you is, serious meditation, accompanied with prayer to God, on those passages of Scripture which teach you how to act in this relation.

"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. Let every one so love his wife, even as himself." Eph. 5: 25-33. "Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them." Col. 3:19. "Ye husbands, give honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel." 1 Pet. 3: 7.

Perhaps no part of Scripture less requires a comment. The Christian husband is taught by this passage that God requires him to love the woman he has chosen; tc

be kind and tender to her; yea, to honor her; and therefore, that the domestic tyrant, the fierce animadverter on every little omission, the husband whose contemptuous treatment of a wife is an habitual degradation of her, are persons condemned by the Lord of all. Here husbands may learn that something more is required of them than merely to afford a maintenance to a wife. Nothing can compensate for the want of that love, required in the passage above quoted. What is a maintenance, any further than it is enjoyed? and how impossible is this, unless it is accompanied with tenderness, kindness, and respectful treatment in words and actions. Alas! for want of these endearments, many a woman, who by her dress seems to tell the world she has a husband that spares no expense to gratify her, is, in all her finery, to be considered as a gaudy victim, ever bleeding under the hands of domestic cruelty.

All that the warmest advocate for women

can enforce on husbands, being, as the passages previously quoted show, expressly required by God himself; the next to be considered is, the example which the inspired writer has selected for the model of a husband's behavior towards his companion. "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ 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." Eph. 5:33.

Here is at once example and motive. What more could even an inspired man say, in order to form the husband to everything affectionate, disinterested, sympathizing, and attentive to his wife, than this: Love her as Christ loved the church. He who understands Christianity, finds a volume in such a sentence. His mind instantly recurs to that astonishing instance of benevolence which his Redeemer ex

hibited, in giving himself up to sufferings and death for our salvation; to that which he showed in sending forth ministers to. "preach the Gospel to every creature ;” to the tender attention which he pays now he is in heaven, to all who receive this Gospel; taking care that everything be provided which is necessary to increase their faith, purify their hearts, administer to their consolation, support them in their conflicts, and cherish the hope which he has formed in them of participating in the fulfilment of those gracious purposes towards his church, which are to be consummated in heaven, and enjoyed to all eternity. This, says he, is my pattern. Such a friend as Christ was to his church, am I to be to my spouse. Am I a part of that body of which he is such a Saviour? Then he gave himself for me. Let me imitate that affection, of the fruits of which, I humbly hope, I am a partaker. I here find myself required to love my wife, though she is not without

fault; to interpose between her and danger; to supply, as far as in my power, everything which can contribute to her comfort; to seek not only her present, but everlasting happiness: for thus did Christ love his church.

To the wife the word of God speaks thus: "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. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands, in everything." Eph. 5: 22-24. "Let the wife see that she reverence her husband." Eph. 5:33.

Here we should particularly notice that virtue on which the admonition principally turns: namely, submission. A virtue so prominently commended, certainly merits particular attention.

It need not surely be necessary to observe, that the superiority which the Scrip