embraces the sub-deacon, with " Pax tecum"
(Peace be with thee) only; and the sub-deacon,
in his turn, kisses the inferior clergy, who thus
are all bound in a mystic chain of love and
concord; the first link of which lies in the kiss
of the officiating priest laid on the altar. No
religious ceremony in our own Church is now
specially consecrated by a kiss; except,
perhaps, the wedding kiss, which old-fashioned
clergymen yet contrive to get from bride and
bridesmaids during that mysterious conference
in the vestry when the bride signs away her
independence for life.

The Bible is full of sweet and tender kissing
passages, with some terrible and treacherous
intervening; for the old Jews, when they could
not get their ends by fair blows, did not
scruple to employ lying kisses and false caresses.
How innocent and beautiful and pathetic is the
kiss which Jacob gives to Rachel by the well,
when, weary, weeping, and footsore, he finds
himself among his mother's kindred, and kisses
the young girl who afterwards becomes his
wife and the mother of his chosen son! The
kiss preceding this was eminently tragic— the
kiss with which he received his blind old
father's blessing, and robbed Esau for the
second time of his birthright. When Esau
came in from his hunting, and "cried with a
great and exceeding bitter cry," when he learnt
his brother's treachery, we find no kiss sealing
his paler blessing. That had gone with the
"dew of heaven, and the fatness of the
earth, and plenty of corn and wine," to the
clever, crafty Jacob: to poor deprived Esau was
left only the dew of heaven, and the doubtful
living by the sword, with the future hope of
breaking his brother's hated yoke from off his
neck; but no kiss, and no blessing. Yet God
had given to Esau the greater blessing of a
generous nature: a nature which knew neither
guile nor malice, which never quailed for fear,
and never lied for gain. Years after, when the
two brothers meet, Jacob "bows himself to the
ground seven times, until he came near his
brother:" he had cause for fear and humiliation
enough; but Esau "ran to meet him, and
embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed
him;" and that kiss showed what kind of heart
was in the brave impetuous hunter.

So, too, Joseph kisses his brethren when he
makes himself known to them; and here again
the kiss is one of generous forgiving and noble
self-suppression, not only of ordinary salutation;
still it was the ordinary manner of salutation,
for when Jethro brought Zipporah and
her two sons back to Moses, " Moses went out
to meet his father-in-law, and did obeisance and
kissed him; and they asked each other of their
welfare, and they came into the tent." And many
years later we find David kissing the old prophet
Barzillai, as he blessed him and sent him away.

The next kiss to this—of David's to Barzillai
—is of a very different class; and, excepting that
ONE which has become the type of all treachery,
is the most treacherous and cold-blooded of any
on record.

"When they were at the great stone which is
in Gibeon, Amasa went before them. And Joab's
garment that he had put on was girded unto him,
and upon it a girdle with a sword fastened upon his
loins in the sheath thereof; and as he went forth it
fell out.

"And Joab said to Amasa, Art thou in health,
my brother? And Joab took Amasa by the beard,
with the right hand, to kiss him.

"But Amasa took no heed to the sword that was
in Joab's hand; so he smote him therewith in the
fifth rib, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and
struck him not again; and he died."

Very beautiful is the kiss of peace which
David gives to Absalom—that, wayward favourite
who was for ever paying back his father's love
and mercy with rebellion and violence, and who,
four verses after that forgiving kiss, gets the
favour of Israel by an act of treacherous
condescension.

"And it was so. that when any man came nigh
unto him to do him an obeisance, he put forth his
hand and took him, and kissed him."

No wonder that he " stole the hearts of the
men of Israel!" Who, indeed, could have been
proof against the seductions of a young prince,
beautiful as a god and familiarly loving as a
woman? Had not Joab, the wild, fierce captain,
preferred his allegiance to obedience, and loyalty
to love, Absalom might have kissed his father's
kingdom away from him. We can understand
the extreme condescension of this familiar kiss,
by the different manners of even the private
friends of the princes. Were not David and
Jonathan friends and brothers in affection?

"I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan:
very pleasant hast thou been unto me; thy love to
me was wonderful, passing the love of woman."

Yet when David met Jonathan in the field
whither his friend had come to save his life, he
did him the homage of an inferior, and such
as a simple soldier might pay the king's son.

"He fell on his face on the ground, and bowed
himself three times."

Afterwards comes the friend:

"And they kissed one another, and wept with one
another, until David exceeded."

But sometimes the kiss may be where there
is least affection. In that matchless idyl,
Ruth, it is Orpah who kisses her mother-in-
law, and leaves her; but Ruth, who does not
kiss—at least not then—cleaves unto her.

"Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from
following after thee; for whither thou goest I will
go; and where thou lodgest I will lodge; thy people
shall be my people, and thy God my God:

"Where thou diest will I die, and there will I be
buried; the Lord do so to me, and more also, if
aught but death part thee and me."

No need there of the mere act of kissing when
each word was full of the tenderest caress, and
every accent a kiss from heart to heart! Orpah's
kiss had not half the love of Ruth's yearning
words; and sentiment, usually so prodigal of
symbols, contented itself there with simple