we from Him,
That he who loveth God love his brother also."

This is the first Sunday after Trinity. On it the Church begins to teach
us morals,--that is, how to live a good life; and therefore she begins by
teaching us the foundation of all morals,--which is love,--love to God
and love to man.

But which is to come first,--love to God, or love to man?

On this point men in different ages have differed, and will differ to the
end. One party has said, You must love God first, and let love to man
come after as it can; and others have contradicted that and said, You
must love all mankind, and let love to God take its chance. But St John
says, neither of the two is before or after the other; you cannot truly
love God without loving man, or love man without loving God. St John
says so, being full of the Spirit of God: but alas! men, who are not
full of the Spirit of God, but only let themselves be taught by Him now
and then and here and there, have found it very difficult to understand
St John, and still more difficult to obey him; and therefore there always
have been in God's Church these two parties; one saying, You must love
God first, and the other, You must love your neighbour first,--and each,
of course, quoting Scripture to prove that they are in the right.

The great leader of the first party--perhaps the founder of it, as far as
I am aware--was the famous St Augustine. He first taught Christians that
they ought to love God with the same passionate affection with which they
love husband or wife, mother or child; and to use towards God the same
words of affection which those who love really utter one to each other.
I will not say much of that; still less will I mention any of the words
which good men and women who are of that way of thinking use towards God.
I should be sorry to hold up such language to blame, even if I do not
agree with it; and still more sorry to hold it up to ridicule from
vulgar-minded persons if there be any in this Church. All I say is, that
all which has been written since about this passionate and rapturous love
toward God by the old monks and nuns, and by the Protestant Pietists,
both English and foreign, is all in St Augustine better said than it ever
has been since. Some of the Pietist hymns, as we know, are very
beautiful; but there are things in them which one wishes left out; which
seem, or ought to seem, irreverent when used toward God; which