The love of God poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit is the sum and substance of all true religion, and everything else that belongs to the Christian religion is either a step to this love, or else an effect that flows out from it. Faith would be useless if it did not lead us into a life of love, and all good works and zeal would be useless, and not acceptable to God, unless they were prompted and pervaded by His love. Hence in a comprehensive sense, there is really nothing but love in pure religion. Not only the most of human beings, but a great majority of nominal Christians do not distinguish the difference between natural human love, and the love of God; and yet the difference is just as great 35 that between the human soul and the perfections of the Divine Being. Natural human love may resemble divine love in many things, for it is a created affection, made in the likeness of the divine, but in order to understand the Spiritual life we need a clear discrimination between these two kinds of love; the one human, the other divine; the one earthly, the other heavenly; the one natural, the other spiritual; the one temporal, the other eternal; the one fallen and full of defects, the other holy and without blame.

1. In the Greek Testament, the Holy Spirit has given us a strong distinction between these two kinds of love by using two separate words. The term "philos," with its various forms, is the Greek word for natural or human affection, or that kind of love that springs up instinctively from relationship. The word ''agape," with its various forms, is the word for divine love, that is, the temper, the disposition, the goodness, the interior heart-feeling of God. It is true the word "philos'' is used a few times in connection with God to express His love for Jesus, but it is to be understood as expressing a love of relationship for the man Christ Jesus, the parental affection for the humanity of our Saviour. It is also true that in a few places in the New Testament the word "agape'' is used to express the spotless sanctified affection of human beings for each other, and of love of husbands for their wives, but in such instances it implies that the whole heart of the perfect believer is flooded with the Holy Spirit, and that the natural human love is filled and overflowed with the divine love. With these explanations, the Scriptures make a clear distinction between the two kinds of love, and it is to be regreted that both of these words ''philos'' and ''agape'' are translated by the same word "love," for it prevents the common reader from discerning the peculiar force of God's word, and distinguishing the vast difference between that which is human, and that which is divine. It' could be wished that the word ''philos" was always translated by the term affection, and then every one could get a clear vision of the mind of the Spirit in the Scripture. Every one who goes on the sea, will notice that when they are near the shore the water is a muddy or a light green complexion' but as soon as they get into deep water the color is a dark blue, and so it is when we read the New Testament. Wherever we find human love, it is shallow and sometimes earthly, but when we cross over into that word "agape," we get into deep water, where the love is clear, and of a deep, rich, divine blue. Let us take just one sample from Scripture: Jesus saith to Peter, Lovest thou me? Have you ''agape,'" divine love, for me? Peter saith, "Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee, "philos" that is, that I have human affection for thee. Jesus saith again the second time, Simon, lovest thou me, "agape," have you divine love for me? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord,, Thou knowest I love thee "philos," having a human affection for thee. Jesus kept using the word that indicated divine love, and Peter kept responding by that word which simply meant human affection, and so the third time when Jesus put the question, finding that Peter would not respond with the "agape," or divine love. He dropped down to the plain of Peter's soul, and put the question the third time, Lovest thou me? Using the word "philos," asking. Have you indeed human affection for me? This seemed to pierce Peter's heart more than the previous questions, and he said, "Lord thou knowest that I have human affection for Thee."" That was just before Pentecost; but after Peter was purified, and filled with the Holy Spirit, he was lifted from the "philos" kind of love, into the regions of God's feelings and affections, and in his epistle he speaks of the domestic affections as being spiritualized, and filled with divine love, and tells us to "have fervent charity," that is "boiling, divine love," "among yourselves,"

2. The human affection has its seat in the soul, or the natural mind, but divine love has its seat and operation in the spiritual part of our being. There is about as much difference between our spirits and our souls as there is between our souls and our bodies. Our soul or natural mind is that which opens up through the five senses to the external world, but our spirit is that part of us where lies the God-consciousness, or its inner feeling and intuitions which open up to the things of God, heaven, eternity, and holiness. There are myriads of people in civilized countries, educated, attending the church, reading books, taking active part in the affairs of the world, and intelligent about things of time and sense, but who know nothing whatever of the great spiritual world, and of that deep, hidden world of God's truth, the divine feelings, sympathies, intuitions, discriminations, compassions, harmonies, truths, moral beauties, and scriptural thoughts, which are just as real as, and far more rich and satisfactory than, all the world of matter or physical science, or political power and glory. This vast spiritual world is never opened to any human being except by the great miracle of grace so awakening, purging, and illuminating the spiritual part of man's being. Just as the scientist, the poet, the mathematician, can look down on the lower animals, and say, "Poor things, if you only knew the glory of this world of mind, and intellect, and figures, circles, colors, and measurements, how happy you would be," so the saint, filled in his inner sprint with the light and presence of the Holy Ghost' can look down upon poor worldlings, philosophers, politicians, and say, "0, poor things, if you only knew the purity, the tranquility, the interior brightness, vastness, sweetness, and divine personalities that I see, and enjoy, and repose in, how happy you would be," Thus as the human affection pervades the natural fleshly feelings, so the divine love pervades and possesses the spiritual nature, and flowing out through it governs the whole being.

3. The only way we can enter into either of these kingdoms of human or divine love, is by being born into it. People often speak of joining the church," but in reality nobody ever can "join" the true church of Jesus, for the natural way to get into it is by being born into it. Our children do not join our families, but they are born into them; and so the only door- way into either the Christian church or kingdom of heaven, is by being born from above of the Holy Spirit. Love is what ought to be the normal feeling, or the living out-flow of any nature; for instance, the life of the rose is poured forth in its perfume, which may be defined as the natural affection of the rose. It is a fact that every bird, or beast, or living creature, has a specific normal out-flow of feeling, emotion, or affection, which is the expression of its nature, and there are as many kinds of natural affection as there are kinds of nature in creation. Now, the only way for anything in creation to have the natural affection of a human being, is to be born with a human heart and soul.

In like manner, the only way to have the feeling, the affection, or out-flowing disposition of the living God is for fallen men to be born again of the divine Spirit into the divine family relationship. Love is by birth, not by evolution or by development, either as regards human or divine love. The dog is the most affectionate animal of all the lower creation, and yet he can only love with a dog's nature. But suppose it were possible for the dog to be born over again, and born a boy, he would then have a human heart, with human love running out in all the higher, nobler, more intelligent channels of a human soul. Thus, unregenerated men and Adam's fallen race may be amiable, affectionate, and possessed with many beautiful and attractive manners and dispositions, yet all their good qualities, multiplied a thousand-fold, and cultured to the finest pitch, can never be divine love, and can never develop into the love of God, or cross over that great gulf that separates between fallen human affection and the spotless love in the divine nature; and it is only when human beings, on the condition of repentance and faith in Jesus are touched with the Holy Spirit, and born into the divine love, that they can ever experience that love which is from God.

4. While there are some likenesses between human and divine love, there are also many contrasts. Human affection, even at its best, is weak, because it is conditioned on so many things in our life as, for example, heredity. Some children inherit very little natural affection, since it depends on education, on environments, health of body and various gifts of intellect; and hence, in thousands of instances, natural affection breaks down. Divine love is strong and fresh' and when the inward hindrances' such as inbred sin' doubt' and moral fear, are removed from the heart, and it can take entire possession, it turns the inner man into a moral giant of boldness and perserverance. Human affection is not in itself sinful, but it falls an easy prey to the fallen state of the heart, and almost universally is poisoned with selfishness, or greed, with fleshly lusts, ambition or avarice. So that while on the one hand we have beautiful instances of human love, even among the heathen and savages, as well as among the civilized and cultured classes, of unselflsh benevolence and sacrifice even to the death, yet, on the other hand, the world is full of scenes where human love is a gigantic instrument of perverted passion and selfishness. On the other hand, divine love, not only introduced in the heart by the new birth, but perfected by the sanctifying baptism of the Holy Ghost, and filling the whole soul, is a constant fountain of compassion, of charity for others, longing to save and bless all mankind, and is always thinking, praying, planning, and going forth in enterprises to lead souls to Jesus, to bless the poor, to purify the church, to evangelize the heathen, to lift up the fallen, to alleviate pain; for when divine love has its normal action through the human soul, its supreme gladness is in giving out for the benefit of others. Human love is soon exhausted, its fountains are not deep enough, it often dwindles into the poor sentiments of good wishes, but nothing more; whereas, divine love has in it a fountain of satisfaction, and can constantly increase, despite poor health, or poverty, or hard work, or bad treatment; and the other things that often kill out human affection' can become the occasions for the love of God in the soul to increase, to deepen and sweeten with marvelous power. We were originally constituted in Adam to be vessels of divine love, and the various parts of our compound being of body, soul and spirit, never reach their normal state till entirely possessed and governed by the love of God, the feelings, and dispositions that run out in liquid rivers of light from the nature of God. Any effort to make the body or the mind to live right apart from the pure love of God, is simply legality or bondage to law; but when divine love becomes the supreme possession of a man's inner being, his physical and mental being will harmonize with God's law easily. Thus we need divine love to purify, elevate, and properly utilize the natural affections. This is the divine element that St. John speaks of when he says, that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God,"