obliges them to be partakers of the sorrows and joys of those by whom they are surrounded; while the more ruthless, and those who have been most deaf to the claims of truth, justice, and compassion, have been those whose isolation from the objects of natural affection has been more complete, such as the often savage and inhuman monks of the early and middle ages, and the cold and cruel members of the Inquisition and Sacred College. Where else could we find any body of men of whom, as a class, it could be said that they were without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful,' who could look on in cold blood (and without the excuse of those passions which are the usual cause of such crimes in others) at tortures and agonies the mere reading of which harrows the souls of every ordinary person? Wanting in natural affections, and that dependence on their fellow-men which springs from those affections, they could not experience the sorrows which accompany them, and failing which there was nothing to soften their hearts. and elevate their moral characters.

We thus perceive that the want of these natural affections and moral qualities conduces to the misery of man, and that in proportion to their development, so do they conduce to his happiness. And in spite of their absence in many persons, it is evident that they are essential characteristics of human nature, and that without them men are imperfect, and incomplete as human beings, a fact which we recognise when we call those greatly wanting in them inhuman,' and those by whom they are strongly manifested as 'humane.'

The highest manifestation of moral love must be God. Himself. We are told, indeed, that God is love,' which is no more than to say that God is perfectly righteous. For perfect righteousness is to love that which is right, and to hate that which is wrong, and therefore to love

truth, justice, kindness, compassion, long-suffering, and to hate their opposites. If so, then God must desire everything by which His creatures are benefited, and must hate everything by which they are injured or made miserable. However, then, in consequence of our not perceiving the ultimate object of His acts, appearances may seem at times to deny this, yet, as we believe that God must be perfect righteousness, so we must conclude that He is perfect love.

Love implies objects of love, and objects that must be fitting objects of that love, for as love or righteousness is directly opposed to evil in all its forms, it is manifest that the unmerciful, envious, selfish, unjust, and deceitful cannot be fitting objects of love. Love, in fact, implies not merely objects for love, but also the desire for their love, and such as these cannot love. Who, then, are fitting objects for the love of God?

Surely when we think of God as the Infinite, the Almighty Mind, who, in the lofty language of the prophet, 'inhabiteth eternity,' and when we think of man, each individual being only one out of many thousand millions of the human race, and the whole of them and the world they inhabit a mere speck amongst the countless number of mightier worlds which exist throughout the infinite, illimitable creation of God, we may well ask what conceivable creature is a worthy object of the love of God. 'What is man' that God 'should be mindful of him '? Psa. viii. 4). This, indeed, is the argument of many who look only on the outward and material aspect of things. What, they ask, can our little earth, with its insignificant inhabitants, be to the Creator of the infinite universe? Yet the Jewish prophets and the Christian writers insist upon, and reiterate the statement, that God not only does love man, but that the very weakest and most despised of the race are the especial objects of that love! If, however, we examine the essential nature of

love, we shall perceive that this is the necessary result of its nature.

In the first place, apart from moral considerations, we perceive that, by the law of reciprocity, power is not attracted by power, but by weakness and need, in the supply of which that power is manifested. Thus we find it stated that the tender mercy of God is over all His works.' 'He giveth to the beast his food and to the young ravens when they cry' (Psa. cxlvii. 9), and 'not a sparrow falls to the ground without His knowledge.' There is also the same care and perfection of design in the structure and condition of the minutest organism as in that of a world; nothing is slurred or imperfect in itself.

Suffering, need, and imperfection indeed exist, and are inseparable from that which is natural and morally imperfect; but we have seen that they have a high moral purpose, namely, the elevation of man to that moral perfection which is the only real perfection, to lead him to recognise his need, his dependence on God, and the evil of sin, and thus to unite him to God by faith, and conform him to His moral image. Those who recognise the supreme importance of the attainment of this end, compared with which all else is insignificant, will perceive in it a sufficient answer to those philosophers who regard it as absurd to suppose that the Infinite will listen to, and answer the cry of His creatures for help.*

Hence it is written, The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind; the Lord raiseth up them that be bowed down. He relieveth the fatherless and the widow. He shall deliver the needy when he crieth, the poor also, and him that hath no helper;' and the pity, compassion, and sympathy of the Creator are thus called forth, not by the great, the noble, and the wise, but by the weak things

* See Appendix C, 'Prayer and Miracles.'

of this world, by things despised, by the poor, the needy, the suffering, the helpless, and the miserable.

If love is also the desire to be loved and to receive in proportion as it gives, then it is not those who are rich in all things and in need of nothing, but those who are in need of everything, whose love and gratitude will be most called forth by the mercy, and will most satisfy, the love of God; as was pointed out by Christ to Simon the Pharisee in the case of the woman whose sins, which were many, had been forgiven her.

Furthermore, as moral love is moral sympathy, God must be most strongly attracted to those who are most like Himself; that is to say, to those who exercise towards others the loving-kindness, justice, and righteousness in which He delights (Jer. ix. 24). Therefore, as trust and belief in Him is the highest mark of moral sympathy, faith is everywhere stated in the Scriptures to be the bond which unites man to God and God to man.

Man ought also to be attracted to God, and to love Him, on the same principles on which he is attracted to, and loves his fellow-men. He should, in the first place, be attracted to God through that law of reciprocity by which weakness and need are attracted to power. From God 'cometh every good and perfect gift.' Not only does man's physical life and well-being depend on Him, but that thirst for wisdom, and for all the beauty which eye or ear are capable of recognising, can never be satisfied but by God. Nor is there any conceivable good thing in this world that is not of God, or any object of natural desire and affection which is not the expression of His perfection, and which, if all was lost in this world, the First Cause of all things could not renew a thousandfold; for all wisdom, and everything of beauty, which is but the expression of wisdom and perfection, must be from God, and be expressions of His wisdom. Moreover, so great is man's capacity, that nothing satisfies him in this

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world, for the eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear with hearing' (Eccles. i. 8). Besides which, everything in this world is imperfect, corruptible, and transient. There is nothing so perfect but that imperfection may not be found in it, and the most perfect are the most transient, for the fashion of this world passeth away.' Hence the profound sense of dissatisfaction, and the thirst for something, they know not what, which many feel, all of which is but an evidence that man is constituted for better things than this world can give, in order that he may thus be led to thirst for Him who alone can supply all his need.

But yet greater ought to be the attraction of man to God on account of moral considerations. For as He alone is perfect righteousness, so He alone can satisfy man's desire for righteousness. But because the love of righteousness is weak, even in the best, and is wanting in many, therefore few love God as they ought. Those, however, who do love Him, love Him for precisely the same reasons that they love those who are righteous among their fellow-men. Therefore Christ said, By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye love one another' (John xiii. 35). 'Everyone that loveth,' says the Apostle John, is born of God, and knoweth God.' 'If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us' (1 John iv. 7, 12). Thus the Christian's love of God is the measure of his love for those persons who manifest, although imperfectly, the characteristics of that love which is the essential attribute of God; while his love for them is equally the measure and criterion of his love of God, and the evidence of his restoration to the image of God. For a like reason Christ said, He it is that loveth Me who keepeth My commandments.' Christ was the manifestation of the righteousness of God in the flesh, and His commandments were the commandments of righteousness. Who