These few words are easily written, but they go to the heart of this mighty subject, and he who will ponder them may see, more and more, how much they involve, and what blessed and happy views of God, and Christ, and the soul of man, will follow in their train.

In the light of this view, the Love of God, and His Justice; the death of Christ, and His Atonement, will no longer stand as parts of a barren creed, or as steps in a laboured theology; but they will be warm and living facts, blessed and beautiful for the living soul of man :-they will no longer be spelt-out in syllables, but made a joy for ever in the sacred places of the soul. Then the great doctrine of the Atonement will no longer be a cold and stereotyped theory to be "held," but an elevating and sacred reality to be lived by and the "reception" of this Atonement, of which the Apostle speaks, will no longer be the reception of the letter of some human dogma, but of the inspiration of a heavenly life. Then Love will not be divorced from Justice, and Justice will not be torn from Love; and we shall know that the coming of the Lord Jesus into our world, was not the coming of its accuser, but its very Love, and Lord, and Life: that God, in sending Him to us, was not an insulted Sovereign, or a wrathful Judge, who needed to be appeased, but a good Father, who loved us too well to

leave us alone, and who yearned that we all should be reconciled to Him.

And so, all the mysteries of Bethlehem's manger and Calvary's cross are explained, in this greater, this infinite mystery of Love. And God is seen to be our own God-even our Father; and we are His children, no longer severed from Him by cold suspicion, or dread, or gloomy fear, but "brought nigh" to Him, through His well-beloved Son, who has slain our enmity, and restored us to our Father and our Home.

WHAT IS RELIGION?

T is not an uncommon thing to meet with people who make themselves very unhappy in the doleful pursuit of what they call Religion. They are looking for some demonstration of feeling-some strong emotion, and they are unhappy because these do not come to trouble their obdurate hearts. They want to be "converted," but cannot find out how to produce the change that they are taught to look for in "a con

verted character." They are solemnly warned that they must "experience religion," and forthwith go out on that most doleful and hopeless of all endeavours— to get up emotions, feelings, and “experiences,” which everybody knows are in no wise at the call of the will. They are taught to suspect pleasant feelings as temptations of the wicked one, who wishes to blind them to their woful state: and they are told to look upon every inclination to trust in personal goodness, as a fatal resting of their hopes on the vain foundation of a miserable self-righteousness, which is no better than "filthy rags." Thus, altogether, they make the pursuit of religion a very doleful and melancholy thing; and one wonders not that so many, taking for granted that theirs is the veritable pursuit of real Religion, turn away with an oppressive weariness that nearly amounts to disgust.

It is hard to show these "anxious inquirers," for they are mostly really in earnest, that religion is not a sentiment, or a feeling, or an emotion ;-it is hard to teach them that religion is rightness of heart with God-involving conscious love of the good, longing for the true, and pursuit of the holy, in all the loves and aspirations of the soul. For how is it possible to teach men this when they are looking for signs and wonders-mental paroxysms, and spiritual convulsions, and when they are perpetually watching the

ebb and flow of their feelings? How is this true and beautiful conception of religion possible, while they are perpetually measuring their piety by their excitement, and gauging their holiness by their ardour? They act like people who are always hovering round the barometer, tapping the case to ascertain the chances there. Is it not ever well to say to such, "Let the barometer be for awhile, and go to work"? So we might say to the people, who, in religion, are always brooding over their "experience," or their states of mind,—" Just do the duty that lies nearest you; love God; think kindly of your brother; cast out all sin, and the love of it from your heart, and let the angels in, then shall you know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.'

In the matter of religion, then, but one thing is to be looked for-all else that is needful or natural will follow in its train-A HEART UNITED TO GOD IN CONSCIOUS TRUST AND LOVE. Such a state of the heart may grow up gradually, almost imperceptibly. It may begin in the very early days of childhood, and go on ripening and perfecting, without demonstrations, or sudden changes, to the latest day of life; and nothing is so injurious to this perfecting of the religious life within, as the neglecting of inward goodness, and quiet personal trust in God, while exciting changes and sudden convulsions of feeling are looked for and depended on.

It may be that in some cases, where for instance the life has been almost uninterruptedly bad, these sudden paroxysms may occur, and necessarily so; but in every such case they indicate disease, and not health-they show that some great revulsion of feeling and thought has taken place; but he who should make religion to consist of this, and should look for such exciting demonstrations ever afterwards, would not act more wisely than he who, having recovered from a fearful disease, by the use of some powerful medicine that tore him, with agonies, from its grasp, should not be content, unless the demonstrations and changes that marked the crisis, and his return to health, were continued day by day.

A healthy religious experience, so far from being full of passion, excitement, and self-contemplation, is like everything else that is healthy,—quiet, natural, regular, contented, and gradually helpful to beauty and to growth.

From all this it will clearly enough appear that religion is not creed-holding, and that therefore there is but one religion possible in the world, consisting, as was said above, in the union of the heart with God, in conscious trust and love. It is very mischievous then, and injurious, to speak of the different religions of the sects-to say for instance, the Wesleyan religion, or the Unitarian religion:--what we mean is,