his own nature, are carrying his vessel on the The Lord and Master of all in

fearful rocks. fluences and tendencies proposes to come on board, and conduct his vessel in safety to the right port; but no, he will not have Christ on board. This man may call himself his own captain, and console himself with the delusion of superior ability; but he is a poor insane no-captain. Instead of allowing "the Wisdom of God" to steer his vessel, he suffers the devil, under the form of self-will, to steer it whithersoever he will. He allows his own feelings and wishes to govern him, sometimes his reason, and sometimes his passion; he bows to custom, and to the opinions of his fellow creatures; but of bowing to God, and being under law to Christ, he will not hear. He is holden by the chains of his own darkness, but he calls his darkness, light, and his chains, liberty. Behold, the melancholy picture, and take warning! For so it is with the creature, who, in the perverseness of his will, says of the Lord's Christ, "I will not have this Man to reign over me,"-I will reign over myself. Blind, degenerate spirit! whither is thy self-will tending? Certainly not to Heaven; Christ reigns there. It is tending Hell-wards, it will carry thee thither. You will see self-rule enough there, and be sufficiently filled with its ways.

P

VII. Whether you acknowledge Him, or not, there is a Divine Head of the human race. He, of God, is made unto mankind, both Wisdom and Holiness. His Wisdom is their sound-mindedness, and His Holiness, their right-heartedness. You must consent to receive both from Him, or be a poor miserable human botch for ever. "Sitting at the feet of Jesus," is the condition of sound-mindedness. "They found the man, out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind.” A calm power, meek wisdom, and divine nobility, find and possess those who sit there. The whole right-minded universe is meekly sitting at the feet of Jesus, learning of Him. He is the Word of God, and the all of Wisdom is from Him. Did you not receive your being from creatures like yourself, who were corrupt in body and soul? and are you too proud to receive your being anew from God? Are you too proud to humble yourself at the feet of His Christ? Take heed, a haughty spirit in a fallen creature, precedes a yet more dismal fall. "Before Honor is Humility."

BLOOD-RELATIVES.

THERE is something deep and past finding out in a blood-relation. Corrupt as natural blood is, and full of an energy, from sin, and unto sin, it is nevertheless a wonderful bond. Your own brother! your own sister! your own father! your own mother! your own child! how much more there is in such relations than can be spoken, or apprehended! Make your thought thereof live and burn in song, and set your song to soulmoving music, there still abides something in the bond of one blood, unsaid, and unsung,-yea, something deeper than your own deepest feeling. Blood-relatives make no vows to each other, enter into no legal contract, often, do not treat each other daintily, nay, roughly rather; but there is a bond between them a thousandfold stronger, than all the legal compacts that were ever made, than all the passionate vows that were ever uttered. All legal compacts, however warmly, or solemnly entered into, imply, that perhaps after all there is

no absolute relation between the parties. In what an off-hand kind of manner the winds treat the earth, yet a very sure covenant abides between them. The earth, strange bride as she is, seven times in the week, turns her back completely upon her bridegroom, as though she would put an end to the connection. Meanwhile, the bridegroom does nothing but wait, and in due time, bride and bridegroom are found very faithfully embracing and being embraced. Where there is a relation, the parties rely upon its faithfulness under all contradictions. 'I am going to leave you,' said Light to Heat, I am tired of bondage, I want to be free, that I may roam far and wide.' 'Go, by all means,' said Heat, I will even send you with my blessing. And sure enough Light is always leaving, but she has never left. There is even a

divine carelessness, which is the sign of a divine bond. The chains of God are a play of liberty. Hence blood-relations, knowing that there is a bond between them, that they have a right in each other, and that they are members one of another, say, with the most unaffected simplicity to one of themselves: Never mind us, go and attend to the strangers.' That is, We can forego attention, reality may be left to itself for awhile. Flowers without roots quickly die; but if you have

roots, you can wait with patience for future flowers. If even the relation be denied, and one bloodrelative should treat another with harshness and indifference, it is still felt that the bond abides; and, in spite of the most violent disruption, each continues to feel a deep interest in the other.

Beautiful, mysterious bond!—if you have not been in the house of your brother, or sister, or any close blood-relative, these twenty years, you have a peculiar feeling on entering, as though you had been all these years divided from an essential part of yourself. Your flesh, your blood, your nerves, your very bones feel that they are treading on familiar ground. You may have been as good as buried to each other all these years. It matters not your whole nature quivers with interest. The relation is even a greater thing to your nature, than to your understanding. Your nature has never revealed to your understanding how the whole matter stands with blood-relatives. You may not say many words, nor appear intensely interested in each other, but your natures commune together, by hidden and unspeakable affinities. The intimacy is like that of your own soul and body. Mutely, but unhesitatingly, they claim each other, and yet they are strange one to another.