out of it, should be our
love to God. Him we should regard as our parent. As such we should
always think of Him. In all our works, and walks, and joys He should be
present in our minds as our Father. Sweet shall be our thoughts of Him.
Cheerfully should we meditate upon His wonderful works and ways. Gladly
should our hearts praise Him and our souls commune with him. His
commands should inspire us with holy delight. All our life should be
made radiant with the inspiring thoughts of our Father. His matchless
love and marvelous wisdom should make us feel like little children,
happily yet adoringly and gratefully receiving the gifts of parental
goodness. With such a love as this growing in our hearts and shining in
our lives, how good and happy must we be! And yet this is religion. Love
thy Father in heaven, is the full command. All else grows out of this.
We can not love our fellows unless we love our Father. This is the sum
of all Christ's teachings. He gave us the Father. "Show us the Father,
and it sufficeth us." Before Christ, the Father was not known. God had
only partially revealed himself. The glory of the full revelation was
reserved for the immortal and immaculate Son. To know or love the Father
is eternal life. This is the religion of the Saviour--this the religion
of redemption. Salvation is in it. It is the power of God to God; gives
its sanction to virtue; adorns the mind with the graces of godliness;
sweetens the heart with amenities of goodness, and dignifies the soul
with a spiritual assimilation to the Father. Man thus becomes a
spiritual child of God. He is by a nature a natural child, and he is
thus by grace or love made a spiritual child. Under the power of this
love the world assumes a new aspect; it becomes a secondary object, good
in its place, but only a means of spiritual improvement. Life becomes
sublime in its great ends and eternal results. The soul of man becomes,
at least in prospect, a glorious and eternal thing, often darkened by
error and polluted by sin, but the object of God's love and care and the
Redeemer's solicitude, progressively unfolding its powers and putting on
its beauties under the sunshine of the All-seeing eye. And the race of
men become the children of the great and loving Father, whose care and
smiles no figures shall number, no ages wear out. This is the religion
we believe the Saviour inculcated among men, which was the power of God
unto salvation, the central and all-power