down his life for the sheep.' Therefore St. Paul says to Christians who truly believe in and love their Saviour: 'Rejoice ¹ in the lord alway: again I will say, Rejoice.' Accordingly it is written of the first Christians in Palestine shortly after Christ's ascension: ' So ² the church throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria had peace, being edified; and, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, was multiplied.'

II. The second result of the salvation which the Lord Jesus Christ offers is the realization of the love of God. This is connected with the peace of soul and the spiritual happiness of which we have spoken. And, although through the assault of sin the light of God's love has been extinguished in the human heart, and although love of the world and self-pleasing have rendered man worthy of hell, yet through faith in Christ and through accepting the love and mercy which God has revealed to believers by means of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, love towards God becomes once again kindled in man's heart through the influence of God's Holy Spirit. Then the believer loves God with all his heart, since he is now convinced of God's great love for him. He therefore in everything seeks to know and serve God better. For it is written : ' The ³ love of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Ghost which was given unto us.' We have already quoted another similar passage, which says

'The ¹ fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance.' So also St. John the Apostle (حواري) says: 'We ² love, because he first loved us.' Love of God leads true believers to love one another and to pray for one another: for it is written: 'He ³ that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. Herein was the love of God manifested in us, that God hath sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.' In another passage we read: 'For ⁴ this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that ye may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God.' And through that inward love which they have towards God, believers in Christ recognize God as in truth their heavenly Father, according as it