willing to take upon their con- ness of bloody minded men, and fighting christians. sciences, all the blood they cause to be shed? Alas! for the blind WHY WE SHOULD LOVE GOD. "Keep yourselves in the love of God." THE love of God is placed in the scriptures at the head of human duties; and the principle of love itself, exercised towards God and man, is declared to be the substance of religion, and the fulfilling of the law. The love of God is to be manifested by its influence on our lives; and we are to judge of its intensity, not by ardent expressions of attachment, but by holy and generous obedience to the will, and active cooperation in the benevolent designs of the Most High. The man who loves God, cannot deliberately offend him, or injure the humblest of his offspring. He is penetrated with sorrow when he has failed in any returns of gratitude, or has long forgotten his benefactor in hea ven. He loves what God loves, and is most happy when he has the strongest sense of his obligations to his heavenly Father. I know it is difficult to free this affection from all suspicion of enthusiasm, in the opinion of those who have not God in all their thoughts, or who would make religion a mere exercise of reason independent of the heart and affections. Still it is hard to believe that a man who has any sense of goodness or excellence, should be unable to answer the question- Why should we love God? Men should love God, because they alone of the creatures of this world are capable of lov ing him. The lower orders of creatures receive, according to their capacities for enjoyment, as many blessings as we do with all our rational prerogatives. But they cannot rise to the conception of a God; they cannot understand that it is he who feeds and comforts them. Yet as far as they can see the hand that cherishes them, they love their visible patron, and lick the hand which has fed them, even when raised to shed their blood. But it is man, and man only, that can form the vast and beautiful conception of goodness without bounds, of purity without stain, of wisdom without imperfection, of benignity without a shadow of ill will. yet Look up, man, if there is in your heart a sentiment of undepraved goodness-look up from these miserable objects which enthral and sink you, and see the GOVERNOR of the world, arrayed in all the beauties of holiness, in all the light of truth, in all the mild lustre of unmingled goodness. See in him all that you admire, all that you reverence, all that you honor, all that you aspire to, all that you can love in the good beings you have already known, all that you have felt with complacency in yourself-see all this concentered, and infinitely exalted, diffused through all nature, and subject to no change, no period nor limit. This is God! This is the Being of whom you ask, shall I love him? How low must a man have sunk ere a doubt could have suggested itself. But you say, "I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him." O strange perversion of reason! Is it not enough that he is omnipresent, and fills all worlds, all space, but you must have his form defined and your senses af. fected, as they are by the imperfeet, unsatisfactory objects which you love so unreasonably on earth? This is not worthy of a creature who is able to form the vast, the unparalleled conception of a God, in whom we live, and move, and have our being. But do you not discern his influence? Look round upon nature, crowded with proofs of God's goodness. When you know that the powers of any human being, sage, patriot, or benefactor, have been devoted to the production of happiness, though he may have lived in a remote age, a distant country, and entirely out of the reach of your personal knowledge; yet if you see or hear of the fruits of his exertions, you become interested in such a character, you love and admire him, for the happiness he has produced, even though you have no immediate share. Extend these ideas to God, the great Author of all the felicity there is in the world. Should not your hearts leap to embrace the inexhaustable fountain of the happiness of creation, a fountain always full, always overflowing with delight! Do you ask for illustrations of this character of God, whose mercy endureth forever? See then in the system he has established, how evil is made subordinate and subservient to goodhow temporary sufferings redound to happiness, and are often made beneficial even to the sufferers. If God had given no other proofs of the ineffable satisfactions of virtue, the invitations held out in the christian dispensation of grace to repenting sinners, and the spiritual blessings which spring from religion and the promises of the gospel; we should have abundant cause to admire the wonderful goodness of the Most High, who, as a father, pitieth his children. But we see the whole earth full of his goodness. We see it in the curious frame of nature, in the course of his providence, in the productions of the earth, the vicissitudes of the seasons, the fruits of industry, and the advantages of commerce. Observe how the same general laws every where operate-how the most important blessings are every where the most common, and the really necessary, seldom any where denied. But the earth is full of entertainment as well as comfort-of beauty as well as use; and domestic, social, friendly pleasures are superadded to those of sense. Remark also the power of habit which reduces the inconveniences of life, and the wonderful disposition to hope and antici pate good, which makes life a blessing that we dare not and, cannot throw up in despair. Do you still ask, why you should love God? Love him on your own account. It is the voice of nature that we should love those by whom we are beloved; and surely it is not necessary to produce farther proofs, that we possess not a blessing for which we are not indebted to the love of God. If you will but examine the circumstances of your situation with a view of enumerating the mercies you receive from God, you will find the number swelling above any thing you could imagine without such inquiry. It is under the shadow of his wings that we dwell securely. From him proceeds the daily supplies of life. He is the God of all consolation to us, to our friends, to all. Let him but withdraw his arm, and we and all nature vanish together. Let him but withhold his spirit, and this animated clay crumbles into its original dust. What is it which preserves this curious frame of ours from dissolution? It is but for a few particles of dust to change their dispositions, and a breath might do it-then all the living men on earth would go down to gether to the grave. Let God but speak the word, and all the present tranquillity of your minds would be changed into horror. Did he not continually feed it, the lamp of reason would be extinguished in your minds. Let him but disturb for a moment the arrangement of the tender structure of the brain, and your minds would be a rioting hall of wild imaginations, distressful thoughts and agonizing fears-and if he please, so it must be forever. If he were to withhold the light of reason and the joys of a good conscience, all the pleasures of an improved understanding might give place to the horrors of remorse, or the dreary quiet of idiocy. Will you not then love him, who keeps you from evils like these, which the motion of an atom in the sunbeams might bring upon the finest intellect and the happiest disposition. And why does God continue to us these essential blessings? Is it because he owes it to our obedience? because we have deserved them for our services, or by our gratitude? The most depraved conscience can hardly say this! If then there is any light in your understanding, any remains of love to friends, of gratitude to benefactors, of affection to parents, or of reverence for the great and good among men; shall God, the Supreme Friend, Father, and Benefactor, have no place in your affection! Although it is so obviously the duty of mankind to love the Author of their beings and the source of all their comforts, yet some care on our part is requisite to keep ourselves in the love of God. The means of doing this, will be considered in a future Number. B. RECOMMENDATION OF CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS. MR. EDITOR, AMID the calamities, which we have suffered, and the evils, which we apprehend, the benev. olent mind cannot but be delighted at the efforts, which are making to diffuse the sacred scriptures. To promote this great object some among all sects of christians, and in every nation of christendom, are uniting their exertions. In this glorious cause no scope is given to the malignant altercations of religious partizans. The only strife seems to be, which shall be the most forward in deeds of beneficence. It is but a few years, since the British and Foreign Bible Society" led the way in this benevolent enterprise. The spirit has already animated the breasts of thousands in every christian nation of Europe. A sia has caught a large portion of the same zeal; and its happy effects are beginning to be experienced by the Africans. What American christian does not rejoice at the consideration, that his own country has not been backward in this work of love? Already more than 30 Bible Societies have been formed among us; and every year adds to their numbers, their zeal, and their contributions. Still much remains to be done. There is sufficient scope for all our benevolent efforts. Among the means, which have been employed to increase the funds of our respective societies, there are none, with which I have been better pleased, than the project of cent contributions. These afford an opportunity for "the widow's mite," and the small benefactions of great numbers, who would otherwise be restrained from doing any thing. To carry such a plan into effect, there is no need of much formality. Let two or three ladies, who live in different parts of a town, open subscription books, in which they may record the names of subscribers to a neighboring Bible society. Let them recommend to all, whom they shall imagine to be favorably disposed, to reserve a cent a week towards purchasing Bibles for the destitute. A short period before the annual meeting of the Bible society, let them go around, make the collections, and then apply to their minister, or to some other suitable person, to carry the amount to the Treasurer of said society, and take a receipt, which should be carefully preserved, as evidence of the faithful appropriation of what has been thus contributed. This mode can occasion but little trouble to any. The contribution of so small a sum will be felt by no prudent person. But its amount from all, who can spare it, will be of great utility. It will bless them, who give, as well as them, who receive. It may be the means of inducing some the more highly to prize these holy records, which others receive with so great thankfulness. It may lead to habits of munificence, which, without some such incitement, might be greatly neglected. Besides, how much better is such an employment of our time, than to be "busy bodies in other men's matters?" How much more useful is such a contribution of our property, than the purchase and distribution of uninspired, and inflammatory publications, which often provoke men to hate, rather than encourage them to love one another? How much more desirable is it to impart to the destitute "the sincere milk of the word," in which, as protestants, we maintain, that they may find every thing essential to salvation, than to circulate with party views the commentaries of fallible men. who often take more pains to bias people to their system, and excite them to the opposition of others, than to establish them in the truth, "as it is in Jesus??? PHILOS. R THE BENEFIT OF AFFLICTIONS. THERE is no season, when the heart is more tenderly alive to the impressions of religion, when we realize more deeply the vanity of the world, or look more earnestly for a better, than in the season of affliction. Were we not sure, that this is only our state of probation, we should form but a gloomy picture of our existence, and the most unjust conceptions of the character of God. For amidst the varieties of sorrow, with which life is clouded, who can say that he has been exempted? Whose heart has never been softened by grief? Who, that has been blest with beloved relatives and friends, has never been called to watch over their sick beds, or to weep over their graves? Besides the thousand mental sufferings, in which the soul only knows its own bitterness, losses and disappointments, sickness and death, pains in ourselves, or sympathies, still more painful for others, are among the common allotments of life. Sometimes the dispensations of Providence are so mysterious, as to demand the utmost exercise of our religious faith. Sometimes we see abundance heaped upon the selfish and unworthy, whose sordid souls could hardly imagine the pleasure of doing good; while another, whose heart had grown large with benevo❤ lence, is stripped of his possessions, and made dependent on the charity, which was once his delight. Sometimes the aged and the miserable, the children of poverty, whose every returning day is but a return of misery, are doomed to drag out a wretched existence; while the friends of the wretched, the happy and the good, are suddenly snatched away, and leave multitudes to mourn their loss. Here, a fond parent deplores an only child; and there the child weeps for tender parent. Sometimes the aged saint, whose spirit is confiued within an aching body, passes years of darkness and infirmity, earnestly longing for his release; while the feeble infant, that had just entered upon existe |