There are two great principles in God's nature, answering to His two essential names, above given of " Light " and " Love," viz., Holiness and Love. One is the necessity of that nature, imperative in all that approach Him; the other is its energy. God is holy: God is—not loving, but—love. We make him a judge by sin, for He is holy and has authority; but He is love, and none-has made Him such. If there be love anywhere else, it is of God: for God is love. This is the blessed, active energy of His being. In the exercise of this, He gathers to Himself, for the eternal blessedness of those who are gathered. Its display is in Christ, and Christ Himself is its great power and center. His counsels as to this are " the glory of His grace": His applying them to sinners, and the means He employs for it, are " the riches of His grace."