That love is the
fulfilment of the Moral Law in Him as in us; that it is the root and
cause and spirit of His justice, mercy, truth, and graciousness; that it
belongs not to His attributes, as they may be said to be, but to His
essence and His spirit; that we must not, if we be careful of our words,
say, God is loving, because we are bidden to say, "God is Love."
Thus, the commands, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God--and thy neighbour
as thyself, are shown to be not arbitrary and impossible demands,
miscalled moral obligations, while they are merely legal and external
ones; but true moral obligations, in the moral sense, to which heart and
spirit can answer, "I rejoice to do thy will, O God; Thy law is within my
heart." You ought to love God, because He is supremely loveable and
worthy of your love. You can love God, because you can appreciate and
know God; for you are His child, made in His moral likeness, and capable
of seeing Him as He is morally, and of seeing in Him the full perfection
of all that attracts your moral sense, when it is manifested in any human
being.
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