real characters of those who ask their social confidence. His estimation of virtue, his conception of moral worth, his standard of excellence, are so correct, that he may be safely trusted to advise. If he is jealous or doubtful, his sisters had better be. Happy is the sister who enjoys the companionship of a Christian brother. It is a blessed, a holy companionship, intimate, confiding, tender, mutual. It may ripen into an everlasting esteem, rich as the love which angels feel. He may be to her as a guardian angel; he may lead her into high paths of duty and usefulness, into blessed paths of wisdom and peace. Let her take his hand and walk with him in study, meditation, devotion and love; and let them be to each other mutual helpers in the Christian race, and greatly will they be blessed in their mutual confidence. If a brother has a Christian heart, how will he prize a sister, and how seek her good as a treasure of invaluable worth to him!

5. The Christian brother will be a brother through life. Fraternity will not lay off its blessed offices when it leaves the paternal roof. It will bless at home, and bless abroad. It will bless in old, and bless in new relations. Separation will not disturb it; time will not cool it; alienation will not blot it out. It is baptized in the waters of Christian perpetuity. Not adversity, sin, or death, can put out its holy flame. All through life's checkered scenes, and

all along life's crooked way, it lives and burns and blesses. And when death is over, it grows brighter and stronger and holier in the resurrection state, till it shall grow to an angelic love, in the loving and beautiful home above.

9

CHAPTER VIII.

THE CHRISTIAN SISTER.

WE have considered the several members of the Christian Household, till we have come to the sister. She is our theme for this chapter, and a worthy theme! None is worthier the best efforts of a Christian pen. Sister of itself is a holy word; and when it is sanctified with the still holier prefix of Christian, it is a word to be spoken in reverence and love. To speak justly of the Christian sister is to proclaim Christ, just as to speak justly of Christ is to proclaim the Father. Christ is the manifestation of the Father. He is the image, the spiritual representation, of the Father. So that, when Christ is manifested, God is manifested. God is so removed from the common mind of mankind, so high, so holy, so great, so spiritual, and incomprehensible, that few can conceive of him as a loving, provident, watchful, pitying and forgiving Father, except as they learn of him through a representative, through some one nearer to us, whom we can better understand. Hence the necessity of Christ. He stands between men and God. He is to God what the sun-glass is to the sun. He concentrates

God into a smaller compass, brings the rays of his divergent glory to a focus, or a few of them, so men can thus get a better idea of God can, as it were, see God. So the Christian sister stands between Christ and her household. She is Christ's representative. Like the glass, she brings him into a smaller compass, so he is not so far off. In her his image is reflected. She, then, is the sacred reflection of the Father. She images the divine reflection in Jesus.

It will be proper to remark here, that as woman was the last of the creation, and most perfect, the nearest approach to the divine image, so she is the most fit representative in the family of Christ and the Father. Her soul is a better reflector, a more polished and delicate mirror for the display of divine beauty and perfection, than man's. Woman, too, was the first commissioned herald of the resurrection, the first to whom the risen Redeemer appeared; and much of his richest instruction was given to her. In all nations woman has shown a peculiar sensibility to religion. That form of religion presented in Christianity is in singular harmony with her nature. Woman is the affectionate side of humanity. She is personified love. Christianity is spiritualized love. The two mingle like kindred drops. Christian woman is the best expression of Christ's religion that the world affords; and perhaps we may say that the Christian sister is the best expression of Christian womanhood that we have among us. The powerful love

of the wife and mother is natural; and sometimes there is in it a mingling of selfishness. Natural love cannot be considered Christian. Christian love is better expressed by the word charity. Benevolence compassion, benignity, piety and affection, are the elements of Christian love. The idea of blessing without return, of blessing by example, by influence, by imparting spiritually the affectionate and filial spirit of the lowly One of Nazareth, is at the bottom of Christian love. Picture to yourself the face of Christian love, just as you would if you were a painter, and wished to embody your ideal. Is it not a bland and peaceful expression of sweetness, shaded with earnest and benignant solicitude, touched with the meekness of humility, and illuminated with the beams of faith, and a divine consciousness of God's presence and approval, giving it a kind of inexpressible sanctity? Now, picture to yourself the face of a Christian sister. Wherein does it differ from the face of Christian love? Are not the two one and the same? Ideas take form in our mind. When we speak of Christian love, there comes before our minds an image, or picture of our idea of that love. So when we speak of a Christian sister. And, in my mind, the two are so nearly alike that I can scarcely distinguish the one from the other. The thought of Christian love brings to my spiritual view a beautiful, benevolent, benign and holy female face. I see it. It is sweet and calm, and very lovely. But its love