that Christian love, which Is another name for liberty, .fnlfilir the demands of .La;w. The mee.ning of the commRndments published from Sinai was love. '!'heir essence is love to God and love to our neighbour, as well as to our "better self." Hence the gospel thro~ no slight on Law, but really secures its observance. '!'he.whole system turns on love as the duty and the privilege of existence. While the Law is, '.therefore, rejected as a way of life, it is accepted as a rule. Saved thro~1gh the .merits.and grace of Christ, we beta.ke ourselves to Law-keeping con araore. We rElcognize in Qod the supreme object of grateful love; we recognize in our neighbour the object of. QUJ,' love for God's sake and for his own sake; and we honour the Law of God as "hply and just and good." The whole difference between the legal spirit and the.gospel spirit is that in the one case Law is kept in hope of establishing a.claim; in ~he other it is kqp~ ~ token of our gratitude. The motive in the one case, being selfis)l, destroys t.he. higli standard of Law. It fancies it can be kept with considcrabl13 ~empleteness, whe.reas it is kept by the best with constant and Jnanifold sqortcoming.. The motive. in the other case, being disinterested, secures such attachment· to ,the Law, because it has been translated int-0 love, that it is kept with increasing ardou~ ,nd success:', Slaves will never honour Law so much as freemen. • , ,J . , • IV. LOVE IS THE TRUE ANTIDOTE TO STRIFE AND DIVISION, (Ver. 15.) · The ritu~l- istic or legal spirit into which the Galatians had temporally fallen manifested itsel( in strife and bickerings. 'l'his is, in fact, its natural outcome. For.'if men are straining every nerve to save themselves by punctilious obs13rvan~ pf qeremoriies, •they will come of necessity into collision. It is an emulation of a, selfish diafacter,' . H Cl!,lj.not be conducted with mutual consideration.. As a matter o~ fact, organizations pervaded i:!y the legal Rpirit are but the battle-ground of conllicting'parties.' 'Bu'tlove comes'to ,Jet all right again. Its genial breath makes summer in society .and takes wintry isol~ti~n :wd .self-seeking all away. Mutual consideration secuf'il"s. harmony';.ild .swial P,rt:>gre~s. 'Instead of religious people becoming then..the butt of the world's scorn by .r.~11s9n of their strife and divisions, they become the world's wonder by reasqn of their unity,l!-nd peace. It is, love, therefore, we are bo.und to cultivate. Then shaU concord and. ·11,11 its myriad blessings come into the Church of God and' the world be subdued b!)for~ it~ -R.M.E. • • • '
Vers. 16-26.-Christian :progress r~aliied throug"/,, \intag~rdsm, • We Triu.st not ~uppose, however, that the love which God gives us as our liberty cao. work 'out its will without experiencing opposition. Opposition we know it will meetin. the world of selfish men; but Paul here points out the antagonism. it meets wfthin ou,r own per- sonalities. The flesh antagonizes the Spirit. Love .does riot get its ~~n sw~et· way as often as we would. Self becomes a battle~ground, arid. God, contends 'wi~h tlie flesh.for the supremacy of the soul. So violent is the contention that the flesh is. actually "crucified with its affections and lusts.". We are introduced, the~e(ore, to, the law; of Christian progress which, because of our sinful natur,e, has to be through antagonizing the sinful tendencies in the interest of love. Observe- I. Sn. LEADS MAN TO. FALL OUT WITH.· HIKSELF•. (Ver. 17.). _As UJlma.nn has beautifull v said, ":Man forms a unity, which. is, however, only the 'foundation or that higher unity which is to be brought about in him, as. a being niade i!} the Divi~e image, by means of co=union with God. No'IV, sin does no.t merely obsttuct t~1s unity, but 11ets up in its place that which is its direct opposite. lle wli? has _fallen away from God by sin, does, as a necessary c9nsequence, fall out• lioth with. himself and with all mankind. True unity in' man is possible only when that whichis. G;od- like in him-that is, the mind-acquiesces in the Divine order of life, and g~verns the ,vhole being in conformity. therewith.· But when he pas once severed hn:nself from the true centre of his being, that is, from God, thep also do,es that ,element of his being, his mind, whlch is akin to God, and which was intetJ.9-e~ to b?· ihe connecting and all-deciding centre of his personal life, lose its central..au~, dommant position· he c~seH to be lord. of himself and of his own 'iiature; ·the vanous powers w~ich U:a.ke up his complex n~ture begi~. ~ 'carry on,' ~~~h for. i~~elf, ~n indepehd~nt existence; the flesh llll!tetb a.garnet tbe spirit, and the s,:_,mt wages a frmtjess war with the flesh (ver. 17); sinful desire becomes dominant;· and while the man seems to be iII the enjoyment of all imaginable libertf, he :has lost the .only true 'llbert;y- aild ba1 tn, V, 1-26.] THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.