what self-sacrificing devotion to the happiness of a beloved one, must temper the sternness of authority which is moulded on this pattern! This is the secret of a husband's power, which binds a trusting heart to him by ties of delighted affection; and doubtless that is the most absolute control which love maintains, and which never needs to be expressed in the form of a command, or enforced by power. This is the very rule of Christ in His Church-not the fear of consequences, but "the love of Christ constraineth us." One of the sorest effects of the curse on the temporal lot of man, is the interruption of that disinterested love, which would have secured perfect order in all our relations to one another. The absence of that love renders the husband's authority harsh, and the wife's submission irksome. The tendency of grace in the heart is to correct this, as well as the other bitter effects of the Fall. The love of Christ will overcome all hindrances which a husband's love may find in the imperfections of a wife, and the authority of Christ will sustain the respect and submission of a wife against all that there may be in the character of a husband to render submission humiliating and respect naturally impossible.

In the Epistle to the Colossians, where the Apostle charges husbands to love their wives, he adds, "And be not bitter against them ;" intimating that unless love is cherished, a selfish nature will assert its power over those who are dependent on it, in perpetual irritation and fault-finding.

In general society, indifference may be a sufficient security of peace, but in the more intimate relations of life there can be no neutrality. The mere absence of love produces continual heart-burnings, and, on the part of one who is conscious of power, these will find expression in unkind looks and harsh reproofs. This is especially the case with men of weak and cowardly natures, who commonly give

vent, in their homes, to all the day's irritations, which they dared not manifest to men who were able to protect themselves from insolence. He, in such a case, is the greater sufferer, for his wife may find support under the trial in the love of Christ, but he can find nothing to save him from his own contempt, or to mitigate the bitterness of the cup which his own hand has mixed for him. And what a place does that become to him, which was once dignified with the blessed name of home! "There is a place on the earth," says a worldly moralist, "where pure joys are unknown, from which politeness is banished and has given place to selfishness, contradiction, and half-veiled insults. Remorse and inquietude, never weary of assailing, torment the inhabitants. This place is the house of a wedded pair, who have no mutual love, or even esteem." This cannot be the home of a Christian; for what a mockery would it be for the inmates of such a place to profess to be one in Christ!

A Christian will find irresistible motives of tenderness in the dependence of his family on his support and protection. In the gentleness, the clinging softness, the weakness, if you will, of his wife, he will find an argument for the most studious respect and consideration; in the words of an Apostle, "giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life." In the temporal aspect of their relations she may be weaker

"For contemplation he and valor formed,

For softness she and sweet attractive grace;"

but in Christ they are equals. When the Christian husband looks upon his Christian wife as beloved of the Father, bought with the precious blood of Christ, a temple of the Holy Ghost, and a joint heir with Christ, he cannot fail

either in love or respect. Alas! that all this is so frequently left out of view; and then, not only is domestic happiness impaired, but their prayers are hindered; for hearts so out of tune, and agitated by daily jars, cannot be united in calm repose at a throne of grace.

A Christian husband, sensible of his responsibility as the head of the wife, will seek, by grace, to acquit himself worthily of the affectionate submission which the Word of God claims for him. He will equally avoid the austerity which would chill affection, and the frivolity which would rob him of respect. It is a maxim of even worldly wisdom, "that he who would govern others must first learn to govern himself." He will cultivate natural, but, above all, spiritual gifts; gain ordinary, but, above all, Scriptural intelligence; not only before the world, but in the confidential retirement of his family, he will walk not as fools, but as the wise walk; he will be the adviser, the instructor, under Christ, the head of his household, and thus secure that respect which will render obedience natural, and that love which will render it a delight. So the Apostle says, "Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge ;" and if this does not secure respect, it will not be won by frowns, or the free use of opprobrious and insulting epithets.

The happiness and benefits of this sacred relationship are to be enjoyed only through the loving union and coöperation of both parties. Each must be true to the obligations laid upon them; and it is a common remark that, in unhappy marriages, the failure is rarely all on one side. Each should dwell upon their own peculiar duty. The wife, instead of watching her husband, to see where he fails in love, and standing ready to charge him with unkindness, should watch over her own spirit, to see where she fails in submission, gentleness, and grace. The husband, instead of being

jealous of his authority and exacting in his demands, should watch over his own spirit, to see where he fails in love, respectful attention, and tenderness. She may rest assured that gentleness and affectionate deference to his wishes, are the surest means to secure his deeper love. He may rest assured that his delicate consideration of her feelings, and his loving solicitude for her happiness, are the best means to gain the only obedience which a wise man can desire at the hands of one who is not his vassal, but a part of himself. Finally, both should regard the will of the Lord as supreme. This will render submission easy, which otherwise might be intolerable, and will make love permanent, which otherwise might be fickle and evanescent. As has been well said: "To love from principle, and in the power of faith, is something very different from obeying a natural instinct. Passion may lead to the formation of a union, which spiritual devotedness must afterward maintain. Hence reverence and love, which are the necessary pillars of true matrimonial peace, are enjoined as duties, rather than relied on as inherent in the relationship." "Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself, and the wife see that she reverences her husband."

THE PARABLES OF MATT. XIII.

DR. STANLEY, in his "Sinai and Palestine in connection. with their History," says: "Every traveller in Palestine has recognized the truth of what every commentator has conjectured from the likelihood of the case-the suggestion of the imagery of the parables, by what may still be seen passing before the eye of the spectator of these scenes." After illustrating from this source some of the parables which were spoken in Judea, he continues: "From the cycle of parables in Judea we pass to those in Galilee. Of these the greater part are grouped together in the discourse from the fishing-vessel, off the beach of the plain of Genesareth. Is there any thing on the spot to suggest the images there conveyed? So I asked, as I rode along the track under the hillside by which the plain of Genesareth is approached. So I asked, at the moment seeing nothing but the steep sides of the hill, alternately of rock and grass. And when I thought of the parable of the sower, I answered, that here at least was nothing on which the divine teaching could fasten. It must have been the distant corn-fields of Samaria or Esdrelon on which his mind was dwelling. The thought had hardly occurred to me, when a slight recess in the hillside, close upon the plain, disclosed at once, in detail, and with a conjunction that I remember nowhere else in Palestine, every feature of the great parable. There was the undulating corn-field descending to the water's edge; there