and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love.-1 John iv. 7, 8.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.-1 John iv. 11, 12.

And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him.—1 John iv. 16.

If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God, whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God, love his brother also.-1 John iv. 20, 21.

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous.-1 John v. 2, 3.

We trust that these quotations, which are only a portion of what can be adduced to the same purport, have not proved tedious.*

* We have deemed it right to place these passages before the reader, in place of sending him to the sacred volume whence they are taken, as they can be read in less time than their places can be found.

Should not these passages, taken in gross and in detail, awaken inquiries of vital import? Where is the Christianity which they prescribe? Where are the Christians who receive these instructions and obey them? Where are those people whose charity is greater than that faith which could remove mountains-more liberal than that bounty which bestows all its goods to feed the poor, and more self-sacrificing than his devotion who gives his body to martyrdom ?-Whose charity never fails-bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, enduring all things; whose love is without dissimulation; in honour preferring one another; who bless them which persecute-bless and curse not; who feed their enemies; who bear one another's burdens; who let not the sun go down upon their wrath; who put away all bitterness and wrath, and clamour, and evil speaking, with all malice? Where are those Christians who, having this world's goods, never shut up their bowels of compassion

when they see their brothers have need? The sufferings and utter destitution of the millions upon millions of the poor throughout rich Christendom; the strife, and clamour, and evil speaking, ambition, jealousy, bitterness, malice, oppression, wars, and perpetual struggles for power, wealth, and precedence, furnish a reply to these inquiries.

What do we see, then, in Christendom? Civilization, arts, sciences, knowledge; a vast complication of church machinery to keep men in the traces of sectarianism; a vast accumulation of duties to be performed; of things to be said and done; of yokes to be carried; of doctrines to be understood and believed; of traditions, glosses, comments, explanations: a vast array of biblical learning and criticism, in which every word is examined, weighed, and defined. We have creeds, confessions, liturgies, prayer-books, catechisms, forms and platforms of faith and discipline. We have councils, conventions, synods, and assemblies, and other ecclesiasti

cal bodies without number. We have sacraments, ordinances, ceremonies, observances without limit. We have bishops, priests, ministers, preachers, and teachers. We have congregations, schools, colleges, and seminaries. We have costly temples and palaces built for Him who dwelleth not in temples made with men's hands. We have assemblages of infinite variety for religious purposes. We have thousands upon thousands of volumes of religious books; but where is our Christianity? for all these things do not constitute us followers of Christ. Where is the exemplification of that charity without which all these things are mere sounding brass and tinkling cymbals? In what city is the "gospel preached to the poor?" In what country are the poor such special object of care and attention on the part of Christians, as is contemplated by the teachings of Christ and his disciples? This is not merely feeding and clothing the poor; for if you give all your goods for this purpose, it

does not meet the requirements of Christian charity. All such exterior manifestations of Christianity as are above enumerated are, in the best sense, merely means to an end. Where, we ask, are the results of this immense and costly paraphernalia of Christianity? Is there not reason to inquire if the essence of true religion has not been crushed, repelled, and sometimes wholly extinguished, under this load? Compare all this mass of Christian machinery with the extreme simplicity of that example in practice and teaching which is left for our instruction by Him who could. "speak as never man spake." While we adhere so closely to the letter, let us not be in danger of perishing in the letter. Knowledge will not save us: while we rely on the Bible as an instructor, let us not trust in it as a Saviour.

While one portion of nominal Christians have busied themselves with forms and ceremonies, and observances, with pictures, images, and processions; others have given to doc