that rises above and utters a testimony against these pretensions, there is little occasion for setting aside the one we now have, or for seeking its reformation. 3. "The declared perfect love of God to all mankind."

This universal love of God toward men is implied and comprised in His moral perfection of character, and especially in His divine Fatherhood. But what are we to understand by it? Not that He approves, commends, or is pleased with their follies, frailties, perversities, iniquities, or regards them otherwise. than with profound moral reprobation ; not that He counts them free from all responsibility for their conduct and character; not that He ignores or sets aside as of no importance the great distinction between well-doing and ill-doing, between obedience to Him and disobedience; or that He regards the innocent and the guilty, the righteous and the wicked, with the same feelings or emotions; not that in the order of His moral government He' treats all alike, irrespective of their moral deserts. By no means. But that recognizing these differences; recognizing the wrong, the error, the wickedness of men, He sees back of them all, underneath all of them, the essential being, the spiritual entity, the spark of divinity, the image of Himself, which, however overlaid by worldliness and sin, however blurred by selfishness and crime,' however paralyzed by passion and unhallowed desire, is yet not only existent but charged with immortal possibilities and powers; is yet akin to His own nature and capable of responding to the

appeals and monitions of His Holy Spirit. And that the Father loves, cares for, seeks to bless, in time and eternity. And for the sake of this spiritual, divine, immortal element in men, He preserves, protects, governs them and showers upon them innumerable mercies and tokens of His parental guardianship and regard. For the sake of this same element in men, he reproves, admonishes, chastens, punishes them for their misdeeds; not in wrath but in love; not in justice alone but in mercy also; not simply that He may manifest His moral abhorrence of wrong, or that they may realize its exceeding sinfulness and fearful consequences, but that they may be profited thereby, be brought to repentance, and made partakers of His holiness. So not only are the manifold mercies of God expressions of His unfailing goodness, but His chastisements also; all alike proclaiming His boundless, never-failing love to all mankind. revelations of nature, the testimonies of human history, the experience of life, as well as the Christian Scriptures, all bear witness to this sublime truth.

The

4. "The required perfect love of man to God." The principle involved in this article of faith is so plainly and emphatically stated in the Gospels and the corresponding duty so unequivocally urged that no lengthy exposition of it is needed at my hands. What more explicit and comprehensible on this point than the answer of Jesus to the inquiry touching the first great commandment: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with

all thy soul and with all thy mind." That is, with all thine affectional, thy moral and spiritual, thy mental powers; with thy entire nature; with a whole-hearted, holy, rational love. It is not an admiration, a tender regard, an affection for the being or personality of God that is required of men, but for His moral nature, for the attributes of His character, for His government and authority; and impliedly for all that is divine wheresoever, howsoever, and in whomsoever, manifest. The required love of man man to God inspires reverence and trust, begets obedience to His laws, promotes virtue and righteousness, tends to social and civic order, yields the deepest, purest bliss. Who cherishes it becomes divine and helps to divinize the world.

5.

"The required perfect love of man to man." This declaration with the obligation attending it is but a moral as well as logical corollary of the doctrine of Human Brotherhood just now considered. Brotherliness and love to one another are closely-corresponding if not synonymous terms. The one implies and includes the other. The second great command asserts the duty they in common represent. And the most authoritative teachings of Christ elsewhere and of the Apostles inculcate the same sacred lesson. Its relation to the most vital experience of the human soul and its importance in the Christian type of life is set forth most plainly by John when he says, "He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" And the nature,

character, and practical application is as plainly indicated by Paul, "Love worketh no ill to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." Or more explicitly and comprehensively; "Love suffereth long and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not easily provoked, taketh not account of evil; rejoiceth not in unrighteousness but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all. things, endureth all things. Love never faileth."

I need not expatiate farther.

6. "The required just reproof and disfellowship of evil-doers."

The Scriptures of both the Old and New Testaments bear ample witness to the duty expressed in this sentence. The morally didactic and prophetic portions of the former are characterized largely by testimonies against all forms of evil-doing, and by the condemnation and exposure of evil-doers. The teachings of the latter are no less stringent though breathing a more kindly and charitable spirit and enjoining a more scrupulous care in respect to complicity with iniquity. In Paul's charge to Timothy, the young minister was instructed to "reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and doctrine," and in his letter to the Ephesians he enjoins the brethren to "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them." And these passages are representative of the teaching and spirit of the Master in this regard. A blind or lax morality would persuade us to make

no such marked distinction between good and evil, between the righteous and the wicked, and counsel us to a more lenient and indulgent course. But the pure morality of the Gospel is of a sterner quality. Insisting without modification or limitation upon the broadest charity, upon a love "which worketh no ill," it also insists upon the most rigid adherence to principle in relation to all forms of wrong. It allows no parleying and no compromise with unrighteousness. It cannot say, "Well done" to the workers of iniquity, nor countenance them by treating them as if they were without reproach or guile. This would paralyze its power to reform and save them; it would confound itself with its opposite, nulify its testimony against wickedness; it would be ethical suicide. Jesus set us an example of fidelity to his own teaching and to the spirit of his religion in this regard when he pronounced his woes upon the Scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites; when he drove money-changers from the temple; when he refused to be made king of a wicked and adulterous people. And we can do no less than follow him in this as in other matters pertaining to the right ordering of our lives. Let us be faithful.

7. "The required abstinence from resistance of evil with evil."

To resist evil is one of the distinct purposes for which Christ came into the world, and to ultimately overcome it and put it forever away is one of the great ends which his Gospel is destined to achieve. To resist evil is therefore a primary duty of all