but to obey with "reverence0," " even as Sarah obeyed Abra- ham, calling him lordd."
This may be thought to sound harsh by those who are not accustomed to consider what the Scripture speaks on this subject : but it will not be thought so, if we contemplate what God has required,]
2. Of husbands —
[Your duty, is to " love your wives," and never on any occasion to entertain an unkind feeling towards them. A proud, haughty, imperious carriage towards them is most offensive to God, who will regard every harsh, bitter, or con- temptuous expression towards them as an abuse of your authority and a violation of his commands. Though he has constituted you lords, he has not authorized you to be tyrants ; but requires you to be precisely such lords over your wives, as Christ is over his Church. You are to govern, it is true ; but }tou are to govern only for the good of the wife : you are to seek only, and at all times, her best interests, and to promote to the utmost of your power her real happiness. You must not require any thing unreasonable at her hands, nor ever fail to recompense with testimonies of your love the efforts which she makes to please you. Nor must you merely endeavour to render her happy, but you must be ready to make great sacri- fices for this end. What the Lord Jesus Christ has done for his Church, is set forth as the proper model and pattern of your duty towards your wife : " Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it." O ! what an example is here ! Methinks, no wife would complain of the obedience that is required of her, if the authority of her husband were exercised in such a way as this : on the contrary, obedience on her part would be her chief delight. Know then, ye husbands, that this is the duty assigned to you : if your wives are to be obedient, as the Church is to Christ, ye also on your part are to be loving, even as Christ is to the Church. " Your wives should be to you as your own flesh. Now no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord does the Church e:" and precisely in the same way should you exercise all imaginable tenderness towards your wives, and be as careful of paining them as you would be of suffering any thing to wound the apple of your eye.]
Next to the duties of husbands and wives will na- turally follow those,
II. Of parents and children —
c Eph. v. 33. d 1 Pet. hi. 1, 5, 6. e Eph. v. 28, 29, 33.