3. It is the evidence of regeneration. "Love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God.”—1 John iv. 7.

4. It is the necessary operation and effect of saving faith. "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love."

5. It is that grace by which both personal and mutual edification is promoted. "Knowledge puffeth up, but charity, (love) edifieth."-1 Cor. viii. 1.- "Maketh increase of the body to the edifying of itself in love."-Eph. iv. 16.

6. It is the proof of a mutual inhabitation between God and his people. "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him."-1 John iv. 12-16.

7. It is declared to be the greatest of all the Christian virtues. “The greatest of these is charity (love.")

8. It is represented as the perfection of religion. "Above all these things, put on charity (love,) which is the bond of perfectness."-Col. iii. 4.

What encomiums are these! what striking proofs of the supreme importance of the disposition now under consideration! Who has not been guilty of some neglect of it? Who has not had his attention drawn too much from it? Who can read these passages of Holy Writ, and not feel convinced that not only mankind in general, but the professors of spiritual religion also, have too much mistaken the nature of true piety? What are clear and orthodox views-what are strong feelings what is our faith-what our enjoymentwhat our freedom from gross immorality—without this spirit of pure and universal benevolence?

Whether an instance, we again repeat, ever existed of an individual whose circumstances answered to the supposition of the Apostle, we cannot determine; the

statement certainly suggests to us a most alarming idea of our liability to self-deception in reference to our personal religion. Delusion on this subject prevails to an extent truly appalling. Millions are in error as to the real condition of their souls, and are travelling to perdition, while, according to their own idea, they are journeying to the celestial Canaan. Oh fearful mistake! Oh fatal imposture! What terrible disappointment awaits them! What horror, and anguish, and despair, will take eternal possession of their souls, in that moment of revelation, when, instead of awaking from the sleep of death amidst the glories of the heavenly city, they shall lift up their eyes, "being in torment." No pen can describe the overwhelming anguish of such a disappointment, and the imagination shrinks with amazement and torture from the contemplation of her own faint sketch of the insupportable scene.

To be led on by the power of delusion, so far as to commit an error of consequence to our temporal interests; to have impaired our health, our reputation, or our property;—is sufficiently painful, especially where there is no prospect, or but a faint one, of repairing the mischief: yet, in this case, religion opens a balm for the wounded spirit, and eternity presents a prospect, where the sorrows of time will be forgotten. But, oh! to be in error on the nature of religion itself, and to build our hopes of immortality on the sand instead of the rock; to see the lamp of our deceitful profession which has served to amuse us in life, and even to guide us in false peace through the dark valley of the shadow of death, suddenly extinguished as we cross the threshold of eternity, and leaving us amidst the darkness of rayless, endless night, instead of quietly expiring amidst the blaze of everlasting day! Is such a delusion possible? Has it ever happened in one solitary instance? Do the annals of the unseen world record one such case, and the prison of lost souls contain one miserable spirit that perished by delusion? Then what deep solicitude ought the possibility of such an event

to circulate through the hearts of all, to avoid the error of a self-deceived mind? Is it possible to be mistaken in our judgment of our state?—then how deeply anxious ought we all to feel, not to be misled by false criteria in forming our decision. But what if, instead of one case, millions should have occurred, of souls irrecoverably lost by self-deception? What if delusion should be the most crowded avenue to the bottomless pit? What if it should be the common infatuation, the epidemic blindness, which has fallen upon the multitudes of the inhabitants of Christendom? What if this moral insanity, should have infected and destroyed very many who have made even a stricter profession of religion than others? How shall we explain, much more justify, that want of anxiety, about their everlasting welfare-that destitution of care to examine into the nature and evidences of true piety-that willingness to be imposed upon, in reference to eternity—which many exhibit? Jesus Christ does tell us that MANY, in that day, shall say, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in thy name?" to whom he will say, "Depart from me, I never knew you, ye workers of iniquity." He says, that "MANY are called, but few chosen." He says, that of the four classes of those who hear the word, only one hears it to advantage. He says, that of the ten virgins, to whom he likens the kingdom of heaven, five only were wise, while the other five were deceiving themselves with the unfed lamp of a deceitful profession. He intimates most plainly, that self-deception in religion is fearfully common-and common amongst those who make a more serious profession than others. It is he that has sounded the alarm to awaken slumbering professors of religion from their carnal security. It is he that hath said, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”—“I know thy works, how that thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead." How careful, then, ought we to be, not to be imposed upon by false evidences of religion, and not to conclude that we are Christians, while we are destitute of those things which

the word of God declares to be essential to genuine piety. We must have love, therefore, or all else is insufficient.

1. Some conclude, that because they are regular in their attendance upon the services of religion, they are true Christians: they go punctually to church or to meeting-they receive the Lord's Supper-they frequent the meetings for social prayer-they, perhaps, repeat prayers in secret, and read the Scriptures. All this is well, if it be done with right views, and in connexion with right dispositions: but it is the whole of their religion; a mere abstraction of devotional exercise; a thing separate and apart from the heart, and temper, and conduct; a business of the closet, and of the sanctuary; a sort of composition paid to the Almighty, to be released from all the other demands of Scripture and obligations of piety; an expression of their willingness to be devout in the church, and on the Sabbath, provided they may be as earthly-minded, as selfish, as malicious, and as unkind, as they please, in || all places and all times besides. This is not religion..

2. Others are depending upon the clearness of their views,and their attainments in evangelical knowledge. They pretend to a singular zeal for the truth, and are great sticklers for the doctrines of grace, of which they profess to have an acquaintance little short of inspiration. They look upon all, besides a few of their own class, as mere babes in knowledge, or as individuals who, like the man in the Gospel, have their eyes only half opened, and who see, "men as. trees walking." They are the eagles who soar to the sun, and bask in his beams; while the rest of mankind are the moles that burrow, and the bats that flutter in the dark. Doctrine is every thing; clear views of the Gospel are the great desideratum; and in their zeal for these things they suppose they can never say things extravagant enough, nor absurd enough, nor angry enough, against good works, practical religion, or Christian temper. Puffed up with pride, selfish, unkind, irritable, censorious, malicious, they manifest a total want of that hu

mility and kindness which are the prominent features of true Christianity. Clear views, even where they have no resemblance to the monstrous caricatures and frightful deformities of modern Antinomianism, are of themselves no evidence of religion, any more than right theoretical notions of the constitution are the proofs of loyalty; and as a man, with these notions in his mind, may be a traitor in his heart, so may a professor of religion be an enemy to God in his soul, with an evangelical creed upon his tongue. Many profess to be very fond of the lamp of truth, grasp it firmly in their hands, admit its flame, pity or blame those who are following the delusive and meteoric fires of error; but, after all, make no other use of it, than to illuminate the path that leads them to perdition: their religion begins and ends in adopting a form of sound words for their creed, approving an evangelical ministry, admiring the popular champions of the truth, and joining in the reprobation of fundamental error. As to any

spirituality of mind, any heavenliness of affection, any Christian love-in short, as to any of the natural tendency, the appropriate energy, the vital elevating influence, of those very doctrines to which they profess to be attached-they are as destitute as the verriest worldling; and, like him, are perhaps selfish, revengeful, implacable, and unkind. This is a religion but too common in the present day, when evangelical sentiments are becoming increasingly popular; a religion but too common in our churches; a religion, cold, heartless, and uninfluential; a sort of lunar light which reflects the beams of the sun, but not his warmth.

3. On the other hand, some are satisfied with the vividness and the violence of their feelings. Possessed of much excitability and want of temperament, they are, of course, susceptible of deep and powerful impression from the ordinances of religion. They are not without their religious joy, for even the stony ground hearers rejoiced for a while; and they are not without their religious sorrows. Their tears are plentiful, and their smiles in proportion. See them in the