^ The object of Moses in declaring the unity of God was to guard the Jews against idolatry ; my object in dwelling on it is to
1 D. J. Burrell. ST. MARK — 20
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claim from you the consecration of all your powers. A simple illustration will make both these points clear. Polygamy is contrary to the true idea of marriage ; he who has many wives cannot love one of them as a wife should be loved. Equally is the ideal of marriage violated if a man cannot or will not render to his wife the homage of his whole nature. His affection itself will be partial instead of full, and his heart will be distracted, if, what- ever her amiability may be, her conduct offends his moral sensibilities, if he cannot trust her judgment and accept her counsel, if she is a hindrance to him and not a help in the practical business of life. Many a man's spiritual life is distracted and made inefficient, simply because his whole being is not engrossed in his religion; one-sidedness in devotion is sure to weaken, and tends ultimately to destroy it.^
In Love, if Love be Love, if Love be ours, Faith and unfaith can ne'er be equal powers: Unfaith in aught is want of faith in all.
It is the little rift within the lute, That by and by will make the music mute. And ever widening slowly silence all:
The little rift within the lover's lute Or little pitted speck in garner'd fruit, That rotting inward slowly moulders all
It is not worth the keeping: let it go: But shall it? answer, darling, answer, no. And trust me not at all or all in all.^
^ There must be chivalry in our love for God. The old knights and "cavaliers proved the worth of their love by winning repute for courtesy and gentleness, as well as for daring exploits. King Arthur made his knights of the round table swear
To love one maiden only, cleave to her, And worship her by years of noble deeds, Until they won her.
And thus he justified the vow :
I knew Of no more subtle master under heaven Than is the maiden passion for a maid, Not only to keep down the base in man,
» A. Mackennal. ' Tennyson.
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But teach high thought, and amiable words,
And courtliness, and the desire of fame.
And love of truth, and all that makes a man.
Notice these words under heaven. I am inclined to believe that the poet meant by them that he knew of no better influence in this world which lies under heaven's canopy.^
iii. Thou shalt love. What a strange and startling command, to be ordered to love ! We can understand obedience in a thousand matters : we can allow and justify an order to do this, or to do that : we might even go so far as to concede the right to dictate what we should think and believe, so ignorant are we of the reality of things, so dependent on the condescension of wiser and holier men ! But love ? Love, surely, is the one thing we cannot but retain in our own possession : love, at least, we fancy, is our own : into its recesses, into its deep privacy, who is there that will dare to penetrate without our leave ? Why, we ourselves hardly venture to intrude upon the hidden places of our own affections ! Yet God assumes the entry even of this last refuge, this secret home : even hither He penetrates with His searching decrees : He lays down laws, He makes personal claims : " Thou shalt love me." It is a rule of His dominion that He should be loved. Nor is it to be merely a vague goodwill that we are bound to give Him ; nothing general, or loose, or impersonal, or impassionate will satisfy Him ; it is vivid, impetuous, enthusiastic personal love that He orders us to feel for Him ; nothing short of this will do at all ; love without limit, love without reserve, love without a rival, love without an end, this is His rule, the law of His state : " Thou shalt love me with' all thy heart, with all thy mind, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength," Nor is this all. Our affections have yet more demands made upon them. Not only are they to be concentrated, in all their force, upon the Lord of this Kingdom, but they are to be distributed far and wide, over the whole length and breadth of the dominion. This, too, is to be done by order ; we are under command to love every brother-man equally with ourselves : this, too, it appears, can be dictated to us.
* L. R. Rawnsley.
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^ It is said that one of the greatest statesmen that we have ever had, having gone to hear an evangelical preacher, was heard growling as he left the church, " Why, the man said that we were to love God," evidently thinking that that was the very height of unreasonableness. And when Wilberforce attacked the fashion of religion in the beginning of the nineteenth century, this was the point on which he fixed — that not only was God not loved, but people did not even think that to love God was reasonable. Going to work philosophically, he demonstrated, first, that what he called passion — meaning love — ^is the strongest force in human affairs; and, secondly, that religion requires exactly such a stimulus, because of the difficulties that it has to overcome.