away fasting, lest they faint by the way." Mental depression calls for sympathy. A sense of moral obliquity in another, must be met by the conscious sense of demerit in ourselves, by the equally conscious sense of forgiveness, and by the expansion of a love, compassionate and energetic, which would gain a brother, and save a soul alive. The urgency of charity, in such a case, is thus Scriptually expressed: “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboim? My heart is turned within me, my relentings are kindled together."

Cold and heartless is Satan, in his work of destruction, subtle and beguiling, and insinuating, in the snares which he lays for others, violent and terrific in the force with which he urges his victims onward to recklessness, and despair, and self-destruction. These are the moving elements in him whose object it is to make a hell upon earth, as the antepast of a hell beyond. Such is the opposing power of Satan, the adversary of God and man.

The Christian also is called to intimate dealings with mankind; he has a combat to encounter; he is to overcome evil; his weapon of victory is specified; he is to overcome evil with good. The motive is laid down, and without the motive, his work will not be accepted, and will profit him nothing. "Love worketh no ill to his neighbour, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." The maintenance of this motive is difficult, for the human heart is wayward; its movements are incongruous and self-contradictory, its obstinacy is rooted and leavened with a resoluteness of perseverance, its elements of envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness, are ready to burst forth on the slightest provocation. The case is complicated, and although it calls forth firmness, requires delicacy of treatment.

The spirit of love must meet the emergency. Who is insensible to its influence? It attracts and engenders a feeling of something human in those whose moral degradation has shamed them out of the atmosphere of virtue, and made them disbelieve, and scarcely wish that

humanity, in the shape of respectability and kindness, should meet them face to face.

The importance of this motive is supreme; it is the badge which distinguishes those who belong to the school of Christ. "By this

shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." The absence of this love is an evidence of the alienation of the heart from God. "He that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God, whom he hath not seen?" It is a seal of condemnation. "He that loveth not his brother, abideth in death." The maintenance of this love is an acknowledged link of union with God Himself. "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us." We are partakers of a motive which, in God, called forth the restoration of a world from sin and death, the opening of a path to glory, and the provision of the means by which the glory may be attained. Animated by this principle we become fellow workers with God; and our work will be crowned with success. The meanest exercise of kindness, equally as

the largest sacrifice on the behalf of others, flowing from Christian charity, will be recognized and rewarded.

God is love. Love is the fountain of His blessings. Love is the fatherly hand chastening for our good. Love gives perpetuity to His mercies on earth, and will be the unsetting ray in heaven As rendered to God, the essence of man's service is love supreme. In reference to the service of man to man, the absence of this principle is a death blow to its acceptability with God. It is also a death-blow to genial and lasting fellowship between man and man. When sin entered into the world, confidence was broken between Adam and Eve. seeds of suspicion, mistrust, recrimination, were sown. The mutual service was incomplete. The remedy is one; it is the practical reception of a law proceeding from Christ our Lord, "I have given you a commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you."

The

CHAPTER II.

CHARITY'S INHERENT QUALITIES, WITH THEIR APPLICATION ΤΟ MENTAL INFIRMITIES AND INEXPERIENCE, AND TO MORAL OBLIQUITIES.

THE force of the motive of Christian love, without which, the outward exhibition of charity is valueless in the sight of God, prepares us to form large expectations, when this motive animates habitual intercourse between man and man. We may expect much human weakness' to be strengthened, much misery to be relieved, much misapprehension to be removed, much mutual confidence to be engendered, much combined exertion to be called forth in the promotion of general good. An examination