Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 3.pdf/131

 ful kingdom. It is a work of constraint, not of cheerfulness, It does not cause the face to shine, but renders it rather downcast and lowering. It has no sympathy with charity, and often, as in the case of Cain, kindles into envy, and generates malignant feelings, until, at length, it becomes very wroth, and the countenance becomes gloomy and revengeful; thus sin lies at the door of such worship, and the Lord can never have respect to it: "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? if thou doest ill, sin lieth at the door."

The worship proceeding from love is widely different. The soul is bowed down by a sense of its own unworthiness, and of the infinite goodness of that God who condescends to meet with it; and it cannot be in the divine presence in a state of humility, without receiving love from the Lord. As this love enters in, every affection becomes hallowed; peace, heavenly peace, takes entire possession of the soul; the world recedes, and heaven opens before the enraptured view; all of self is surrendered; the purest affections, the holiest thoughts, are offered unto the Lord: "the firstlings of the flock and the fat thereof;" and a state of unbounded charity and universal love pervades the soul, and "the Lord has respect to this offering." Let us then have much love; let us not worship from mere formality nor from mere duty, but from pure and devoted affection: so will the Lord have respect unto our offerings.