heart, a man could scarcely fail to be sooner or later convinced of his mistake, if it were not that the affectation of being duped by his masked performances constitutes one of the principal ingredients in the politeness of his acquaint

ances.

But the courtesy of a Christian is not a mere form. It is not the phantasm of a feeling which has no real existence. It is the outward expression of an inward disposition, the conduct which a benevolent mind will on all occasions instinctively prescribe. It is the natural and unconstrained operation of unfeigned love. Let us but love our neighbour as ourselves, and it will be morally impossible to violate the laws of courtesy; for love worketh no ill to his neighbour. It will teach us cautiously to avoid whatever might unne cessarily wound his feelings; it will dispose us assiduously to study his inclination, ease, and convenience; it will make us anxious to interpret his very looks, that we may even anticipate his requests; it will enable us cheerfully to make a sacrifice of our own gratifications with a view to his. All this is perfectly easy; it is even delightful where love exists without dissimulation; but let this heavenly principle be wanting, take away from the form of courtesy the power, and it becomes an arduous and irksome task, a yoke grievous to be borne.

2. Another characteristic of Christian courtesy is

Disinterestedness. The courtesy of the world is selfishness disguised. You may be civil to some particular individuals who have it in their power to promote your interest, pleasure, pride, or ambition; nay, you may conduct towards men in general with an air of courtesy, while actuated by no higher motives than such as are the natural produce of a "heart deceitful above all things and desperately wicked." You may be aware, perhaps, that "by this craft," &c.

or experience may have proved that civility is necessary to gain their regard to your comfort and accommodation; or possibly you may be courting popularity for its own sake; or you wish to be reputed amiable and well bred; or you are solicitous to be admired as having the manners of a gentleman; in short, your politeness is a kind of

traffic, in which you are engaged upon a mercenary calculation that it will produce for you a certain income, whereon "the lust, of the flesh and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life" may genteelly subsist. In such a case, your courtesy has not the most distant connexion with the love of your neighbour. It originates entirely in the love of this world, and, consequently, in every instance in which it is disappointed of its selfish purposes, it is succeeded by spleen and rudeness.

Christian courtesy seeketh not her own. She studies the feelings and bends to the accommodation of others, hoping for nothing again; and if, on some occasions, requited with coarse and churlish incivility, instead of being overcome of evil she overcometh evil with good; for she is the offspring of that charity which is not easily provoked, but which suffereth long, is kind, and envieth not. The apostle appears to have had this quality of genuine courtesy particularly in view when writing the exhortation of the text, "Be courte ous ;" and hence adds, "Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing; but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile : let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it."

3. Uniformity. The courtesy of the carnal mind is a sickly, humorsome, capricious thing, altogether incapable of persevering exertion. The men of the world constrain us to consider their politeness as something very analogous to the operation of an intermittent fever. For a season they will carry matters to a height manifestly unnatural; treat us with an assiduity of attention, and profess towards us a warmth of attachment which is painfully excessive. But the paroxysm is seldom long. Nature is soon exhausted by these extravagant exertions, and sinks into drowsy silence and listless inactivity. All must have observed this. If the visit of an acquaintance be protracted but a little beyond the expected period of its duration, how is the spirit of artificial civility seen to flag. Let the ordinary forms of salutation have been

exchanged; let the course of customary inquiries have been mutually proposed and answered; let the trivial occurrences of the day, the state of the roads, the changes of the weather, have been remarked, and the miserable fund of conversation begins to fail, the interview grows insipid, the scene becomes entirely divested of every appearance of interest, and the host, no longer able to disguise the real feelings of his heart beneath the constrained civility of his manners, is impatient to be relieved from his embarrassment by the speedy departure of his guest.

Nor can you calculate on the treatment you may meet. At one time, most particularly obliging; at another, without any assignable cause, perversely unaccommodating. * * * The courtesy of this world never continueth at one stay.

But its worthless character is yet more evidently betrayed by a partial and ungenerous respect of persons. This counterfeit virtue allows to smile to a man on the right, and to wound the feelings of a less favoured companion on the left.

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A gracious courtesy is free from these glaring contradictions. It is without partiality as well as hypocrisy: the influence of a sincerely benevolent affection extending to every child of man; an emanation of the Divine nature, a measure of the same mind which was in Christ Jesus. No human

being can be excluded from the good will, &c. You may confidently reckon on being courteously treated by men of consistent piety, under all circumstances; for their conduct is not the result of humour, but principle. It is the work of the law written in their hearts: "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."

4. It is invariably associated with humility. In honour preferring one another. The men of the world do this in appearance they come abroad clothed with humility, but a spiritual eye soon sees, in all their affected ease, it is not the habit which properly belongs to them; it is the costume of a better country than that which claims them for its own; a foreign dress, which, like the traveller in his journey, they find it convenient to assume; a mere cloak worn in public to cover the deformity of their natural disposition. But the

veil is often of too thin a texture to answer the purpose, and hence, should any fail to pay them that deference and respect which, under this voluntary humility, they yet tacitly demand, the complacency of their looks and urbanity of their demeanour are gone-the mask is thrown off.

The courtesy of those who follow Jesus is the unaffected expression of a poor and contrite spirit. He who has learned of Christ goes and sits down in the lowest place, not to indulge in reflections upon others, or obtain the admiration of man, but because he really feels it is the place which properly belongs to him. He esteems others better than himself, and therefore, without artificial restraint, he can submit to become the servant of all in everything consistent with a conscience" void of offence towards God and towards men;" for such will never attempt to ingratiate himself by abject flattery or worldly compliances. His courtesy is independent of every mean and temporizing expedient; he grovels not in the mire of fleshly wisdom-not in the insinuating and cringing servility of a man-pleaser; it is the honourable subjection of a servant of Christ; it flows from a gracious nobility of soul, directly opposed to that despicable policy which involves a sacrifice of principle to the humour and will of others. This courtesy shrinks from no degradation but that of vice; is ambitious of no dignity but that of being conformed to the image of his [God's] Son. While it despises the scorns of an evil and adulterous generation, and would "resist unto blood, striving against sin," yet it manifests an obliging readiness of mind to perform the meanest services for the chief of sinners, if so it can administer to their comfort in body or soul.

Our Lord's conduct in the house of Simon exhibits a fine example of real courtesy. On the one hand, see him meekly submitting to occupy a place at the table of a man who, by the omission of every customary form of hospitality, had treated him with marked incivility and neglect. On the other hand, we behold him manifesting the most tender regard towards a woman that was a sinner, though well aware he was submitting to the utmost degradation and contempt in the eyes of his self-righteous host.

The courtesy acquired in the school of Christ "vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things;" it makes no invidious distinctions between "a man with a gold ring in goodly apparel and a poor man in vile raiment." It cannot say "to him that wears the gold ring, sit thou here in a good place; and to the poor, stand thou there or sit here under my footstool. It minds not high things, but condescends to men of low estate."

5. To this may be added vigilence. It watches for opportunities of exertion, yet is not troublesome-not officious. It originates in a certain kindness of heart which may be called the wakefulness of love.

We sometimes see in persons of undoubted piety an absence of mind; they seem absorbed in contemplation; they hear or observe not what is done by others. But this is a violation of Christian courtesy, an impropriety which obtained no place in the conduct of Him who has left us an example that we should follow his steps. It is a holy exercise misplaced, a kind of selfish spirituality, a sacrifice of public duty at the shrine of private indulgence-the devotion of the closet or the mount performed amid the neglected claims of the multitude.

Be then "followers of God as dear children," and keep looking unto Jesus till "you are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." It appears from the foregoing that

1. Courtesy is a duty of more than human obligation. A breach of good manners is therefore not merely a departure from an arbitrary rule imposed by the fashion of the world, but a breach of charity. It is a violation of the law of love -a transgression of the commandment of God. It is sin; and therefore it becomes us, if we have allowed ourselves in the breach of courtesy, to acknowledge the offence and ask forgiveness of God and man. I am aware that it is not unfrequent, nay, absurdly common, for the children of this world to beg pardon, &c., on all those trivial occasions