ours.

thy Lord's Glorified Body as He arose for thee. The closed tomb could not hold Him; the closed doors could not hinder His passing. It was not bounded to this earth; It came and went after the manner of a spirit. He ate and drank with them, to shew that His was no phantom body; He came, He went; He appeared, He vanished out of their sight; in order to shew how His Nature was above the laws of And what is It now? Something of what It is now, you may see in the Revelations. Full It is of the Majesty and Beauty and Glory of God; visibly in-oned with God become visible. And such, if we attain, are our poor bodies to be, conformed to His Glorious Body. Misuse them then not; sin not with them; keep them pure by His Grace, that they may be made like our Lord's. It is not long for thee to wait for harvest, and for a return of thy gains. Thou wouldest wait yet longer, if thy harvest or thy earthly gain were thereby doubled, if every day added to thy harvest, or thy gain. But, for heaven, every day is thy seed-time; day by day, thou mayest sow that which thou shalt reap in life eternal. As the hairs of your heads are numbered, so are the moments of your lives, and every event in every moment, which shall be a portion of thy trial, and may be a portion of thy crown. As not a hair of your head shall perish, so neither a moment of your time. A day lost, wherein thou doest nothing whereby to please God, is a loss for eternity. Every day thou mayest store something for eternity; every day thou mayest be enlarged by the grace of God, to contain the love of God, yea God Who is love, for all eternity. "This is our reward; this our crown;

this the prize set before us; gladness itself, life, glory, peace, pleasure, bliss, sweetness, overwhelming joy, and all in one, for all shall be in God, and God in all, Himself the Life, the Joy of all who love."

Let us not then be wearied, though the strife be, at times, wearisome; let us not relax, though it need much watchfulness. Christ says His yoke is easy. He Who saith so, can and will make it so. He saith, my burden is light; for He Himself will bear it. His burden is light, for it will displace the heavy burdens of thine own; the burden of thy sin; the burden of thy passions; the burden of thy restlessness; the burden of thy desires; the burden of thy fears; the burden of thyself. Christ's burden, the larger it is, the lighter is it; the closer thou fit it to thyself, the more it will free thee; the more thou takest it on thee, the more it will uplift thee. It will be borne by thee, but rather it will itself upbear thee, where there shall be no yoke or burden more; but the free, calm, rest and dwelling in everlasting holy joy. Yet the burden and the yoke are but for a few days; the glory and bliss are as eternal as the everlasting glory and bliss of Almighty God, in Whom shall be our glory and our bliss.

SERMON XX.

THE POWER AND GREATNESS OF LOVE.

FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

1 S. JOHN iv. 7, 8.

"Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love."

GOD has set before us to-day in the Epistle and the Gospel, two pictures, of love of self, and of love of God, as shewn in love to our brother, and of the end of those two loves, weal and woe, Heaven and Hell, dwelling in God, and dwelling in torments. And to-day it has come to me to speak to you of love, love which is to be shewn to His little ones, love which you are to shew by enabling this love the more to be shewn to them, that they may be taught to love Him. S. John, as it were, encircles us with love; he goes round from love to love; from the love of one another to the love of God, from the love

of God to the Being of God, which is Love; thence to His love of us in Christ, the source of our love to Him and to one another, and so to the In-dwelling by Him and in Him and the perfecting of our love, and boldness in the Day of Judgment, and likeness to God even in this world. He tells us, the source, the birth, the ground, the fruit of love.

"Love is of

What is its source? God Himself. God." Whence is it born in us? Of God Himself. "Every one that loveth is born of God." What its ground? The love of God in Christ. Eternal love sent Co-eternal Love into the world to win us to His Love. "Herein is Love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." What its fruit? Rather one might ask what is not its fruit? Likeness to God, the sight of God, the knowledge of God, the in-dwelling of God, the dwelling in God, the perfection of His love in us, and our perfection in His Love.

This is the greatness of the love of God, this its power, this it is which makes it not the most eminent only of all virtues, the first and great commandment, but the essence and substance and soul of all virtues, the commandment of Christ, that "God is love." This touches, so to speak, on the Essence of the Divine Nature. "Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the majesty ;" "wisdom, and riches, and strength, and blessing," and "praise, and dominion," are His. His "Alone is Immortality." Yet Holy Scripture

" a

d

C

b Rev. v. 12.

d 1 Tim. vi. 16.

does not say "Thine is love," or "Thou art Power, Thou art Righteousness or Justice." For although God in His simple Essence, is All-Powerful, yet His Being is not Power, nor Mind, but Love. He Himself has told us, that "God is love." In this way then He brings us into direct relation to Himself. In this way He calls us to return Him like for like. He gives us that in us, although created, which answers, as it were, face to face, to what He Himself IS. "Love," says a holy man," "is the only one of all the emotions, affections, and feelings of the soul, in which the creature can, although not as an equal, answer to its Author, and return like for like. If God is angry with me, shall I be angry in turn with Him? Nay, I shall fear and tremble and sue for pardon. If He rebuke me, He shall not be answered by me, but shall rather be justified by me. And if He judge me, I will not judge, but will adore, Him; and when He saveth me, He doth not seek Himself to be saved, nor to be delivered by any one, Who delivereth all. If He ruleth, I must serve; if He commandeth, I must obey; and not require in turn from the Lord service or compliance. See now how different it is as to love. For when God loveth, He willeth nothing else than to be loved; for to no other end doth He love, save that He may be loved, knowing that they who love Him, will through that very love be blessed. Great indeed is love!"

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And so, by loving God we know God, as He says, every one that loveth knoweth God, for God is love." We know a man when we know his inmost self, that which is most himself. The very Being of