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our conviction of the divine origin of the plan | actions: we have had more than enough of articles which has thus wrought so marvellous a change of faith; let us now see more of the fruits of love." upon us. He that believeth hath the witness in And how shall we meet that demand? Not by exhimself, in the revolution of feeling, of motive and hibiting less of truth, but more of love: not by of aim, which has been produced in his soul. To giving up our creeds or our forms, but by carrying him the experimental evidence of the truth of the them out into all the beautiful effects of beneficence gospel appears with a brightness which none of the and purity. rest possess. He is himself an evidence of the di- Christians; the character of religion is entrusted vine power which accompanies the truth. No subtle to our keeping, and we are continually defaming it, argumentation can reason him out of the conscious- or raising its reputation; and are either betraying ness of that change and deliverance which he has it into the hands of its enemies, or conciliating their experienced from predominant selfishness to love. esteem towards it. It is high time for us to be more If all Christians acted fully up to their principles, aware of our responsibility; high time for us to and drank as deeply as they might do, and should consider that we are perpetually employed in indo, of the spirit of charity, the impress of heaven creasing or diminishing the ignominy of the cross. would be so clearly enstamped upon the church, The good conduct of professors is a converting orthat the divinity of the gospel could no longer re-dinance, and an edifying one too. "Let your light main a matter of question with any. Who can so shine before men, that they, seeing your good doubt the heavenly origin of that system which has works, may glorify God your heavenly Father." raised him not only to a heavenly hope, but to a "Shine as lights of the world, holding forth the heavenly temper? word of life." How? Not by attachment to doctrine merely: no; the light of truth will do nothing without the light of love. A fiery zeal for truth, unaccompanied by love, is the meteor that misleads, or the lightning that kills, or the eruption that overwhelms and consumes;-all of which men are afraid of, and retire from: but a zeal for the truth, which is accompanied by benevolence, and produces it, is like the orb of day-men come to its light, and flock to the brightness of its rising.

3. The credit and honor of religion require that we should seek after higher attainments in love. It is well known by all who possess only the most superficial acquaintance with the word of God, that the end and design of the great scheme of revealed truth-a scheme which occupied the councils of heaven from eternity, and was accomplished by an incarnation of God himself; that the end for which the Son of God was crucified-a mystery which angels desire to look into-was not merely to bring O that my feeble voice could be heard, and my a set of notions into the world, and to induce men counsel followed, when I call the followers of Christ to change one class of opinions and forms for ano-to a serious consideration of the necessity, for the ther, still leaving the heart of man as impure and sake of the credit of religion, of being like their selfish as ever: on the contrary, it is known that great Saviour and leader! O that my words could God has come down to our nature, to raise us to have weight when I entreat them, as they regard his; that the whole plan of salvation terminates in the reputation of that gospel which is all their salthe renewal and perfection of the human race in vation and all their desire, to covet earnestly, and the principles of purity and benevolence. It has to pursue constantly, this more excellent way!" been declared, wherever Christianity has travelled, O that I could prevail, when I beseech them-aye, that the essence of religion is love. Hence expect- beseech them-to study the genius of their religion ations, which, though rising high, are well founded, in its facts, doctrines, duties, and examples, to sec have been indulged in reference to the benign and if it be not love! O that I could succeed in my holy temper of the followers of the Lamb. Men wishes and my efforts, that they might no longer, have said, "Let us see how those Christians conduct by the indulgence of their passions, strengthen the themselves." What disgust and disappointment bands of iniquity which bind men to their sins, and have been, in many cases, and to a wide extent, the raise an enmity against religion which shall aid result! Has the church of God yet answered to its and accelerate the work of damnation! O that a own professions, or to the expectations of its specta- new era would commence in the history of the tors and enemies? Has religion derived all the church, when finding what a cloud had been brought advantage, in the way of attestation and recom- upon the truth as it is in Jesus, by the bigotry, inmendation, which it should, from the conduct of its tolerance, and enormous cruelties of corrupt and friends? Are they seen every where so meek, so persecuting communities; by the spirit of party just, so kind, so candid, so benevolent, so humble-which has, more or less, infected all sects; by the as to excite admiration, and to extort the concession that the principles which could produce such conduct must be from heaven? On the contrary, have not multitudes who judge of Christianity, not as they should do by itself, but by the conduct of its professors, received, from the offensive exhibitions of pride, and selfishness, and malice, which they are doomed to witness sometimes in the church, an unutterable disgust, an invincible prejudice against Christianity? Where is the spirit of charity which was exhibited in the great Author of Christianity, and which is enjoined in his precepts, and contained in his system?-is a question a thousand times asked, even by those who live in a Christian land, but who see little there of universal love. Creeds and catechisms, forms and ceremonies, devotional seasons and religious observances, will be thought of little worth, and will do little to ensure the esteem and to engage the imitation of mankind, in the absence of that disposition which all these things are adapted and intended to produce. The world's demand of the church is for love: "We have had," say they, "enough of opinions; let us now have

rancor of controversy; by the passion for war; by the pride of pharisaism; by the schisms of the brethren; by the envy, covetousness, and malice, of professors;-all true Christians would be baptized afresh unto repentance in the pure and peaceful waters of the sanctuary, confessing their sins of uncharitableness and ill will: then might it be expected that, as in the case of the Divine head, so in that of the mystical body, the Holy Ghost, in his dove-like form, would descend, to rest upon it," and, by an earthly glory, prove and display its heavenly origin.

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4. By this means, we shall be enabled, in a very eminent degree to glorify God. For a man to live for himself, as the ultimate end of his existence, is no less mean, and low, and little, than it is wicked. Selfishness of this kind not only pollutes the soul, but degrades it: it limits its desires within a very narrow compass; imprisons its hopes in a poor contemptible hovel; and drags down its ambition from the glory of the infinite and eternal God, to the paltry and insignificant interests of a finite and unworthy creature. The heart of the real Christian is

too large to be compressed within such boundaries: | ment; but to exhibit a temper, which is the likeness understanding that God is the author of his exist- of God, to manifest a virtue, in reference to which ence, he makes him the end of it; that as he came it may be said that it is an image of Deity, what an from him, he may be continually returning to him. unspeakable dignity and delight. This is, in the Every thing, in point of dignity and elevation, is to highest sense of the term, to be raised into fellowbe estimated by the end it seeks. Its aims give it ship with God,-a word that signifies not only an whatever value it possesses, and fashion it into their act of intercourse, but a state of communion; a comown likeness. Nothing can make that great, which munion of ends and aims, a kind of partnership in only aims at what is little; while a sublime nature purpose and pursuit. God is ever seeking his own is imparted to that which seeks a sublime end.-glory, as his ultimate aim in all his works: his perNow, a higher end, no creature in any world, how- fection prevents him from seeking a lower end, and ever exalted, can propose to itself, than the glory of a higher he cannot seek: to manifest himself is his God; and a lower one, the humblest believer in all supreme purpose; and we can easily imagine that God's family on earth should never seek. This is, the manifestation of love is the end to which all the indeed to ennoble the soul; and enlarges it into a other displays to his attributes are made subservient. universal and comprehensive capacity of enjoying Have we any hallowed ambition in our nature, here that one unbounded goodness, which is God him- is scope for its gratification, here is an object to self; it makes it spread out and dilate itself in the wards which we may let forth all its energies,―to infinite sphere of the Divine Being and blessedness, hold communion with God in the manifestation of and makes it live in the fulness of him that filleth his glory: what can angels do more, except it be to all in all. "We glorify God, by entertaining the do it more perfectly? Christians; see your high impression of his glory upon us, and not by commu- vocation: you are set apart not only by God, but for nicating any kind of glory to him. Then does a him; constituted a people, to show forth his praise; good man become the tabernacle of God, wherein appointed, not only to receive his grace, but to rethe divine Shechinah does rest, and which the divine flect his beauty. Your highest glory is to manifest glory fills, when the frame of his mind and life is his. His image is the richest ornament of your wholly according to that idea and pattern which he moral nature; and to show it to the world, your receives from the mount. We best glorify him, great business upon earth. The meanest Christian when we grow most like him; and then we act most shows forth more of God than the heavens which for his glory, when a true spirit of sanctity, justice, declare his glory, and the firmament which showeth and meekness, runs through all our actions; when his handy work: he is a brighter object in the uniwe so live as becomes those that converse with the verse, and teaches more of its infinite Author, than great mind and wisdom of the whole world; with the sun in his mid-day splendor, or the moon in her that Almighty Spirit that made, supports, and go- beauty, attended by her starry train, that glitter verns all things; with that Being from whence all upon the vault of night. But to rise to this emigood flows, and in which there is no spot, stain, or nence, we must excel in love; we must put forth shadow of evil; and so, being captivated and over- all its excellences, and put them forth in all their come by the sense of divine loveliness and goodness, vigor, and fulness, and harmony,-each in its time, endeavor to be like him, and to conform ourselves and its place, and its occasion; for then shall we as much as may be to him. As God's seeking his be like God and to be like him, is in the highest own glory in respect of us is most properly the flow-sense to glorify him; and to glorify him, by being ing forth of his goodness upon us; so our seeking the glory of God is most properly our endeavoring a participation of his goodness, and an earnest incessant pursuing after the divine perfection. When God becomes so great in our eyes, and all created things so little, that we reckon nothing as worthy of our aims and ambition, but a serious participation of the divine nature, and the exercise of divine virtues--love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, and the like; when the soul, beholding It has been observed by the learned CUDWORTH, the infinite beauty and loveliness of the Divinity, who appears to have borrowed the idea from PLUand then looking down and beholding all created TARCH, that Divine Wisdom hath so ordered the perfection mantled over with darkness, is ravished frame of the whole universe, that every thing should into love and admiration of that never-setting bright- have its own appropriate receptacle, to which it shall ness, and endeavors after the greatest resemblance be drawn by all the mighty force of an irresistible of God, in justice, love, and goodness; when con-affinity and as all heavenly bodies press towards versing with him by a secret feeling of the virtue, sweetness, and power of his goodness, we endeavor to assimilate ourselves to him; then we may be said to glorify him indeed."* These fine sentiments should be engraven on our hearts, that they may be constantly reduced by us to practice. O, who that would have his nature exalted to the highest pitch of honor and happiness, ought not to cultivate that disposition which is the brightest representation contained in our world of its Divine Creator. To be the instrument of giving publicity to human excellence, of fixing the attention of others upon those qualities which, although eminently praiseworthy, were but little known, and exciting admiration on their behalf, is no mean or uninteresting employ-" he that believeth in the Son hath everlasting life."

"Select Discourses, by John Smith;" a book which for its combination of learning, genius and piety, has scarcely its parallel in the English language.

made partakers of a divine nature, is to receive, so far as a creature can receive it, a kind of inferior apotheosis, and to live up to the very height of our being, our honor, and our bliss.

5. Another motive, and it is the last we shall advance, for the cultivation of love is,-that il is the state of mind which carries the soul on to its ultimate perfection in the celestial state, meetens it for that stale, and gives it a foretaste of its felicity.

the common centre of gravity, so is all sin, by a kind of strong sympathy and magnetic influence, drawn towards hell; while, on the other hand, all holiness is continually drawn upwards to heaven, to embosom itself in glory. Hell is nothing else but that orb in which all evil moves, and heaven is the opposite hemisphere of light, where holiness, which is perfect love, eternally revolves. Remove sin and disobedience out of hell, it will immediately lose its darkness, and shine out in all the serenity and beauty of heaven; remove love from heaven, and its sun will set amidst the darkness and the storms of everlasting night. Heaven is not merely a thing to come, it is in one sense a present possession; for

It is rather a state than a place, a state within us, rather than a thing without us; it is the likeness, and the enjoyment, and the service, of God; that which every true Christian carries in his bosom now, and to which he will fully enter hereafter,

when he shall be made perfect in love. To this state all true religion is ever tending: the spirit of love is the motion and progress of the soul towards its eternal rest in the presence of God. No man can be prepared for the celestial felicity, while his heart is destitute of this; and whosoever has most of it, knows most of the unseen and ineffable joys of the righteous. He lives in the vestibule of the heavenly temple; and is ready, whenever its doors shall be opened, to enter into the dwelling place of God.The image of God is upon him, and the likeness of Deity is always attended with something of the happiness of the Deity. O the bliss of that state, where the faculties of the mind, inconceivably expanded, shall let in the full streams of the divine beneficence, and open themselves to the uttermost to comprehend the breadth and length, the depth and height of that love which passeth knowledge; where divine goodness will so act directly upon the soul, as to raise it to a state of holy enjoyment surpassing all our pre-heaven than of earth in his disposition; one who sent imaginations.

What a motive to go on in the pursuit of charity! Who does not wish to become better acquainted with his eternal state? Who does not wish to have a more correct knowledge of that condition in which he is to remain for ever? To attain to this, we cannot turn aside the veil which conceals the holy of holies from our view; we cannot look upon the throne of God: we cannot be rapt like Paul into the third heaven: no; but we may, like John, see the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, and feel it taking possession of our hearts in the spirit of love. Rarely, indeed, do Christians attain, in the present state, in this unquiet world, to that calm repose of mind, that serene enjoyment, attendant upon the subjugation of the passions of the gentle dominion of benevolence, which conveys to them any very high notion of the supreme felicity which must be connected with the consummation of such a temper. Happy seasons do occur; but alas! how seldom, when they are so far released from the influence of every selfish and angry affection-when

they so far feel the transforming influence of that divine beneficence which they contemplate-as to be conscious of the perfect felicity which must arise from their being filled with all the fulness of love.— Let us seek more and more after these anticipations of our eternal state: we have not already attained, neither are we already perfect; but, forgetting the things that are behind, let us reach onward, that we may apprehend that for which also we are apprehended in Christ Jesus. Heaven is not only above us, before us, beyond us, but may be within us: we may all know more of it than we do: let us become more and more anxious to accumulate, not the perishing riches of silver and gold, but the imperishable wealth of a holy and heavenly temper: let us aspire to immortality beyond the grave, and to the spirit of it upon earth,-ever remembering that a Christian is one who professes to be born from heaven and to be bound to it; one who has more of already dwelleth in heaven by dwelling in God; one who is meetened for converse with the innumerable company of angels, with the spirits of just men made perfect, with God the judge of all, and with Jesus the mediator of the new covenant! one who bears the impress of eternity, and is irradiated with some beams of the celestial glory;-and how can he give meaning, or consistency, or truth, to professions so high and so holy, except it be by that love which is the fruit of regeneration, the effect of faith, the necessary operation of love to God: and which, being cherished in the soul by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, comprehends in its embraces the whole universe, and, in the exercise of its good-will towards those who come under its influence, "suffereth long and is kind; envieth not; vaunteth not itself; is not puffed up; doth not behave itself unseemly; seeketh not her own; is not easily provoked; thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; covereth all things; believeth all things;" endureth all things; and of which it is sublimely said, that "CHARITY NEVER FAILETH."

THE END.

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The indispensable necessity of Christian Love.. 11 The Self-denial of Love...............

The Joy of Love.......

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CHAPTER XIV.

9 The Candor of Love......

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CHAPTER XV.

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FAMILY MONITOR:

OR, A

HELP TO DOMESTIC HAPPINESS.

BY JOHN ANGELL JAMES,

AUTHOR OF THE CHRISTIAN FATHER'S PRESENT, &C.

“Behold! how good and how pleasant it is, for brethren to dwell together in unity."

NEW-YORK:

THOMAS GEORGE, JR. 162 NASSAU STREET.

PSALM CXXXIII.

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