good," and exemplify the truth of the proverb, “A soft answer turneth away wrath." This is the dovelike simplicity and meekness of the true Christian.

The second form in which enmity towards the Christian manifests itself, is by deeds of hatred. Anger is seldom contented with mere words of bitterness; it not unfrequently displays itself in acts of unkindness, and even positive injustice. In such a case, our duty is thus laid down by the Lord himself, "Do good to them that hate you," a command which we find beautifully amplified by the Apostle Paul, Rom. xii. 20. "If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head." This is the most effectual mode of overcoming an enemy. He becomes ashamed of his unkindness, and melted to tenderness by undeserved goodness.

The last and the strongest form in which hatred to the believer displays itself, is by spiteful treatment and open persecution. The feeling of enmity may have long been nourished in the breast of the ungodly man; he may have uttered towards the unoffending child of God many a bitter and unseemly word; he may have subjected him to many petty annoyances as an expression of his malignant disposition; but his enmity is now declared, and he grasps the sword of persecution to wound, and perhaps to murder the Christian. But if hatred has reached its height,

the believer's love must far transcend that height. "Pray for them," says Jesus, "that despitefully use you and persecute you." They can only, at the utmost, kill your body; but go to a throne of grace and plead for the life of their souls. This is a high Christian attainment, and we have various examples of it in the Word of God. This was the spirit which David displayed, Ps. xxxv. 11-13,-"False witnesses did rise up: they laid to my charge things that I knew not. They rewarded me evil for good, to the spoiling of my soul. But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer returned into mine own bosom." Stephen the martyr, before he expired, is represented to us as kneeling down and crying with a loud voice, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." And Jesus also, as he hung upon the cross, exemplified his own command, when he prayed for his murderers in those words, " Father, forgive them; they know not what they do."

Thus are we plainly commanded, inwardly to cherish, and outwardly to express, both in word and in action, love even to our enemies. A love of this kind, however, is not natural to men. Where it exists in any degree whatever, it supposes that the soul has undergone a vital change. The individual thus loving has become a new creature in Christ Jesus. It is in this view that our Lord declares that

He has issued this command to all His followers, "Love your enemies."

V. 45. "That ye may be," or show yourselves to be, "the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the cvil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."

Mankind generally are sometimes spoken of in Scripture as the children of God; for in one sense we are all His offspring; but the expression in the instance before us bears a higher and a holier meaning. It refers only to those who have been redeemed to God by the blood of His Son, and who, though they once bore the image of the earthly, now bear the image of the heavenly Adam, the Lord from heaven. Love to our enemies is one of the most prominent features of this image. If we would be like God, we must love like God. His is no partial restricted love, "for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." This is God's holy benevolence, wide as the universe He hath formed. He abhors, and He commands His people to abhor that which is evil; but He makes a marked distinction between the sin and the sinner. The one He hates, the other He pities, protects and loves, and the same spirit animates all the true children of God. They have themselves experienced the power of Jehovah's love, and therefore

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theirs is often the exercise of David: "mine eyes run down with tears, because men keep not thy law." These tears are a most expressive evidence of their hatred of sin, and their pity and compassion for the poor infatuated sinner. Nor does their love to their fellow-sinners expend itself in mere unavailing feelings of compassion. They long, and strive, and pray that one and another may be brought out of the deep pit and the miry clay, and their feet planted upon a rock, even the rock of everlasting ages. Such feelings, and such actions, show clearly that the man within whose bosom such a love reigns, has become assimilated to the divine likeness. God is love, and no indignities or insults on the part of man have hitherto been capable of arresting in its progress that full tide of benevolence which hath with its fertilizing streams enriched the past, and will continue to enrich the future generations of mankind, even to the end of the world. The utmost extent of human guilt and ingratitude has never invalidated the truth of the declaration that " God is love "-a truth which is engraven as with a pen of iron on all the varied arrangements of nature's operations, as well as on every page of man's individual, domestic, and social history—a truth which the eternal councils of the Father, as far as they have been revealed, the obedience and expiatory death of the Son, and the mysterious operations of the Holy Spirit, fully and irrefragably attest.

If such then be the unquenchable nature, and the unlimited extent of the love of God, what a weight of responsibility rests upon the Christian if he would show himself to be the child of a Father so lovely, so loving! He must love even his enemies. His property may be invaded, his reputation may be tarnished, and every possible injury inflicted upon him, still it is his duty to bless, and curse not. What are all the offences that can be committed against the believer compared with the dishonour he feels that he has done to the character of God, and the rectitude of His government, by his multiplied and aggravated offences; yet how often does it happen that the slightest provocation rouses in us a spirit of revenge! And is not this spirit in fearful contrast with the longsuffering patience and forbearance of Jehovah towards us? But is it not still more opposed to the Almighty goodness which makes a free and unconditional offer of salvation to all who will accept of it! Men of the world may talk of their wounded honour demanding satisfaction, but with an example so transcendently beautiful before us, it is surely "the glory of a man to pass by a transgression."

The Christian occupies a more elevated and more responsible position than other men. His privileges and blessings are infinitely greater, his motives of action are far more powerful, and his future prospects indescribably more cheering. It ought not to astonish