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proper or not proper to be known. Sovereign here as in other things, he not only retains the right and the power of communicating knowledge, but of communicating what, in his own judgment, he sees to be best.. It is obviously not possible for him to communicate all knowledge to a limited mind, that can receive it only in parts. Adjusting, therefore, what he imparts not only to the capacity of the recipient but to the attendant circumstances, he gives here a little and there a little casting brightness around the skirts of the clouds which overhang us, mingling light with darkness and darkness with light, so that those who walk in some things in the day of open vision, may still be said in other things to walk in "the night of faith."

4. Again, we may properly speak of the union of God and man in knowledge, when there is an unity in the source of knowledge. There is and can be but one true source of knowledge. Man, who possesses only what is given him, is unable to originate knowledge from himself. He can have no true knowledge, no true wisdom, but that which comes from a divine source.

The great Author of his powers, it is true, has given him instruments of perception, comparison, and reasoning, with which he can apply to the original fountain or ocean of truth, which exists in God himself. Through these instruments knowledge is conveyed from the source to the recipient. And it is not more true that the helpless infant derives its nourishment from the bosom of its mother, than that the soul, which is in full union with God, receives the nutriment of knowledge from God. All that such an one has to do, in securing this result, is to pray that God will direct the instruments he has made; believing that he will do so in behalf of the souls who have given themselves fully to him, and who

have faith. God will not do this for the soul which has not laid itself upon his altar. Give thyself to God, therefore, without reserve, and in the exercise of a childlike confidence, and he, who has promised to teach men, will not fail to impart true wisdom.

5. It is in this state of things,--the state in which man is united with God in wisdom,—that we find the truth of that interesting passage of Scripture, "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenants."* No longer a God afar off, he assumes a position of friendship and intimacy, and converses with them, as it were, face to face. By secret intimations, which are not the less true for being silent, he explains the doctrines of righteousness, and shows the signs of his coming.

6. And, we may properly add, it is in this state of things that we find one great ground of encouragement and hope. Knowledge is power even on human principles, and when it is infused more or less with human error. What, then, shall be the power of God's people, when it shall be said of them, in the language of the prophets and of the Saviour, "And they shall be all taught of God"?+ "I will give you a mouth and wisdom," says the Saviour in another place, "which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist." True it is that the voice of mere human wisdom, when assuming an adverse position, has but little power against the voice of God speaking from a holy heart. And when the heart of the church shall become holy, so that the voice of the church shali be synonymous with a declaration from the God of the church, then shall the deaf hear and the unbelieving be convinced.

Ps. 24: 14.

↑ John 6: 25.

Luke 21: 15.

OH, SEND ONE RAY INTO MY SIGHTLESS BALL.

Oh, send one ray into my sightless ball, darkened heart!

Transmit one beam into my

On thee, Almighty God, on thee I call,
Incline thy listening ear, thine aid impart!

In vain the natural sun his beams doth yield,
In vain the moon illumes the fields of air;
The eye-sight of my soul is quenched and sealed,
And what is other light if shades are there?
Beyond the sun and moon I lift my gaze,

Where round thy throne a purer light is spread,
Where seraphs fill their urns from that bright blaze,
And angels' souls with holy fires are fed.

Oh, send from that pure fount one quickening ray,

And change these inward shades to bright and glorious day!

PART FOURTH.

ON THE LOVE OF GOD, AND THE UNION OF GOD AND MAN

IN LOVE.

CHAPTER I.

ON THE NATURE OF PURE OR HOLY LOVE.

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Love has a nature of its own. — No love without an object of love. Its nature is to seek its object without a view to reward. Existence the object of pure love. Its attractive power. - Pure or holy love illustrated in the Saviour. All holy beings have this love.

UNION with God in knowledge is preparatory to union with him in love. In the order of nature, knowledge is first in time; but love has the preeminence in excellence. As it is a principle nearer the centre of the soul, it attracts and concentrates in itself, if we may so express it, more of the soul's life. We proceed now to the consideration of this great principle.

Not

Love, like everything else, has its own nature. identical with any other affection, and not explainable by the laws which are appropriate to any other affection, it stands by itself, in its own entity, in its own attributes and form. And being thus separate from every other affection, there is something true of it, which is not true of anything else. It is, therefore, a legitimate subject of analysis and description.

2. It is hardly necessary to say, in offering some explanations on this subject, that love always has an object. Love, without an object of love, would be inconceivable. It would be as difficult to conceive of such love, as it would be to conceive of an act of memory without something remembered, or of an act of perception without something perceived. And it. is proper to add, that this object, although it does not necessarily exclude a regard to a person's own interests, is generally found in interests which are beyond and out of ourselves. Hence it is a common remark, that true or pure love is self-forgetting.

3. Again, it is one of the traits of love, that it does not remain quiescent in him who is the subject of it, but has a tendency (a tendency which is inherent, and constitutes a part of its nature) to move or flow out to its object, whatever that object may be. It is the object which indicates the channel in which it must flow, and which constitutes, also, the termination of its movement. Summoned into being by its appropriate object, it exists without effort; and, flowing in the channel which truth and nature have marked out for it, it asks no reward. If it expected or asked for anything, which might properly be denominated the recompense or reward of its own existence, it would cease to be love. And accordingly, if it be required to give a reason for its existence, (separate from that of reward, which it does not recognize as a reason,) it can only say, it loves because it cannot help it, or because it has a nature which makes it love. But such an answer, if it fails to announce a reason, at least announces a fact; a fact, which, if reason fails to prove, it also fails to annul. No one asks why the sun shines when it is above the horizon. And the light of love, like the light of the natural sun, when

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