them, for their yearnings after happiness were slaked at a perennial spring. The labors of each succeeding day were sanctified by the word of God and prayer, and peace and plenty crowned their board.

When the Sabbath dawned, their children saw the world no more, and heard no more of it till the hallowed hours were all numbered and finished. All the cares, the business, the pleasures of the week were on that day banished from the home and the heart of the Pilgrim. On that day his oxen rested; in earing time and in harvest they rested. His man-servant and his maid-servant, and the stranger that was within his gates, all rested; while he, as the priest of his own family, led their way to the sanctuary; and, when its solemn services were ended, returned to bless his household, by teaching them the true knowledge of God at home. And we venture to say, that there never was a generation of men on earth, if we except the children of Abraham in their palmiest days, whose influence for good has been so widely diffused, or so deeply and permanently felt, as that of the immediate descendants of those men who set such a high value on family religion. Who will say that they over-estimated its value? Not one; unless it be to shelter his own criminal neglect under the semblance of an apology. Consider, then,

3. Its importance. Very few, it is feared, to whom God has given families, realize the vast importance of living wholly to God. Still fewer feel the absolute necessity of family worship and household piety, in order that they may so live. But when we remember the awful responsibilities of parents; that immortal souls are committed to their keeping,― souls which are receiving, from day to day, the impressions which are to make their immortality a blessing or a curse; when we see on every hand how many and powerful are the temptations spread for the unwary feet of children and youth; when we reflect that from our homes and our fire-sides are soon to go forth the men who shall wield the destinies of our country, and the women who shall mould the characters of their successors, we feel persuaded that no language can too strongly set forth the vast importance of family religion. When we look at the church, and inquire where are her future members; where are her future ministers; where are the fathers and mothers in Israel, who shall stand up here the living epistles of Christ, when we are dead?a prophetic voice answers from the grave of the past: Your homes, the homes you now inhabit, where you, who are parents, are now daily

making your mark for good or for evil; those homes, whether they be orderly or disorderly, Christian or Infidel, are the nurseries, in which not only the future members and ministers of the church, but the legislators of the land, lie cradled.

Is it, then, I would ask, of no consequence what shall be the character of these homes, whether they shall exhibit scenes of vanity and worldliness from morning till night, and develop plans which leave God out, and death and judgment and eternity all out, stopping this side of the grave, and making no calculation for anything beyond it;-or, whether religion shall take up her divine abode there, shed her heavenly light on your paths, diffuse her benign and cheering radiance over all the endearments of the fireside, fill your domestic circle with joy and gladness, and allure and guide you and your little ones to a far happier and more glorious home in heaven?

Believe me, dear readers, it is of consequence. You, who are parents, if such have perused the foregoing pages, must acknowledge it is so. God, for some great and good purpose, has set you as heads of families. He has intrusted to your keeping a precious charge. It may be one soul, it may be more; but, more or less, you cannot throw off your responsibility as parents. If it be only one, He demands that you train up that one in his fear,- for glory, honor and immortality. This the church demands of you, your country demands it; and should you, on any account, neglect it, reason, conscience and revelation will all be earnest and instant, with loud voices, to accuse you of betraying your trust.

You are a Christian believer, we may suppose. What then? Can you train up your children for God if you neglect family religion,-if you set up in your dwelling no altar of prayer? The sanctuary is a good thing, and the Sabbath school is a good thing, and so, in its place, is the public school; but God never designed either to be a scape-goat to carry your sins, in this matter, into the land of forgetfulness. If, by some terrible revolution, all our schools and seminaries were shut up, and our sanctuaries thrown down, how many children are there, even in our most highly-favored neighborhoods, who would grow up almost in ignorance of the first rudiments of knowledge and piety! For what responsibility do their parents and guardians feel? What personal effort are they making to give their minds and hearts a right direction? Yet, the multitude of our

schools and sanctuaries, instead of diminishing, tends rather to increase our responsibilities; "for to whom much is given, of them shall much be required." With all these aids and the privileges they bring, the facilities they afford and the instructions they communicate, accompanied and followed by lessons of practical piety at home, it is not difficult to see that our households ought to give to the world some of its best citizens, and to the church of Christ some of her brightest ornaments.

do more.

We repeat it, then, it is not enough for you, parents, to worship God in the sanctuary, it is not enough that you pray in the closet; —the former you may do to be seen of men,—to gratify a spirit of vainglory,and the latter, because you are ashamed to let the world know that you are disposed to cultivate personal piety. You must You have a home; let your light shine there also. You are aware that you occupy a responsible position. Do you exhibit from day to day the excellence and the power of true religion, by manifesting before your families a spirit of meekness and forbearance? Are you diligent in cultivating a devout and pious spirit in the members of your households? Do you inculcate the duties of religion upon your children, and upon those who are, from time to time, dwellers under your roof? Much wholesome counsel about worldly matters, you, doubtless, give them, and aim to inculcate the principles of morality. But have you a family altar? Do you offer daily sacrifice thereon? And does fire come down from heaven and kindle the sacrifice? You aim to make your children respectable in the eyes of the world; but do you habitually and earnestly labor and pray that they may become the children of the Most High? There are fathers and mothers who seem to imagine they can drive their children to heaven by fretting and murmuring, complaining and scolding. I will not insult you by asking, is this your course? But I may ask, do you aim to win them to Christ by the meekness and gentleness of your deportment, and by the heavenly savor of your conversation? Do you talk with them of that holy covenant between God and your souls, by which you feel bound to seek their immortal welfare?

Many of you, Christian fathers, like the king of Israel, are deeply interested in the glory and increase of Zion. You are members of some Christian communion. In your walks about Zion, to see her state, while her children are gone into captivity, and, as Nehemiah

surveyed by night the desolation of his beloved city, you sometimes lament that the standard of piety in the church is so low, and mournfully exclaim, "Behold, how the Lord hath covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his fierce anger, and cast down from heaven to earth the beauty of Israel!" But of this one thing we may be perfectly sure, that the standard of piety in the church will be no higher than it is found to be in the hearts and homes of its members. If, in your families, religion is not cultivated,— if, on your domestic altars, the fires of devotion burn low, you may look and pray for an increase of piety in the church; but you will look and pray in vain. The fountain which should gush up in the garden of God, to revive and beautify the vine of the Lord's planting, will not-cannot-play while its reservoirs are all empty. Would you see Zion arise and shine, -would you witness a display of the divine glory, such as you have sometimes seen in the sanctuary?—go, review the history of your domestic piety; acknowledge your remission in duty, and take hold of your heavenly Father's strength; go, kindle anew on your family altar those dying embers. O, think what momentous interests cluster around that altar! Who knows but the eternal destinies of your whole household may hang suspended on the spirit and manner in which you officiate there?

I write unto you, fathers, for God has permitted me, also, to sustain that endearing relation; and what I say to you, I feel that I myself should remember. Be faithful in your families,— faithful to your children, faithful to your country,-faithful to God and Zion. There is with us too little household religion. God, from the habitation of his holiness, marks our negligence in this matter, as he did that of Eli of old. Shall we not, then, renew our devotion to the best interests of those, whose beaming eyes are looking to us so earnestly and confidently for instruction and example?

Oh! were we but laborious, and diligent, and faithful in all our house, would we but resolve with Joshua, and keep the resolution, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord;" who can doubt but that long before the clouds of that fiery deluge begin to gather blackness, a friendly voice shall call to us from the heavens, "Come thou and all thy family into the ark"?

What more lovely picture can be presented to our view, than that of a good man, going down from the public services of religion, and returning home with a full heart to bless his household? So did the

king of Israel,

the man after God's own heart. And yet, how many affect to despise his example, and how many more are ashamed to imitate it! Hence, what scores of blooming children, of interesting minds and manners, do we meet in all our daily walks, who are trained merely for this world, whose parents act unworthy their most endearing relation, and live, from day to day, utterly false to their high and holy trust! Is it not high time a remedy was found for the growing evil? And where, oh! where, shall that remedy be found? If the house of Obededom, and all that he had, were blessed of the Lord, while the ark of the covenant abode under his roof, is it presumptuous to affirm, that that family, where Christ, the great antitype of the ark, takes up his abode, will be even more abundantly blessed? Let, then, those parents welcome Christ to their dwellings as the Gittite did the ark, and the remedy is found; in one word, let the love of Christ constrain them to feel for those children's souls, and to appreciate the value and importance of family religion.