hile the husband is an "alien from the
covenant of promise, without God and without hope in the world," and
imprisoned in worldliness and sin. Oh, that they might arm in arm go
this day and see Him, who is not only greater and lovelier than any
Joseph of earthly dominion, but "high over all, in earth, and air, and
sky!" His touch is life. His voice is music. His smile is heaven.

DUTIES OF WIVES TO HUSBANDS.

"The name of his wife was Abigail; and she was a woman of good
understanding and of a beautiful countenance."--1 SAMUEL 25:3.

The ground in Carmel is white, not with fallen snow, but the wool from
the backs of three thousand sheep, for they are being sheared. And I
hear the grinding of the iron blades together, and the bleating of the
flocks, held between the knees of the shearers, while the clipping
goes on, and the rustic laughter of the workmen. Nabal and his wife
Abigail preside over this homestead. David, the warrior, sends a
delegation to apply for aid at this prosperous time of sheep-shearing,
and Nabal peremptorily declines his request. Revenge is the cry.
Yonder over the rocks come David and four hundred angry men with one
stroke to demolish Nabal and his sheepfolds and vineyards. The
regiment marches in double quick, and the stones of the mountain
loosen and roll down, as the soldiers strike them with their swift
feet, and the cry of the commander is "Forward! Forward!"

A FAIR PROPITIATOR.

Abigail, to save her husband and his property, hastens to the foot of
the hill. She is armed, not with sword or spear, but with her own
beauty and self-sacrifice, and when David sees her kneeling at the
base of the craig, he cries: "Halt! Halt!" and the caverns echo it:
"Halt! Halt!" Abigail is the conqueress! One woman in the right
mightier than four hundred men in the wrong! A hurricane stopped at
the sight of a water-lily! A dewdrop dashed back Niagara! By her
prowess and tact she has saved her husband, and saved her home, and
put before all ages an illustrious specimen of what a wife can do if
she be godly, and prudent, and self-sacrificing, and vigilant, and
devoted to the interests of her husband, and attractive.

As, Sabbath before last, I took the responsibility of telling husbands
how they ought to treat their wives--and, though I noticed that some
of the men squirmed a little in their pew, they endured it well--I now
take the responsibility of telling how wives ought to treat their