you not wish to love him? Can you but love him? Would you not be ashamed of yourself, if you did not love him? Is it not your desire and prayer that all should love, honour, and serve him? And have you not such a strong sense of the high obligation which all are under to this exercise, that you can join with the apostle in saying, " If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, maranatha"-accursed of the Lord at his coming?

K

We have lately spoken of love to Christ, as an essential feature in the character of all who belong to him, and the efficient principle of all evangelical worship and acceptable obedience. We are now to enter on a higher theme—to ascend from the stream to the fountain-from the love of a creature of yesterday, to that of the Father of eternity—" unto Him that loved us." A delightful, but a difficult task! We are forcibly reminded here of our Lord's saying to Nicodemus, when he was staggered at the doctrine of the new birth: "If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things ?" Love to the Love to the person of Christ appears so strange to some, that they would expunge it from the catalogue of Christian virtues, and discourage all pretensions to it as extravagant and enthusiastical; while others, who acknowledge its reasonableness and obligations, are afraid of presumption in laying claim to such a high and mysterious feeling, and think that none but such persons as Peter and Paul and John can return an affirmative answer to the question, "Lovest thou me." The doctrinal error of the one class, and the practical defect of the other, are to be cured in the same way in which Jesus cured the unbelief of Nicodemus-by revealing the higher mystery. "For," added he,

* Preached before the dispensation of the Lord's Supper, Edinburgh, Nov. 6, 1831.

"God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life." If persons believed the wondrous love of God to sinners, the highest expressions of love to him would not appear unreasonable or extravagant ; and if we were more occupied in believing contemplations of that wonderful subject, we would feel our hearts warmed and inflamed by it, and would be constrained to cry out, "We love him, because he first loved us." Come then, and let us light our torch at the rays of the Sun of righteousness, as concentrated in the glass of

our text.

Well did it become the inspired writer of this book to speak on such a theme! Who so fitted for discoursing of the love of Christ, as he who was admitted to enjoy such endearing proofs of it, both during the time that he dwelt on earth, and after he went to heaven? He was the disciple whom Jesus loved, on whose breast he usually leaned at supper, and by whose mouth his brethren sought to know their master's secrets. He was also honoured by a personal sight of the Redeemer in his heavenly glory, and with a revelation of the principal events which should befall the church from that time to the end of the world. He was, therefore, a chosen vessel to contain this "good ointment," and to convey it, in all its purity and fragrance and strength, into the souls of others. No wonder that love, the love of God and of Christ, and love to God to Christ and the brethren, was a favourite topic with John, in his gospel, in all his epistles, and in this book which shuts up and seals the vision and the prophecy. Not that in this book or elsewhere he dwells on the personal marks of affection with which he was honoured, or imparts the secrets which were whispered into his ear in familiar conversation with his Lord. No; he was ready to join with his brethren in saying, "Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more." What he had seen and heard and handled of the Word of life, he declares unto us, that our fellowship may be with him; and here he speaks of that love, and those proofs of it, which were common to him with all believers.

In the preceding context, we have a preface and a salutation. The preface relates to the whole book. The salutation is addressed immediately to the seven churches of Asia, to whom he sent the letters dictated by the Son of God who appeared to him in glory. In its matter, it agrees with the ordinary salutations of the inspired writers, being a prayer for "grace and peace" to them; but its description of the object of the prayer is borrowed from the visions with which John was favoured. Instead of begging the blessing of grace and peace from the Father, Son and Spirit, he implores it "from Him which was, and which is, and which is to come" (that is, the Father), "and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne" (that is, the Holy Ghost in the diversity and plenitude of his divine influences), " and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth." He departs from the order usually observed by the sacred writers, and mentions the Son last, because he meant to dwell on his blessed name, and to prepare the mind for the vision which he was about to relate. Accordingly, he immediately breaks out in this fervent doxology, or ascription of praise, "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."

The redemption of sinners originated in the free and sovereign love of God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, whose love is one, though exerted variously, according to the order of their subsistence, in the voluntarily established economy of grace. The love of the Father has been justly called "the eternal disposing cause of redemption," and to it accordingly is ascribed in Scripture the purpose of saving sinners, the selection of the objects of mercy, the appointment of the means, and the predestinating of the elect, in the Mediator, to the enjoyment of eternal life. The love of the Son is the eternal spring of all that God did in the impetration of redemption; as the love of the Spirit is the spring of its application. And in the manifestation of the love of Christ we see also that of the Father and of the Spirit. While we are warranted to

take a distinct view of divine love as displayed by each person of the adorable Trinity, we can thus view it as the love of one glorious being. We do not detract from the love of the Father and Spirit, when we say, "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood--be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."

Christ is God, and "God is love." Divine love, however, could not have been known but for its effects, which manifest its reality and magnitude. It would have remained hid in God, and have been exerted only in those immanent acts of mutual complacency and delight between the Father and Son by the Spirit, of which we have some faint discoveries in the method of redemption, though veiled in "light inaccessible and full of glory." But how gloriously has the love of the Son of God shone forth, and manifested itself through his incarnation! Who were the objects of it? The sinful, the vile and degraded. Those that were lying in guiltiness and defilement. And how did he save them from their sins? Not by an act of mere grace and power; but by giving his life a ransom for them. Not by blotting out their sins in his mercy, as the sun blots out a cloud by the strength of his rays, but by "washing them from their sins in his own blood," which he shed for this purpose. And not contented with redeeming them from all iniquity, and restoring them to favour and happiness, he hath raised them to the highest dignity and honour-hath made them "kings and priests unto God and his Father"—consecrated them as priests and crowned them as kings, making them partakers of the glory which he himself inherits, while he sits as "a priest upon his throne"-at once ministering to God and reigning with God.

These are the fruits of the love of Christ-they are the love of Christ unfolded, realized, and perfected. His love is the golden thread, which, running through all that he hath done, and all that he hath procured, binds believers to him in love and gratitude. He might have done all this merely in obedience to his Father's will, with a view to his own honour, or in despite of Satan; but the Scripture every where assures us that he did it also from love to sinners.