God as they ought, and as they would wish to do, because they have
not been rightly taught who God is, and what He is like. They have
not been taught that God is loveable; they have been taught that God
feels feelings, and does deeds, which if a man felt, or did, we
should call him arbitrary, proud, revengeful, cruel: and yet they
are told to love him; and they do not know how to love such a being
as that. Nor do I either, my friends.

Let us therefore think over to-day for ourselves why we ought to love
God; and why both Bible and Catechism bid child as well as man to
love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls, and minds, before
they bid us love our neighbours. And keep this in mind all through,
that the reason why we are to love God must depend upon what God's
character is. For you cannot love any one because you are told to
love them. You can only love them because they are loveable and
worthy of your love. And that they will not be, unless they are
loving themselves; as it is written, we love God because he first
loved us.

Now, friends, look at this one thing first. When we see any man do a
just action, or a kind action, do we not like to see it? Do we not
like the man the better for doing it? A man must be sunk very low in
stupidity and ill-feeling--dead in tresspasses and sins, as the Bible
calls it--if he does not. Indeed, I never saw the man yet, however
bad he was himself, who did not, in his better moments, admire what
was right and good; and say, 'Bad as I may be, that man is a good
man, and I wish I could do as he does.'

One sees the same, but far more strongly, in little children. From
their earliest years, as far as I have ever seen, children like and