oved, cannot be
kindled in us by effect of a mere command, as the motions of the heart
are not produced by authority. Therefore, while holy writ inculcates the
love of God, it at the same time indicates to us the means whereby this
sublime love will be promoted; and the means is _to walk in the ways of
the Eternal_. To understand the connection between the means and the
end, we must consider the different degrees of which love is
susceptible, and motives by which it is actuated. He who loves God
because of great favours received, is apt to feel a diminution of
attachment, or even indifference, on being overtaken by misfortune. He
who loves Him with a view to benefits in a future life, is also in
danger of ceasing to love, if some doubts were to arise in his mind and
to weaken his hopes. But when man loves God because he understands, and
admires, and adores in Him the aggregate of all perfections, and feels
within himself the flame of a desire to approach the Divine Majesty,
then his love is an inextinguishable love, for he abnegates his own
self, and centres his motives exclusively in the object beloved. This
kind of love, however, presupposes a uniformity of tendencies, which
causes the one who loves to esteem and to endeavour to appropriate the
qualities admired by him; and in this precisely consists the
resemblance, which produces the true love. Justice, faithfulness,
righteousness, mercy, and many other Divine attributes, which in the
biblical language are called _the ways of the Eternal_, cannot be fully
and worthily appreciated, except by him who uses all his endeavours to
adorn himself with such virtues, as far as his limited nature allows.
And now we can understand, why he cannot truly love who walks not in His
ways.

LXXXI. Another principal duty, issuing from the same revelation, is that
which is commonly called _fear of God_, an expression very frequent in
the sacred text, but which requires to be explained. The Hebrew word
used is susceptible of two different interpretations. It might apply to
the fear of retribution, suggested by the reflection that an
all-powerful God will not leave unpunished the transgressors of his
commands; or the same word might signify the sense of reverence and
unbounded veneration, with which the frail creature must feel almost
overwhelmed when thinking of its exalted Creator, who knows all, sees
all, and governs all. The former originates in the intellect, the latter
in the hea