They have come down to us with the accumulated strength of ages. And we have made them still more our own, by having voluntarily adopted and cherished them, till they constitute our very life's love. And hence we find ourselves in such a state, that in order to attain to the true life and love of heaven, we must lose that which constitutes our life in our unregenerate state. "He that would save his life, must lose it." He must compel himself to resist and withstand the strong current of his selfish and worldly affections; the evil actions to which those affections would lead him, he must shun, as sins against the Lord. And thus the way will be opened for the inflowing of heavenly love and truth. But the unregenerate man again replies; "those affections which I am required to give up constitute my very life; they have grown up with me from my birth, I cannot exist without them." And again, the understanding rallies all its strength to defend the cherished love. The very commandment which was quoted above, requiring us to love our neighbor as ourselves, is probably brought forward as affording a strong argument for retaining the love of self. "Does it not follow from this," we are asked, "that we are at liberty to divide our affections between ourselves and our neighbors, and to love ourselves at least as well as we love them?"—Most unquestionably it is right to love ourselves as well as we love our neighbors, if by loving ourselves we mean not a desire to please ourselves, but a desire to make ourselves mediums of usefulness in the kingdom of the Lord. Such, as I have already endeavored to show, is the love which we ought to bear towards our neighbor,—not a desire for pleasing him, but a desire to aid in preparing him to be a medium of eternal usefulness. And if our love for ourselves is of the same nature, there is no danger of its becoming excessive. But this, is not what men ordinarily mean by the love of self; they mean that affection which I have just now endeavored to describe under that name,—a desire of pleasing and gratifying themselves, without reference to any ultimate
