verse-" this is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church." The closest unfolding of heart is found in the marriage union.

In directing your minds to this subject, there are three points of view in which I would regard it. In the first place, observe, that Christ is the Head of the Church; secondly, remark, that the subjection which the Church owes to Christ, is a pattern of that subjection which Christian wives owe their husbands; and, thirdly, let us regard the extent, and the limit of this subjection.

1. With regard to the first point, I need not take much time on this occasion. You will remember, that we have it in one or two places of this same epistle. As in the fourth chapter and fifteenth verse— "which is the Head, even Christ." And in the first chapter, an d twenty-second verse-" and hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the Head over all things to the Church." But a few remarks here appear to be needful, and I believe that they will become increasingly needful in these our days.

Jesus is the Head of His Church. It is impossible for language to set forth that high, holy, and sublime mystery, the nature of this headship. I believe it is amongst those things, that never will be fully known till Jesus is fully known. Yet some glimpse of it by the way, He gives us; and they who are most spiritual, are they that have the most of this conveyed to them by the Holy Ghost, that He is the great vital Head, the Head of life, to His whole Church. And consequently, the life of the Church, her legal life as well as her spiritual life, is just as secure as the life of Christ himself." Because I live, ye shall live also." The very same security the life of the great Head of the Church in my humanity has, that same security is there to the life of the Church. “Because I live, ye shall live also;" for the life that you live, is "hid with Christ in God." It is hid in the very life of Christ; and Christ is her very life; and that life is hid with God himself. Oh! if we did but realise this truth in our souls; if we had more full possession of it in the midst of the ebbings and flowings of our spiritual life, its waxings and wanings, (known only to those who are the subjects of them,) amidst its sad and awful decay, the withering, the marvellous changes that we often find within us! Did she but realise, holily realise the truth by the power of the Holy

Ghost within her, how rich she is in Christ! My life is in Christ, as secure as the life of Christ himself; my legal life, my spiritual life, my unchanging and eternal life.

But observe, He is also her governing Head. He has the sole guidance, and direction, and controul of her. The Church never had, and never will have the right to make its own laws concerning itself. It has no right to weaken a law, nor to make a law, much less to abrogate a law. It has no such right whatever. Every rule, every law, every ordinance that respects the being and well being of His Church, is from Himself, the governing Head of His Church. The Papacy may assume it, and carry out their wicked Christ-denying principles. Men in the present day may assume it; they are real Papists; I wish that they openly avowed themselves; it were a good thing if they avowed themselves, as honest men, to be Papists. But for a man to say that any man, a Christian man, has power to legislate in the Church of God, to enact what laws he likes in the Church of God, we say it is treason against the headship of Christ. We say the Church has no such right; we say, that when she does so, she tramples under foot that great and blessed Word of His in the twentyeighth chapter of Matthew's Gospel and the eighteenth to the twentieth verse-oh! that it were written out in all our souls. "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth :" and that does not refer to the power He has as God, but power in His Church; all power of regulating, all power of controlling, all power of Headship " is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations; baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things" -no more and no less-" all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you alway even unto the end of the world." "I am with you alway,"-not as man oftentimes adds, (it is an adding,) in mere presence only, but to ratify them; that is the meaning of the passage. I am with you to ratify My laws, as the great Head of the Church; to put My broad seal manual upon them, and to acknowledge them to be Mine own by their sanctifying tendencies in the souls of My saints. Now all this assumption of power is virtually a denial of the Headship of Christ.

All her power is in they are capable of

But, beloved, He is also her protecting Head. Him. Her enemies are strong and mighty; destroying her at any moment; and unless she had been kept by Him,

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she would have been destroyed long since. His is the eye of that Keeper of Israel," that never slumbers, never sleeps. His eye never closes, His ear never deafens. His voice ever speaks in mercy; whether it be to warn, or to excite, or to reprove, or to rebuke, or whether it be to comfort and elevate, His is the voice that speaks; and but for that voice that hath said to the storm, "Hitherto shalt thou come and no further, here shall thy proud waves be stayed," those waves would long since have destroyed the feeble Church. His is the power that nothing can controul; His is the wisdom that never fails; His is the purpose that ever stands; and His is the life that endures for ever. Persons write about an apostate Churchthen the Head must have been asleep! Persons say the Church is in ruins where is the Head? If I have treasure belonging to me, would I not protect and watch over that treasure? And is the Church of so little importance, that the Head of that Church shall suffer Satan to come and take it away from Him ? An apostate Church with a living Head--monstrous absurdity!

One thing more : He is the "Saviour of the body." Ah! what a Saviour! He saves not merely the members, but the body: not merely the individual believer, but He is the Saviour of the body. How can one hear of a Church apostate while her individual members are preserved ? She is preserved as a body, and He is the Saviour of the body. Oh! what a Saviour! From the law, from the curse, from sin, from destruction, from death, and the second death. From Satan's malice, and from the world's seductions from hell, and for heaven. Behold the glorious Head! Who can set forth His glory? What though she be mean in her appearance, though her numbers be but feeble, though in the world's estimate she be contemptible, though her enemies are strong, though Satan may rage, though the floods rise high-yet her Head is the Saviour; the Head of the body, the Saviour of the body; for He is alike the Saviour of the body and the Head of the body.

My dear hearers, it is one body. If the Church perish, He must perish. She is as safe as He is, for He is her life. Because "His throne is as the days of heaven," "His seed shall endure for ever." Behold the Head of this Church! the Head of the body!

II. Now remark, secondly, that that submission which the Church is enjoined to give to her Head, is the pattern of the subjection

which Christian wives are commanded to give their husbands. You remark, in the twenty-third verse, the apostle argues—“ The husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the Head of the Church." This does not force us into any denial of the truth we have just stated. It must be in a far lower sense, a far humbler sense, yet in a real sense; so that the more exalted shall be a true pattern of the humbler and the lower.

of men.

It is wonderful, beloved, to see how strong is the resemblance between them, in proof of the truth of these remarks. It is the highest unfolding of the closest union that exists among the children The husband is answerable for all the debts of his wife. Not only so, but he is answerable for her comfort. He is bound to protect her, he is bound to provide for her, he is bound to defend her; ay, if it cost him his life, he is bound to do it. Her cares are his cares; her sorrows are his sorrows; her weaknesses, his weaknesses; her honour, his honour. And with us that belong to these western nations, the very name of the husband belongs to her. His house is her house; his home is her home; his servants, her servants. See how close the parallel runs. He is the head of the family, and he is bound to rule it, to controul it, to rectify it, and to order it. See how the parallel runs. Behold the basis of this subjection! But what is the nature of the subjection? I know it has its basis in affection; but yet it goes beyond that; it has its basis in the principle of allegiance. The Church owes Christ its allegiance. He is her rightful Lord. He has won His headship by His blood. He has reached the throne through Calvary. He has won the day; He has gained the battle; and as a conqueror, and because He is a conqueror, the Church is commanded to bow before Him. See that in the passage so well known and often read by many of you; in the second of Philippians, and the ninth verse. "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

My dear hearers, there is in this lower subjection, that which runs parallel with this. I know it is overlooked; but I do not overlook it, and I believe God does not overlook it. The wife owes to her hus

band her allegiance; he has a right to it. It is a legal right nothing can deprive him of it, unless he deprive himself of it. It signifies not what his character is, what his conduct is, what his temper is; he has a right to her allegiance in all things unforbidden of God. This right is given to him, not by the laws of his country merely, but it is given to him by God himself. And I would say, would that it were more borne in mind by the saints of God that it is so. Be assured there would be fewer coolnesses, and jarrings, less want of tune, in the families of some, if this were more remarked by those that love and fear God if this thought were more borne in mind by the saints of the Most High-' That God who laid my sins upon His Son, that God that raised Him from the dead, that God that lifted Him as a mighty conqueror to His own right hand, that God that commands the Church to bow before Him, commands me as a Christian woman to submit to my husband.'

lt sets forth

But observe, it is the submission of dependency. The Church is essentially dependent on the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing can more strongly set forth her dependence, than the figures used by the Holy Ghost to set forth their union. Nothing can be more dependent, than the branches on the vine. Nothing can be more helpless than the "living stone," but as the stone stands upon the life-giving Stone. The very posture of the Church is “coming up out of the wilderness, leaning on her Beloved." What does all this mean? the state of her actual dependency. And that which is Church collectively, is true of each believer personally. and beloved, we are learning out this truth day by day, and hour by hour, that without Christ we can do nothing; and that all our fond conceits of our self-power, self-wisdom, and self-complacency, are only the certain preludes of a fall. Happy is he, whose trust is in the Lord; happy is he, that distrusteth himself.

true of the

And, dear

Here, then, is the true principle of that subjection, that submission, which the Lord enjoins on every Christian wife to rely upon, and to confide in, the power, wisdom, and love of her husband. To receive from him that which supplies her family with all things needful; and to receive it meekly from him too. To seek her happiness in his smile and in his presence; and to mourn for his absence, and to long for his appearing. To go to him for counsel in difficulties; to give up her own pleasures, and yield up her own will. Ah!