private relationships of life. Long have we been favoured, above other nations, with domestic peace and quietness, an opportunity mercifully vouchsafed for the growth of brotherly love, the fruit of the doctrine of Christ. But we have been a rebellious and a disobedient nation; and are even now "a people laden with iniquity;" "a seed of evil doers." And perhaps nothing, in its pernicious effects, more marks these perilous times, than the absence of Christian.love. Do you, whom the Lord has awakened, be more earnest in prayer for its revival; and may you, who are not awakened, be profitably alarmed at this day of threatened and inflicted judgments from the Lord!

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SERMON VI.

1

THE MOTHER-IN-LAW AND THE DAUGH

TER-IN-LAW.

RUTH i. 16, 17.

And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after

thee for whither thou goest, I will

:

go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: The Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.

THOUGH there exists a wide distinction between the relationships which are founded in nature, and those which pro

ceed from other ties; yet the principle by which we are to be ruled, in regard to the duties of either, is one and the same. Whether we are related to each other by blood, or social bonds of any kind, we are to look to the gospel rule as deduced from gospel privileges; and in them we learn that, in the fulness of its rich provisions, "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." (Gal. iii. 28.) This, from the apostle, is the same with the prayer of our Lord on behalf of those who should believe on his name :-"That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one with us:" (John xvii. 21 :) a sacred communion of spiritual interests, and a glorious privilege in our adopted sonship in Jesus Christ.

In our view of those Christian marks which should be found in the different relationships of women, we have hitherto

considered those which are natural relationships. I this day bring before you others which spring indeed from the ties of nature, but are extended by human and social compact, and involve similar obligations. I take the case of the motherin-law and the daughter-in-law as an example, and as affording a subject for the consideration of all relationships, not founded upon a union in blood, but superinduced upon natural ties, when, through marriage these latter are extended, or through death have been broken and renewed.

Constituted as society is, in its increased and increasing numbers throughout the world, these relationships must necessarily be frequent; and there can be but few among us who are not, in some way or other, bound by them. The wellknown sacred history, of which the text brought before you forms a portion, is a very strong and an affecting instance of submission, obedience, and love, under

the relationship of daughter-in-law and mother-in-law. And, in the mercy and help of the Spirit of divine truth, it shall serve as the ground upon which to consider the two opposite cases-first, of those persons who recognize, and upon Christian principle endeavour to fulfil, the duties of such relationships; and secondly, of those who disregard and violate them.

In the instance of Ruth, the daughterin-law, and Naomi, the mother-in-law, we are shown the power of religion in giving fresh interest to new connexions, and in so shedding its holy unction over them, as to make them, as though they were natural, and not of recent constitution. You cannot but remember the circumstances of this little domestic history. God had visited the land of Israel with a famine. Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, with his wife and his two sons, quitted the land, and sought food "in the country of Moab." (chap. i. 1.) Dur