ever. And why is the lack of love so heinous in guilt, and a sin so fearfully avenged? Because a soul without love rebels against the whole law of God. As "love is the fulfilling of the law," so not to love is to break all the commandments at one blow.

2. And we may hence also learn, that the least beginning of love in the soul is the seed of eternal life. As the least spark has the whole nature of fire, its intense heat and its perfect brightness, so the least pulse of love has in it, by virtue and principle, the whole nature of perfect love. There is no measure of ardent charity to which it may not be kindled. The love of the highest saint in the kingdom of heaven, where love is the law of order and exaltation, was once a faint beat, a weak motion of the soul. The fervent and active devotion of prophets and apostles was once but an infused capacity of spiritual life. So it may be with you. As the greatest have once been among the least, so the least may one day be among the greatest. The germ of a perfect love, which shall adhere to the beatific vision in perpetual adoration, is, by God's gift, in every regenerate soul. As we will, so we shall live; and as we live, so we shall love. It is our life, the activity and direction of our living powers, that unfolds and perfects this divine capacity. And as love is a principle indivisible in

its nature, so it is in its working and expansion. This shews us what is the law of its growth and development. The love of God, which has its centre in His eternal Being, spreads itself abroad with an even, all-embracing, universal fulness. All created beings are encompassed within the circles of its expanse; every sphere is replenished by it; heaven and earth are enfolded in its circuits; all in its own measure and degree, without disturbance or inequality. So with the love which He implants in His elect. As a spark swells into flame, and as its spire of light ascends, expands into a body of fire, full, even, and continuous, enlarging its reach and presence, ever moving outwards on all sides, yet ever flowing together in one equable symmetry and outline, preserving always its perfect unity; so love, which begins in the soul, at once moves upward and outward, to God and to our neighbour; growing with an even, simultaneous expansion; encircling first our kindred in blood, then our kindred in the spirit,-first father and mother, brethren and sisters, then neighbours and friends, members and servants of Christ, strangers and enemies; always ascending towards God, drawing the soul upward to His presence; uniting it to the person of our Redeemer, and through Him to all His elect. Love has no law but God's love. As He loves, so must we. They are the

chiefest objects of our love who are the chiefest objects of His. All the love of His heavenly court is the reflection and response of His own. In the heavenly country they love even now as He loves: every one in his own order, in the measure of service, nearness, likeness, kindred to the King of saints. And to us wayfarers still on earth, there is no other law than that which descends from the eternal kingdom. "As He is, so are we in this world."

3. And from this we may learn one more truth, that the unity and expansion of love is the cause and the law of unity and communion to the visible Church. This unity had its beginning upon earth in Him who is Love incarnate; from Him it spread and embraced His disciples, binding them in one visible fellowship, to which He imparted His divine commission. When He ascended into heaven, love was shed abroad in fulness the coming of the Holy Ghost. The Love of the Father and of the Son was thenceforward manifest, not in a natural, but in a mystical body, which, from age to age, perfects itself by the inward working of its own principle of life. Its unity and growth are properties of its very being, descending from "the Head, even Christ: from whom the whole body, fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure

of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love." It is, therefore, by its very nature and law, one and indivisible, ever enlarging, all-embracing; gathering in all nations, fusing all races, harmonising all tongues, blending all thoughts, uniting all spirits: making the earth once more of "one life," of one speech, of one heart, and of one will. All the order of the Church; the spiritual relations of fatherhood and sonship, of brotherhood and mutual service; the communion of all grace and gifts, of sacraments and sympathies-all this is either the effect or the bond of an indivisible life. "There is one body and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling: one Lord, one faith, one baptism," one altar, one holy sacrifice, one divine tradition of corporate identity and living consciousness, sustaining the illumination of truth, seen by love alone, and itself sustained by the Holy Ghost. Therefore are all the members of Christ united in one visible family under "one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.'

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Hence comes the sinfulness of schism: it is a sin against the indivisible love of God. Το separate from the Church is to forfeit love; for love cannot be divided. Schisms do not rend it, 2 Eph. iv. 4, 5.

1 Eph. iv. 15, 16.

8 Eph. iv. 6.

but are rent from it. As the life retires into the living trunk when the branches are cut away, so love still dwells undivided in the life of the Church when members fall from its communion.

And this shews also the sinfulness of an unloving spirit within the visible fold of the Church. I am not speaking only of strife, malice, and contention, but of the likes and dislikes, the estrangements and differences, by which the equable and calm spirit of love is grieved within the communion of the Church. We could as easily divide the daylight, and give to it uncertain and capricious inclinations, as divide the love which God implants by partialities and unequal distributions. As the sight of the eye, though intently fixed on one object out of all, yet embraces the whole visible horizon; so divine love in the soul, though it be fixed with all its force on God alone, yet embraces all around. Its very nature is expansion. It cannot exclude: to exclude any, is to destroy itself. Where love is at all, it will

"Erat ibi tunica, dicit Evangelista, desuper texta. Ergo de cœlo, ergo a Patre, ergo a Spiritu Sancto. Quæ est ista tunica, nisi caritas, quam nemo potest dividere? Quæ est ista tunica, nisi unitas? In ipsam sors mittitur, nemo illam dividit. Sacramenta sibi hæretici dividere potuerunt, caritatem non diviserunt. Et quia dividere non potuerunt, recesserunt: illa autem manet integra."-S. Aug. in Psalm. xxi. Enarr. ii. 19.