HEAD.

My Saviour is “ the Head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.” * The head is the fountain of authority and influence. Such is my Saviour to me. Such is he to his whole church. He repeatedly bears this name. Nay, he is not only the head of his church, but “ the head over all things” for the benefit of his church.

What a field of contemplation and admiring love does this fact open before my soul! Am I a living member of his church? Then am I a part of his body, into which he is constantly pouring life, feeling, strength, enjoyment. These emanate

, from the head in the animal frame to all its parts ; and any of these parts, in a state of sep

; aration, cease to partake of them. My spiritual 'ife, sensations, strength, joys, are the same in nature, though they may differ in degree, with those of my Redeemer himself.

There exists an intimate sympathy and affection between the head and the members. Touch, or even breathe upon the minutest of these, and the head instantaneously perceives it. Saul of Tarsus went forth “ breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord.” * It was immediately felt by their Head in heaven, who accused the young zealot of persecuting lim. Let“ a cup of cold water” be given — let the smallest act of kindness be done to the least of Christ's little

ones, he receives it as done to himself, and will so acknowledge it in the last day. He loves his body, the church, and exercises the most tender care over it, numbering every hair; and whoso toucheth that body, “ toucheth the apple of his eye." +

As the body is not complete without the head, so neither is the head complete without the body. In our divine Head, all the members are complete, f each possessing in him and deriving from him all they want.

How inexcusable am I, if seem to come short”! How great is the dishonor I bring upon my Saviour, by exhibiting to the world a deficiency of Christian graces! O Lord, help me to draw more largely, even abundantly, from thee, that thou mayest be more fully glorified in me; while I seek satisfaction only in thy being “ made of God unto me wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption."* But my soul is filled with won. der at perceiving that the body, with all its minutest members, is essential to the completion of the head. The church is my Saviour's fulness. If I—less than the least of all saints,” yet holding on to him by faith were to perish, the Lord Jesus would suffer loss. He would have one vessel the less, into which to pour the riches of his grace. The Head of the church being safe and in glory, the body, in all its fulness and entireness, must follow. He, presiding over all things, not merely as God, but as the divine Mediator, will make all things subservient to the interests, happiness, and final salvation of his people.

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United to my living Head,

By faith, and hope, and love, I feel, while earth's low path I tread,

My better part above.

Though clouds of glory intervene,

That now I see him not, 'Tis but a soon-rent veil between,

And he forgets me not.

Ere long, --his risen self the sign,

The pledge that I shall rise, -
I shall these mortal bonds resign,

And join him in the skies.

HUSBAND.

MY SAVIOUR is the HUSBAND of his church. "For," said the prophetic voice to the called object of the divine love, "thy Maker is thine Husband; The Lord of Hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called." * The great motive and example urged upon husbands and wives, in the discharge of their relative duties, is drawn from the love and relation of Christ to his church, and of that church to him; and this image of the union between my Saviour and the souls of his people, being the tenderest of all, is very frequently employed in his word. This circumstance, viewed in connection with Isaiah's assurance to the church, strongly confirms the precious doctrine of my Saviour's divinity. There must, indeed, be one common nature between the

* Isa. liv. 5.