rarely seen in this region of selfishness, in this world of imperfection; where, of the multitudes that profess to submit to thy sway, there are still so few who are really governed by thy laws, and inspired by thine influence."

CHAPTER XIV.

THE CANDOUR OF LOVE.

"Charity beareth all things."

SOME writers consider this seventh verse as an amplification of the foregoing one, and explain it, in reference to the truth, in the following manner :— "It beareth all things" reported in the truth, however opposed to the corruption of human nature, and counts none of them hard sayings or unfit to be borne; "it believeth all things" imported in the great truth, or all the inferences which the Apostles have deduced from it, as being well affected to the source from whence they flow; "hopeth for all things" promised in it, and "endureth all things ;" or patiently suffers all the afflictions that can attend a steady attachment to it. This gives a very good sense of the words, and admits the full force of the universal expressions. Yet it certainly agrees better with the scope of the Apostle, to understand the verse with reference to the brethren as the objects of it.

If we render the first expression, and which we are now about to consider, as our translators have done, it may signify our bearing one another's

burdens and weaknesses, which is to fulfil the law of Christ and it must be confessed this is strictly true; for whoever is under the influence of this principle, will possess a spirit of tender sympathy. In this world we all groan, being burdened. Each has his own load of care, or grief, or imperfection. This is not the state where we find perfect rest. How wide is the scope, how frequent the opportunity, how numerous the occasions, for sympathy! And, who that is possessed of benevolence, can allow himself to pass a brother upon the road, labouring under a heavier load than his own, without offering to bear a part? We are not to be impertinently officious and intermeddling, nor to pry into the secrets of our neighbours with an inquisitive curiosity; but to inquire into the cause which gives them so much solicitude or so much grief, is the duty of those who are the witnesses of their careworn countenance and downcast look. What an unfeeling heart must that man have, who can see the very form of care and sorrow before him, and never kindly ask the reason of its existence? It is but little that sympathy can do for the sufferer, but that little should be most cheerfully afforded. To be unnoticed and unpitied in our griefs, adds greatly to their weight. For what purpose are Christians collected into churches? not merely to eat the Lord's Supper together: this could be done without any such distinct recognition of a mutual relationship, as that which takes place in the fellowship of believers. The end and design of this bond is, that being united as one body, the members might cherish a general sympathy for each other, and

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