'\" ers. 3, 4.- Woman's true apparel and ornament. That attention to dress and personal decoration is natural to woman, is obvious from an observation of the customs of every nation in every age. The Apostle Peter must not be understood as in this place censuring such attention, but as pointing out that there is apparel, that there is ornament, far preferable to any bodily costume and jewellery that taste can devise and wealth can purchase. Christian women of every position in life are exhorted to pro• ,ide themselves with these precious and incomparable recommendations; to cultivato, above all things," a meek and quiet spirit." I. SucH APPAREL A1'"'D 0P.NAME~"'TATION COMMAND THE ADMffiATION OF ALL WHOSE ADMIRATION 1s DESIRABLE. Empty fools may admire as supremely admirable in woman the outward display of riches and of fashion, with which the worldly sometimes seek to dazzle and captivate those who are as worldly as themselves. To men of sense such things are utterly indifferent; to men of discernment and character gentle and vir- tuous dispositions and habits are in a woman beyond all price. Such qualities as Jesus found in the sisters of the home at Bethany won his friendship, and similar qualities will never cease to elicit the approval and appreciation of the upright and the pure. II. Sura APPAREL .li."'D ORNAME1'"'TATI0N ABE INSEPARABLE FROM THE CHARACTER THl>Y ADOR:S-, AND ABE IMPERISHABLE, Poverty may deprive a woman of the power to dress with expensiveness; advancing years may make the adventitious attractions excused in youth unseemly and ridiculous. But "the meek and quiet spirit" remains unchanged with changing time. Often does it happen that the feminine character, refined and sweetened by the experience of life and by ministrations of pity and of self-denial, shines with a fairer lustre with advancing years. ill. SUCH APPAREL AND ORNAMENTATION A.BE ACCEPTABLE AND PBEOI0UB IN THE SIGHT OF GoD HIMSELF. The approval of our fellow-creatures may be sought with too earnest diligence, and their attachment may be valued beyond its true value. But the qualities which are commended by him who alone judgeth with perfect jllfltice are qne.lities which cannot be cultivated with too great assiduity and care. Our Lord has spoken with severity of those who seek honour from men in preference to that honour which cometh from God. Of the "meek and qniet spirit" we are told that it is "of great price in the sight of God." What greater inducement than this could be offered to Christian women to look with comparative unconcern upon all those social and external recommendations which are so often over-estimated, and to cultivate with all diligence and devotedness the graces of the Christian character and the charities of the Christian life ?-J. R. T.
Ver. 7.-The twofold daim of womanhood. In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female; the man and the woman, as possessors alike of our common humanity, 1,articipate alike in the privileges of Christianity, and come alike under the law of Christian principle and motive. .And if thiR is so in the Church, it is the case in ordinary social life, that, wbilst the man and the woman have their several und dis- tinct places to fill and services to render, in their relations to each other duty is reciprocal. The New T~stam~nt is altogether oppos~d to the too c?rumon notion that the ri~hts are all on the side ol the man, and the duties all on the side of the woman. St. Peter is no more stringent in laying down the obligations of wives, than in pre- Ecribing the treatment due to them from their husbands. Himself a married man, a~ the Marria"'e Service in our Prayer-book reminds us, he writes explicitly and wisely to husband; as to the spirit and tone which should be apparent in their domestic life. The grounds upon which he here bases his injunctions are very different from each ·her, and yet thoroughly harmon;". , J. THE CLAIM OF WOMAN 'l'O J'l]l'f ,\NI) ~N81J)EnATE TnEATMEN'j.' 1B JIASEIJ UPON on. Ill. 1-21!.] THE FIRS'l' EPISTLE GENERAL OF PETER. 14G