ciple whom he loved; as, without at all derogating from the dignity of the Messiah, we can readily conceive, that the Son of man, like ourselves, enjoyed more the society and friendship of him who possessed the nearest temperament and disposition with himself. It is upon this principle alone that we can at all understand how the apostle John was the beloved disciple of our Lord.

In the passage before us, the apostle's soul being touched with the love of God, and filled with the Spirit of Revelation, breaks out into the language of praise and exultation, at the astonishing exhibition of the love of the Father in making us the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. Well may he introduce this blessed theme, calculated to fill our hearts with joy and thanksgiving, with the significant word Behold! a word which, when coupled with the consideration of the Father's unbounded love, is enough to rouse us from the slumbers of apathy and indifference, and calculated to awaken the sluggard from his repose,-to give seriousness to the thoughtless, and to turn laughter into mourning, and ridicule into veneration and respect.

Behold, then, ye thoughtless and ye gay,—ye despisers of God and of the Lamb,-behold, again, ye afflicted and forlorn, who by report only, and not by experience, know of the cup of joy tasted by others, behold, ye broken in heart, ye contrite

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and humble ones, ye poor in spirit but blessed of the Lord, ye who hunger and thirst after righteousness,-behold, I say, the love of the Father, the love of this great, this holy, this just yet merciful God!

In treating this text we will consider,

First, the love of God exhibited in making us his sons.

Secondly, The difference and similarity between the only begotten Son of God, and the children of God.

Thirdly, We will shew that the world is ignorant of Christ, and as ignorant of us as we are of ourselves.

Fourthly, The purifying nature of the hope of the Christian.

First, The love of God exhibited in making us his sons.

"Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." We are not called to contemplate the wrath of God, but the love of the Father, who is love itself in the abstract; "for God," says the apostle, "is love." How infinite, then, must this love be, which we are called to contemplate, exercised in its fullest extent, not on the holy angels, but on sinful man! We are not called to behold this display of love exercised on others, but on ourselves. We are not invited to behold the abstract

perfections and attributes of God, in which we are unconcerned, but we are called to behold that love in its fullest extent bestowed upon us. Blessed be God, we are not called to love him, because he is love; such refined feelings he does not require of us. But the potter knows the weakness of the vessel,—the mechanic knows the secret spring of the machine. The Almighty knows that the consideration of his very love would only cause us to hate him; he therefore touches the more secret springs of the heart; "we love him, because he first loved us." We know of no other chord by which he can draw the being who hates him, to love him.

The love which any fallen creature has to God, can never proceed from romantic feelings, arising from the abstract truth of God being love. Such feelings and notions are the chimeras of a deluded imagination. We know of no other love of God but that of the woman who shed tears on the feet of Jesus, and wiped them with the hair of her head. We desire no other in time or in eternity. Beloved, we do not love God because he is the Author of creation, but because he is the Author of Redemption. And even this exhibition of his marvellous love is hardly adequate to raise in our hard hearts any returning love, or call forth one note of praise.

If, then, we would in any means love God, we

can do it only by beholding the marvellous love of God in making us his sons. What manner of love is this? He loves us freely; he loves us dearly, of his sovereign goodness and mercy. The motive he finds in his own bosom, in which love alone is harboured.

The love of God, which is exercised towards any fallen creature, must be entirely irrespective of any thing in the creature; for it is their persons alone which he loves. Whereas the wrath of God falls on the creature in consideration only of what is in the creature, and is entirely irrespective of the creature's person; for it is their sins he hates, rather than their persons.

"God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son." Not the world that was at peace with him, and bringing forth the fruits of righteousness, but which was at enmity with him. When we were enemies in our minds, by wicked works, we became reconciled to him. What manner of love, then, is this? It is a love" which passeth all knowledge" and all understanding. It is this love which we are invited to contemplate. He hath reconciled us, his enemies; destroyed the enmity which was in our bosoms against him, by the blood of the cross; translated us from the powers of darkness, into the kingdom of his dear Son;" snatched away the instruments of death, which we suicides had prepared for our own destruction,—

carried us lost sheep home on his shoulders rejoicing,-adopted us outcasts from his presence into his family and household, and hath made us not merely servants but sons, "Yea, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ," of his kingdom and glory.

Such is the love of God to us; and this sounding forth of God's love to us his children, hath caused the strings of our hearts in unison to vibrate; we re-echo the strain, though with a yet weaker and fainter sound. The sounds of the magic lyre of Orpheus arrests the wanton deer and hardy bear: the music of the Gospel, in like manner, is too charming even for the sensualist or the savage to refuse to listen to its heavenly strains.

The heart of every man, in the hands of the Almighty, is the harp in the hands of the minstrel, every chord of which he can either jar or tune at pleasure. The strings of any harp now tuned and struck by the Almighty minstrel, can pour forth strains such as God delights in, and whose sounds from this lower earth ascend to the highest heavens. To those who are enabled by Divine grace to receive Christ, he gives "power to become the sons of God, even to them who believe on his name;" and who then, and not till then, are disposed to contemplate "the manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons of God." Now the Messiah himself is repeatedly