Such is the fact, and as God requires perfect holiness in all his followers, none are without excuse.

The seraphic John Fletcher says, "Christ's love filling the soul of the believer makes him perfect in love. As he is, so are we in this world! true there is a difference, but not a moral one. He has a glorified body, we a corruptible one. He is in the kingdom of glory, we in the kingdom of grace. He has the original perfection of a tree, we the derived perfection of branches growing upon it. Or, to use another comparison, He shines with the communicative perfection of a pure, bright, unextinguishable fire; and we with the borrowed, and yet inherent perfection of a coal entirely lighted. The burning mineral was black, cold, and filthy, before it was impregnated with the perfection of the fire; it continues bright, hot, and pure, only so long as it remains in the fire that kindled it: for if it falls from it by any accident, the shining perfection which it had acquired gradually vanishes, and it becomes a filthy cinder, the black emblem of an apostate." Let us guard against falling from the fire which we have in being united to Christ.

CHAPTER V.

PERFECTION.

"HAIL, holy love! thou word that sums all bliss,
Gives and receives all bliss, fullest when most
Thou giv'st! spring-head of all felicity,
Deepest when most is drawn! emblem of God!
O'erflowing most when greatest numbers drink.
Essence that binds the uncreated Three,
Chain that unites creation to its Lord,
Centre to which all being gravitates,
Eternal, ever growing, happy love!
Enduring all, hoping, forgiving all;
Instead of law, fulfilling every law;

Entirely blest, because thou seek'st no more;

Hopest not, nor fearest; but on the present livest,
And hold'st perfection smiling in thy arms."

POLLOK.

An aged mother in Israel was once asked by a minister how long she had been in the way to heaven. She replied, "Seventy-five years." If I mistake not, she was then approaching ninety. "Seventy-five years!" said the astonished minister. "Then surely you have much to say about religion." The Christian mother replied, “All I have to say about it, sir, is, It is nothing but LOVEpure love to God and man." That one word contains volumes. The sum and substance of our holy religion is "LOVE." That one thing contains every fraction of it—

that one word expresses the whole of it. Love which loves God! Love which loves mankind-all mankind! Love which obeys God in all things! Love which strives to benefit mankind at all times. Jehovah Jesus, let my religion be LOVE.

"The sweetest boon, the word that sums all bliss!
The sparkling cream of all Time's blessedness!
The silken down of happiness complete!"

"The heaven of heavens is love in the heart."

:

Perfect Love is practical. Love is far from being a solitary hermit who creeps away into some secluded corner of the earth or other, for fear of beholding the sad condition of wretched men, and meeting with opportunities of doing good. That is selfishness, practising a cheat upon its deluded possessor. Love is a philanthropic spirit which loves the place of concourse and of abode. Its ears are swift to catch the groans of suffering humanity. Its searching eye, glistening with mercy and moistened with pity, follows after the poor, the maimed, the halt, the blind, and affords. relief with its hand of benevolence and more than that, labours to elevate the perishing soul to Abraham's bosom. Love a solitary hermit! A stranger to the misery of the perishing! A selfish misanthrope! Nothing of the sort. So far from these, or anything bordering upon them, it copies the example of Jesus Christ, its great original, who went about doing good. Love is anxious to be seen, because anxious to be imitated. And it flies to obey God in blessing man, whether by units in private, tens in the social circle, or hundreds or thousands in public. No mere human being was ever a greater development in life of the nature of this principle than the founder of Methodism, who may properly be termed the Apostle John of the eighteenth century, and whose itinerant life was, in every

sense of the word, a practical sermon on Christian perfection, of sixty years' length. Eternity, in ten thousand living monuments, will proclaim its wonderful success. Read the 364th hymn, which just shows the man of God. And then read James i. 27.

Our Lord says, "If ye love me keep my commandments." St. John says, "This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments." This is the practical criterion. The love of God within developes itself by a holy and useful life. If we halt in carrying out our sanctification of soul, by a sanctified or devoted life, it will very soon be lost from the experience. Let the damper of inactivity be put down upon the fire of love, and it will soon become extinguished.

Love is an active principle. This is universally true of love. This is true of perfect Christian love especially. It is the root of obedience, and produces the fruits of good living. Love to God in the heart is seen in the life; and when love in the heart grows cold for want of proper exercise, the individual thus guilty of disobedience to its promptings, is a palpable backslider. To profess to be sanctified wholly, whilst plain Gospel duties are neglected, is an awful mistake, if not a piece of the vilest hypocrisy; and is most dishonouring to the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ. That some passionate, wild, enthusiastic, and ignorant ranting professors in different sections of the Church, have been culpable in this respect, is too true; such persons are a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence to many sincere persons who would be made perfectly right with God. The individual who allows himself to be imposed upon by such mere excitable professors, who are flying one day and grovelling in the mire another, is certainly reprovable. Has not the moral law been abused by some? Has not faith been abused by others? Has not the doctrine of justifi

cation been brought into contempt by many ignorant and inconsistent persons ? No wonder, then, if some individuals give occasion to others to declaim against the doctrine of Christian perfection. Take pattern by those only who "love indeed and in truth," and show that you are a truly reasonable Christian by imitating none but such whose purity of soul is coupled with a free, habitual obedience to God. Perfect love once felt should be maintained by a strict attention to the truth, and the means of grace. This will keep the fire burning with increasing warmth, and produce an active holiness worthy of imitation.

Obedience to God is love at work. This is the trade of love. Love works without charge, and yet is inseparably connected with the greatest wages. Its labours are free; but in freely endeavouring to enrich the world with solid and enduring happiness, it becomes enriched itself by the blessing of those whom it has benefitted, and by the Eternal Judge with a crown of bright, unfading, immortal glory! I had like to have said, that love in the perfect Christian makes him a secondary God at all events, such a Christian is a "partaker of the Divine nature."

Active love is entire sanctification performing her movements. It is true religion arrayed in her best robes, going out among the sons and daughters of men to show herself, to exhibit her heaven-born beauty, exert her divine attractions, to put her spell upon her perishing neighbours, and improve the world by bringing it into the neighbourhood of heaven. This is obeying Christ's command, "Let your light so shine before men, that others seeing your good works, may glorify your Father which is in heaven."

This love is consistent with itself, and on all occasions evolves a principle which is truly honouring to the uniform Christian, proving the religion of Jesus Christ to be superior to everything else. Love is a twofold principle in its