68 SERMON V. POWER OF LOVE AS A PRINCIPLE OF ACTION. JOHN xiv. 15. If ye love me, keep my commandments. It is never wholesome or sound divinity to set up, as it were, one part of a revealed truth against another; so to extol one principle of the Gospel, however just, as to depress other principles which are equally founded on the word of God. We find, for example, in this text, the fulfilling of the law enforced on a single ground, and suspended upon one motive. The Lord Jesus says, If ye love me. He does not say, if ye hope for eternal life,-if ye desire to escape the wrath of God,-if ye look for the recompense of reward, but if ye love me, keep my command ments. Yet it would be very unsafe and erroneous teaching, if the preacher were to urge this as the sole motive to obedience, were to leave his people to the current of their feelings and the impulse of their love; instead of bringing their lives and practice to the written commandment and positive law, and comparing the one with the other. Still it is remarkable how great a stress is laid, throughout the Gospel, upon this principle of love as the motive of obedience. 66 If a "He Our Lord lays it down as a certain evidence of the state of the heart towards him: man love me, he will keep my words." that loveth me not, keepeth not my sayings." "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me." So, when he would leave a solemn injunction to his apostle, his words are, "Simon, lovest thou me? Feed my sheep. Simon, lovest thou me? Feed my lambs." St. Paul speaks of this principle as the mainspring of the Christian character: saying, "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith that worketh by love." He prays for the Ephesians, "that they may be rooted and grounded in love ;" and he rejoices over the Thessalonians, "because of their works of faith and labour of love." The epistles of John, more particularly, abound with various forms of the same argument; enforcing love of God, as the only return for his love towards ourselves; and requiring that this love be shown by an universal desire to fulfil his will. "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him." "This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments." "He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him." It appears, then, that the enforcement of the commandments, on the principle of love towards Him who issues them, is not confined to a sentence like the text, or to any one of the sacred writers, but is involved in the whole texture of the Gospel. The language of Christ is throughout, If ye love me, keep my commandments. And as we cannot mistake the fact, so nei ther can we be at a loss for the reason on which it proceeds. No other principle would be so universal—no other principle so influential. I. No other principle would be so universal. The ways can never be enumerated or set forth in order, in which a disciple of Christ may fulfil his Master's will. They are infinitely various, and depend upon a multitude of circumstances which defy anticipation or description. They depend upon the state of society in which the Christian lives; on the situation of life which he fills; on the education which he receives; on the abilities with which he is endued; on the individuals with whom he comes in contact; on the means and opportunities which he enjoys. "God divides to every man severally as he will;" assigns him various powers, and various occasions of employing them. It could never be accurately defined on whom the different duties lie which the service of Christ requires ;-―never laid down before hand, for instance, to whom it particularly belongs to propagate at home the truths of the Gospel, or to carry them to foreign lands; who are to visit the sick and the afflicted, and supply the destitute; what portion of his sub stance every different individual should employ in works of mercy and piety. It was worthy of infinite wisdom, instead of attempting this-instead of promulgating a code too voluminous for ordinary use, and still imperfect and inadequate at last,—it was worthy of infinite wisdom to leave a general principle which should make such a code superfluous-a principle which should extend to all cases, belong to every age, apply to every individual: If ye love me, keep my commandments. You know, my brethren, the nature of a piece of mechanism; a work of art ingeniously contrived to perform certain operations; and which does perform them, perhaps, with wonderful precision. But it can go no farther; it cannot provide for contingencies, or take advantage of opportunities; all must be regularly settled and previously planned. To this we might compare the heart, if it were solely governed by precept. Whereas the heart, when actuated by a ruling principle, instead of by direct precept, is like that astonishing living mechanism, the human body. The body with its limbs and sinews, as constructed by the great Creator, is convertible to every object which the circumstances of man |