addressed; when churches are corrupt, their pastors; the leader of an army is held responsible for his men ; the guide and supercargo of a vessel, for the vessel itself, and all on board."-Anderson.

Christ is the head of all things; all things were made by Him, and for Him; Christ is God, and Christ is man; the end of all creation is the manifestation of God in Christ. All things are seen by the Christian in reference to him: He is the author and source of all rule and government; to portray Him do all constituted authorities exist: as they plan and act with reference to Him, so are they holy; as they plan and act without reference to Him, so are they unholy, and in rebellion against Him. The Christian sees Christ as the head of all things. He not only, as the natural philosopher, and the heathen man, sees God in the flowers of the field, and the firmament of heaven; but he sees Him in all his duties of subject and citizen; in his country, in his county, in his parish, in his home. Whatever his rank or station may be, he sees himself in it

as placed there by God to be his ambassador, in that particular sphere. The more important the station, the more he sees his responsibility increased; and thus he is secured from pride in the most exalted, and from abjectness in the most humble, employ

ment.

"There is no time, no place, nor condition, which ought not to be occupied in the worship of God: that worship is not with the bended knee, nor the outstretched hands, nor the uplifted voice completed, nor to the church, nor to the house, nor to the closet, confined; but is accomplished by the will of every power and faculty of body and mind, in all times and seasons of this our mortal estate. He that believeth hath everlasting life; not a life which acts by fits and starts, but a life which ever dureth. Wherefore it is written by the apostle, Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God:' and again,' Whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him."' -Irving's Lectures, 1080.

In the commencement of his letter to the

Ephesian Christians, the apostle has declared the good pleasure of the Father's will, to make us acceptable to himself by putting away our sins through the blood-shedding of his dear Son, and the renewal of our souls by the operation of his Holy Spirit; by which Spirit implanted in us, we are as completely and really united to Christ, as our limbs are to our own bodies; by virtue of which union, we are partakers of all that Christ is, of all that He has done, and of all that He shall inherit; that the object of the Father's will in having so done by us, is, that we may manifest hereafter to all creation, the riches of his free and unbounded love, in communicating of his own blessedness to us; but until the dispensation of the present times is completed, He has appointed us to make all around us see in this world our fellowship of this mystery, and to walk in a manner conformable to this high vocation wherewith we have been called.

The apostle then proceeds to remind us that the head of all visible things is Christ, and to point out how every relationship in

society shadows forth Christ under some view or other: that it is through Christ every good gift we are possessed of has come to us; that He is the Head of that whole body of persons who partake of the same faith as ourselves; that each of us possess a different gift, not for our own private and selfish benefit, but for the benefit of the rest; that each should, therefore, respect the gift of the other, and not be jealous and envious if we ourselves possess not the same; that each should be ready at all times to forgive the other, remembering how many and great offences Christ had forgiven us.

The principle, therefore, upon which we overlook the provocations we receive, is that alone which distinguishes the conduct of a Christian in this respect from that of amiable and benevolent infidels; and the apostle states this first inducement, as a motive which is applicable to the whole body of Christians, before he enters into more distinct details. It is not to be expected that Christians will not receive provocation from their brethren; for if they did not, there would be no means

of their showing forth this principle of christian forgiveness; and the suffering patiently, and with a silent prayer for those who offend us, the contumely, or slight, or may be insult, which is cast upon us by a christian brother, is the partaking of the sufferings of Christ, the imitation and fellowship of his patience of wrong, to which it is our honour to be called. In modern Pharisaism there is no room for the exercise of this christian grace. Professors of religion have renounced their christian liberty of speaking freely upon the great and holy mysteries of revelation, as the Spirit shall give them utterance: so that no brother is honoured and valued for his particular gift, but every one has been reduced to the dwarfish dimensions of what the most timid and ill-instructed Christian can bear. has falsely assumed the name of brotherly love, whereas it is in truth nothing but a contempt of God's truth, and a disrelish for all parts of it which are not palatable to other men, and which will not draw forth their approbation. Instead of speaking the

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