and if any thing defective, perverse, or sinful, is observable in our character, we try to make a balance in our favour by pleading our freedom from other faults or vices: thus the adulterer comforts himself that he is not a murderer, and the murderer that he is not an adulterer. But is this the right method of "looking into the perfect law of liberty, and continuing therein ?" Alas! my brethren," whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." Only let us keep the holiness of God ever present to our minds, so that the whole law shall appear as the expression of his will, one and indivisible, as the essence of God; let us conscientiously attend to individual commands, at the same time remembering that love alone is the complete fulfilment of the whole law; only let us do this, and we shall no longer be disposed to boast of this or that attainment or virtue; we shall then learn, not only to lament particular defects and transgressions, but since every transgression of the law, however trifling it may appear in itself, will be seen in its connexion with sin in general, with the sin which dwelleth in us; in breaking any particular command, we shall be convinced that the whole law of God is violated; and we shall be ready, like the publican, to smite upon our breasts, and, penetrated with a sense of our sinfulness, cry out, "God be merciful to me a sinner."

So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty." The apostle here reminds his fellow-christians of the judgment that

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Now if you respect persons, if you suffer yourself to be influenced by outward appearances, by earthly, selfish considerations in your conduct towards others, be assured that you are destitute of humble, selfdenying, self-sacrificing love; and if so, you have transgressed (though you may fancy that you have kept the rest of the law, which however has been very far from being the case) that one command which includes all the others, for love is the fulfilling of the law; without love you cannot fulfil a single command. When one member of our body is injured, all the other members more or less suffer with it; all are more or less involved in the feeling of disease; the soundness of the whole body is disturbed; and instead of mentioning any particular part of our body, we are wont to say, "I am sick, I am in pain." And in like manner the law of God, which as well as our body is a whole, has one life, one soul, namely love; and whenever this is injured, though only in a single point, the whole law is vitally affected, its whole inward life is wounded, and no one command is purely and perfectly fulfilled.

The apostle gives an example to illustrate his meaning. "For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law." Adultery and murder are here to be taken in the widest sense of the terms, as they are explained by the Saviour in the sermon on the mount: 66 Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust

after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart. Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment.” "Whosoever hateth his brother," says the disciple whom Jesus loved, "is a murderer." Yes, my brethren, if that impure desire which adorns itself with the holy name of love, were what it pretends to be, we might suppose that a transgressor of the seventh command would abstain from violating the sixth, and even be the more likely to hold it in honour, for surely love can have nothing in common with wrath and hatred. But as it is an abuse of the term love, to apply it to sensual desire, so by the transgression of one command, as well as of the other, the true love of our neighbour is violated, not only by him who so indulges in intemperate and causeless anger, that he is unfitted for every duty, but also by him who transgresses God's holy ordinance of marriage, in which it was intended that the purity and peace of the heart should find a safeguard against the destructive and brutal violence of the passions. Whether you have become a transgressor of the Divine law of love by the indulgence of impure desire, or by the indulgence of malevolence, do you think that if in relation to the marriage state, you act contrary to the true love of your neighbour, that you would act agreeably to it in relation to his life or bodily welfare? Certainly not; for nothing is more common than for the gross passion misnamed love, to change itself on the spot into aversion and hatred. Love," saith St. Paul, "worketh

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no ill to his neighbour." If it does evil in any way, it can in no way do good. The same principle of love instructs us to keep the sixth and seventh commandment; but if we ever violate one of God's commands, we transgress the whole law; and it is a most dangerous delusion to suppose that obedience to one command can consist with disobedience to another.

Let us dwell a little longer on this point. The law of God was given to the children of Israel in separate commandments; and the voice of conscience brings sometimes one and sometimes another to our recollection. But as the several commandments which

are comprised in one, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," were all written on one table, so also it is one heart on which they are engraved, and the finger of the same God has written them all, both on the table of stone and on the heart. How important is it then, my friends, that we should not look upon the law of God as divided into separate commandments, but always present it to ourselves in its unity, as one living whole. If we neglect to do this, and fix our attention on individual commandments, we shall probably adopt the language of the Pharisee in the parable: "God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess." So apt are we to boast or to congratulate ourselves in secret, on account of particular good qualities, comparing ourselves with others, who are perhaps noted for the contrary faults;

and if any thing defective, perverse, or sinful, is observable in our character, we try to make a balance in our favour by pleading our freedom from other faults or vices: thus the adulterer comforts himself that he is not a murderer, and the murderer that he is not an adulterer. But is this the right method of looking into the perfect law of liberty, and continuing therein ?" Alas! my brethren, "whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." Only let us keep the holiness of God ever present to our minds, so that the whole law shall appear as the expression of his will, one and indivisible, as the essence of God; let us conscientiously attend to individual commands, at the same time remembering that love alone is the complete fulfilment of the whole law; only let us do this, and we shall no longer be disposed to boast of this or that attainment or virtue; we shall then learn, not only to lament particular defects and transgressions, but since every transgression of the law, however trifling it may appear in itself, will be seen in its connexion with sin in general, with the sin which dwelleth in us; in breaking any particular command, we shall be convinced that the whole law of God is violated; and we shall be ready, like the publican, to smite upon our breasts, and, penetrated with a sense of our sinfulness, cry out, "God be merciful to me a sinner."

"So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty." The apostle here reminds his fellow-christians of the judgment that

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