ever 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 "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 hus band, 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. In 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 every thing. 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 66 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 united together by a bond, which is not only the strongest here, but which, by uniting them also to one common and indestructible head, insures their union throughout eternity. There is, however, another, and far different lot, common to many of the daughters of Eve; namely, where the Holy Spirit has opened the eyes of the wife, to see her lost state by nature, and the recovery of it in the Lord Jesus; and has consequently implanted in her breast a principle of new life,

and a spring of action, and an object to be attained in all her ways and works, after an union has been effected with a husband for mere worldly purposes, and who remains insensible to that new principle which actuates her. If to a wife in this situation, her husband has been from her tenderest youth the object of her first, and purest, and freshest love, bitter indeed will be the pangs which, by crucifying all earthly ties, leaves this world a dreary blank. Who but her that is placed in such circumstances can conceive, far less describe, the poignant anxieties which she must experience for the welfare of the soul of him, whose earthly presence has hitherto constituted so large a portion of her bliss? Blessed be God this case is provided for. Having spoken of the subordination of all men to the king as supreme, and unto governors, and of servants to their masters, in every case "for the Lord's sake," another apostle is directed to instruct us, "In like manner, ye wives be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they also may

without the word be won by the conversation