At the hazard of being charged with repetition, but with the hope that it will not be "vain repetition," I renew my appeals on the subject of "brotherly love." The want or the weakness of this grace, is one great cause of the want of sensible enjoyment at the sacrament. Towards some, whom God loves, we have no love that is worth mentioning; and, towards others, we have hardly good-will. We have been offended, perhaps injured, by a few; and although we forgive, we do not forget; but take care that they shall know, if not feel too, that we remember them. Now, we could not remember them in this way, were their souls and our souls to meet at the marriage-supper of the Lamb, in heaven. as much ashamed of our former high spirit, as they would of their former mean spirit. Neither party could bear an apology nor a confession from the other, before the throne. The bare idea of recrimination, or even of mutual explanations, there, is intolerable! We feel, instinctively, that all unpleasant recollections would be for ever lost, in the rapture of meeting to part no more.

There, we should feel

Now, although it is not necessary to bring all this heavenly temper to bear upon earthly fellowship, it is necessary that personal offences,

which do not unchristianize the offender, should not subject him to unchristian treatment. He ought not to be treated as innocent, if he has done wrong; but, if the wrong do not disprove all his pretensions to piety, he must not be treated as an "alien." Consider!

he may for ever sit next to you in heaven.

No. IX.

ETERNITY REALIZED AT HOME.

BOTH the manner and the degree in which the habits and happiness of domestic life may be improved by the mutual hope of eternal life, deserve the serious attention of all husbands and wives who are "heirs together of the grace of life." No fastidious delicacy, nor dread of singularity, should be allowed to prevent them from thinking or speaking of their eternal prospects, exactly as God has spoken. No length of time, during which we have been silent on this subject, should deter us from familiarizing ourselves with it. "The mighty God, the Lord, hath spoken," freely and frequently, upon it ; and, as He never speaks without occasion, nor without design, on any subject, we may be sure that his reasons are weighty when he speaks of marriage.

Now, God has expressly said, that "marriage is honorable;" and, accordingly, he himself signally honors it, by making it the emblem of his own love to believers, and of their union to Him. "I am married unto thee," was the frequent and emphatic language of God to his ancient church. Nor is this emblem less employed in the case of the Christian church. Her union to Christ is represented as conjugal. Even in heaven, her name is "the Bride, the Lamb's wife. Thus signally does God honor the relationship, which he calls "honorable."

It may be criticism to say, "that it is the poverty of human language which gives rise to the use of such emblems." It is, however, sense, as well as piety, to say, that the riches of divine grace require the use of them. It may be philosophical to regard them as accommodations to the weakness of our minds. It is, however, wisdom to regard them as accommodated to the strength of redeeming love in the eternal mind. Such metaphors have, indeed, reasons in both our mental and moral weakness; but their chief reasons are in the manifold wisdom and grace of God. And one of them is to exalt and endear the marriage union itself, by throwing around it the charms

of a better paradise than that in which it originated. All the divine arrangements and declarations on the subject of marriage, have an express and splendid reference to ETERNITY. The conjugal union is made the emblem of all the grace which gives a title to eternal life, just that husbands and wives may live and love now, "as being heirs together of the grace of life." Their mutual hope of dwelling together in heaven, is made the grand motive and rule of their dwelling together in harmony on earth. This strong and lovely motive is in nowise weakened or dimmed by the fact, that "in heaven they neither marry nor are given in marriage." The same high authority which reveals this fact, declares that

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they are equal unto the angels;" a consideration quite sufficient to inspire the most exalted expectations of mutual recognition and enjoyment. Angels are not unacquainted with, nor indifferent to, each other. Both their love and fellowship are perfect. It is impossible to form a higher or a holier idea of mutual happiness, than their union and communion before the throne; and, therefore, to be "equal unto the angels" in heaven, is the very perfection of social felicity and personal glory.

It is, then, the revealed fact, that pious