ot of his deeds only, and must include the
submission of the will and the prostration of the whole nature before
Him; they teach a truth which, fully received and carried out, clears
away whole mountains of theoretical confusion and practical error.
Religion is no dry morality; no slavish, punctilious conforming of
actions to a hard law. Religion is not right thinking alone, nor right
emotion alone, nor right action alone. Religion is still less the
semblance of these in formal profession, or simulated feeling, or
apparent rectitude. Religion is not nominal connection with the
Christian community, nor participation in its ordinances and its
worship. But to be godly is to be godlike. The full accord of all the
soul with His character, in whom, as their native home, dwell
'whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,' and the full
glad conformity of the will to His sovereign will, who is the life of
our lives--this, and nothing shallower, nothing narrower, is religion in
its perfection; and the measure in which we have attained to this
harmony with God, is the measure in which we are Christians. As two
stringed instruments may be so tuned to one keynote that, if you strike
the one, a faint ethereal echo is heard from the other, which blends
undistinguishably with its parent sound; so, drawing near to God, and
brought into unison with His mind and will, our responsive spirits
vibrate in accord with His, and give forth tones, low and thin indeed,
but still repeating the mighty music of heaven. 'Circumcision is
nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the
commandments of God.'

But our text tells us, further, that if we look backwards from character
and deed to motive, this harmony with God results from love becoming the
ruling power of our lives. The imitation of the object of worship has
always been felt to be the highest form of worship. Many an ancient
teacher, besides the Stoic philosopher, has said, 'He who copies the
gods worships them adequately.' One of the prophets lays it down as a
standing rule, 'The people will walk every one in the name of his God.'
But it is only in the Christian attitude towards God that the motive
power is found which makes such imitation more than an impossible duty,
even as it is only in the revealed character of God that a pattern is
found, to imitate which is to be perfect. Everywhere besides, harmony
with the gods meant discord with conscience and flagrant