bow? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master; and he prepared great provision for them and when they had eaten and drank he sent them away, and they went to their master: so the bands of Syria came no more unto the land of Israel.

There is yet one other peculiar case, in which even the nearest and dearest must learn to bear reproof, and the reprover beware, when called to the task by passing events, that he neither swerve nor shrink from discharging a duty which, however disagreeable, is imperative. With Christians God must be first, everything else second. If then, on some occasion, His honour be in any way publicly injured by those we love, no earthly consideration should prevent His servants from openly vindicating the right, at the expense and exposure of the wrong. It is immaterial who the offender may chance to be; a jealous care for the honour and

cause of God must precede all sensitive regret for the infliction of punishment, which by defection the transgressor has deserved. At the restoration of the ark, the buoyant heart of David overflowed with joy, and in rendering homage and thanksgiving to God, “he danced before the Lord with all his might." It was a religious ceremony with him. His wife Michal, looking at him through a window, despised him for it in her heart. When he had offered up sacrifice and burnt-offerings, and feasted the people, he returned to bless his household; and Michal, on meeting him, exclaimed, "How glorious was the king of Israel to-day, who uncovered himself in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!" And David said unto Michal, "It was before the Lord, which chose me before thy father, and before all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the

Lord, over Israel; therefore will I play before the Lord, and I will yet be more vile than this, and will be base in mine own sight and of the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honour." Even the endeared wife when so erring must be subject to censure, nor be at all spared because of her close affinity.

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Faithful are the wounds of a friend." This was the experience of Job under the correcting reproof of the pious Elihu, and such will it ever be with the Christian brotherhood, till "that happy era" begins when reproof will be no longer needed.

A later example, found in the New Testament, may serve as a rule for action on those undesirable occasions when this species of rebuke is indispensable. "Open rebuke is better than secret love." The honour of God, and the spiritual health of man, are more to be considered than giving temporary pain to human feelings; of which, reluctant

as affection is to be the cause, the moral character of love will ultimately prove a much greater kindness than the avoidance of such duty because it is distasteful. “He that rebuketh a man shall afterwards find more favour than he that flattereth with his tongue." St. Paul, in writing to the Galatians, records the scene just alluded to. "But when Peter was come to Antioch I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles; but when they were come he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him, insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. But when I saw that they walked not uprightly, according to the truth of the Gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews,

why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? We, who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we also ourselves are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid."

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In drawing to a close, a few more words are offered to the reader, in hope that the perusal of the preceding pages may not have proved wearisome. Constructed as we are, it is impossible but that friendship in itself should be to us an interesting subject. Gloomy ascetics and visionary fanatics have vainly urged their dogma, that the Supreme Being should alone be loved by man; and every earthly creature spurned