Holiness consists in love. But what is the meaning of the term love, as set forth in Scripture? We answer, “This is the love of God,” that we “_keep_ his commandments.” “Let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in _deed_ and in truth.” “Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and _doeth_ them, I will liken him unto a wise man who built his house upon a rock.” “He that hath my commandments, and _keepeth_ them, he it is that loveth me.” Here, as well as in innumerable other places, are we told that true love is not a mere evanescent feeling of the heart, but an inwrought and abiding habit of the will. It is not a _suffering_, it is a _doing_. The most lively emotions, the most ecstatic feelings, if they lead not the will to action, can avail us nothing; for the tree will be judged, not by its blossoms, but by its fruits. If we see our brother in distress, we cannot but sympathize with him, unless our hearts have been hardened by crime. The feeling of compassion will spontaneously arise in our minds, in view of his distress; but let us not too hastily imagine therefore that we are virtuous, or even humane. We may possess a tender feeling of compassion, and yet the feeling may have no corresponding act. The opening fountain of compassion may be shut up, or turned aside from its natural course, by a wrong habit of the will; and hence, with all our weeping tenderness of feeling, we may be destitute of any true humanity. We may be merely as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. “Whoso hath this world’s goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of _compassion_ from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?” It is this _loving in work_, and not in _feeling_ merely, which the word of God requires of us; and when, at the last day, all nations, and kindreds, and tongues, shall stand before the throne of heaven, we shall be judged, not according to the feelings we have experienced, but according to the deeds done in the body. Hence, the doctrine which makes true virtue or moral goodness consist in the spontaneous and irresistible feelings of the heart, “stands in direct and palpable opposition to the authority of God’s word.”