LOVE THE ESSENCE OF CHRISTIANITY.

S the attraction of gravitation pervades this widespread universe, controlling and animating the whole from the minutest particle of matter to those huge bodies that revolve in orbits immeasurably wide, and which dispense light and beauty to innumerable worlds, so the principles of love pervade and animate the christian religion, constituting, in fact, the essence of christianity. Go back to the fountain of time when the morning stars first sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy that a universe was created; and trace the history of man along down through the rolling generations, and where will you find, in all the dealings of God with his creatures, a single act that is not the direct result of this all-pervading principle, Love? See when man, forgetful of the injunction: "of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat," with presumptuous hand had plucked, had eaten and had fallen; when outraged justice would have confined him to the deepest, the darkest regions of despair, love, in the person of Christ, steps to the front, plants himself in the breach between an offended God and an offending man, and, offering himself as a propitiation, lifts man from the "slough of despond," and, pointing him down through the dim vista of coming years to the glorious plan of salvation upon Calvary's brow, bids him, by faith, look, and, looking, live!

Even when God chastises his creatures, the hand of love wields the rod. When the Israelites came out of Egypt, degraded by long years of servitude and bondage, they were unfit for liberty and for transmitting a knowledge of the true and living God to future generations; hence God, in infinite mercy and not in wrath, led them through the wanderings of a forty years' pilgrimage among the barren rocks and burning sands of Arabia's desert, that they, by a gradual course of pupilage, might be the better prepared to enjoy and appreciate the eternal bliss preserved for them beyond the Jordan's

swelling flood, where the weary are at rest and the wicked cease from troubling; this same love is manifest in all his dealings with them after their entrance into the Promised Land. Wars, famines, pestiler ces, were sent out upon them, not for the purpose of restraining them when they were rushing heedlessly, recklessly on to their own destruction, but thus bringing them back to the paths of safety and happiness. Their tears of repentance never fell in vain; their cries of distress never rose to high heaven in the proper spirit, but that the same hand which but just now wielded the rod, was ready to apply the healing balm to their smarting wounds.

But above all, the love of God for his creatures is manifested in the grand consummation of the plan of salvation when Christ, the Mighty Maker, consented to leave the shining courts above, and stooped to take upon himself the clog of mortality, to suffer, bleed and die for sinful man-the just and the unjust. What wonder, when he hung expiring upon the cross, the object of contempt and sneers of men, that strange sights were seen in the heavens, strange sounds were heard beneath the hollow caverns of the earth! What wonder that the rocks were rent, and the earth staggered upon the deep foundations! What wonder that the moon should blush in blood, and the sun, for shame, should draw over his shining face a veil of darkness when they saw him, whose hand had formed them all, thus disgracefully die for man-the creature's sin! Is it not rather a wonder that God did not, with one full sweep of the wand of destruction, strike into nonentity. the puny rebel man with all the worlds polluted by his presence? But love prevailed-the hand of justice is stayed. Looking over the heaving multitude that surrounded the cross, He cried aloud: "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do!"

"Oh! for such love let rocks and hills

Their lasting silence break,

And all harmonious human tongues

Their Maker's praises speak!"

And for all this love, for all this condescension on the part of the Great Creator, the only corresponding obligation imposed upon us is LOVE; love, the feeling most grateful to our natures, which purifies and elevates our character and renders us best satisfied with ourselves and with the world; love, which, while it controls the human heart, banishes every unholy thought, feeling and purpose, and tunes all to the sweetest harmony. When Christ was asked which was the great commandment, He answered, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind;" and the second is like unto it: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself; on these hang all the Law and the Prophets." And upon this duty are based promises, on account of which even angels envy us; support, and protection amid trials, afflictions and difficulties; constant union and reunion between ourselves and our Maker, and, finally, when we pass beyond the bounds of time, a triumphant entrance into that haven of repose, where amid flowers whose fragrant shades invite the presence of the redeemed and the angel host; where the widespread landscape invites the eye to linger; where the gently murmuring streams that plow through the smooth plains constantly renew their sources of immortality; where every sound that vibrates upon the ear, every breeze that fans our cheek, causes our souls to tingle with joy; where, surrounded by the great and good of all ages, reunited to friends and relations that have gone before, with all our senses doubly acute, and with our capacities for enjoyment infinitely expanded, we may spend an eternity whose only unit of measure is the eternal years of God himself, in a state of perfect bliss and happiness, too complete for our feeble powers to imagine.

But this love must not be that cold, dull feeling which the world calls love. It must not be that which says, "Go, be thou fed," but extends no helping hand to the fainting, starving sons of men. It can no more exist in the human heart

and produce no profit, than the luxuriant weed can refuse the burden of perfume to the evening breeze that, with gentle dalliance, kisses its flowers, or than the fruitful vine planted by the flowing stream, tended by the careful hand of the husbandman, watered by the dews of heaven and warmed by the genial rays of a tropical sun, can in autumn withhold rich clusters of luscious grapes. It must influence our feelings, regulate our actions towards God's creatures. He that is fully under its influence will not heedlessly put his foot upon a worm, much less needlessly torture or misuse those higher animals of whose assistance he is compelled to avail himself in procuring a subsistence, or in meeting his demands for food or transportation.

The principles of love and selfishness are as opposite as the antipodes as far removed from each other as Heaven is from Hell. Love teaches to do good to all men in every station of life the rich man in his palace, the poor man in his hovel; the noble and the ignoble; the wise man and the fool; the purest hearted saint and the vilest and most depraved sinner. All! even as many as God has created and Christ has redeemed are entitled to an interest in our prayers and our love. No boundaries of time or space must circumscribe it; naught but the boundaries of the universe. Some may say that your bounds are so wide as to be beyond the reach of possibility. But we should let our affections extend to all, and do all we can for those within reach of our influence and assistance. Remember 'tis not the mighty ocean, with its swelling surge, that waters and fertilizes our fields, causing them to bring forth the green herb in spring, and to clothe themselves with rich harvests of golden grain in autumn, but the tiny dew drop, the gentle summer shower. So we, though we may not be able to afford assistance to all suffering humanity, may yet contribute something to the cup of human happiness, or extract some bitter ingredient from the draft of sorrow of which too many of our race are compelled to drink. If we

cannot evangelize the whole world and break the force of the oppressor's rod, we may at least extend our supporting arms around a fallen brother, assisting him to regain his foothold upon the platform of morality and virtue by whispering sweet counsel in his ear, instead of giving him a kick as he passés by us on the downgrade with accelerated velocity, and displaying our superior sagacity by saying, when he is lost beyond the hope of all redemption: "I told you so!" If we cannot relieve the famine-stricken millions of Persia, or meet the pestilence as it stalks forth at midnight to breathe its death-distilling breath in the face of the sleeping nation, we may comfort the widow and the orphan in their distress, instead of wringing from them, as is too often the case, the last crust that is to satisfy the cravings of hunger, thus teaching them that christianity is all a vain show-a hollow pretense.

Parental love is so universal and uniform in its actions that it may be called an instinct that secures the physical and, to some extent, the intellectual development of children, but only that love which is the product of faith can secure their proper moral instruction. Where love reigns pre-eminent in the heart, it will not lack for opportunities of manifesting itself and performing its offices-at home around the fireside, on the street, in the lecture room, among strangers, and among friends.