know these things," said the Lord Jesus, "happy are ye, if ye do them."

Love, merely for the sake of loving, whether it be a love infolding itself or a love clasping in its embrace even the Saviour Himself, much less a love "nursing in some delicious shade its dainty sympathies," is not the truly Christian love. To Mary Magdalene, as she would have clung to the risen Jesus, holding Him by the feet, the Lord said, "Touch Me not, for I am not yet ascended to My Father, but go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God." The Christian's love is not a thing of sentiment merely. It is a powerful, practical, and most energetic principle. It suffers long and is kind. It rejoiceth in the truth. It seeketh not its own, but it seeketh its neighbour's good. It seeketh not its own things, but the things that are Jesus Christ's. It denies self, takes up the daily cross and follows Christ, saying " Entreat me not to leave thee nor return from following after thee. For where thou goest, I will go: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God."

And so, also, with respect to Christian activity, work, or practice. It is not work for the sake of work; not activity for the sake of activity, not practice for the sake of practice. The Roman army took its name exercitus, from the constant exercise or drill to which its legions of soldiers were subjected. But this was not an exercise in mere gymnastics. It was exercise with a view to serious work, conflict, and battle. Even so Christian work is not mere exercise for its own sake. It is work in the service of the Lord, done for his name's sake and the Gospel's, from love to him and a desire that God may be glorified. It is, therefore, a faithful saying, to be constantly affirmed, that those who believe in Jesus and profess to love his blessed name should be careful to maintain good works. In this way there will be infallible evidence of the reality of the Christian and spiritual life, the health and vigour of personal Christianity will be greatly promoted, love will grow by indulging it, the prosperity and union of the Churches will be furthered, souls will be saved, and the Saviour's valedictory command will be obeyed-"Go ye and preach the Gospel to

every creature." Then, too, shall be answered the prayer of the Old Testament Church, and the hope and expectation of the Church of the New Testament shall be proved to be no visionary prospect-"God be merciful unto us and bless us; and cause His face to shine upon us, that Thy way may be known upon earth, Thy saving health among all nations. God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him." AMEN.

THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS

FULFILLED BY CHRIST.

PREFATORY NOTE.

The following discourse was delivered in December, 1865, and bears upon views of the law of God which at the time attracted much attention, Truth never suffers by being sifted: whatever may befall those who put it to crucial experiment. The law of the Lord is perfect, and abideth for ever. Law, grace, and truth, make up the completed revelation of the will of God.

G. M.

OLD KILPATRICK, December, 1871.

"Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy but to fulfil."-MATTH. V. 17.

Among the hearers of the Lord when He uttered the words of the text, we may, without any undue or excessive exercise of conjecture suppose that there were at least three classes of people. We may suppose that there were among the multitudes some truly devout and godly persons zealous for the law and the prophets-walking in the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, and waiting for the promised consolation of Israel-the Messiah. We may, also, suppose that there were

those who, while professing obedience to the law and faith in the predictions of the prophets, nevertheless by their regard to the traditions of the elders and the glosses of the rabbis, made the law and the prophets of none effect. And we may suppose that among the multitudes there were those who hated the law, did not believe the words of the prophets, and at the sametime despised the traditions of the Pharisees. These several classes would all have their peculiar and distintive apprehensions and thoughts respecting the tendency, scope, and design of the ministry and teaching of Christ Jesus. The godly and devout among the audience hearing, and rejoicing to hear, the gracious words of blessing spoken by the Lord, would doubtless be reasoning with themselves as to the relation in which Jesus in His ministry stood, or professed to stand, to the law and to the prophets. Their hearts, like that of old Eli, trembling for the Ark of God-trembling for the honour and sacredness of the law and the prophets might fear lest this new teacher should derogate from the honour of that law which had been divinely-given to them, or should in any way invalidate the teachings of the holy prophets. The words of the Lord"Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy but to fulfil;" were fitted to remove all misapprehensions of the kind referred to from the minds of those who worshipped God according to the law, and who looked for the fulfilment of the promises made by the prophets to the fathers. Those zealous for the traditions of the elders, while listening to the words of Jesus, words so different in manner and matter from the words of the Pharisees and Scribes, -would be eager to find ground on which to accuse the Lord, as setting himself against the law and the prophets. The words of the Lord were fitted to correct the misapprehensions of this class in the auditory. Whatever they might think of this new teacher in Israel, and whatever might be his attitude in relation to their traditions superinduced on the Scriptures of truth, they cannot after this, with any show of truth, assert that he took up a position of antagonism to the law or the prophets. For, said he, "I am come not to destroy but to fulfil." The apprehensions of the libertines who, hating the

restrictions of the law, and cherishing the most carnal expectations and hopes concerning the Messiah, as if he were to absolve them from obedience to law, and at the sametime to confer upon them the blessings promised by the prophets-must have been grievously disappointed when they heard the words of Jesus. The Gospel economy, according to these words (which may be regarded as the manifesto of the Saviour regarding the matters referred to) is not inaugurated or set up on the ruins of the law-it is not a dispensation grounded upon the abrogation of the law or the prophets; but it proceeds upon the establishment of the law and the fulfilment of the words and promises of prophetic Scripture. Let not libertines in thought, let not libertines in practice, let not theoretical, let not practical antinomians plead that the Gospel is on their side. The law is not against the promises of God. The promises are not against the law. The same Lord by whom grace and truth have come has for ever shattered the arguments of all libertines by the words, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets; I am not come to destroy but to fulfil." To speak, after these weighty and express words, of an abrogated law-of an abrogated decalogue-of the abrogation of what Lightfoot calls, "The very words of the words of God;" or what we may call," The very law of the laws of God," is not only to utter a statement subversive of the foundation of the economy of grace and the Gospel,-for that economy is erected on the foundation of the law not abrogated, but magnified and made honourable; but it is, in so many words, to contradict the Lord Jesus Christ. It was a daring and presumptuous act of the heretic Marcion, in the early age of the Church, to pervert the words of Jesus as if they should be read-"Think not that I am come to fulfil the law or the prophets; I am not come to fulfil but to destroy." But although the presumptuous daring of that heretic shocks every feeling of reverence entertained by Christian men towards the gracious and authoritative words of the Lord Jesus, his conduct was not more at variance with the truth and scope, and design and nature of the Gospel than is that of those who, in our own day and in this city, represent Christ as having abrogated the decalogue, as if He had come