Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-mote from timorous and appalling suffering, gentleness, goodness, fear; for "perfect love casteth faith, meekness, temperance. out fear, because fear hath torWhat a rich cluster of fruit! What ment." a bright assemblage of excellencies! How happy must be the heart in which these celestial graces dwell! We propose in a series of short essays, to consider each of them in their order. Love is the first in the enumeration. Love, viewed in relation to the Saviour, may be regarded as ardent gratitude, springing from a sense of obligation. Had it not been for the interposition of the Son of God, and the shedding of his precious blood, that punishment to which we stand exposed in consequence of sin, must have been inflicted on us, and we should have been doomed to hopeless wretchedness, and irrecoverable ruin. But he has borne the weight of our transgressions, and endured the curse for us: he has expiated our guilt by his vicarious sufferings on the cross; and humbly relying on the merits of his death, we enjoy the forgiveness of our sins, and the acceptance of our persons; a deliverance from condemnation, and the animating prospect of eternal happiness and glory. Such are our obligations; and how warm should be the gratitude of our hearts to that kind and conde Love varies according to its object. Viewed in relation to the Deity, it may be regarded as devout adoration. This is the peculiar form which it assumes. God is to be adored as the great first cause; the grand original and fountain of being; from whom all other beings have derived their existence, and on whom they are perpetually de pendant. God is to be adored as the parent of good, the bountiful benefactor, who has scattered innumerable blessings around our path; to whom we are indebted for every breath we draw, and every comfort we enjoy. God is to be adored on account of the essential perfec-scending Saviour, through whom tions of his nature. In him every excellency meets and centres. His greatness is unsearchable, his spirit is universally diffused, his knowledge extends even to the secrets of the heart. The moral attributes of the Deity attract our veneration. He is a God of inflexible justice, inviolable truth, immaculate purity, and matchless grace. These perfections are indeed only so many expressions of his holiness; and hence the love of holiness is the love of God. This devout adoration is mingled with a feeling of complacency and delight in the contemplation of his boundless excellencies. to be associates for ever, cannot Though inseparably connected but feel a mutual attachment with reverential awe, yet it is renow. Love will overleap the we are permitted to enjoy such invaluable privileges! Love, with regard to our fellowChristians, may be considered as sincere affection, called forth by a perception of their various excellencies, and the resemblance which they bear to that Saviour to whom our hearts are devoted. Those who have embraced the same great principles, and are influenced and animated by the same delightful hopes;-those who are travelling in the same path to the same city of habitation; who anticipate a perfect union hereafter, and are destined barriers of party: expansive and generous in its nature, it will disregard all minor peculiarities and shades of sentiment. Wherever we recognize the image of Christ, wherever we trace his divine lineaments, the heart will open, and the affections flow forth. How endearing are the ties which bind us to each other! How delightful is that unity of spirit which pervades every member of the mystical body of Christ! The love of the brethren springs from the love of God. If we love the Saviour, we shall love his disciples too. abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. We are informed, on the highest authority, "that the carnal mind is enmity against God." Love and enmity are diametrically opposed to each other, and cannot dwell in the breast at the same time. The natural enmity of the carnal mind must be destroyed and eradicated, before love can be experienced. So long as man is abandoned to himself, and left to the impulse of his own polluted heart, he will remain a stranger to the exercise of love. No devout With regard to mankind at adoration of the Deity, no ardent large, love assumes the form of gratitude to a Saviour, no sincere tender compassion. What Chris-affection for his disciples, no tentian can contemplate the wretch-der compassion for mankind, will ed and ruined condition of mankind, and not feel his heart dissolve in pity? Does he not often shed the sympathetic tear, and weep for fallen and degraded humanity? The whole world lying in the wicked one; its deluded votaries eagerly engaged in the pursuit of trifles, grasping at shadows, unmindful of their guilt and danger, and treading the broad path which leads to destruction; presents a spectacle unspeakably affecting. How compassionate was the mind of Paul! When speaking of the wicked, he says, "Of whom I have told you often, and now tell you, even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ." And such is the feeling of tender compassion which will pervade the mind of every real Christian. Love will display itself in this particular way: it is one of the ramifications of this principle. ever occupy his mind. God will be forgotten, or thought of only with horror and with hatred : Christ will be disregarded, and his offers of mercy impiously rejected: Christians will be despised, and looked upon as weak and deluded fanatics: and his fellow-men will be unnoticed, except as they may be found conducive to his private advantage. A blind and narrow selfishness debases every feeling of his heart, and mars every action of his life. Love, therefore, cannot originate with man; we must trace it to a higher source. It is the result of that regenerating process which is necessary to constitute us Christians. It is the product of Divine grace: the implantation of the Holy Spirit: it originates with that God whose nature and whose name is LOVE. Love is an essential principle. It constitutes the sum and substance of personal religion. With Such then appears to be the nature of love. Let us now at-out it, whatever may be our protempt to display its excellence. Love is a divine principle: it is the fruit of the Spirit. It is fixed in the mind, and shed fession; however accurate and extensive our knowledge of divine truth; however familiar we may be with the theory of the gospel; temporal, but especially of the spiritual and eternal interests of those around us. We shall aim to" do good unto all, and especially to those who are of the household of faith." All our actions, to be acceptable in the sight of God, must flow from this principle. Love to God, and love to man, must form the governing motive of our lives. Love is a transforming principle. It assimilates the soul to God. "He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him." It constitutes the every image of the Divine Being, for ineffable love. The more, therefore, we possess of this divine principle, the more we shall be transformed into the likeness of Deity. with whatever fluency we may | We shall be mindful even of the converse; with whatever eloquence we may declaim on the subject of religion; still our pretensions are vain. "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal: and though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing; and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it" GOD IS LOVE;" pure, perfect, profiteth me nothing." Apart from this principle, religion degenerates into a round of heartless ceremonies; it becomes an empty name, a lifeless form. The Heaven is the region very essence and being of per- where love abounds: its native sonal religion consists in love. seat, its favourite abode is there. Love is the plastic soul which Hence the more deeply our minds pervades every part, and gives are imbued with this celestial vitality, and beauty, and expres-grace, the more shall we be fitted sion, to the form of godliness. for the paradise above. Love Love is an operative principle. exerts the happiest influence over It is the main-spring of obedience. those who possess it. It purifies It is not a bharren feeling: it the soul from sense and sin; it prompts to action. That love calms the turbulence of the which has a reference to God, passions; it spreads a kindly will lead to unlimited and un- warmth over the feelings; it renqualified submission to his will.ders the heart tender and suscep"If ye love me," said the Savi-tible. It leads to communion our, "keep my commandments." with the God of love, and is Thus only can we express our connected with the consciousness gratitude, by yielding up our-of an interest in the Divine faselves unreservedly to him. vour. Thus it creates the purest Every injunction will be held sacred, every caution will be attended to, every precept will be practised, if love reigns in our hearts. That love which has a reference to man, will prompt us to acts of kindness and benevolence. We shall seek to promote the welfare of the human race. Utility will be our constant aim. pleasure, the most holy and serene delight, man is capable of enjoying. Love, too, gives a grandeur and an elevation to the character; stamps a dignity on man; raises him in the scale of being, and fits him to become the associate of angels and happy spirits above. Love is an immortal principle. Faith and Hope are associated | Peter and St. Paul; and the con with Charity on earth; and these three sister graces are appointed to attend the Christian in his journey through this vale of tears. He cheerfully surrenders himself to their guidance, and they conduct him safely to the gates of the celestial city; but there Faith and Hope surrender their charge, for their attendance is no longer needful. Charity still keeps by his side, enters with him into paradise, and becomes his associate throughout eternity. On earth we need the exercise of faith, and the influence of hope; but in heaven, the one will be exchanged for sight, and the other absorbed in fruition. Love, however, will never die: it will be perfected and expanded in the world of glory. This plant of paradise, after having diffused its fragrance awhile through the wilderness of this world, shall be transferred to a happier region, and fixed in a more kindly and congenial soil, where it shall bloom with immortal verdure, and flourish in the garden of God. VANITY OF DRESS. H. "In like manner I will also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shame-facedness and ex trary is represented as a practice opposite to godliness! Nor while you are dressing, should you forget that you are sinners, and therefore should put on shamefacedness; for all our ornaments and clothing are but a memorial of our first sin and shame. And when we take a pride in our garments, it looks as if we had lost the knowledge of the original of them, the loss of our innocency. Nor is this sort of advice to be confined to the female world: for, as the same author presses it, if it be so unbecoming a Christian woman to be thus adorned, and tricking up her body, it must be much more unbecoming a Christian MAN, and that which makes him truly deserving the name of a fop!' It is a token of a light and vain mind to be too fond of gaudy habits; a mind not much affected with sin, or with salvation. Surely Christians are born for greater things, and their aim should point at higher excellencies than these are. Let their chief ornaments be the graces of the Spirit, and the virtues of the heart and life. A well-adorned body and a neglected mind, very ill become a professor of the gospel." Sermon on Christian Morality, by Dr. Watts. sobriety: as becometh women pro- To the Editors of the Baptist Magazine. fessing godliness." 1 Tim. ii. 9, 10. "HERE," saith a learned commentator, (Dr. Whitby,) "it is worthy to be noted by the women, that this precept ought not to be slighted by them, as of little moment, seeing it is so carefully noted by the two chief apostles of the Jew and Gentile, St. REMARKS ON PÆDOPHILUS'S EPIGRAM, In the Evangelical Magazine for last Month. I HOPE you will allow me, through the medium of your valuable miscellany, to make some remarks on the following lines which appeared in the Evangelical Magazine of last month. that perhaps he is charging a part of the doctrine of Christ with being opposed to love. But supposing him to be right respecting baptism, is he warrant "Epigram on reading a late virulent review of the Rev. R. Hall's Reply to the Rev. J. King-ed in representing Antipædobaphorn, on Free Communion. I should consider criticism misapplied in examining the poetical merit of this jeu d'esprit ; but, if I mistake not, it deserves the serious consideration of all who tremble at the word of God. Antipædobaptists are represented, with a few exceptions, as uncandid bigots "flushed with proud infallible conceit." Whether this does not too much resemble bringing against them "a railing accusation," I leave your readers to judge. Dr. Johnson defines a railer " one who insults or defames by opprobrious language;" and certainly Pædophilus has entitled himself to the freedom of this illustrious fraternity. But not satisfied with abuse, he charges Antipædobaptism with being abhorrent to love or the charms of friendship. I do not know whether he considers himself as infallibly certain that he is on the right side in reference to baptism, but I am sure he ought to be infallible before he presumes to make such a charge. If he be not, he must be aware tists as being destitute of love? He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. Does Pædophilus seriously make the charge, or like one of whom we read, will he "Am not I in say, sport?" But where did he learn that Antipædobaptists "thrust sweet infants from their Saviour's arms?" Do they deny the authenticity of that part of the word of God, where it is recorded that Christ took little children in his arms? Do they deny the obligations under which Christian parents are laid to commend their infants to Christ? Certainly not. Had Jesus baptized these infants Pædophilus might complain of our not following his example: but the scripture gives us no such information. If Paedophilus will take the trouble of going into a Jewish synagogue, he will perhaps witness, as I have done, an illustration of this passage of scripture. Children are there brought to the rabbi, who lays his hands on them and prays. Jesus, it appears, complied with this and other practices in Israel, which were not sinful. Another observation I wouldmake on the epigram is, that it is exceedingly improper to use such weapons in defending what we judge to be truth. If Antipædobaptists are wrong, let it be proved from the word of God. If Christ has commanded infants to be baptized, or if the apostles had any such custom, let the passages of scripture be fairly adduced; but let no arguments be employed, of which it can |