The human teacher of God's word may be himself illumined with the wisdom which is from above, and furnished with gifts from that inexhaustible treasury: he may shew himself approved unto God, "a workman that needeth not to be ashamed:" but as the breadth, and depth, and length, and height of divine truth, like some colossal statue of antiquity; is not to be apprehended at once in all the sublimity of its conception, and all the symmetry of its proportions, by the pilgrim of a day who pauses to contemplate the majestic whole; so it is that while the expounders of the word for the most part agree in describing the grand outlines of truth with concurring accuracy, the mere difference of intellectual and moral stature, and the degree of nearness or distance at which it is viewed will cause some features to appear to the beholder more prominent, while others, equally distinct in reality, seem to recede from his view. How greatly then are they privileged who can examine, each for himself, the fair fabric of eternal truth; who need not to say, 'who shall go up for us to heaven and bring it to us, or who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us:' but unto whom the word is very nigh, and who, returning again and again to gaze intently on it, are not only enabled dimly to discern the harmony of its stupendous proportions, but are themselves also gradually assimilated to the measure of the fulness of that perfect stature.

In Christ Jesus there is "neither male nor female; neither bond nor free:" but as members of the church of Christ there are 66 "young men " and "fathers," and "little children," "wives and daughters," servants and masters." And will not the child fix his most earnest gaze upon that niche of

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the divine word which exhibits to his view the lineaments of a babe in Christ? And will not the mention of "a sister, a wife," excite a more eager glance of scrutiny in those who bear, themselves, the like appellatives, especially when an apostolic injunction is sounding in their ears a direct command to imitate the example of those holy women of old who trusted in God and were adorned with the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit; who opened their mouth with wisdom, and in whose tongue was the law of kindness; who looked well to the ways of their household, and ate not the bread of idleness?

Such an one was Abigail, whose appearance in the checquered scenes of a record where cruelty and oppression, fraud and covetousness unfold their dark features by turns-is as a ray of sunlight upon the stormy sea, or as an odorous gale from shore refreshing the sense of the weary voyager.

Oh that it was ever thus that the daughter of the Christian church appeared on the troubled stage of life at the present hour! That amid the wide-spread deluge of iniquity which sin has entailed, they might ever be as the dove of old, messengers of heaven's mercy, bearing the olive-branch of peace and promise to the homes of the tried and troubled souls of men; emerging from the shade and quietude of domestic life only to be, as in the case of her whose character is about to pass in review before us, the generous asserters of the rights of the poor and needy; the liberal dispensers of providential bounty; the warm and steady supporters of God's cause and servants, encouraging the righteous man to hold fast his uprightness, and warning the evil to depart from his evil way, stilling the angry passions which griev

ous words have stirred by the soft answer which turneth away wrath, and earning to themselves the glorious title of children of God, by enacting the blessed part of peacemakers!

It is a true saying, even with respect to this world's happiness, that "a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." The sad experience of many around us, could we penetrate into the secret chambers of the soul, would shew that there is a canker eating out the heart of all their fair possessions, and bringing a blight on all their joys. How little enjoyment could the possession of "money, and garments, and olive-yards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and men-servants, and maid-servants” have afforded Abigail while united to the churl Nabal! What an iron yoke of bondage must she have borne who owed obedience to such a master! A more complete contrast could not have been presented than in the characters of these two individuals. The whole current of their thoughts, feelings, principles, and habits, set in opposite directions, and we should be at a loss to reconcile the seeming incongruities of such a union, did we not frequently behold exemplifications of the same anomaly in every-day life. He was churlish and evil; such a tyrant in his family that none dare speak to him: she was gentle, and easy to be entreated of all her household. He was rude in speech and manner: she, courteous and kind, and gracious. He was a niggard amidst all his wealth she was bountiful, and ready to do good and to communicate. He was a fool, and as such rightly named Nabal: she was a woman of a good

understanding,' as well as of

a beautiful counte

nance.' But a still greater disparity obtained between them in things pertaining to God. Nabal despised his word, and scoffed at his servants: Abigail laid hold by faith upon the former, and as a necessary consequence gave honour to the latter. To the gross earth-bound perceptions of Nabal, the son of Jesse was no better than a run-away slave of the tyrant Saul; and in his dull ears it was in vain to rehearse the glorious things which the Lord had said concerning David: (2 Sam. iii. 18.) but the enlightened vision of Abigail saw in the poor hunted outcast, whose life was in jeopardy every hour, only the anointed of God-the future ruler over Israel. short, it is in the earthly-mindedness of the one, and the spiritual-mindedness of the other, that we trace that diverse flow of action which led to such an opposite course of conduct; strikingly illustrative of the manner in which faith wrought with the good works of Abigail, and unbelief with the 'evil doings' of Nabal.

In

The same diversity of temper and conduct is frequently to be met with in those who, for some wise and gracious purpose, are joined together by him that appointeth the bounds of the habitation of men. In all that concerns the business, pursuits, or recreations of life, they have many things in common; but in the principles which regulate their actions, and in the influences which operate upon their minds, there is a great gulf of separation, so that the one who would go over to minister to the wishes of the other cannot, neither can the other pass from thence. The scripture direction, "bear ye one another's burdens," cannot in this case be equally fulfilled, for the burden will fall heaviest upon the one who has to meet

and satisfy the demands of two contending obligations; and the strife which must sometimes arise, where the inferior law of duty is sacrificed to preserve unbroken the higher, will pierce with many sorrows that heart which the Spirit of God has made tender, while the natural adamant remains untouched in its hardness. It is, however, often through such a painful process of trial that the fine gold' is purified from the earthliness which clings to it; and God has praise even out of the midst of the fire. Many and gracious are the results to his children, of that which at first sight appears a strange and startling phenomenon in human life-the lot so unequally cast-the yoke so disproportionately borne: but we may well be assured, that much good to the creature, much glory to the Creator, follows from this seeming neglect of rule: it is as when two strings of discordant vibrations are struck simultaneously, there resounds the cadence of a mournful but exquisite harmony.

How much of that wisdom and piety which marked the conduct of Abigail, may have had their source in the trying circumstances in which she was placed, disciplining by the grace of God the great natural endowments bestowed upon her: for of the most gifted among the children of men, as well as of the holiest, it may be asked, "Who maketh thee to differ from another, and what hast thou, thou didst not receive? for the hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them."

LYDIA.