all others, is that of the Divine Mind itself. The model, in being perfect, can never be altered; in being eternal, can never be broken.

Holy beings are created after the divine model; but it is worthy of notice, here as elsewhere, that the existence, which stands for the model, is itself the creating power. -God is their Father. Man, in not being able to make himself, is not able to make that holy love, which is the centre of himself. On the contrary, holy love is a gift, as divine in its source as it is divine in its nature. It is just as impossible for men to originate, by their own action, the principle of pure or holy love within them, as it is to originate their own existence, or the power of perception and memory. Pure love cannot be created on the basis of prudential calculations; nor can it be originated by any other human device. Device, calculation, cannot raise itself to that divine height. And the reason is, it is a constituent, something inherent and organic, something without which reason itself, in its pure and unbiased forms, could not have been brought into action; something which does not and cannot by any possibility exist, except as a nature. In God it is nature eternal; in all other holy beings it is nature given.

4. Original truth is aphoristic. Its declaration is its argument. It carries conviction in its simplest affirmations. It is enough, therefore, merely to affirm, that the created must flow out of the uncreated; that the temporal must flow out of the eternal. God is the uncreated; God is the eternal. God, therefore, God alone, God beyond time, beyond and above all creating power, is the "living" or perpetual fountain. He has the true life in himself, and that life is Love. from him and by him.

All other life is

5. Hence it is said, in the language of Scripture,-language not more simply eloquent and affecting than it is true:-"My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken ME, the fountain of living waters, and hewn out broken cisterns that can hold no water."* And it is here, more than anywhere else, that we find the source of trouble with men. God, in creating men, not only gave them the principle of faith, but opened also the eternal fountain of love in their hearts; but men, in an evil hour, stopped it by ceasing to believe in the source from which it came. Satan, reminding them that God had made them moral agents, maliciously whispered that they would do well to avail themselves of their power by hewing out cisterns of their own, in other words, that they should try to live as originators, and not as recipients; that they should try to live without living in and from God. They made the attempt; turned away from God, and, in striving to live in their own strength, found, in their sins and sorrows, that they had exchanged the living fountain for "broken cisterns, which could hold no water."

6. The doctrine of man's creation in the image of God involves, as one of its consequences, that, in his true and normal state, he loves and must love God with all his heart. And the reason is this. The law of love's movement, all other things being equal, is the amount of being, or existence in the object beloved. Accordingly, it can be said of love, that it notices and rejoices in everything which exists. It loves each insect that floats in the summer's sun; it delights in the happiness of the birds that sing in the branches; it wipes the tears and binds up the wounds of man, however degraded and fallen; but it is God, the infinite Being, who represents in him

Jer. 2: 13.

self all other existences, that supremely attracts and absorbs it. In him all love centres, as all streams and waters centre in the parent ocean. In God, uniting and consolidating all things in himself, we love the infinitude of being, the Life of the universe, the everywhere present, the silent but universal Operator, the All-in-all. 10*

CHAPTER V.

ON THE THREE FORMS OF LOVE: NAMELY, OF BENEVOLENCE, OF COMPLACENCY, AND OF UNION.

Explanations of the love of benevolence. - Benevolential love not - Illustrations. necessarily unitive. Complacential love. - Illustrations- Unitive love. - Results of unitive love.

THE love of existence, simply because it is existence and in being existence, is susceptible of happiness, is the basis of all other love. This love is sometimes denominated in writers, in consideration of its nature rather than its object, the love of benevolence, or benevolential love. Eternal in the divine mind, operating by its own nature, being in itself and of itself a living principle, it is properly called a LIFE. And it is this immortal life, this central and eternal impulse of the divinity, which elevates and expands the Godhead from a mere infinity of power and wisdom to an infinity of moral perfection. Of the value of this love, and its indispensable nature to God and to all beings created in the likeness of God, it is difficult to form too high an estimate. First in time, it is preeminent in importance. We say everything which can well be said, when we speak of it as their LIFE.

2. It is worthy of notice, however, that this love, which is sometimes known under the denomination of love of benevolence or benevolential love, in distinction from the love of complacency or complacential love, is

not unitive. That is to say, it does not, and cannot of itself, constitute an union between him who loves and the object that is beloved. It is hardly necessary to say, that there can be no union unless there are two or more beings to be united. And it is hardly less obvious, that no union can be effected without a correspondence of feeling in those who are the subjects of such union. Love and union, therefore, are not identical, and are not, in all cases, necessarily related. The history of the Saviour, who suffered death in attempting to do good to men, has shown us that we may love where there is only distrust or hatred in return. Often is this the case. Year after year, man may entertain the kindest and most benevolent feelings towards others; he may labor for them and suffer for them; and instead of the delightful approach and unity of love, find nothing but feelings of ingratitude and deep aversion.

3. Complacential love, based upon that of benevolence, or the love of simple existence, adds to the love of the object an approbation of its character. This last circumstance constitutes, it is obvious, an important modification of the affection under consideration. We desire, for instance, the good and happiness of the just man. That is to say, we love him. And we do so, both because he is a man, and also because he is just. The love of him as a just man, which turns upon the fact of his character, is added to and increases our love of him as a man, which turns upon the fact of his being, or existence. Again, we desire the good and happiness of angels, on the ground of their existence and susceptibility of happiness, just as we desire the happiness of the worst sinners for the same reason. In other words, we love them with the love of benevolence. But the purity of an angel's character furnishes a new element, or