first troubled and agitated society. If every dogma for which men's passions have been kindled, and the holiest blood shed, were erased from the Christian's creed, the truth as it is in Jesus' would not suffer the slightest curtailment. Men have invented shibboleths, and then slaughtered their brethren for not believing God's truth. They have first drawn on their passions or their fancy, and then bid their intellect worship the monstrous idol. What, however, we may be asked, are the doctrines of Christianity? The answer must depend on what is meant by the term doctrines. For ourselves, we do not admit the inferences of man as the doctrines of the Gospel. Deductions as endless and multiform may be made, as the varieties of individual minds. These may be acceptable to their makers, but they have authority with no one else. They may be truth, they may be error also; at all events, they can hardly be the characteristics of Christianity; for, if so, Christianity is of all various things the most variable. In its very nature a characteristic must be one and the same under all circumstances, otherwise nothing is defined, and the excess of light produces darkness. What, then, are the express teachings of Christ? For the sake of distinction let them be divided into doctrine. and practice. In doctrine, the form of sound words is short and simple. Its primary truth is, There is one God,' God is love; the next, which is like unto it, is, that God so loved the world, that he sent his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' These are the express, and, as the express, so the fundamental teachings of the Gospel. The unity and paternity of God, and the divine legation of Christ, established by direct affirmation, and wrought into the whole texture of the Gospel, now set forth in word and now illustrated in deed;-in other words, the history of Christ, in his life, death and resurrection-the teaching of Christ, in the assertion of the Fatherly character of the only God and the immortality and accountability of man, constitute all that we can discover of positive institution in the Christian religion. These, however, do not exist apart in distinct and abstract propositions, but are intimately blended with somewhat which concerns human obedience, faith, or hope. They are the elements of the Christian life. They are the vine, from which the branches spread, and in whose life the branches live. To recount these branches would be to recite all the practical and devotional instructions of the New Testament, whether found in the teachings, the works, and the character of Christ, or in the burden which his apostles bore to the world. Thus much, however, may be said, that the Gospel is rather a practical and devotional, than a metaphysical system, since whatever it teaches of doctrine, be it more or less, it associates its instruc

tions with that practical love of God and man, which is the fulfilling of the law; and subordinates even faith and hope to that spirit of benignity, which is the final cause and the final result of all. Whenever, therefore, we divide Christianity into doctrines of faith and doctrines of practice, we must remember that the division is one of our own fabrication, and though convenient as a distinction in aid of perspicuity, may be baneful in reality, if the idea of separation becomes permanently fixed in our minds. And should we feel the least disposition to refine on the doctrinal part of Christ's teachings, it would be better far to cleave exclusively to his example of pious devotedness to God's will, than to incur the risk of associating with the truth, the imaginings of our own hearts, or the traditions of the elders. In belief, we may err if we quit the written word; but the love of God and man, interpreted by the spirit of Christ, can lead only to good to ourselves and good to others.

We have now fallen on the mention of what we deem the essential feature of Christianity; for, in our opinion, the love of God and man, of God as the Father of all men, and man as of one blood and one family, and therefore one brotherhood, this, in its practical applications, interpreted not according to the law of the world, but the law of the spirit and the practice of Christ, is the whole duty of a Christian. Nothing can be true, much less fundamental, which limits the mercy of God, or narrows the heart of man; and doctrines of all kinds may, without serious risk of error, be tested by their tendency to expand and refine our affections with the generous impulses of piety and benevolence. His views of Christianity, therefore, must either be false, or what is in effect much the same, inoperative, who, however accurately he may think his creed adjusted to the word of truth, is barren in those fruits of the spirit which adorn the heart with piety, and the character with deeds of love: and though we are far from denying that accurate views of God and Christ are most important, we do not hesitate to give the preference to a spirit full of gentleness, kindness and benevolence, over a mind wise in all that is written, but not wise unto its own salvation, nor the salvation of others, because its convictions are not principles, but rather hard and abstract propositions. Give us the life-blood of a vital faith in a generous disposition, and we envy not a mathematical religion laid down by square and compass with the utmost rigour of real or fancied demonstration. It is not, indeed, our opinion, that there is any incompatibility between a sound faith and an active benevolence. On the contrary, they stand, we hold, in the relation of cause and effect; but, since absolute certainty, even in relation to religious truth, is unattainable, it is far better to prize that most highly, which gives its value to the purest and the fullest creed; and, while we

aim to excel in faith and hope, our chief business is to take care not to be defective in charity. Let us, if we can, call Jesus Lord, Lord,' with the correctness and completeness of apostolic apprehension; but let us also do what he commanded; and, since many things excite the doubt whether the first may not be too high for us, it will be well to strive after that which is in our power, and walk in all the ordinances of the Gospel, blameless.

In this effort we may be greatly aided by a correct apprehension of the Gospel views of human nature. In the whole of Christ's teachings, and especially in his death, man is regarded as a sinful being. We enter not into the crabbed question of the origin of evil. Christ dealt with sinners without even a reference to the fall of man, much less to the wisdom of the disputer of this world. He found sin in the world, and he did his best to free the world from sin; and far better would it be for his disciples to imitate him, by devoting their energies to emancipate the world from thraldom to sin, than to debate, however curiously or powerfully, respecting its introduction. Here it is, in every one's heart and in every one's home, and wherever it is, it is man's direst enemy; our duty therefore is, to labour with Christ and God, in liberating the world from its baneful influence. But they only will combat faithfully in the holy warfare, who act constantly on a vivid recognition of its presence and of the evils it inflicts. It was this that lay at the foundation of all the Saviour's efforts. He came, he suffered and died for our sins.' His whole life was a declaration of its existence and its terror. The Gospel is constructed on the supposition that man is a sinner; that the disease is deeply rooted in the moral constitution, and goes not out, except under the operation of those remedies which God has provided, and which Christ promulgated. Hence the proclamation of the Gospel-that is, the good news of God's placability, of his Fatherly yearnings toward his offspring, and his readiness to pardon them on repentance and newness of life; hence the exhibition of the spotless and winning example of Christ's character, and the attractive devotedness of his obedience even unto death; hence the array in the New Testament of the awful sanctions of man's responsibility, and of death, judgment and eternity; and hence, too, all the warnings, injunctions, invitations and threats of the New Testament; for they all proceed on the supposition that there is in man a disease to be cured, in the world an evil to be avoided, and an unspeakable good to be gained both in time and in eternity.

But to us the implication is as clear of man's power as of his sinfulness. We do not mean that in and of himself man's arm can achieve his salvation; but that by the of grace God, operating

through that instrumentality which has been devised in the workings of Providence, of nature, of society, of the human breast, and especially of the Gospel, man may rise from the earth, and expand into the full proportions of the child of God and the heir of immortality. The great business of our lives is to work out our own salvation, with the aid of Him who worketh in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure.'

Christianity, therefore, is the religion of Christ, and the religion of Christ is emphatically in Christ's character. He was what he taught, and if we are like him, after our humble measure, we shall enjoy the proud distinction of being his. All other tests of soundness are liable to mistake; the one perfect rule is, to be what he was, and do what he did. God will not condemn those who are 'conformed to the image of his Son.'

7.

THE SPIRIT OF LOVE.

THERE is a brilliant flood of sunshine shed abroad over this our world. It touches the ocean; and the spray, as it is dashed from the surges, becomes like a thousand glittering stars: it gleams upon the tops of the mountains, and the eagles soar aloft and scream for joy it tinges the cornfields with a golden lustre : it falls upon the woods as a mantle of beauty: it spreads itself over the lonely white-washed cottages, and burnishes the windows of every dwelling with such a peculiar brightness, that it might seem as if the happiness that existed within had suddenly become a visible essence shining forth upon the world without. There is a quickening and invigorating influence that visits the earth with the returning spring. It passes with the first soft winds through the whispering woods, and every tree has a harp of welcome. It sweeps over the furrowed field, and It breathes along the hedge-rows, and they are fragrant with uncultured flowers. It calls back the wandering birds, each to its own resting place. It converts the blue ether into a glorious canopy, and prepares beside the singing waters as welcome a resting place for man. But there is an influence abroad more beautiful and more renovating than these. Wherever it appears it chases darkness from the atmosphere, and winter from the earth. It makes earth a heaven, and heaven a home of unutterable happiness. This is the Spirit of Love.

the

green corn appears.

In despite of all the crime, all the selfishness, and all the misery which exist in our crowded cities, and even in our sheltered hamlets, there is enough of this holy influence existing in

every one of them, to make the philanthropist proud of his human nature, and hopeful of humanity. That so many of the wise and good have doubted or denied this glorious truth is not sufficient to disprove it. It is easier to believe, that the wisest of men may mistake, than that God hath left himself without witness that he has made man in his own moral image. If there have been many times, even to the most trustful amongst us, when the evidences of this blessed spirit have seemed to be very few, may it not have been that we were slow to perceive its manifestations, or that we estimated the sacrifices it prompted rather by the little good they produced than the great efforts which were required to make them. Next to a belief in the perfect goodness of the Creator, there is nothing which so strongly excites our reverence for him as a belief in the goodness of the creature. Excepting our trust in the loving kindness of God, there is nothing that conduces so much to our happiness as confidence in the love of man. That there are on the face of this beautiful earth fearful instances of cruelty and selfishness, none but the wildest enthusiast can deny; but there are also examples of the most disinterested exertions, of the most determined self-denial, and of the most patient endurance, and these, too, in circumstances apparently the most unfavourable to the formation of virtuous affections and habits. There have been, and it is to be feared there will long be, melancholy instances of ingratitude and hardness of heart; so long there will be disappointed and broken spirits, who, having entered into life eager to communicate and to receive happiness, have found their warmest affections coldly returned, and their best endeavours repulsed or counteracted. But are not these chiefly to be found amongst those who have too much concentrated their affections? Who have

"Made idols, and have found them clay"?

Are there any such to be found amongst those, who have set out with the knowledge that human nature is but clay, and loved it, not in blindness to its imperfections, but in spite of them? For him, who benefits mankind because they are one large family of which God is the Father, one blessed flock of which Christ is the Shepherd, there may be disappointment, but there will never be despair. To his estimate of good he will meet with some exceptions, but he will feel that they are exceptions, and that there is still abundant ground for belief in the improvability, it would scarcely be too much to say the perfectability, of man. He who would see the progression of humanity towards perfection, must himself be strong in faith and in Christian charity; he must go forth in the Spirit of Love. For him, every street and alley will teem with objects of interest.

B