These are the results of faith. But a mere orthodox belief is worthless and even injurious. I have watched the sun as he sank into his ocean bed and paved the sea with a golden pathway that seemed to lead to the very gates of glory; and I have seen the golden hues gradually fading into gloom, till soon the blackest part of the whole horizon was that which a few moments before had been so glorious and bright. The profession of a creed may give us for a time an air of respectability or an odour of sancity, but, alas! for us if our religion ends with mere belief. We may think it will take us to happiness and God, but it will not; it will bring us to darkness and despair. 141 Christ's Plan of Salvation. "Love is the fulfilling of the law."-ROMANS xiii. 10. THE but love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." The question may occur to some one, Why should the law be fulfilled? When it acts as a check upon a man's inclinations or passions, he is inclined to regard it as his enemy, he would fain do away with it altogether. But if we look into the matter a little, we shall see that law is a most useful friend. Would it be a better universe to live in, think you, if there were no law of planetary motion? If the stars, instead of revolving, as they do, with mathematical precision, in orbits marked out for them by the law of gravitation, were at liberty to move in any direction with any velocity? Better! Why this earth of ours, set free from the control of law, might one day be as far from the sun as Neptune, where we should die of cold, and the next as near as Mercury, where our frozen remains would be cremated. And law is infinitely more necessary in the social than in the physical sphere. The great thing requisite to make human life even tolerable is security, and this, of course, we could never feel if every one were at liberty to treat every one else exactly as he might happen to please. In that case we should live in a state of universal warfare and constant dread. Hence we owe to law a debt not only of obedience but of gratitude. Though it forbids our injuring others, it also forbids our being injured by others. Though it points out our duties it also protects our rights. Though it has punishments for the guilty, it also has rewards for the just. As the water which is evaporated from the surface of the earth returns. again in fertilising showers, so we are compen sated for the self-restraint which law demands of us by that which it exacts from others, and by the consequent security in which we are enabled to live. "Of law," says Hooker, in the celebrated sentence with which he closes the first book of his 'Ecclesiastical Polity,' and which has been sometimes called the finest sentence in English literature," Of law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world. All things in heaven and earth do her homage; the least as not beneath her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power. Both angels and men, and all creatures of what condition soever, though each in a different sort and manner, yet each with uniform consent, admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy." If this, then, be the nature and value of law, its fulfilment must be pre-eminently rational and desirable. Now law is often obeyed because punishment is expected to follow its violation. A person may pay his debts, for example, because, if he do not, he will go to prison. But you can never be quite sure that law will be obeyed when you only appeal to fear. If a man be a clever scoundrel he may avoid detection, or, if detected, he may perhaps be able to make his escape before the punishment can be inflicted. And a stupid scoundrel, probably not knowing that he is stupid, will often run a similar risk. So, while the law depends solely upon fear for its fulfilment, however vigilant may be our police, however upright our courts of justice, however severe may be the condemnation of society, we have no security that it will be obeyed, and as a matter of fact we know that it is constantly being violated. And further, the law is not fulfilled by those who are satisfied with the mere fulfilment of its letter. Its spirit is, "Thou shalt do no ill to thy neighbour;" but in order to be made definite, this command has to be narrowed in the written law, where we read only, "Thou shalt not injure thy neighbour in such and such ways." It is easy to see that the man who is contented with keeping the letter will violate the spirit; for though he refrains from committing certain definite and punishable injuries, he yet does grievous wrong to all with whom he comes in contact by his cold, callous, hard-hearted selfishness. We sometimes meet with men, who, we are quite sure, would not rob or murder us, but who, we are equally sure, would |