THERE are many creeds, but there is only one religion. Religion consists in loving God above all things and our neighbour as ourselves; and creeds are only so far true as they teach this, and only so far useful as they lead to it. Love to God and love to man have been the religion of every dispensation of the Church which has existed upon earth, and is equally the teaching of both Testaments. "Jesus said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Deut. vi. 5; Lev. xix. 18; Matt. xxii. 37-40). Nor is it only by His verbal teaching that the Almighty has declared this truth; He has taught it in the very act of creation. "God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. . . . So God created man in His image in the image of God created He him" (Gen. i. 26, 27). What is this image of God? To know the image we must know the original. "God is Love." And the image of God, in which man was created, was the capacity of receiving and reciprocating God's love, and thus of loving God and of loving what God loves. The love of God was manifested in the very fact of creation. The Almighty could have no other or lower end in view in creation than to give existence to a race of beings who could receive and reciprocate His love; so that, by loving Him, they might be conjoined to Him, and live for ever in a : S ... By these loves The conjunctive state of happiness. It is the very nature of love to love others, to desire to be one with them, and to make them happy. We see the nature of love exhibited in conjugal love and in the love of offspring, thence in the love of kindred, and thence in the love of the whole human race. In thus loving, human beings but manifest the love of God. Were it not that God is Love, and that man was created in the image and likeness of God, neither conjugal, nor parental, nor social love would be possible. Divine love preserves what it originally created. love which pervades the whole animate creation, and the something analogous to which exists in inanimate nature, is nothing but creative love inspiring them with the desire of perpetuating that which love has created. The love with which all creatures are inspired, for the persistence of creation, is not, however, the highest of which created beings are capable. Love, sexual, parental, and social, is common to man and animals. Man, as an image and likeness of his Maker, is capable of loving God and of loving others for the sake of God. He is thus capable not only of natural, but of spiritual love. It is indeed in man's love of God and his love of the neighbour that the image and likeness of God eminently consist. The capacity of knowing and loving God is the distinguishing characteristic of man as a spiritual and immortal being. The beasts that perish have not this capacity. It is by actually loving God and his neighbour that man's immortality becomes a life of endless happiness. This is the state for which man was created; it is the state in which he originally stood; it is the state from which he fell; and it is the state to which it was the design of redemption to restore him. This state is religion, as distinguished from creed and dogma and theology. These are at best but the means of becoming religious. They teach us respecting God, His nature, His purpose, His will; they teach us respecting ourselves, our state, our destiny, our duty. But the sum of all their teaching is, that God is Love, and that our highest attainable state is to love God, to love Him with all the heart and soul and mind, and to love our neighbour as ourselves. There is none other commandment greater than these. Indeed, on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. The whole teaching of the Scriptures is concentrated in them, the whole law is fulfilled in them, for love is the fulfilling of the law. Yet the whole teaching of Scripture and the whole requirements of the law are needed to lead us up to these. And not only the whole law, but the whole Gospel, is needed to lead us up to the religion of love. It was not the purpose of the Incarnation to remove the moral law out of the way, and enable sinners to be saved by faith without it. The Lord's work in the flesh was for the purpose of enabling men to fulfil the law, to fulfil it in the spirit as well as in the letter, as His whole teaching in the Sermon on the Mount shows; so the righteousness of the Christian should exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees. All Christian theologies teach the religion of love to God and man, and yet some of them have adopted particular doctrines and virtually set it aside. The doctrine that man can be saved, or can escape punishment and obtain justification, by the sufferings and obedience of another, undermines the essential truth of Scripture that state is the ground of experience, that as a man sows he shall also reap, that evil has in it its own punishment and good its own reward. Among the injurious effects of this singular notion there are two which deserve mention. It makes the law of God an arbitrary appointment; and it makes it rather a hindrance than an aid to human happiness. Whatever theological notion tends to weaken the religious principle strikes at the foundation of human happiness. Everything that our Father in heaven has ever required of His children has been for their benefit; not for His own glory, but for the satisfaction of His love in their happiness. The Gospel did not supersede the moral law, but confirmed it, and provided for its more complete, because for its more spiritual, fulfilment. Yet salvation is possible under every form of faith, because under every form of faith, even that which teaches salvation by faith alone, the truth is not entirely obscured, nor the claims of love and holiness ignored. But even where the purest faith exists, as we believe it does in the Church of the Lord's Second Advent, the only advantage we derive from its purity is that it enables us to lead purer lives. Creeds are not religion, but only the means of becoming religious; and the only difference between the best and the worst is a difference of means, the only true end of all creeds being love to the Lord and the neighbour. Whether we speak of the Creed or of the Church it amounts to the same; the same distinction exists. "The Church is one thing and religion is another. The Church is called a Church from doctrine, and religion is called religion from a life according to doctrine. Everything belonging to doctrine is called truth, even its good is truth, because it only teaches it; but everything belonging to a life according to the things which doctrine teaches is called good, likewise to do the truths of doctrine is good. This is the distinction between the Church and religion. But where there is doctrine without life it cannot be said that there is either Church or religion, because doctrine regards life as one with itself, just like truth and goodness, faith and charity, wisdom and love, understanding and will. Where, therefore, there is doctrine without life, there is no Church (A. R. 923). Such is the Catholic teaching of Swedenborg. There is here nothing of the "He that doth not unfeignedly believe this shall be damned everlastingly." Life is religion. "All religion has relation to life, and the life of religion is to do good." It is a great advantage to possess the truth, because the truth teaches what is good and what good is, and how to attain it. But those who possess the truth are better than others only so far as their life is better; nay, they are only equal to others so far as their life is equal to their doctrine. To whom much is given of him much shall be required. Salvation is possible under all creeds, Christian and heathen, because love to God and man is possible. This is religion, because it is that which makes men images and likenesses of God, and, being like God, they can enjoy Him; for he who dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. EDITOR. WHAT WOMEN HAVE DONE FOR THE WORLD. (LEO GRINDON.) VI. A VERY pleasing task, were the accomplishment of it within command, would be to compare the outcome of the faithfulness of good wives, as shown on the one hand by historical narratives, and on the other in private life. For whatever splendour may pertain to rare deeds performed in public, they can never eclipse the results of love practised daily and at home-the scene, under the government of a good woman, of the uprise and the preservation of all the moral virtues. A husband's life saved, his castle protected, though we admire the heroism that fills the story, is oftentimes a less beautiful subject for contemplation than a husband's life made joyful and turned to the "wisdom of the just." The former, like a magnificent resound of trumpets, arrests attention more profoundly; it is in the latter we have the counterpart of the sweet and simple music that, when the toils of the day are over, cheers the heart. History teems with records of great and exceptional deeds performed by woman. Some day perhaps 4 it will devote proportionate space to what comes of the undercurrent of her faithfulness, and not till then will it be fairly complete. In regard to the former, as already exemplified in our mention of the bravery and fidelity displayed during the civil wars by the Countess of Derby and the Baroness Ophaly, it is very interesting to observe how a noble-hearted woman, though her natural inclination is for peace, can if necessary unsheathe the sword. This comes of the ability of a thorough woman, whatever her sphere of life, always to rise to the occasion, on the instant, when there is need of quick perception, sound judgment, and consummate energy. In emergencies a woman of power sees exactly what should be done, and executes without delay, impelled by the vehemence which in her inferiors becomes the ungraceful thing called impatience. In war, when unwillingly constrained to take part in it, woman further shows herself, as in peace, more thoughtful and provident than man. She guards more carefully against catastrophes, and practises more assiduously the ancient maxim, "Safe bind, safe find." Her natural timidity, for she "feareth always," further qualifies her, by the watchfulness it induces, for the post of guardian, in war always so vitally important, and not infrequently of more consequence than that of assailant. Solomon said, "Happy" (or Blessed) "is the man that feareth alway;" and in this perhaps consists the prime secret of many of the most splendid also of feminine triumphs, whether peaceful or warlike, only we must not confound Solomon's "fear," a substantial Divine privilege, with the poor unlovely faintheartedness which in time of trial impels inferior women, and inferior men as well, to the other extreme. For the weak and sheepish when suddenly called upon for the execution of something noble are precisely those who are most likely to be influenced by mean and selfish considerations, and to bring disgrace on their sex instead of new honour. All ages have produced women of martial spirit. Among the greatest of these, and the last, in point of time, for which reason we select her as an instance, was certainly Louisa, Queen of Prussia. After the terrible overthrow of the Austrians and Russians at Austerlitz, by Napoleon, her husband's dominions were the next attacked, how fatally for them a few weeks sufficed to prove. Far more energetic and talented than the King, Louisa not only excited the troops to the defence of their country by means of glowing words and exhortations, but visited the camp and enrolled herself as colonel of a regiment. Had her counsels and policy been adopted by the Prussian monarch |