agents. Masters must not rule them with rigour, nor neglect their grievance, nor despise their cause. God has not left them without means of retaliating; and, amongst others, the family name is either burnished or tarnished by do. mestics.*

Fidelity is pre-eminently a Servant's virtue. Their obedience should not be eye-service, but it should proceed from singleness of heart, and the fear of God. They that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit.†

All Kings and Governors, all Judges and Magistrates, are the Deputies of God in the administration of Justice, and are under special obligations.to be faithful to their trust. Personal and party bias, respect of persons, and fear of Censure, are the great temptations to be unfaithful to Justice. England has much to be thankful

* Omnis fama à domesticis emanat. Bacon's Essays: Of Honour and Reputation.

† 1 Tim. vi. 2.

for: Her balance distinguisheth not between gold and lead.*

How exquisitely has our great Poet defined the duty and measure of Justice, and made them come home to every man, for every man is a Judge:

He who the sword of Heaven will bear
Should be as holy as severe ;
Pattern in himself, to know,
Grace to stand, and virtue go;
More nor less to others paying
Than by self-offences weighing.
Shame to him, whose cruel striking
Kills for faults of his own liking!
Twice treble shame on Angelo,
To weed my vice and let his grow!
O, what may man within him hide,
Though angel on the outward side!

The faithfulness of subjects is Loyalty: a noble and large-hearted virtue. It leads men heartily to wish well to their rulers, and gratefully to support their government. It prevents them from tampering with the exercise of Justice, or from rashly innovating on a beneficent Constitution.

But who has a greater responsibility, who has

*Herbert's Jacula Prudentum.

more solemn calls to be faithful, than the Minister of Christ? Ever resounding in his ears is the Avenger's Cry: His blood will I require at thy hands. And it is only fit that, as ministerial fidelity is enforced with fearful threatenings, there is a corresponding duty on the part of the people to be faithful to their Pastors and Teachers not to be for ever criticising and calumniating them; not to weaken their hands and desert them in their difficulties; not to leave them in a grinding and humiliating poverty; but to stand by them, and support them; to encourage them in their arduous work, and to raise their high calling in the estimation of all men.

Generally, there may be a constant and daily exercise of Fidelity between man and man: in conveying impressions, in making statements, in promises and contracts, and in all the business of life. This principle should pervade all our actions, even the most minute: for most true are the words of Jesus: He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much.*

*Luke xvi. 10.

CHAPTER X.

MEEKNESS.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."-GAL. v. 22, 23.

ANGER is the passion of self-defence; and when it exists either in a slight degree, or when it is controlled by Divine grace, there results the character of Meekness. God has implanted Anger in the human breast, and a Christian may be angry and sin not; yet there is no passion so inflammable, or, when inflamed, so apt to blaze into a conflagration, as Anger is. Hence the great necessity and difficulty of cultivating Meek

ness.

Anger may be controlled by meaner motives,such as fear, covetousness, self-seeking, and the like; but it is only a bastard meekness which springs from such an origin. Many will digest an affront, who have none of the Christian grace.

Some, of whom Charles II. was one, seem to be totally devoid of Resentment. This is simply a natural defect; analogous to the case of a bee without a sting.

There are some beautiful examples of meekness in the Scriptures. There is the case of Isaac, while he pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar.* His servants digged a well in the valley; but the jealous herdmen of the place claimed it, saying: "The water is our's." Isaac gave it up; and his servants digged another well. The Gerarites claimed and got this also from the yielding man. Then he removed from that neighbourhood, and beyond the range of envious eyes, and digged another well. For that they strove not. We are apt to think that a man loses all by concession; but it is not so. He at last comes into quiet possession. The meek shall inherit the earth.

Never was there a more favorable opportunity for resentment than when Saul entered the cave of Engedi, where David and his men lay concealed. How easily might they have cut off the

* Gen. xxvi.