s beautiful to see the
fond love of a young mother as she passes her fingers through the silken
locks of her darling child--her treasure and her delight; _but she never
counts those hairs_. He only, who is the source of mother-love, does
that! And shall not _we_, who are not our own, but bought with a price,
_gladly_ render to Him _all_ we are and have--every member of our body,
every fibre of our being, every faculty of our mind, all our will-power,
and all our love?

HOLINESS TO THE LORD: verses 6-8.

_"All the days that he separateth himself unto the LORD he shall
come at no dead body. He shall not make himself unclean for his
father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister,
when they die; because the consecration of his GOD is upon his
head. All the days of his separation he is holy unto the LORD."_

Here we have a most solemn and important prohibition--to refrain from
all uncleanness caused by contact with death. Death is the wages of sin:
the consecrated one was alike to keep aloof from sin and from its
consequences.

No requirement of GOD'S Word is more clear than the command to honour
and obey our earthly parents; but even for his father or mother a
Nazarite might not _defile_ himself: "he that loveth father or mother
more than ME, is not worthy of ME."

But let no young Christian think lightly of the requirements of parents,
when these do _not_ conflict with GOD'S written Word. Young Christians
are sometimes distressed because their desire to preach the Gospel to
the heathen has been opposed by parents: such should be encouraged to
_thank_ GOD for the obstacle; and to seek by prayer its removal. When
they have learnt to move man through GOD at home, they will be the
better prepared to do the same thing in the mission-field. Where there
is fitness for the work, the way will probably be made plain after a
time of patient waiting.

These verses teach us that mere contact with death is defiling: how vain
then is the imagination of the unconverted that by dead works--the best
efforts of those who are themselves dead in trespasses and sins--they
can render themselves acceptable to GOD! The good works of the unsaved
may indeed benefit their fellow-creatures; but until life in CHRIST has
been received, they cannot please GOD.

UNWITTING DEFILEMENT: verses 9-12.

_"If any man die very suddenly by him, and he hath defiled the head
of his consecration; then he shall