But if we examine the laws which good society lays down for our guidance and government, we shall find, without a doubt, that they are those which a simple Christian, desiring to regulate the meetings of a number of people who lacked the Christian feeling, would dic

tate.

I am, of course, quite aware that good society will never make you a good Christian. You may be charming in a party, and every one may pronounce you a perfect and agreeable gentleman; but you may go home, and get privately intoxicated, or ill-treat your wife, or be unkind to your children.

Or, if you be a lady, you may be smiling and attractive abroad, but fretful, peevish, or petulant in your home. If society finds you out, it will punish you: but society has no right to search your house, and intrude upon your hearth; and it may be long before it finds you out. But, as far as its jurisdiction extends, good society can compel you, if not to be a Christian, at least, to act like

one.

The difference between the laws of God and the laws of men is, that the former address the heart from which the acts proceed; the latter, which can only judge from what they see, determine the acts without regard to the heart.

The laws of society are framed by the unanimous consent of men; and, in all essential points, they differ very little all over the world, with one exception. This one

exception is, that women are never allowed to appear in heathen society, nor ever mentioned; one-half the race are thus entirely blotted out; their very existence almost utterly ignored.

The Chinese or the Turk* may show his politeness by feeding you with his fingers; the American, by carving your portion for you; but the same spirit dictates both, -the spirit of friendliness and good-will.

Thus, though the laws of society are necessarily imperfect, are moulded by traditional and local custom, and addressed to the outer rather than the inner man, their spirit is invariably the same. The considerations which dictate them are reducible to the same law, and that law proves to be the fundamental one of Christian doctrine. Thus, what the heathen arrives at only by laws framed for the comfort of society, we possess at once in virtue of our religion.

And it is a great glory for a Christian to be able to say, that all refinement and all civilization lead men

as far

as their conversation is concerned to the practice of Christianity. It is a great satisfaction to feel that Christianity is eminently the religion of civilization and society.

The great law which distinguishes Christianity from

The Chinese holds to the fifth commandment; the Turk, to the first and second; and, although these are held ignorantly, they yet produce, in their lives, a higher morality than is to be found among any other heathen nations without such elements of truth.

every other creed, that of brotherly-love and self-denial, is essentially the law which we find at the basis of all social observances. The first maxim of politeness is to be agreeable to everybody, even at the expense of one's own comfort.

Meekness is the most beautiful virtue of the Christian; modesty the most commendable in well-bred people. Peace is the object of Christian laws; harmony, that of social observances. Self-denial is the exercise of the Christian; forgetfulness of self, that of the well-bred. Trust in one another unites Christian communities; confidence in the good intentions of our neighbors is that which makes society possible.

To be kind to one another is the object of Christian converse; to entertain one another, that of social intercourse. Pride, selfishness, ill-temper, are alike opposed to Christianity and good-breeding.

The one demands an upright life, the other requires the appearance of it. The one bids us make the most of God's gifts, and improve our talents; the other will not admit us till we have done so by education. And, to go a step farther as a Christian community excludes sinners and unbelievers from its gatherings; so a social community excludes from its meetings those of bad character, and those who do not subscribe to its laws.

But society goes farther, and appears to impose on its members a number of arbitrary rules, which continually

restrict them in their actions. It tells them how they must eat and drink and dress, and walk and talk, and so on. We ought to be very thankful to society for taking so much trouble, and saving us so much doubt and confusion. But, if the ordinances of society are examined, it will be found, that, while many of them are merely derived from custom and tradition, and some have no positive value, they all tend to one end, the preservation of harmony, and the prevention of one person from usurping the rights, or intruding on the province, of another.

If it regulates your dress, it is that there may be an appearance of equality in all, and that the rich may not be able to flaunt their wealth in the eyes of their poor associates. If, for instance, it says that you are not to wear diamonds in the morning, it puts a check upon your vanity. If it says you may wear them on certain occasions, it does not compel those who have none to purchase them.

If society says that you shall eat with a knife and fork, it does so, not because fingers were made before forks, but because it is well known that if you were to use the natural fork with five prongs, instead of the silver one of four, you would want to wash your hands after every dish.

If, again, society forbids you to swing your arms in walking like the sails of a wind-mill, it is not for the purpose of pinioning you, but because beauty is a result of harmony, and society ever studies beauty, - adopts the beautiful and rejects the inelegant. That motion is not lovely; confess it. Society is quite right to object to it.

In short, while society may have many an old law which may need repealing, you will find the greater number of its enactments are founded on very good and very Christian considerations.

You will find also, that, the more religious a man is, the more polite he will spontaneously become, and that, too, in every rank of life; for true religion teaches him to forget himself, to love his neighbor, and to be kindly even to his enemy, and the appearance of so being and doing is what society demands as good manners.

How can it ask more? How can it open your heart, and see if, with your bland smile and oily voice, you are a liar and a hypocrite? There is one who has this powerforget it not! but society must be content with the semblance. By your works, men do and must judge you.

HINTS.

For the Father of the Family.

1. Never raise an impassable barrier between yourself and your children by a mistaken assumption of dignity: invite and encourage their confidence.

2. On the other hand, there is a dignity proper to the head of the household, and necessary to command respect, which, whilst it should avoid stateliness, should scarcely descend to hilarity.

For the Mother.

3. The mother appears more in relation to her children than in any other position; therefore, her mind and