A religion, such as you and I profess—a religion which teaches that God's dear Son came down from heaven to earth, and took upon him the form of man, and walked this world, doing a good man's work in it; and which teaches, further, that in the spirit God is still as near as when in the person of His Son He walked in Nazareth, dignifying alike the earth and man-makes man more loveable, the earth more glorious, and the presence of God, to such as care to know it, an eternal reality. Thus man grows glorified; "a little lower than the angels," and but very little, and having within him higher possibilities. Man came out of God's soul, and on one side is close to God, His younger brother, His darling. On the other side, man is a worm-earth of the earth, corruptible, and falling to corruption. As a creature "crushed before the moth," it is a satisfaction to him to know that God is ever near, and a thing to lament to learn that His abode seems ever so little removed from us. But we have learned, we know and are assured, that in all places, and in all people who love righteousness God dwells. To the loving, He is ever close; He dwells in them, and they in Him.

THE DUTY OF STUDYING THE THREE

BOOKS OF GOD.

Evening, July 16th, 1876.

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind."-MATT. xxii. 37.

THIS threefold love is answerable to a threefold division of the nature that is in us. For these expressions "heart," and "soul," and "mind," were not wearisome repetitions of the same thing. They who know the words of the wisest men, know that whether in speech or writing no word is wasted, nor can be taken away without loss. Just as it was said that from the great law of God "not one jot or one tittle should pass away," for if it were not wanted, it had not been there-so with the words of the wise there is nothing that can be spared. Even the smallest is of consequence; it

is like the brush of a great painter-it may be hidden in the result, but it is wanted in the process. Therefore, I ask you whether you have put to yourselves the question, What is the difference between loving God with the heart, with the soul and with the mind?

We will take the last-loving God with the mind -for I find that this is the least preached about, and the least practised. To love God with the heart, forms a large part of the best books of devotion, and is prominent in the sweetest of saints, whose lives are the most touching. To love God with the soul is to be full of enthusiasm, to be crowned with joy, to overflow with a true spiritual rapture. But to love with the heart and with the soul is easier than to love with the mind. To love God with the mind requires study and pains; it is not a thing of emotion, and cannot be gained in an hour. Most men prefer the emotions that come of themselves, to the sublimities that come after deep study. The majority would desire to be played upon by the muses, but there are some men who love things that require cost, study, patience, pains, endeavour. Living for other times, they love God with all their heart and soul, and with all their mind as well.

Now, I ask, what distinct difference do you make between these-between loving God with the heart. and soul and with the mind? I would not have your child ask you the difference, and you not be able to answer him; so, I am going to try to make plain to you what is meant by loving God with the mind. To make it plain to you, one cannot do better than follow the Master's method; for when he had a great truth to teach, he did it in homely fashion. When he wished to set forth God's love for the strayed one, he spoke of the woman and the lost piece of silver, and her long search into dismal corners; of her thankfulness when it was found, and her sweet gossiping with her neighbours over the recovered coin. All these things are brought in, in order that a lofty truth may be made plain to lowly people. So now we will seek a few homely things and come back to this word of the Divine.

There are two phrases, then, which are sometimes used by master to workman, father to son, teacher to scholar, mistress to servant; and one of these phrases is, "I see you have got no heart in your work." There are a great many duties in life which it would be only talking fine and not talking truth to say that we have any heart for. But the

C

beauty of it is to do them as duties, to pay them as taxes. You cannot say you love to pay taxes, but then you know the tax is the friend of national greatness; the promoter of wisdom and cleanness, and therefore ultimately of religiousness. You may not pay with cheerfulness, but you may pay with punctuality.

Then there is that other phrase, "I do wish you would put a little more mind into that." What do you mean? Not that he might like it better, but that he would do it better: I wish, before you let that hammer fall, you would let your thoughts fall upon what you are doing. It is the habit of doing a thing with a minimum of thinking that is complained of. This is found to prevail in the degree that people are dunces, and uneducated. For instance, in burning weather like this, some servant who has been scolded in winter for leaving the door open, shuts it. I could teach a dog better than that.

Take another illustration. Suppose you have some great author that you are singularly fond of. What do you do to show that you love him? If you loved Shakespeare you would read his plays, study them; re-study them; learn them; quote them. Poor is the love that needs no vision; poor