is written: 'Because ¹ ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.' And since their hearts are full of love to God, therefore they can put their whole trust and confidence in God amid all their troubles, perplexities, sorrows and persecutions, according to what is written in the following passage: 'Who ² shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Even as it is written:³ —

For thy sake we are killed all the day long;
We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.' And, on account of this love which through Christ they bear to God, they are enabled to fulfil the command of God Himself, given through Moses in the Law and repeated by the Lord Jesus in the Gospel: 'Thou ⁴ shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all they mind.' Whatever, too, true believers in Christ undertake and do, they do through love for the Lord; and the

more progress they make in love for Him, the easier it becomes to them to obey God's commandments. To this fact the Lord Jesus Christ refers when He says in a passage already quoted: 'My ¹ yoke is easy, and my burden is light.' So also it is written: 'This ² is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.' Only through love is man able to render to God worthy and acceptable worship and service. For adoration and service which do not proceed from love are neither true, heartfelt, nor worthy of God's acceptation. But if a man's heart be filled with love to God, and if the candle of his soul be lit, then whatever he does will be done through love, without self-seeking and hypocrisy. Such service of God is true and earnest worship. The adoration offered by a true Christian is not merely the worship which is offered in Church, nor does it consist entirely in repeating prayers, or even in praying with all the heart in private. On the contrary, in heart and soul he is perpetually worshipping God and holding spiritual communion with Him. And since every deed which such a man does proceeds from love to God, and is done with the purpose and object of being in accordance with God's will and commandments, therefore such conduct is the very essence of true worship. Thus such a man is always and in every act engaged in the service and adoration of his God.