September 22

"Thy Maker is thy husband." Isaiah 54:5.

THE relation in which God stands to us must be all-important. If we are his people, he is related to us not only as the God of nature and providence, but as the God of grace. This spiritual connection is held forth under various forms, none of which is more common, simple, or well known, than the marriage union.

The marriage union is honorable in all. It is exemplified in the larger part of the human race. It was established in Paradise, where it was not good for man to be alone, and in commendation of it our Saviour wrought his first miracle at a wedding. But applied to God and us, it is a metaphor, and therefore it is to be soberly explained. For while we are not to overlook the wisdom and kindness of the Holy Ghost in meeting our weakness, we are not to press every circumstance of the comparison into an article of allusion. The relation into which God enters with his people is analogous to that which subsists between the husband and the wife. This could be easily explained and understood.

But let us take the reality of the connection itself, to show us three things. First, the condescension and goodness of God. Nothing will bear a comparison with it. Consider what He is: his independence, his greatness, his glory; and view them in their unworthiness, lowness, vileness. How wonderful that He should thus magnify them, and set his heart upon them. They had neither birth, nor relations, nor wealth, nor wisdom to recommend them. It cannot indeed be denied that they are distinguished by all these attributes now, but this is the consequence of the relation, and not the cause of it. "Since thou hast been precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee."

Secondly, the privilege of believers. Blessed are the people who are in such a case; yea, happy is the people whose God is the Lord. They have One in the nearest of all relations to them who is love itself, and will bear with their infirmities, and in all their afflictions be afflicted; who is infinitely wise, and knows their frame, and will never mistake their welfare; who is almighty, and able to defend them from every danger, and to make all things work together for their good; who is faithfulness and truth, and will never leave them, nor forsake them; who lives for ever, and renders the union eternal and indissoluble.

Thirdly, their duty. They must mind their husband's concerns. They must regard properly his relations. They must obey him. The wife promises this in marriage, and the apostle enjoins it: Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands. He extends it to every thing; but this must be qualified with one condition, every thing reasonable and righteous. Vashti refused Ahasuerus when he sent for her to come and exhibit herself before a company of intoxicated lords and officers, in violation of all decency, and the laws of veiled concealment in which women then lived; and we justify her disobedience. But with regard to us, the will of God is absolute, not only because he has a propriety in us which one creature can never have in another, but because all his commandments are right. The wife is required to reverence her husband. This must be a hard saying in some cases, seeing there are sometimes so very few materials to excite or deserve veneration. But this should have been thought of before; and persons should not voluntarily contract relations, the duties of which they cannot perform and must not neglect. God's excellences are infinite, and it is delightful to give him the glory that is due to his holy name. The wife also must be faithful to her husband: "she is for him, and not for another." And we are only the Lord's. There is such a thing as spiritual adultery;

to avoid which we are to keep ourselves from idols. Milton's wife returned home again, but she came back and humbled herself, and was readmitted to favor. Here is the duty of the church: "Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear: forget also thine own people, and thy father's house; so shall the King greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him."