ordinated and restricted by the controlling desire, THAT GOD MAY BE GLORIFIED IN US. We can seek nothing, desire nothing, love nothing for ourselves, but what is subordinate to and has a tendency to God's glory. So that the love of self, whatever it may be, is merged and purified in the encircling and absorbing love of God. The love of our neighbor is properly measured, on the principles of the Scriptures, by the love of ourselves. And as we can love ourselves only in subordination to God's will and glory; so we can love our neighbor only in the same manner and the same degree. In other words, both the love of ourselves and of our neighbor are only rills and drops from the mighty waters of love to God. And on the supposition, that we are filled with the love of God, the love of our neighbor flows out from the great fountain of divine love, in the various channels and in the degree which God chooses, as easily and as naturally, as a stream flows from its lake in the mountains over the meadows and valleys below. There is no need of effort. Only let God in his providence furnish the occasion; and in a moment the heart will open, and the streams will gush out. Hence the remarks, which are found in various places of the writings of Augustine, Thauler, and Fenelon to this effect, (and some eminent theologians of this country appear decidedly to favor this view,) that the love of God is capable of animating and regulating all those affections, which we owe to his creatures; that the true manner of loving our neighbor, is to love him in and for God; and

that we never love him so purely and so much, as when we love him in this way.

(2.)-We observe further, that the love of our neighbor, flowing from this divine source, and equalling in degree the love of ourselves, meets and adapts itself with a wonderful flexibility, to all the ordinary occasions and demands of life. It leads us to the humble residences of the poor, and the chambers of the sick. And while it sympathizes in the sufferings, it also rejoices in the consolations of others, just as it would in its own. "Such souls," says Fenelon, "as are really detached from themselves, like the saints in heaven, regard the mercies distributed to others, with the same complacency as those they receive themselves; for, esteeming themselves as nothing, they love the good pleasure of God, the riches of his grace, and the glory he derives from the sanctification of others, as much as that which He derives from them. All is then equal, for the personal self or ME is lost. The ME is no more ME, [that is, relatively to the exercise of the affections on their appropriate occasions,] than another person. It is God alone, that is ALL IN ALL. It is God, whom they love and admire; and who, in the exercise of this disinterested or pure love, causes all the joy of their hearts."

(3.) We remark again, that, on the principles which have been laid down, we see how we may fulfill the command of our Savior to love our enemies, to bless them that curse us, and to do good to them that hate and persecute us. Instead of

being a very difficult thing, as is commonly supposed, and as it would undoubtedly be on natural principles, it becomes easy, because, in the language of Francis De Sales, "We cannot love God as we ought, without adopting his sentiments and LOVING WHAT HE LOVES." Now we know that God loves those who do not love Him. He loved us, even when we were his enemies. He so loved a rebellious and disobedient world, as to give his Son to die for it. And if we are in the same spirit, loving only what He loves and hating what He hates, we shall find no difficulty in loving our enemies, and in praying for those who "despitefully entreat us." No matter how unlovely they may be in themselves, no matter how cruel and unjust their treatment may be to us, the consideration, that our heavenly Father loves them and requires us to love them, lays all things even, and opens the full channels of the heart, as if there were no obstacles existing.

Finally, when we love our fellow-men in this way, we love with a perseverance and constancy, which could not be realized under other circumstances. Our love is not subject to those breaks and variations, which characterize it when it is based upon the uncertainties of the creature, instead of the immutability of the divine will. On the contrary, it continually flows on and flows on, whether it meets with any favorable return or not, partaking, in no small measure, of the unchangeableness of the divine nature.

CHAPTER FOURTEENTH,

On the distinction between Love and Joy.

Ir would seem from the views, which have been taken, that PERFECT LOVE is to be regarded, on the principles of the Gospel, as essentially the same thing, or rather as precisely the same thing with Certain it is that those,

SANCTIFICATION OR HOLINESS.

who are perfected in love, whatever may be their infirmities and errors, and however important and proper it may be for them to make constant application to the blood of the atonement both for the forgiveness of the infirmities of the present and of the infirmities and transgressions of the past, are spoken of and are treated in the New Testament, as accepted, sanctified, or holy persons. Those, therefore, who are truly and without any self interested reflections seeking perfection of love, may very properly be considered as seeking holiness. But it is proper to say here, that some degree of observation and inquiry has given occasion to the remark, that some persons, who are truly seeking the sanctifying power of assured faith and perfected love, and who suppose that they are seeking it in the right way, have nevertheless committed the

dangerous error of confounding joy with love; and are in fact, without being fully aware of it, seeking after a state of highly joyful and rapturous excitement, instead of true love. It is to some mistake of this kind that the pious Lady Maxwell probably has reference, when she says, "The Lord has taught me, that it is by faith, and not Joy I must live." It seems to me, therefore, important, in order to understand the true foundation of the christian life, to draw the distinction between joy and love. This is the object of the present chap

ter.

(1.)-In endeavoring to point out the distinction between joy and love, which, it must be admitted, cannot be satisfactorily done without careful consideration, we proceed to remark in the first place, that the distinction is very properly made in philosophical writers between Emotions and Desires; and that joy is to be regarded as an emotion, rather than a desire. Regarded as an emotive state of the mind, joy, like the emotions generally, naturally terminates in itself. That is to say, a person may be the subject of highly raised joyful emotions, and at the same time may remain inactive. He may be wholly occupied with the extatic movement of his own feelings, and be destitute of thought, feeling, and action for others.-But the leading characteristic of love, that in particular which distinguishes it from mere joy, is the element of desire. It is the nature of love, as it is the nature of every thing else of which desire is the prominent element, not to stop or terminate in itself: but to lead to