Gratitude Not a Sordid Affection

; oaepene ere 1Jouy iv. 19. ‘* We love him, because he first loved us.”

Some theologians have exacted from an inquirer, at the very outset of his conversion, that he should carry in his heart what they call the disinterested love of God. They have set him on the most painful efforts to acquire this affection, — and that too, before he was in circumstances in which it was at all possible to entertain it. They have led him to view with suspicion the love of gratitude, as having in it a taint of selfishness. They are for having him to love God, and that on the single ground that he is lovely, without any reference to his own comfort, or even to his own safety. Strange demand which they make on a sentient being, that even amidst the fears and the images of destruction, he should find room in his heart for the love of complacency! and equally strange demand to make on a sinful being, that ere he admit such a sense of reconciliation into his bosom; as will instantly call forth agrateful regard to him who has conferred it, he must view God with a disinterested affection; that from the deep and helpless abyss of his depravity, he must find, unaided, his ascending way to the purest and the sublimest emotion of moral nature; that ere he is delivered from fear he must love, even though it be said of love, that it casteth out fear; and that ere he is placed on the vantage ground of the peace of the Gospel, he must realize on his character, one of the most exalted of its perfections.

The effect of all this on many an anxious seeker after rest, has been most discouraging. With the stigma that has been affixed to the love of gratitude, they have been positively ap- - prehensive of the inroads of this affection, and have studiously averted the eye of their contemplation from the objects which are fitted ta inspire it. In other words, they have hesitated to entertain the free offers of salvation, and misinterpreted all the tekens of an embassy, which has proclaimed peace on earth and good. will to men. They think that all which they can possibly gather, in the way of affection, from such a contemplation, is the love of gratitude; and that gratitude is selfishness; and that selfishness is not a gracious affection; and that ere they be surely and soundly converted,

the love they bear.to God must be of a total- — ly disinterested character; and thus through -

another medium than that of a free and gratuitous dispensation of kindness, do they strive, by a misunderstood gospel, or without the gospel altogether, to reach a peace and a preparation which we fear, in their way of it,. is to sinners utterly unattainable.

In the progress of this discourse let us endeavour, in the first place, to rescue the love of

gratitude from the imputations which have:

been preferred against it, — and, secondly, to assign to the love of kindness manifested to the worldsin the gospel, and to the faith by which that love is made to arise in the heart, the place and the. pre-eminence which belong to them. I. The proper object of the love of grati- - tude, is the being who has exercised towards me the love of kindness: and this is more correct than to say, that the proper object of this affection, is the being who has conferred benefits upon me. I can conceive another to load me with benefactions, and, at the same time, to evince that kindness towards me ‘was not the principle which impelled him. It may be done reluctantly at the bidding of another, or it may be done to serve some interested purpose, or it may be done to parade his generosity before the eye of the public. If it be not done from a real principle of kindness to myself, I] may take his gifts, and I may find enjoyment in the use of them; but I feel no gratitude towards the dispenser of them. Unless I see his kindness in them, I will not be grateful. It is true that, in point of fact, gratitude often springs from the rendering of a benefit; but, lest we should confound things which are different, let it be well observed, that this is only when the benefit serves as the indication of a kind purpose, or of a kind affection, on the part of him who hath granted it. And this may be proved, not merely by showing, that there may be no gratitude where there is a benefit, but also by showing, that there may be gratitude where there is no material benefit whatever. Just let the naked principle of kindness discover itself, and though it have neither the power, nor the opportunity of coming forth with the dispensation of any service, it is striking to observe, how upon.the bare existence of this affection being known, it is met by a grateful feeling, on the part of him to whom it is directed; and what mighty augmentations may be given, in this way, to the stock of enjoyment, and that, by the mere reciprocation of kindness begetting kindness. For, to send the expression of this kindness into another’s bosom, it is not always necessary to do it on the vehicle of a positive donation. It may be conveyed by a look of benevolence; and thus it is, that by the mere feeling of cordiality, a tide of happiness may be made to circulate throughout all the individuals of an assembled company. Or it may be done by a very slight and passing attention, and thus it is, that the cheap services of courteousness, may spread such a charm over the face of a neighbourhood. Or it may be done by the very poorest member of human society; and thus it is, that the ready and sincere homage of attachment from such a man, may beam a truer felicity upon me, and call forth a livelier gratitude to him who has conferred it, than some splendid act of patronage on the part of a superior. Or it may be done by a Christian visitor in some of the humblest of our city lanes, who, without one penny to bestow. on the children of want, may spread among them the simple conviction of her good will, and call down upon her person the voice of thankfulness and of blessing from all their habitations. And thus it is, that by good will creating good will, a pure and gladdening influence will at length go abroad over the face of our world, and mankind will be made to know the might and the mystery of that tie, which is to bind them together into one family, and they will rejoice in the power of that secret charm which so heightens and so multiplies the pleasure of all the members of it; and, when transported from earth to heaven, they will still feel, that while it is to the benefits which God hath conferred that they owe the possession and all the privileges of existence; it is to a sense of the love which prompted these benefits, that they will owe the eestatic:cliarm of

their immortality. It is the beaming kindness of God upon them, that will put their souls into the liveliest transports of gratitude and joy; and it is the “reciprocation of this kindness on the part of those, who, while they have fellowship with the’Father, and with the Son, have fellowship also with one another, that will cause the joy of heaven to be full.

The distinction which we are now adverting to, is something more than a mere shadowy refinement of speculation. It may be realized on the most trodden and ordinary path of human experience, and is, in fact, one of the most fa~ miliar exhibitions of genuine and unsophisticated nature, in those ranks of society where refinement is unknown. Let one man go over any given district of the city, fully fraught with the ma/erzel of benevolence; let him be the agent of some muriificent subscription, and with nothing in-his heart but just such affections, and such-jealousies, and such thoughtful anxieties, about a right and equitable division, as belong to the general spirit of his office; let him leave some substantial deposit with each of the families; and then cempute, if he

18 3

a 4 So phage ry oc can, the quantity of gratitude which he carries away with him. It were a most unkind reflection on the lower orders, and not more unkind than untrue, to deny that there will be the mingling of some gratitude, along with the clamour, and the envy, and the discontent, which are ever sure to follow in the train of such a ministration. It is not to discredit the poor, that we introduce our present observation; but to bring out, if possible, into broad and luminous exhibition, one of the finest sen- - sibilities which adorns them. It is to let you know the high cast of character of which they are capable; and how the glow of pleasure which arises in their bosoms, when the eye of simple affection beams upon their persons, or upon their habitations, may not have one single taint of sordidness to debase it. And to prove this, just let another man go over the same district, and in the train of the former visitation; conceive him unbacked by any public institution, to have nothing in his hand that might not be absorbed by the needs of a single family, but, that utterly destitute, as he is, of the

materiel, he has a heart charged and overflowing with the whole morale of benevolence. Just let him go forth among the people, without one other recommendation than an honest and undissembled good will to them; and let this good will manifest its existence, in any one of the thousand ways, by which it may be authenticated; and whether it be by the cordiality of his manuers, or by his sympathy with their vriefs, or by the nameless attentions and offices of civility, or by the higher aim of that kindness which points to the welfare of their immortality, and evinces its reality, by its repay

and unwearied services among the young, or

SERMON X.. ee

the sick, or the dying; just let them be satisfied of the one fact, that he is their friend, and that all theirjoys and all their sorrows are his own; he may be struggling with hardships and necessities, as the poorest of them all; but poor as they are, they know what is in his heart, and well do they know hew to value it; and from the voice of welcome, which meets him in the very humblest of their tenements; and from the smile of that heartfelt enjoyment, which his presence is ever sure to awaken, and from the influence of graciousness which he carries along with him into every house, and by which he hghts up an honest emotion of thankfulness in the bosom of every family, may we gather the existence of a power, which worth alone, and without the accompaniment of wealth, can bestow; a power to sweeten and subdue, and tranquillize, which no money can purchase, which no patronage can create.

It wall be readily acknowledged by all, that the most precious object in the management of a town, is to establish the reign of happiness and contentment among those who live in it. And it is interesting to mark the operations of those, who, without adverting to the principle that I now insist upon, think, that all is to be achieved, by the beggarly elements which enter into the arithmetic ‘of ordinary business; who rear their goodly scheme upon the basis of sums and computations; and think that by an overwhelming discharge of the materiel of benevolence, they will reach an accomplishment which the morale of benevolence alone is equal’ to. We are sure that it is not to mortify our men of grave, and official, and calculating experience, that we tell them, how, with all there strength, and all their sagacity, they have only given their money for that which is not meat, and their labour for that which satisfieth not. It is to illustrate a principle of our common nature, so obvious, that to be recognized, it needs only to be spoken of. And it were well, if in so doing their thoughts could be led to the instrumentality of this principle, as the only way in which they can rgdeem the failures of their by-gone experience; if they could be convinced, that the agents of a zealous and affectionate Christianity can alone do what all the influence of municipal weight and municipal wisdom cannot do; if they could be taught what the ministrations are, by which.a pure and a responding gratitude, may be made to circulate throughout all our dwelling-places; if, in a word, while. they profess to serve the poor, they could be led to respect the poor, to do bomage to that fineness of moral temperament which belongs to them, and which hitherto seems to have escaped, altogether, the eye of. civil or political superintendence; and they may rest assured, that let them give as much in the shape of munificence as they will, if they add not the love to the liberality of the Gospel, they will never soften one feature of unkindliness, or chase away one exasperated feeling, from the hearts of a neglected population. But, beside the degree. of purity in. which this principle may exist among the most desti- tute of our species, it is also of importance to remark the degree of strength, in which it actually exists among the most depraved of our species. And, on this subject, do we think that the venerable Howanp has bequeathed to. us a most striking and valuable observation. You know the history of thisman’s enterprises; how his doings, and his observations, were among the veriest outcasts of humanity, — how he descended into prison houses, and there made himself familiar with all that could most revolt or terrify, in the exhibition of our fallen nature; how, for this purpose, he made the tour of Europe; but instead of walking in the footsteps of other travellers, he toiled his painful and persevering*way through these receptacles of worthlessness; — and, sound experimentalist as he was, did he treasure up the phenomena of our nature, throughout all the stages of misfortune, or depravity. We may well conceive the scenes of moral desolation that would often meet his‘eye; and that, as he looked to the hard, and dauntless, and defying aspect of criminality before him, he would sicken in despair of ever finding one remnant ofa purer and better principle, by which he might lay hold of these unhappy men, and convert them into the willing and the consenting agents of their own “amelioration. “And yet such a principle he found, and found it, as he tells us, after years of intercourse, as the fruit of his greater experience, and his longer observation; and gives, as the result of it, that convicts, and that, among the most desperate of them ail, are not ungoyernable, and

that there is a way of managing even them, and that the way is, without relaxing, in one iota, from the steadiness of a calm and resolute discipline, to treat them with tenderness, and te show them that you have humanity; and thus a principle, of itself so beautiful, that to expatiate upon it, gives in the eyes of some, an air of fantastic declamation te our argument, is actually deponed to, by an aged and most sagacious observer. I[t’is the very principle of our text; and it would appear that it keeps a lingering hold of our nature, even in the last and lowest degree of human wickedness; and that, when abandoned by i ry

every other principle, this may still be detect- ed, — that even among the most hackneyed and most hardened of malefactors there is still about them a softer part which will give way to the demonstrations of tenderness; that this one ingredient of a better character is still found to survive the dissipation of all the others, — that, fallen as a brother.may be, from the moralities which at one time adorned him, the manifested good-will of his fellow man still carries a charm and an influence along with it; and that, therefore, there lies in this, an operation which, as no. poverty can viliate, so no depravity can extinguish*.

Now, this is the very principle which is brought into action, in the dealings of God with a whole world of malefactors. It looks, as if he confided the whole cause of our recovery, to the influence of a demonstration of good-will. It is truly interesting to mark, what, in the devisings of his unsearchable wisdom, is the character which he has made to stand most visibly out, in the great scheme and history of our redemption: and surely if there be one feature of prominency more visible than another, it is the love of kindness. There appears to be no other possible way, by which a responding affection can be deposited in the heart of man. Certain it is, that the law of love cannot be carried to its ascendency over us by storm. Authority cannot command. it. Strength cannot implant it. Terror cannot charm it inte existence. ‘The threatenings of vengeance may stifle, or they may repel, but they never can woo this delicate. principle of

* The operation of the same principl Beats. ple has, of late, been strikingly exemplified by Mrs. Fry, and her “coadjutors, in

210. SERMON X:

the prison at Newgate.

SERMON -X. Zid

- our natare, into a warm and confiding attachment. The human heart remains shut, in all its receptacles, against the force of these various applications; and God, who knew what was in man, seems to have known, that in his dark and guilty bosom, there was but one solitary hold that he had over him; and that to reach it, he must just put on a look of graciousness, and tell us that he has no pleasure in our death, and manifest towards us the longings of a bereaved parent, and even humble himself to a suppliant in the cause of our return, and send a Gospel of peace into the world, and bid his messengers to bear throughout all its habitations, the tidings of his good-will to the children of men. This is the topic of his most anxious and repeated demonstration. This manifested good will of God to his creatures, is the band of love, and the cord of a man, by which he draws them. It is true, that from the inaccessible throne of his.glory, we see no direct emanation of his tenderness upon us, from the face of the King who is invisible. But, as if to make up for this, he sent his Son into the world, and declared him to be God manifest in the flesh, and let us see, in his tears, and in his sympathies, and in all the recorded traits of his kindness, and gentleness, and love, what a God we have to deal with. It is true, that even in love to us, he did not let down one attribute of truth or of majesty which belonged to him. But, in love to us, he hath laid upon his own Son the burden of their vindication; — and now, that every obstacle is done away; now, that the barrier which lay across the path of acceptance, is levelled by the power of him who travailed in the greatness of his strength for us; now, that the blood of atonement has beenshed, and a ae oe 212 SERMON X.

that the justice of God has been magnified, and that our iniquities have been placed on the great Sacrifice, and so borne away that there 15 no more mention of them;: now, that with his — dignity entire, and’his holiness untainted, the door of heaven may be opened, and sinners be called upon to enter in, — is the voice of a friendly and beseeching God, lifted up without reserve, in the hearing of us all; — his love of kindness is published abroad among men ; — and this one mighty principle ofattraction is brought to bear upon a nature, that might have remained sullen and unmoved under every other application.

-And,as God, in the measure of restoring a degenerate world unto himself, hath set in operation the very same principle as that which we have attempted to illustrate, — so the operation hath produced the very same result that we have ascribed to it. As soon as his love of kindness is believed, so scon does the love of gratitude spring up in the heart of the believer. As soon as man gives up-his fear and his suspicion of God, and discerns him to be his friend, so soon does he render him the homage ofa willing and affectionate loyalty. There is not a man who can say, I have known and believed the love which God hath to us, who cannot say also, I have loved God because he first loved me. There has not, we will venture to affirm, been a single example in the whole history of the church, of a man who had a real faith in the overtures of peace and of tenderness which are proposed by the Gospel, and who did not, at the same time, exemplify this attribute of the Christain faith, that it worketh by love. It is thus that the faith which recognizes God, as God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, lies “at the tutning point of conversion. In. this way, and in this way alone, is there an inlet of communication open to the heart of man, for that principle of love to God, which gives all its power and all its character to the new obedience of the gospel. So soon as a man really knows the truth, and no man can be said to know what he does not believe, will this truth enthrone a new affection in his bosom, which will set him free from the dominion of all such affections as are earthly and rebellious. The whole style and spirit of his obedience are transformed. The man now walks with the vigour, and the confidence, and the enlargement, of one who is set at liberty. It looks a mysterious revolution in the general eye of the world. But the fact is, that from the moment a sinner closes with the overtures of the gospel, from that moment a new era is established in the history of his mind altogether. As soon as he sees what he never saw before, so soon does he feel what he never felt before. Without the faith of the gospel he may serve God in the spirit of bondage; he may be driven, by the terrors of his law, into many outward and reluctant conformities; he may even, without the influence of these terrors, maintain a thousand decencies of taste, and custom, and established observation.. But he is still an utter stranger to the first and the greatest commandment. ‘There may be the homage of many a visible movement with the body, while, in the whole bent and disposition of the soul there is nothing but aversion, and distance, and enmity. Even the word of the gospel may be addressed, Sabbath after Sabbath, and that too, to hearers who offer no positive resistance. to it, but coming. to them only in word, they remain as motionless and’ unimpressed as ever, and with an utter dormancy in their hearts, as to any responding movement of gratitude. The heart, in fact, remains unapproachable in every other way, but by the gospel coming to it, not in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. ‘Then is it, that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts; and that the gospel approves itself to

be his power, and his wisdom, to the sanctification of all who believe in it.

Now, the theologians to whom we allude, have set up obstacles in the way of such a process. They hold a language about the disinterested love of God, and demand this at the very outset of a man’s conversion, in such a way. as may retard his entrance upon a life of faith, — as may have prolonged the darkness of many an inguirer, and have kept himina state of despair, whom a right understanding of the gospel would have relieved of all his doubts, and all his perplexities. They seem to look on the love of gratitude, as having in it a taint of selfishness. - They say that to love a being, because he is my benefactor, is little better than to love the benefit’ which he has conferred upon me; and that this, instead of any evidence of a state of grace, is the mere effect of an appetite which belongs essentially and universally to the animal state of natare. They appear to have missed the distinction, between the love that is felt towards the benefit itself, and the love of gratitude that is felt towards the author of it; though certainly there are here two objects of affection altogether distinct from each other. My liking for the gift-

‘is a different phase of mind from my liking for the giver. In the one exercise, I am looking to a different object, and my thoughts have a different employment, from what they have in the

ot bit en hie, other. Had I an affection for the gift, without an affection for the giver, then might I evince an unmixed selfishness of character. But I may have both; and my affection for the giver may be purely in obedience to that law of reciprocity, whereby if another likes me, lam disposed by that circumstance, and by that alone, to like him back again. The gift may servemerely the purpose of an indication. -It is the medium through which I perceive the love that another bears me. But it is possible for me to perceive this through another medium, and, im this case, the rising gratitude of my bosom might look a purer and more disinterested emotion. But the truth is, that it retains the very same character, though a gift has been the occasion of its excitement, — and, therefore, it ought not to have been so assimilated to the principle of selfishness. [t ought not to have been so discouraged, and made the object of suspicion, at that moment of its evolution, when the returning sinner looks by faith to the truths and the promises of the gospel, and sees in them the tenderness of an inviting God. It ought not to have been so stigmatized, as a mere portion of his unyenewed nature; for, in truth, it will heighten ‘and grow upon him, with every step in the advancement of his moral renovation. It will be one of the gracefullest of his accomplishments in this world; and so far from being extinguished in the next, along with the baser and more selfish affections of our constitution, it will pour an aniinating spirit into many a song of ecstacy, to him who loved us,and washed us from our sins, in his own’ blood. The law of love begetiing love, will obtain in eternity. Like the law of reciprocal attraction in the material world, it will eement the immutable and everlasting order of s ee

eT SERMON X.

that moral system, which is to emerge with the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. ‘The love which emanates from the throne of God, upon his surrounding family, will call back a voice of blessing, and thanksgiving, and glory,from all the members of it.. And the love which his children bear to each other, will, in like manner, be reflected and multiplied. All that is wrong in selfishness will be there unknown. But gratitude, so far from being counted an unseemly companion for paradise; will be one chief ingredient in the fulness of its joy; one of the purest and most exquisite of those pleasures, which are for evermore.

The first consideration then, upon which we would elevate gratitude to the rank of a virtue, is, that in its object, it is altogether distinct from selfishness. It is enough, indeed, to dissolve the imagination of any kindred character between selfishness and gratitude, that the man without selfishness, seems to the eye of abeholder, as standing on a lofty eminence of virtue: The man without gratitude, is held, by all, to be a monster of deformity. Give me a man who seizes with ravenous appropriation all that I have to bestow, — and who hoards it, or feeds upon it, or, in any way rejoices over it, without one grateful movement of his heart towards me, — and you lay before me a character, not merely unlike, but diametrically opposite,

“*. tg the character of him who obtains the very

same gift, and perhaps, derives:from the use of it, an equal, or a greater degree of enjoyment, to the sensitive part of his nature, — but who, in addition to all this, has thought, and affection, and theshigher principles of his -nature, excited*by the consideration of the giver; and

-. looks to the manifested love that appears in this act of generosity; and is touched with love back again; and, under the influence of this responding affection, conceives the kindest wishes, and pours out the warmest prayers, for the interest of his benefactor, and shows him all the symptoms of friendship, and surrounds him with all its services.

‘The second consideration, upon which we would elevate gratitude to the rank of a pure virtue, has already been glanced at. Were it not a virtue, it would have no place in heaven. Did’ it only appertain to the unrenewed part of our nature, it would find no admittance among the saints in paradise. But one of the songs of the redeemed, is a song of gratitude.

And, thirdly, by looking more closely to this affection, both in its origin and in its exercises, we shall perceive in it, more clearly, all the characteristics of virtue.:

Let it be remarked then, that an affection may simply exist, and yet be no evidence of any virtue, or of any morai worth in the holder of it. I may look on a beautiful prospect, and be drawn out to an involuntary sentiment of admiration. “Or, I may look on my infant child, and, without one effort of volition, feel a parentaltenderness towards it. Or, I may be pre-

-sent at a scene of distress, and without choosing or willing it to be so, I may be moved to the softest compassion. And, m this way, I may have a character made up of many affections, some of which are tasteful, some of which are most amiable in themselves, and some of which are most useful to society; and yet,none of which may possess the smallest portion of the.essential

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character of virtue. They may be broughtinto exercise, without any working of a sense of duty whatever. One of those we have specified — the instinctive affection. of parénts for - their young, is exemplified in all its strength, and in all its tenderness, by the inferior animals. And, therefore, if we want to know what that is which constitutes the character of virtue, or moral worth, in a human being, we must look to something else, than to the mere existence of certain affections, however valuable they may prove to others, or whatever gracefulness they may shed over the complexion of him who possesses them.. x

Now, it would be raising a collateral into a main topic, were we to enter upon a full explanation of the matter that has now been suggested. And we shall, therefore, briefly remark, that to give the character of virtue to any grace of the inner man, the will, acting under a sense of duty, must, in some way or other, have been concerned, in the establishment, or in the continuance of it; and that to give the same character of virtue toa deed of the outer man, the will must also be concerned. A deed is only virtuous in as far as it is voluntary; and it is only in proportion to the share which the will has in the performance of lit, and the will impelling us to do, what we are persuaded ought to be done, that there can be awarded, to the deed in question, any character of moral estimation.

This will explain what the circumstances are, under which the gratitude of a human being may at one time be an instinct, and at another time a virtue. I may enter the house of an individual who is an utter stranger to the habit of acting under a sense of duty; who is just as much the creature of mere impulse, as the animals beneath him; and who, therefore, though some of these impulses are more characteristic of his condition as a man, and most subservient to the good of his fellows, may be considered as possessing no virtue whatever, in the strict and proper sense of the term. But he has the property of being affected by external causes. And I, by some ministration of friendship, may flash upon his mind such an overpowering conviction of the good-will that I bear him, as to affect him with a sense of gratitude even unto tears. The moral obligation of gratitude may not be present to his mind at all. But the emotion of gratitude comes into his heart unbid- -den, and finds its vent in acknowledgments, and blessings, on the person of his benefactor. We would say, of such a person, that he possesses a happier original constitution than another, who, m the same circumstances, would not be so powerfully or so tenderly affected. And yet he may have hitherto evinced nothing more than the workings of a mere instinct, which springs spontaneously within him, and gives its own impulse to his words and his performances, without a sense of duty having any share in the matter, or without the will prompting the individual by any such consideration, as, let me do this thing because ought to do it. Let us now conceive the moral sense to be admitted to its share of influence over this proceeding. Let it be consulted on the question of what ought to be felt, and what ought to be done, by one being, when another evinces the love of kindness towards him. A mere in- -$tinct may, in point of fact, draw out a return of love and of service back again. Bat it is the province of the moral sense to pronounce on the point of obligation, and we speak ‘its universal suggestion, when we say, that the love of gratitude ought to be felt, and the services of gratitude ought to be rendered. ’ - Now, to make this decision of the moral sense practically effectual, and, indeed, to make the moral sense have any thing to do with this question at all, the feeling of gratitude must, in some way or other, be dependent either for its existence, or its growth, or its continuance, upon the will; and the same will must also have a command over the services of gratitude. The moral sense, in fact, never interposes with any dictate, or with any declaration about the feelings, or the conduct of man, unless in so far as the will of man has an influence, and a pow-. er of regulation over them. It never makes the rate of the cireulation of the blood a question of duty, because this is altogether an involuntary movement. And it never would have offered any authoritative intimation, about the way in which gratitude ought to be felt, or ought to be expressed, unless the will had had some kind of presiding sovereignty over both the degree and the workings of this affection. The first way, then, in which the will may have to do with the love of gratitude; is by the putting forth of a desire for the possession of it. -It may long to realize this moral accomplishment. It may hunger and thirst aftér this branch of righteousness. Even though it has not any such power under its command, as would enable it to fulfilsuch a volition; the volition itself has, upon it, the stamp and the character of virtue. The man who habitually wills

-to have in his heart a love of gratitude towards God, is a man at least of holy desires, if not of holy attainments... And, when we consider that a way has actually been established, in which the desire may be followed up by the attainment, — when we read of the promise given to - those who seek after God, — when we learn the assurance that he will grant the heart’s desire of those who will stir themselves up to lay held of him, — when ‘we think that prayer is the natural expression of desire for. an object which man cannot reach, but which God is both able and. willing to confer upon him, — then do we. see how the very existence of the love of gratitude may have had its pure and-holy commencement, in such a habitude of the willashas the essential character of virtue engraven upon it. “Keep yourselves,” says the Apostle, “in the love of God, by praying in the Holy Ghost.” -. But, again, there are certain doings. of the mind, over which the will has a control, and by which the afiection of gratitude may either be brought into being, or be sustained in lively and persevering exercise. At the bidding of the will, I can think of one topic, rather than of another. I can transfer my mind to any given object of contemplation. I can keep that object steadily in view, and make an effort to do so, when placed in such circumstances as might lead me to distraction or forgetfulness. And it is in this way that moral praise, or moral responsibility, may be attached to the love of gratitude. Ere the heart can be moved by this affection to another, there must be in the mind -acertain appropriate object, that is fitted to call it, and to keep it, in Le that object 1 is the love of kindness which the other bears me. I may endeavour, and I may succeed in the endeavour, to hold this love of kindness in daily and perpetual remembrance. If the will have to do with the exercises of thought and memory, then the will may be responsible for the gratitude that would spring in my bosom, did I only think of the love of God, and that would continue with me in the shape of an habitual affection, did I only keep that love in habitual remembrance. It is thus that the forgetfulness of God is chargeable with criminality, — and it will appear a righteous thing in the day of judgment, when they, who are thus forgetful of him, shall be turned into hell. It is this which arms, with such a moral and condemnatory force, the expostulation he holds with Israel, “that Israel doth not know, that my people do not consider.” It is because we like not to retain God in our knowledge, that our minds become reprobate; — — and, on the other hand, it is by a continuous effort of my will, towards the thought of him, that I forget not his benefits. It is by the strenuousness of a voluntary act, that I connect the idea of an unseen benefactor, with all the blessings of my present lot, and all the anticipations of my futurity. It is by a combat with the most urgent propensities of nature, that I am ever ooking beyond this surrounding materialism, and setting God and his love before me all the day long. ‘There is no virtue, it is allowed, without voluntary exertion; but this is the very character which runs throughout the whole work and exercise of faith. ‘To keep himself in the love of God is a habit, with the maintenance of which the will of man has most essentially to do, because it is at his will that he keeps himself in the thought of God’s love towards him. To bid away from me such intrusions of sense, and of time, as would shut God out of my recollections; to keep alive the impression of him in the midst of bustle, and company, and worldly avocations; to recall the thought of him and of his kindness, under crosses, and vexations, and annoyances; to be still, and know that he is God, even when

beset with temptations to impatience and discontent; never to lose sight of him,.as merciful and gracious; and above all, never to let go my hold of that great Propitiation, by which, in every time of trouble, I have the privilege of access with confidence to my reconciled Father; these are all so many acts of faith, but they are just such acts as the will. bears a share, and a sovereignty, in the performance of. And, as they are the “very acts which go to aliment and to sustain the love of gratitude within me, it may be seen, how an affection which, in the first instance, may spring involuntarily, and be therefore regarded as a mere instinct of nature, or as bearing upon it a complexion of selfishness, may, in another view, have upon it a complexion of deepest sacredness, and be rendered unto God in the shape of a duteous and devoted offering from a voluntary agent, and be, in fact, the laborious result of a most difficult, and persevering, and pains-taking habit of obedience.

And if this be true of the mere sense of gratitude, it is still more obviously true of the services of gratitude. “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits?” is the genuine language of this affection. It seeks to make a gratifying return of service, and that, under the feeling that it ought to do so. Or, in other words, do we behold that it is the will of man, prompted by a sense of duty, which leads him on to the obedience of gratitude, and that the whole of this obedience is pervaded by the essential character of virtue. This is the love of God, that ye keep his commandments. This is the most gratifying return unto him, that ye do those things which are pleasing in his sight. And thus it is, that the love of gratitude may be vindicated in its character of moral worth, from its first commencement in the heart to its ultimate effect on the walk and conversation: [t is originally distinct from selfishness in its object; and it derives a virtuousness at its very outset, from the aspirations of a soul bent on the acquirement of it, because bent on being what it ought to be; and it is sustained, both in life and in exercise, by such habits of thought as are of voluntary cultivation; and it nobly sustains an aspect of moral righteousness onwards to the final result of its operation: on the character, by setting him who is under its power, on a career of obedience to God, and introducing him to an arduous contest of principle, with all the influences of sense and of the world. ge de If, to render an affection virtuous, the will acting under a sense of duty, should be concerned either in producing or in perpetuating it; then the love of moral esteem coming into the heart as an involuntrry sensation, may, in certain circumstances, have as little of the character of virtue as the love of gratitude. In this respect, both these affections are upon a footing with each other; and the first ought not to have been exalted at the expense of the second. “That either be upheld within us in our present state, there must, in fact, be the putting forth of the same voluntary control over the thoughts and contemplations of the understanding; the same active exercise of faith; the same laborious resistance to all those urgencies of sense which would expel from the mind the idea of ‘an unseen and spiritual object; the same remembrance of God sustained by effort, and prayer, and meditation.

If. We now feel ourselves in a condition to speak of the Gospel, in its free and gratuitous character; to propose its blessings as a gift; to hold out the pardon, and the strength, and all the other privileges which it proclaims to believers, as so many articles for their immediate acceptance; to make it known to men that they are not to delay their compliance with the overtures of mercy, till the disinterested love of God arises in their hearts; but that they have a warrant for entering even now, into instant reconciliation with God. Nor are we to dread the approach of any moral contamination, though when, after their eyes are open- ed to the marvellous spectacle of a pleading, and offering, and beseeching God, holding out eternal life unto the guilty, through the propitiation which his own Son hath made for them, — they should, from that moment, open. their whole soul, to the influences of gratitude, and love the God who thus hath first loved them.

We conclude then with remarking, that the whole of this argument gives us another view of the importance of faith. We do not say all for it that we ought, when we say, that by faith we are justified in the sight of God. By faith also our hearts are purified. It is in fact the primary and the presiding principle of regeneration. It brings the heart into contact with that influence, by which the love of gratitude is awakened. ‘The love of God to us, if it is not believed, will exert no more power over our affections, than if it were a nonentity. They are the preachers of faith, then, who alone deal out to their hearers, the elementary and pervading spirit of the Christian morality. And the men who have been stigmatized as the enemies of good works, are the very men, who are most sedulously employed in depositing within you, that good seed which has its fruit unto holiness. We are far from asserting, that the agency of grace is not concerned, in every step of that process, by which a sinner is conducted from the outset of his conversion, to the state of being perfect, and complete in the whole will of God. But there is a harmony between the processes of grace and of nature; and in the same manner, as in human society, the actual conviction of aneighbour’s good-will tome, takes the precedency in point of order of any returning movement of gratitude on my part, so, in the great concerns of our fellowship with God, my belief that he loves me, is an event prior and preparatory to the event of my loving him. So that the primary obstacle to the love of God is not the want of human - gratitude, but the want of human faith. The reason why man is not excited to the love of God by the revelation of God’s love to hin, is just because he does not believe that revelation. This is the barrier which lies between the guilty, and their offended Laweiver. ‘It is not the ingratitude of man, but the incredulity of man, that needs, in the first instance to be everconme. It is the sullenness, and the hardness, and the obstinacy of unbelief which stands as a gate of iron, between him and his enlargement. Could the kindness of God, in Christ Jesus, be seen by him, the softening of a kindness back again, would be felt by him. And let us cease to wonder, then, at the preachers of the gospel, when they lay upon belief all the stress of a fundamental operation; — when they lavish so-much of their strength on the establishment of a principle, which is not only initial, but. indispensable; when they try so strenuously to charm that into existence, without which all the elements of a spiritual obedience are in a state of dormancy or of death; — when. they labour at the only practicable way, by which the heart of a sinner can be touched, and attracted towards God ;- — when they try so repeatedly, to hold and to fasten him, by that link which God himself hath put into their hands — and bring the mighty principle to bear upon their hearers, which any one of us may exemplify upon the. poorest, and by which both. Howagp and F rv have tried with success, to soften and to reclaim the most worthdess of mankind. ont - This also. suggests a practical direction to Christians, for keeping themselves in the love of God. They must keep themselves in the habit, and in the exercise of faith. They must hold fast that conviction m.their minds, the presence of which is indispensable to the keeping of that affection in their hearts. This is one of the methods recommended by the apostle Jude, when he tells his disciples to build themselves up on their most holy faith.. This direction to you is both intelligible and. practicable. Keep in view the truths which you have ‘learned. Cherish that belief of them which you already possess.. Recall thein to your thoughts, and, in general, they

will not come alone, but they will come accompanied by their own power, and their own evidence. You may as well think of maintaining a steadfast attachment to your friend, after you have expunged from your memory all the demonstrations of kindness he ever bestowed upon you, as to think of keeping your heart in the love of God, after the thoughts and contemplations of the gospel have fled from it. It is just by holding these fast, and by building yourself up on their firm certainty, that you preserve this affection. Any man, versant in the matters of experimental religion, knows well what. it is, when a blight and a barrenness come over the mind, and when, under the power of such a visitation, it loses all sensibility towards God. There is, at that time, a hiding of his countenance, and you lose your hold of the manifestation of. that love, wherewith God loved the world, even when he sent his only’ begotten Son into it, that we might live through him, You will recover a right frame, when you recover your hold of this consideration. If you’ want to recall the strayed affection to your heart — recall to your mind the departed object of contemplation. If you want to reinstate the principle of love in your bosom — reinstate faith, and it will work by Jove. It is got at through the medium of believing, and trusting; — Nor do we know a more’ summary, and at the same time, amore likly direction for li- ving a life of holy and heavenly affection, than

that you should live a life of faith.

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