their sorrows should be common: like two strings in unison, the chord of grief should never be struck in the heart of one, without causing a corresponding vibration in the heart of the other; or, like the surface of the lake answering to the heaven, it should be impossible for calmness and sunshine to be upon one, while the other is agitated and cloudy: heart should answer to heart, and face to face.

Such are the duties common to both; the obligations peculiarly enjoined upon each, will be the subject of the next chapter.

CHAPTER II.

THE SPECIAL DUTIES OF HUSBANDS AND WIVES.

"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 of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife, loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery : but I speak concerning Christ and the church."

EPHESIANS v. 22-32.

OBSERVE the sublime and transcendently interesting fact, which stands amidst the duties of domestic life, as stated by the apostle, in the language quoted above, like the sun in the centre of the planets, illuminating, impelling, and uniting them all. Every part of this most comprehensive and beautiful passage is inimitably striking. The design of the whole, is to magnify

Christ's love to the church; in order to this, the moral condition of the church, previous to the transform. ing work of redeeming grace, is supposed to be that of loathsome impurity; yet notwithstanding this, he exercises the tenderest compassion for her welfare, and is not repelled by excessive defilement. To effect her redemption, he does not merely employ the operations of his power and of his wisdom, but surrendered himself into the hands of divine justice, that as a sacrifice of atonement, he might ransom the object of his regard, at the price of his blood; thus manifesting an affection stronger than death, and “which many waters could not quench." The ultimate design of this act of mysterious humiliation, is to render her in some measure worthy of his regard, and meet for that indissoluble union with himself, unto which, as his illustrious bride, she was about to be received; for this purpose, the efficient influences of the Holy Ghost were to be poured upon her mind, that in the cordial reception of the truth, she might be purified from iniquity, have the germ of every virtue implanted in her heart, and the robe of righteousness spread over her frame; till at length, under the dispensations of his providence, the means of his grace, and the sanctifying agency of his Spirit, the last spot of moral defilement might be effaced, the last wrinkle of spiritual decay removed, and like "the king's daughter, all glorious within, and with her clothing of wrought gold, she might be presented, covered with the beauties of holiness, to the Lord Jesus, in that day, “when

he shall come to be admired in his saints, and glorified in all them that believe." Behold, what manner of love is this!! And it is this most amazing, this unparallelled act of mercy, that is employed by the apostle, as the motive of all christian conduct. He knew nothing of moral philosophy, if by this expression be meant, the abstract principles of ethics. He left as he found them, the grounds of moral obligations, but he did not enforce virtue by a mere reference to our relations to God as creatures, but by a reference to our relation to Christ, as redeemed sinners. He fetched his motives to good works, from the cross; he made the power of that to be felt, not only on the conscience, as supplying the means of pardon, but upon the heart, as furnishing the most cogent, and at the same time the most insinuating argument for sanctification he not only irradiates the gloom of despondency, or melts the stubborn obstinacy of unbelief, or stays the reckless progress of despair, by inspiring a feeling of hope; no; but by the death of a crucified Saviour, and an exhibition of his most unbounded compassion, he attacks the vices of the depraved heart, and inculcates all the virtues of the renewed mind. The doctrine of the cross is the substance of christian truth, and the great support of christian morals: and the apostle's mind and heart were full of it. Does he enforce humility? It is thus: "Let the mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus." An unreserved devotedness to God? It is thus: "Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God,

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with your body and in your spirit, which are his." Brotherly love? It is thus: "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." forgiving temper? It is thus: " 'Be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." volence to the poor? It is thus: For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though he was rich, for our sakes became poor, that we, through his poverty might be made rich."* And who but an apostle would have thought of enforcing conjugal affection by a reference to the love of Christ to his church. And he has done this; and has thus represented redeeming love, as a kind of holy atmosphere, surrounding the christian on all sides, accompanying him every where, sustaining his spiritual existence, the very element in which his religion lives, moves, and has its being. And this, indeed, is religion; not a name, not a creed, not a form, not an abstract feeling, not an observance of times and places, not a mere mental costume or holy dress which we put on exclusively for certain seasons and occasions; no; but a moral habit, a mental taste, the spirit of the mind, which will spontaneously appear in our language, feeling, and behaviour, by a reference to Jesus Christ, as the ground of hope, and the model of imitation.

* Phil. ii. 5. 1 Cor. vi. 20. 1 John, iv. 10, 11. Ephes. iv. 32. 2 Cor. viii. 9.