arise in the mind in view of its
appropriate objects." If these necessarily arise in us, "and do not wait
for the bidding of the will,"(95) how can they possibly be our virtue? how
can they form the objects of moral approbation in us? Yet is it
confidently asserted, that the denial of such a doctrine "stands in direct
and palpable opposition to the authority of God's word."(96) The word of
God, we admit, says that holiness consists in love; but does it assert
that it consists in the _feeling_ of love merely? or in any feeling which
spontaneously and irresistibly arises in the mind? If the Scripture had
been written expressly to refute such a moral heresy, it could not have
been more pointed or explicit.

Holiness consists in love. But what is the meaning of the term love, as
set forth in Scripture? We answer, "This is the love of God," that we
"_keep_ his commandments." "Let us not love in word, neither in tongue,
but in _deed_ and in truth." "Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and
_doeth_ them, I will liken him unto a wise man who built his house upon a
rock." "He that hath my commandments, and _keepeth_ them, he it is that
loveth me." Here, as well as in innumerable other places, are we told that
true love is not a mere evanescent feeling of the heart, but an inwrought
and abiding habit of the will. It is not a _suffering_, it is a _doing_.
The most lively emotions, the most ecstatic feelings, if they lead not the
will to action, can avail us nothing; for the tree will be judged, not by
its blossoms, but by its fruits.

If we see our brother in distress, we cannot but sympathize with him,
unless our hearts have been hardened by crime. The feeling of compassion
will spontaneously arise in our minds, in view of his distress; but let us
not too hastily imagine therefore that we are virtuous, or even humane. We
may possess a tender feeling of compassion, and yet the feeling may have
no corresponding act. The opening fountain of compassion may be shut up,
or turned aside from its natural course, by a wrong habit of the will; and
hence, with all our weeping tenderness of feeling, we may be destitute of
any true humanity. We may be merely as sounding brass, or a tinkling
cymbal. "Whoso hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother have need,
and shutteth up his bowels of _compassion_ from him, how dwelleth the love
of God in him?" It is this _loving in work_, and not in _feeling_ merely,
which the word of God requires