truth in love, it is a system of withholding the truth in hypocrisy. Moreover, if any one does make use of his christian liberty, and speak at large and without suspicion, his expressions are seized hold of, their meaning perverted, and he himself charged with holding heresies which his soul abhors. Hence every one feels bound to speak, not as in the presence of brethren who will put the most favourable construction upon what is said, but as in the face of an enemy; and hence, also, there is no fruit of the exercise of genuine christian love to our brethren, for there is no root in genuine love to the truth of God.

The patient endurance of wrong upon this principle is true nobility of soul; it is the unerring mark of being high born, of being born of God; of being heirs of a kingdom, and of a throne of immortality; in comparison of which, the frowns of this life are as dew-drops on the lion's mane. It is the very opposite of that meanness and baseness of spirit, which often puts up with insult from insensibility to a feeling of shame, and

which assumes to itself the flattering title of humility. True humility is that which bows alone to the will of God, and commits itself to Him that judgeth righteously; does not seek to avenge itself, but appeals to the Searcher of hearts, and looks to the example of Him, who, when he was reviled, reviled not again. True humility consists in refusing to submit to the dictation of the popes of the day, be they who they may; (for every day and every class has its pope:) whoever will be a faithful servant and soldier of the Lord Jesus alone, must watch over himself with jealousy, lest any mortal assume that mastery over him, to which the Master who is in heaven has alone a right.

After having spoken of that bond which unites every member of Christ in one common tie, namely, that of forgiveness, which God has vouchsafed them on his account, the apostle comes to the most intimate union which can exist, namely, that of HUSBAND and WIFE. He directs us to 66 submit ourselves one to another, in the fear of the Lord:" not merely in the fear of that power

which the strong always exercise over the weak, a power emanating directly or indirectly from the possession of mere brute force, but to submit "in the fear of the Lord:" remembering that this inequality of power is also an appointment of Christ. "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord: for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church; and He is the saviour (or preserver) of the body; therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing." To the Colossians the same apostle writes, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord."

The submission, then, of a wife to her husband, is not merely that which physical debility must ever pay to the stronger; nor is it simply an arbitrary command given by the sovereign lawgiver: but it is the holy and mysterious counterpart and representation of that submission and relationship, which the church bears to the Lord Jesus himself.

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order then to see the proper deportment of a christian wife, we must meditate on the standing which the church bears to her Lord. She is taught to rely upon her lord's power and love for all her support; she is to receive at his hands all needful supply, and administer the same to the family: she is to give him her undivided affection, and preserve unsullied all the ordinances of his house she is to pour forth her complaints and sorrows to him, and make known to him the wants of those who are dependent upon her she is to seek for her highest enjoyment in his society alone, and ever to be expecting and longing for his appearance and presence: she is to know no will but his, and acknowledge him her lord in everything. Perhaps, in the practical application of this picture to domestic life, the last is the most difficult of attainment. The curse pronounced upon the first wife was, "Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee:" and the utter renunciation of self-will to the will of another, has been often found to cause a severe struggle. The constitution

of the female mind renders this, however, comparatively easy to some: and the warmth, devotion, and disinterestedness of a woman's affection, will often make the performance of this duty a source of delightful enjoyment. Let us not mistake, however, the effect of natural affection, lovely in the highest degree though it be, for the result of christian duty; and let all women, whose hearts are so bound in sympathy to their husbands, that this duty is easy, nay, even gratifying to them, praise the Lord the more for that additional blessing, which he has poured into the cup of their wedded life; but at the same time let it be remembered, that as submission is a duty enjoined, so assuredly will Satan tempt her to rebel against it, and to render it reluctantly, if at all.

This remark is applicable only to that happiest of all situations, of which the present condition of the world admits, fallen as it is under the dominion of the Evil One, who is its "God," and "who now ruleth in the children of disobedience," namely, that in which the hearts of husband and wife are

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