do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." --Matt. xii. 49, 50. In John xvii. there is a most peculiar likeness of our Lord: "Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father! the hour is come."-What rays of grace must have shot forth their beams in the countenance of the God-Man at this moment! a moment of such sublime importance, that the minutest incident of its fleeting vibration has been preserved for our remark, and consecrated to our veneration.

Not only in hallowed hours of social intercourse, explaining to his dull associates the word of parable, and instructing them in the mysteries of the kingdom; but when their ignorance and errors called forth the Master's notice, how persuasively does Christ rebuke! Censure from those sacred lips is best illustrated by the description which the Holy Spirit hath recorded; "The Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy; his compassions fail not." Jesus is so supremely the Prince of peace, that he never utters reproof but as the consequent of tenderness, and almost in an accent of entreaty. "O ye of little faith, wherefore do ye doubt ?"

When this divine model is under our eye, how its proportions rectify the deformities of all we do or say, or even wish to do or say towards each other; how cold and self seeking is our warmest regard; how petulant and self-righteous our most warrantable blame! For myself, I neither accept or proffer kindness, listen to assertion, or venture to oppose, without perceiving that some insidious principle of vanity lurks within the embryo of creature friendship, or some misapprehension in statement, or in temper, perplexes the subject under discussion. When habits of mental scrutiny, confirmed by grace, have brought us to this conclusion, the words of the Lord are plain to our understanding: "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted of?" Having learnt this lesson of humility, successive steps lead us to know its personal application; we trust in ourselves no more; because we feel the disquietude of searching for satisfaction from inward causes, which the more they are revealed, still further display the nothingness of man, and the deceitfulness of the human heart.

The progress of grace is mostly perceptible

by the warfare which is proclaimed between the will of the old nature, and the desires of the new; these are contrary the one to the other, and Scripture never affirms that they are reconciled. Like a water course restrained by floodgates, the resistance placed is greater than the impetuous flow of the stream; but if this strong barrier were removed, or were it permitted to recede, the tide pursues its natural channel. While faith is in vigour, it withstands the turbulence of our heady passions; but let it slacken, or for any moment be withheld, no obstacle intervenes to check their destructive tendency.

Sin is accurately said "to be put away," shut up, restrained, laid aside. In the kingdom of glory, we shall experience the total extinction of evil. According to the mediocrity of our present attainments, instead of fixing a standard of consistent perfection, (or, indeed, exacting consistency, though much beneath the level of perfection,) we should be prepared for perpetual inequalities of understanding, both in natural and on spiritual topics; for a different construction of thought to that which we adopt; and yet calculated to be equally ser

viceable, and not further removed from the scope of divine authority, than our own favourite elucidation.

I would carefully guard against the slightest infringement on sound doctrine, and holy precept; but I would be watchful, lest admiration for some chosen mode of instruction should ensnare me within the confines of prejudice or dogmatism. A talent for discernment is liable to lead us astray, because, in finding objects for scrutiny, we are tempted to seek opportunities for criticism. There is a want of discipline in the order of many minds, which leads them to think, that courage in advancing an opinion is equivalent to talent in conducting an argument; hence it occurs, that in entering upon conversation, we unexpectedly meet with an opponent, where we had intended to welcome a companion.

Of all the profitless employments of time, that is perhaps the most subversive of its best uses, which engages the female sex in canvassing articles of faith; and sharpening the acuteness of their feelings on the anvil of religious contradiction. I know nothing which can indemnify a woman for embracing the character of a controversialist; and I never met with any

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passage in scripture which countenances the ambition of such unsuitable eminence. Paul's prohibition against women assuming the office of preaching, is well known; and, from an inspired opinion, we conclude the Holy Spirit never qualified the sex for public exhibition. Our usefulness is influential; but it has no authority; our station as believers is in correspondence with the endowments of our frame, natural and mental. The Lord is a God of order; and, in tracing the footsteps of Almighty wisdom, we shall observe an invariable fitness of things to their aim and result. Examine all the memorials we can gather of godly women, (and the sacred penmen have honoured not a few with their venerable testimony,) but in none of these primitive believers do we discover the least anxiety for display; no tendency to disputation; nothing like the impulse of a heated fancy, acting in defiance of sound judgment. None of the cavil, and bustle, and petulance of self-sufficiency, licensed upon the risque of a small fund of understanding and newly acquired knowledge. Lydia, after her heart was touched with the love of the Lord, exemplified this vital principle in acts of the most ready.

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