judicial capacity He must punish us.

How delightful to

know Him in the mercy as well as in the justice of His character, and to be assured that to that mercy, on the ground of His own atoning blood, our divine and all-merciful Intercessor makes appeal. He will plead the cause of all who in faith commit their cause to Him. "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." O to be able to say, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day!"

LECTURE XCVI.

PROV. XXXI. 10-31.

"Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good, and not evil, all the days of her life. She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands. She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar. She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens. She considereth a field and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard. She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms. She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night. She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet. She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple. Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land. She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant. Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come. She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. Favour deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates."

THIS is the remainder of "the words of King Lemuel"-of "the prophecy which his mother taught him." We learn from it on what correct principles that mother estimated the happiness of her son:-how sound, how judicious, and how fully in accordance with the revealed mind of God, the coun

sel which she thus gave him.-I say, the counsel: because, although the passage contains only a description, yet nothing can be more manifest,-especially when the verses are taken in connexion with the negative and prohibitory admonition in the third verse,-than that counsel is meant to be conveyed. And when we recollect that the passage forms part of an inspired communication, we must regard it not merely as the counsel of Lemuel's mother, but of Lemuel's God.

As introductory to the illustration of the verses, we may observe, that the counsel proceeds upon the assumption of the original state of things, of the primary and divine constitution of the marriage relation, when "God made a male and a female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh:"-that is, upon the great general principle, which alone has the authority of Heaven, that "Every man have his own wife, and every woman her own husband." We do not deny that the same legislative authority which fixed the principle may, in particular cases, grant the suspension of it. But has this ever been done? That good men have acted in violation of the original constitution, is true; but that they had, in any instance, the divine sanction in doing so, is another question. I more than doubt it. Every instance of the kind I believe to have been sin:-nor does there seem ground to make a single exception in affirming, that they who sinned suffered. for it; that every departure of the kind brought with it a greater or less degree of unhappiness. In the passage before us, the "virtuous woman" is, beyond question, represented as the one wife of one husband.

The description, it may be remarked, is a regular poem. It is composed on a similar principle with that exemplified in the 119th Psalm. Each verse begins with a different letter, and according to the order of the letters in the alphabet. This, amongst other advantages, was fitted to assist the memory; and the poem was one well worthy of being committed to the memory of every mother and every daughter in Judea.

Whether the picture was drawn from real life, or merely by the mind of the artist under divine illumination,—the Spirit of God guiding her hand in the sketch,—is a question which we need not be careful to settle. The latter is probably the truth. And the portraiture is a lovely one. It is arrayed, it is true, in the appropriate costume of the country and the age in which it was delineated; but in every country and in every age the features are such as must command admiration. The character, I mean, is sketched with a reference to the peculiar usages of the place and the period; but the great outlines of it, divested of those local and temporary peculiarities, are of permanent and universal excellence.

A "virtuous woman" (verse 10.) must not, in this connexion, be understood merely with respect to the single point of honour and chastity. The word here is very comprehensive. It is to be interpreted from the description. It means such a woman; ;—a woman rightly feeling the various and interesting obligations under which her situations and relations have placed her; and conscientiously and perseveringly discharging the duties arising out of them, under the predominant influence of " pure and undefiled religion "—the fear and the love of God.

What means the question-"Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies."—1. Rarity. There are comparatively few who come up to the standard which the mother of Lemuel had conceived in her mind. Many may approach to it, in nearer and more remote degrees; but there are few—we might ask, perhaps, are there any?-who have not their peculiar defects and failures. Thus the happy husband of such a wife as is here described, is represented as saying-verse 29, "Many daughters have done virtuously; but thou excellest them all."-2. That it is not by purchase that such a wife is to be obtained. "Her price is far above rubies." Her principles and her character are such as place her above being purchased. Solomon and other Eastern princes might get their seraglios filled with beauty, by the temptations they could hold out to vanity and to worse passions by the bribes of wealth and splendour.

Solomon might thus have his hundreds of princesses. But well might it be said, Who can by such means find a virtuous woman? What virtuous woman would have her place there? A thousand was the very number of Solomon's seraglio:—and when he says, "One man among a thousand have I found, but a woman among all those have I not found;" who can wonder? The wonder would have been if he had. It is slander of the female character, to take an estimate of it from such a quarter. Buy a virtuous woman!-buy such a woman as is here depicted!—the very imagination of her consenting to be so bought were it even to be, not the associate of hundreds more, but the wife of one-spoils the character,-robs it of its prime attraction.3. Preciousness. This unbought and unpurchasable excellence is, in the eyes of the man to whom it is spontaneously, and in conjugal faith and love, surrendered, of inestimable value-and she becomes the happiness of his life. It is the first of earth's blessings; and it never comes alone; it brings a thousand with it. Truly and emphatically might it be said of the man who found such a wife-"He that findeth a wife findeth a good thing: and shall obtain favour of the Lord."-4. The question suggests the reflection, which, from its importance, can hardly be too often repeated—that the forming of the marriage union should be a matter of serious deliberation and inquiry; not a matter of hasty, capricious, thoughtless resolution, the resolution of momentary fancy or sudden impulse. It should be an endeavour to find a suitable character,—a careful looking out and searching for such a one. And allow me to say-for it is a true saying— that if this were more attended to by those who seek wives, the character, in its various features of excellence, would be more sedulously cultivated by those who are destined to be wives. The character of the one sex will ever tell reciprocally on the other.-5. Lastly, and above all, this connexion must never be a matter of barter, or of pecuniary calculation: -"Her price is far above rubies." It is an infinite degradation of this first and highest and most hallowed of earthly unions, when, on either side, it is reduced to a balance of