has effected the marvellous resurrection and transformation, of which delighted men can give no other account than this -that the wind has changed.

When John the Baptist first received his commission, he seems not to have been fully acquainted with the evangelic character of Him whom he announced. He gave only a severe representation of the Christ as a holy Lord who would take vengeance on the ungodly. He spoke of the wrath to come, of an axe laid at the root of the trees, of fire that was ready to devour the unfruitful tree and the chaff. Yet what descended on Jesus? A gentle Dove; for Jesus came to reveal the Godhead, and God is love. "If you would see the Trinity," says one of the Fathers, "go to the Jordan." There the Bird of love hovers over the obedient Son, and the Voice is heard pronouncing the Fatherly benediction.

II. He that loveth not knoweth not God. The relation between the two parts of the text seems to be indicated by the preceding verse: Love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. The children of God are like Him, loving Him and loving one another; and since love knows love, the love which is in them enables them to know God.

The regenerate are children of the Father, whose eternal breast is the original fountain and abode of love. As the Father loves the Son, they love Him as their elder brother, who prays that the love wherewith Thou has loved Me may be in them, and I in them. As the Father hath forgiven all of them for Christ's sake, it is their part to forgive each other, and live in mutual love as brethren.

The regenerate are brethren of Christ, in whose image they are newly created. They partake of His love toward the Father, and have received from Him a new commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. It is called a new commandment, because Christ's love, on which it is based, is new and nnexampled in the world. So when the disciples began to observe it, their love was so extraordinary

that it excited wonder. See how they love one another. And men knew that they were disciples of Jesus.

The regenerate are creatures of the Spirit of Love. By Him they are anointed, illuminated, quickened. From Him they have received a Divine nature. Is He a genial, fostering breath? So is every one that is born of the Spirit. The Dove that descended on Jesus is hovering near them; and the fruit of the Spirit is love.

The love which is in the regenerate enables them to know God. The knowledge of God is called our eternal life. To know that we are not in the hands of fate, of nature, of chance, or of indifferent and cold omnipotence, but in the hands of a Father; to feel His love revealed in Jesus; to know that every good thought within us, every upward aspiration, is due to the love of the Spirit, who has constant access to our hearts, and a blessed union with them-this is to have eternal life. To know that God is, of whose glory creation is but the shadow, whose perfection boundlessly surpasses the loftiest idea of excellence which has entered mind of man or seraph; to know that His glory is not pent up or concealed, but ever shines forth in the face of Jesus in order to bless the adoring congregation of the just, and bring them to the likeness of itself—this is eternal life. But this knowledge is of love; by love only can love be known. If we feel the warmth of the heavenly Sun, we enjoy His illumination also.

No man hath seen God at any time; the Only-begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. He declares Him, because he knows Him; for love is the interpreter of love. And the greater our likeness to Christ, that is, the more loving we become, the clearer and the more enlarged will be our knowledge of God, the better shall we be qualified to receive the revelation He makes. Every degree of love's growth is a step nearer God, and brings into clearer light the heights on which He is enthroned. In order to this knowledge of God, our natural affections were given, and were intended for stepping-stones to eternal life. A man whose heart has been enlarged and softened by children, is

ready to understand the Lord's great mercy unto them that fear Him. A man who shuts not up his compassion from the wretched, can best appreciate the love of Christ in dying for us, and enter into his Lord's joy, when His intervention shall have proved successful. So he who is able to comfort his fellows, knows somewhat of the love of the Blessed Spirit, the Comforter.

The negative is true also. He that loveth not, knoweth not God. A man who is in despair on account of sin, who conceives of the Ruler of the world as austere and vengeful-has fear, not love. God is not a mere just maintainer of law, for law itself is based upon love, and is ever subject to it. Look at the cross of Christ; see there that God is our Father, and receive light and peace into thy bosom.

This negative is sometimes illustrated by theological theorists. We have all some power, and can conceive of power unlimited, a Being all will, influenced by no considerations external to Himself. But let us beware of exalting this conception to the throne of the universe. An Omnipotent Sovereign, lawlessly deciding the eternal destinies of mankind, may be terribly sublime, but cannot be venerable. This is not the God of the Catholic Christian. We have all some small measure of intellect, and can conceive of a being wholly intellectual. Neither must this conception be lifted up to Divine supremacy. A speculator, coolly calculating concerning everlasting joys and everlasting misery, as if the future history of living men were a problem in mathematics, is not the God of the Catholic Christian. No, brethren, a cold heart knows God no more than the icicle the sun or the breath of spring. What is noblest in us, and what is most attractive and venerable, is but a faint shadow of Divine perfection. Yet, faint as it may be, it is the basis of Divine revelation. Power is not our best; nor is intellect; our greatest endowment is love; and he who has it knows that God's almighty arm is guided by unerring wisdom, but that both are the servants of His love. This old and everlasting Gospel remains unaffected by all the errors of the day.

He

with whom we have to do, the ground of our existence, and the Lord of conscience, is the God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Are there some of us to whom this doctrine of St. John sounds like faint echoes of music from some remote and inacessible shore, which can be very interesting or intelligible only to men of a peculiarly refined mental constitution, or to initiates into saintly mysteries? If we think so, we are wrong. The further we are from this lofty but most practical truth, the further from our own true destiny. Nor is the path to that region untraceable by mortal feet. It has often been trodden by men like us. It may be trodden again, by every one of us, if we will. The top of the patriarch's ladder may be lost amid the clouds which surround the Ineffable Splendor, yet the foot of it is planted firmly on the soil. Here it rests on the hearth, here beside the altar. Would you know God, then cherish every tender domestic feeling, use all neighbourly kindness and Christian charity. Each of these is a mirror of God. Of them all may we say as Christ said of one. If we, being evil, have these good things amongst us still, if these embers of grace are smouldering here in this so distant region, then what must be the flame in Heaven! How much more! How much more!

The Preacher's Finger-Post.

CHRISTIAN PIETY IN RELATION

TO THE FUTURE.

"Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad."-John viii. 56.

In this chapter Christ charges the Jews with a cardinal sin, namely, judging spiritual

carnal prin

things by
ciples. "Ye judge after the
flesh," (ver. 15). This was
their fundamental error in
interpretation. In this chap-
ter He speaks to them of
three spiritual things-spi-
ritual freedom, spiritual death,
and spiritual vision. Each