with him, that we may be also glorified together. And in the same way elsewhere (Gal. iv., 5) we are told that God sent forth his Son...that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. And the Apostles naturally and forcibly urge this as a ground of the Love of God as 1 John iv., 9, 19, In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him... And we love him, because he first loved us.

710. The Love of God, our heavenly Father, like the love of a Human Father, tends to produce an Obedience of the Heart (284). So far as the Love of God is unfolded and established in the Christian's heart, it supersedes all other motives to obedience to the Moral Law, and becomes his constant and universal Principle of Action.

711. The relation of Christians to each other, as Children, in an especial manner, of God their common Father, is urged upon them by the Apostles, as a motive for a brotherly Love, which ought to exist between them, and out of which all Duties to men must spring. Thus St. John says, in a passage lately quoted (1 John iv., 11), Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. This mutual Love is constantly enjoined by the same Apostle as the evidence of our Love of God: (1 John iv., 20), If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. The same is the general tenour of the whole of the Epistles of St. John. St. Paul, following the teaching of Christ, says (Gal. v., 14), that all the commandments are comprehended in this one saying, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

712. This Christian Love of men as our

brethren includes, as St. Paul states in the passage just cited, all other duties; and includes them in a form more complete than mere Morality can give them. This love will necessarily exclude all thought of mutual injustice and falsehood. The Christian teacher says (Acts vii., 26), Ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another? And (Eph. iv., 25), Speak every man truth to his neighbour; for we are members one of another. Christianity taught men that they were to reject the tenacity of their own Rights, out of which opposition and unkindness rise, and were to seek each other's good as members of one family. The effect of this teaching showed itself in the manner in which, at the first preaching of the Apostles, the converts threw their possessions into the common stock (Acts iv., 34); and has constantly operated since, to make those who are Christians in spirit ready to give and glad to distribute, and specially careful of the interests and comforts of their neighbours. In this respect Christian Morality has introduced into the world a standard much higher than the Morality of Reason.

713. The Duty of Prayer to God, which is suggested by the feelings belonging to Natural Piety, is confirmed and more strongly enjoined by Revealed Religion. The Old Testament contains the account of God's more especial dealings with men, as shown in the History of the Jews, the nation selected to be the especial channel of his Dispensations. The passages in the Old Testament, which enjoin or take for granted this Duty, are too numerous, and too familiar to our minds, to require to be cited. In the New Testament, this duty is still more earnestly enjoined. Christ taught his disciples (Luke xviii., 1), That men ought always to pray, and not to faint in such exertions. And he himself taught his disciples how to pray ; and spoke of many special occasions of prayer: thus (Matth. v., 44), Pray for them that despitefully

use you. (Matth. ix., 38), Pray ye the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest. And he was himself frequently engaged in earnest prayer. (Matth. xiv., 23. Mark vi., 46. Luke vi., 12; ix., 28. John xiv., 16; xvi., 26; xvii., 9. Matth. xxvi., 36. Mark xiv., 32). The injunctions and examples of the Apostles on this subject are perpetual. The same is the case with Thanksgiving. Christ says (Matth. xi., 25), I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth. And (John xi., 41), I thank thee, Father, that thou hearest me. In Acts xvi., 25, Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises to God: and so on, in innumerable other places. No duty is more frequently and strongly enjoined than these are.

714. It has been suggested, as a difficulty respecting the Duty of Prayer, that in prayer we desire God to alter the course of the world, in order to comply with our wishes, as if we mistrusted his goodness and wisdom. But to this we reply, that the things which we desire of God in our prayers are, for the most part, spiritual blessings. Forgive us our trespasses. Lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from evil. The course of things to which these events belong is the Spiritual Government of God (592), and to that Spiritual Government our prayers also belong. In the spiritual world, the prayers of believers are events as real as their temptations, their deliverance, their forgiveness; and the former events may very naturally be conceived to produce an ef fect upon the latter. There is, therefore, in such prayers, nothing inconsistent with our belief in God's goodness and wisdom. And prayers for temporal blessings, as, Give us this day our daily bread, are rather to be understood as expressing our sense of our dependence upon God, than our desire that he should direct the course of the world according to our wishes. Such prayers are the expressions by

which our mere natural desires show, that though submitted to the will of God, they are not annihilated. We know that, except through the goodness of God, we cannot receive even our daily bread; and the desire of life, and of the supports of life, which religion cannot and does not seek to extinguish, she converts into a desire that God would give us what we need.

715. We are taught to combine, with our prayers to God, a Resignation to his will, whatever it may be, and a belief that what he does is for the best; whether he grant or refuse our prayers, and whether he give or take away apparent benefits. In the Prayer which Christ taught his Disciples to offer, he bids them say, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. And though this clause expresses our Hope of the religious progress of men on earth, it also expresses our Acquiescence and Submission to the Will of God, whatever it may be. And Jesus Christ himself used this language in prayer as an expression of Resignation (Matth. xxvi., 42). The same lesson is enforced by the Apostles in their teaching. Thus (1 Pet. v., 6), Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time; casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. And so iv., 19, Let them that suffer according to the Will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

716. A main use of Prayer, however uttered, is to express and confirm a habit of Mental Worship. Christ himself said, when speaking of external forms of worship (John iv., 24), God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. And in comparison with the practice of ostentatious individual prayer which prevailed among the Jews, he enjoined Private Prayer (Matth. vi., 5). Such Private Prayer is indeed the natural utterance

of piety, as we have already said. And this utterance will be both more significant and more likely to confirm the affections of piety, if it form a part of the business of each day. Private Prayer every Morning and Evening may be so employed, as to tend to fix upon our minds the thought of God, of his blessings, his laws, and the hopes and encouragements which he sets before us; and thus may aid in giving a moral and religious turn to our disposition and will during the whole course of our days.

Public Prayer and the other acts of Public Worship, which, as we have said, are universally prac tised among nations through the impulse of Natural Piety, are also recommended by other considerations, so that they become Christian Duties. Of these however we shall speak, under the Head of Christian Ordinances.

CHAPTER XIII

RELIGIOUS BELIEF.

717. In order that the Christian may have the benefit of God's provisions for his justification, sanc. tification, and final blessedness, the relation between God and himself must be brought home to his mind. He must believe in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ his Son our Saviour, as we have already said (587, 588). Such belief is so essential to the Christian's condition, that the terms Believers and Unbelievers are employed to describe those who are truly Christians and those who are not. The Christian may say, as St. Paul says (Gal. ii., 20), I live by faith in the Son of God.

This Belief, or Faith, includes an act of the IntelK 2

VOL. IL

8