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, employment.

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 that 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 possesses 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 re

This

ligion 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 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 with 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:) who