with Divine light and love, not glorify God by shedding His light and love? Has the loving mother her children to witness to her love, has the poet his glory displayed by the children of his brain and heart, is the dumb marble moved by the genius of the sculptor to speak to his praise, and shall the heavenly Father not have His power and wisdom, His truth and goodness displayed by those whom He has "saved not with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Jesus," "His only begotten Son ?"

"Woe worth these barren hearts of ours,

Where Thou hast set celestial flowers,
And water'd with more balmy showers
Than e'er distill'd

In Eden, on th' ambrosial bowers,

Yet nought we yield !"

66

"One thing stands between me and infidelity," exclaimed a young man : my mother's pure, unselfish life; arguments I can refute, miracles I can explain away, eloquence does not move me, learning cannot convince me, but my mother's blessed character and life convince me there must be Divine power in Christianity." I have heard a preacher of the Gospel, who had been an infidel, declare that, what kept him from utter scepticism was the supernatural beauty of the moral character of the Lord Jesus. Reader, there is no good reason (God forbid there should be a bad one) why your character and life should not only stand

between some one and infidelity, but should be the means of winning many precious souls to Him who has died for all, "and that He died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again."

XVI.

Chr st's Idea and Treatment of Woman.

E

VERY thoughtful Christian woman has an ideal,

towards which it is her aim and effort constantly to rise. She tries to discover what God regards as essential in the true woman, and what she should be, in order to fulfil the Lord's will, and develop the Divine idea of womanhood. What is it, my sister, that in your heart of hearts you would like to be known for, and love to be remembered by, when the book which your life is now invisibly, but most really writing, is closed? What motto do you think could truthfully be engraven on the title page? I am taking it for granted that the eye, now reading this page is the earnest eye of her, who aspires to the highest type of woman. may be, you have been long tending towards God's idea of woman. Early in life His bright star guided your feet to where the young Child lay, and your heart found the peace and satisfaction, and your spirit the love and life which He can alone impart, and with

It

holy joy you have ever offered your best and highest unto the Lord. Or it may be one in the bright morning of life, with unclouded eye, buoyant step, and gladsome smile, whose character has yet to be formed, is perusing these words; but whether or not you have consciously been forming yourself after God's idea, or whether you are wanting to do so, I ask you to study the type of true womanhood as depicted in the mother of our Lord.

One of the most clever and most pernicious devices of Satan is to keep us from truth by error. He piles such a mountain of rubbish around a jewel, that few have faith and patience to search for the gem. One of the greatest dangers of our times, perhaps, is violent reaction. Superstition is the parent of scepticism, fanaticism is the father of formalism, error is the parricide of truth. Never is Satan better pleased, than when abuse of good leads to disuse, and error in doctrine produces neglect.

Is it a proof of sanctified common sense to be afraid to receive in our hearts, as the ideal woman one who was spoken of twice by the angel Gabriel as favoured of God; by one filled with the Holy Ghost as Blessed among women; who was called virgin (pure), and who was chosen to be the mother of our Lord? Nay, rather let Christian faith and love penetrate through the haze of superstition, and realize the ideal of Christ-like virtue and grace. Beneath the flagrant

error, this false teaching of the Church of Rome, let enlightened Christian thought see in the Virgin Mother what the Heavenly Father can admire and bless in

woman.

The biographies of the Bible are unlike any others. Brief, but not poor; simple, but yet suggestive; saying little, but revealing much. In some instances, only a few words, or one or two incidents are given, and yet these, like the touches of a master hand in a painting, express a great deal. Now, not much is recorded concerning the Mother of our Lord; yet how real and vivid is her character as it is brought out.

Well we know the mighty difference between a dissertation on any virtue, and that virtue embodied in one with like passions as ourselves. We cannot love the impersonal as we do the personal, we cannot attach ourselves to abstractions as we do to individuals. We want to see beauty in human form, hear truth from human lips, feel love in human hearts, behold goodness living and moving that our enthusiasm may be enkindled, and our desire and effort to become what we admire, and love inspired. This want our Heavenly Father meets directly and authoritatively in His Son Jesus Christ, in whom we behold the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His Person, and whose grace and truth, love and goodness, we, being born again of His Holy Spirit, may possess and manifest; and indirectly and mediately this want is