for the resentful, that they may be appeased; for the implacable, that they may forgive; for the ungodly, that they may be forgiven; for the mourners, that they may be comforted; for the sick, that they may be healed; for the ignorant, that they may be enlightened; and for all, that they may be saved. In respect of intercession, therefore, for others, as well as of supplication for themselves, men are always to pray, and not to faint; and then, and then only, may they cease from intercession when they themselves have no longer need of prayer.

XXI.

Christian Morals.

N the writings of St. Paul we have the most explicit testimony to the social influences of the religion of

the Gospel. The principle of all truly good works is resolved by him into the prior consecration of the heart to God. He first entreats the Roman Christians

66

by the mercies of God to present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable to Him:" and then demonstrates this to be not only a religious, but a reasonable service-a service not less calculated to ensure the present happiness than to decide the eternal destinies of man. He then developes the true nature of that bond of union which must exist

among every community of Christians that deserves the sacred name of Christ. "We being many are one body in Christ;" and its application to individual members of the Church, and throughout each particular relation of life, and "every one members one of another." The mutual relationship of Christians, he proves, grows out of their common relationship to Christ; and thus, all diversities of condition and gradations of rank being placed upon one and the same level of spiritual brotherhood, we have, first, the principle that makes or constitutes Christians, consecration to God through the Spirit ; secondly, the principle that makes or compacts churches, fellowship and brotherhood in Christ; and thirdly, the principle that should actuate or influence individual members of the church, sympathy with each other, as all interested in the same atoning sacrifice, all participant in the same solemn obligation of duty, variously endowed indeed as to gifts and graces, but all bound together by

identity of purpose, the concern to "glorify God in all things through Jesus Christ." It is the embodiment of the last principle which constitutes the loveliest portraiture of the social charities or moral virtues that has ever been presented to the view of man. "Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer, distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality."

It is probable, not from any deficiency or obscurity in the language of our admirable translators of the Bible, but only from the variation of significance in words which the interval of two centuries has caused, that the precise meaning of this expressive term, kindly affectioned, might not be at once perceived. When our excellent version was sent forth, the word "kind" was identical with what is now called nature; and the course of

nature and the course of kind were convertible or equivalent expressions. The force, therefore, of the Apostle's exhortation is this. Let brotherly love be among you as is natural affection: i. e. as parents love their children, and children their parents; husbands their wives, and wives their husbands; as, in all nations which are not sunk in utter barbarism, there is a special bond of union between those who have derived their being from one father, and drawn the nutriment of infancy from the bosom of a common mother. So equally natural and equally necessary—more so, indeed, for grace prevails and triumphs where nature fails ;so let there be among disciples of the same Saviour the love of each other, as the necessary growth and fruit of the love of Christ. Such love is, indeed, not only commended, but enjoined; not only encouraged, but enforced. "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar; for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love