I. 'l'!'!E NATURE OF LOVE TO Goo. (1) It has all the qualities of genuine love. (a) It rn personal. We _love_ God in loving goodness and all things Godlike; but the perfect love of God unphes a personal relation between our soul and His. We love Him as our Father. (b) It ie seen in the delight we have in God the attraction 1:Ie is to us, ow- desire to b~ in His presence, and the greater brightness of our lives ae we grow nearer to Hun. True love finds its greatest joy in Jovin"'. The love w_hich is mer~ly benevolent, V.:hich wishes well without feeling delight: is cold and famt. (c) It1s proved by sacrifice. Love sacrifices itself to death, and prefers the verson loved to its own joy. So our love to God must lead to self-devotion and willingness to suffer loss for His sake. (2) It haa special features of its own. There are different kinds of love, determined by the different relations of men, as friends, brothers, parents and children, husbands and wives. Our relation to God is unlike any other relation, e.nd the love which flows from this must have a peculiar character. God stands to us in the ideal of e.ll relations, as the friend, the father, the husband of His people, and our love to God should be the perfection and ideal of all love. Still God needs no help from us ; therefore the element of pity which characterises tlae love of the strong to the weak does not belong to this love. God is unseen and spiritual; therefore our love to Him does not naturally take the form of sensuous rapture, but rather that of calm and rational devotion. God is infinitely above us; therefore our love to Him must be inspired with reverence and humility. In its perfection it must become an all-absorbing devotion. Yet e,en then it will be characterised by strength and depth rather than by passion and visible emotion. II. THE SOURCES OF LOVE To Goo. We are to II take goodheed "-an admonition which implies that it rests with us to cultivate our own love to God. (1) Consider the grounds we have for loving God: (a) In His love to us, seeing that He has loved us before seeking for our love, and has proved His love by His goodness in creation, providence, and redemption; (b) in His nature. He attracts by the "beauty of holiness; " He is love ; the more we know of God the more do we see of His goodness. (2) Realise the presence of God. Love is strengthened by com- munion. Contemplation of God with faith in His personal presence will draw the soul near to Him, and deepen the feeling of affection to Him as a real being-" our Father ''-and not as the mere abstraction of perfect attributes which is all that the no.me of God suggeste to some men. (3) Live in His spirit. As we love what God loves, as.we grow like Him, as we approach Him in sympathy, we shall learn to love God. III. THE EFFECTS OF LOVE TO Goo. (1) Obedience. We shall desire to serve •and please Him, and shall do this more heartily than from fear, self-interest, or a cold conviction of duty (Rom. xiii. 10). (2) Likeness to God. Love naturally assimilates by the influence of (a) admiration and (b) sympathy. (3) Love to r,,a11. This is a direct fruit of love to God, because (a) it pleases Him, (b) it is Godlike, (c) love to God must flow out in all forms of unselfishness and benernlence (1 John iv. 20). (4) The highest blessedness. Heaven consists in the enjoyment of God through love. He secures, on earth, peace and satisfaction to the ,leepest yearnings of the soul.-W. F. A.
Ver. 11.-A needed caution. Whilst the words of the youthful sometimes claim our attention, none can forbear to give earnest heed to the advice of him wl10se head is whitened with the snows of many winters. Respect is clue to the aged, and never more so than when lessons taught them by a long and varied .experience drop from their venera!Jle lips. Let us bend our ears to listen to the counsel oI Joshua, 11 old and stricken in age.'' 'fhe period at which it was clelivere<l was one of peculiar interest. The honourecl leader of the Israelites felt the t11ue to be eh-awing near when he must pass away from the people whom he re~anle<l ~s _11 father does his children. Knowing how soon they woul<l be <leprtYed of bis presence ancl control, he assem!Jled the people, ns l\Ioses h~d previously done, aml like Samuel aml Da,'icl afterwards, aml aclclressecl them m worcls of solemn ex- hortation, which may be summa1-ised in the language of the text, .. Take goo,1 T:Jt-E BOOK OF J"OS~U.A. [cm txm. 1-M.