clude women as well: the perfect Christian greeted both man and women with a "holy kiss," or a "kiss of charity." There are some Christians whom it would indeed be charity to kiss—but the custom had its advantages. David's kiss to Absalom betokened reconciliation with the rebel; and the king's command, in the Psalms, was that all should kiss the king, the Lord's Son, or be genially wiped out for omitting the kiss of subjection.
The kiss among relatives was not unknown: Laban eldered Jacob for not permitting Laban to kiss his sons and daughters, and Elisha asked permission of Elijah to kiss his father and mother. The kiss betokened approbation also: "Every man shall kiss his lips that giveth a right answer" (Prov. xxiv 26). This is a custom we are glad has passed. Indiscriminate kissing from many men in public life, for instance, we would regard as a punishment beyond any that savage ingenuity could devise. The woman who had sinned kissed the feet of Jesus, in token of her reformed adoration. And there was the kiss of treachery, given by an enemy, warned against in Proverbs, and used by Joab in murdering Amasa, and by Judas in delivering Jesus to the posse that sought him.
So far, we have not had the kiss of love, between man and woman. Naomi's kisses to her daughters-in-law were not quite the love that we mean, but we find it, too, sparsely scattered through the Bible. Thus, upon their first meeting, we read: "And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and wept" (Gen. xxix 11). The kiss is understandable, for
