Page images
PDF
EPUB

church comes in contact with families; and from the bosom of those families has come the leprosy which primarily infects the church, and thus ultimately destroys the nation. As repentance and reformation in a community is found to originate with some one individual; so, did we know all, degeneracy in the church, and the torrent of immorality in a nation, might be traced to the bosom of a single family. Nor is this necessary: let only one parent relax and neglect his duty, and his example be followed, then all the powers of legislation, and all the precepts of Christianity, are in vain. The alienation, or even carelessness of the parental heart, much more the dissolution of the domestic tie, constitutes the most hopeless of all conditions: a nation cannot sink lower; for it marks the lowest step of human depravity,, and just precedes the eventful moment, when God himself "smites the land with a curse.' Modern times have furnished us with some dreadful illustrations. France was precisely in this state before the Revolution; and as this fretting leprosy still infests that fine country, one cannot help anticipating an evil day, which if the "hearts of the fathers are not turned to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers," must and will arrive. In ancient times also the fate of Sodom and the cities of the plain is awfully illustrative. Their signal overthrow may be distinctly traced to the want of family government: so, before that awful catastrophe, we find the Almighty on his way to the sad scene, calls for Abraham, saying, "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that

which he hath spoken of him." What was this, if it was not saying in effect, "For I know Abraham, that he will act very differently from the men of Sodom, or even Lot himself, though he is not above the necessity of being confirmed in his principles?"

In the days of the Messiah, however, the state of Judea was much more melancholy than that of even these wicked cities. Under the energy of the means he employed, Tyre and Sidon would have repented, and Sodom itself remained. It was not merely that the tabernacle of David was fallen down, and in ruins; not merely that the sceptre was departed from Judah, and a Lawgiver from between his feet: it was not that Augustus had gained the sovereignty of the world, or that Herod under him, a mere tributary king, and he not a Jew, should reign in Jerusalem; nor that this ancient people should have even to pay for the privilege of such a servitude. Time there was, indeed, when the only capitation they knew, was the atonement-money of half a shekel, a ransom for their souls unto Jehovah their King; but now their very heads are not their own, and the tribute must be paid to a foreign human power: yet none of these things sufficiently depict the sunk and degraded condition of Judea; no, it was their procuring cause which constituted the most melancholy feature of the nation's char

acter.

Had they maintained allegiance firm and sure,
And kept the faith immaculate and pure,
Then the proud eagles of all-conquering Rome
Had found one city not to be o'ercome;

And the twelve standards of the tribes unfurl'd
Had bid defiance to the warring world.

Against the corruption of divine truth, therefore, we see the energies of John and the ministry of Jesus first directed. A direct repeal of the law of God, by the

authority of the professed teachers of religion, was suf ficient to account for all the misery which they then endured; and it is worthy of notice, that when the Saviour meant to substantiate this charge, he did so by a reference nearly akin to the subject before us: "Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded, saying, Honor thy father and mother and He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, it is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; and honor not his father and his mother, he shall be free;" or, as Tyndal translates, "But ye say every man shall say to his father or mother, that which thou desirest of me to help thee with is given to God; and so shall he not honor his father or mother." Such traditions may seem to us scarcely credible, but by this period, among the Jews, they had become numerous. As a specimen, take the following: "A man may be so bound by vows, that he cannot, without great sin, do what God had by his law required to be done; so that, if he made a vow, which laid him under a necessity to violate God's law that he might observe it, his vow must stand, and the law be abrogated."*

Before, however, visiting this nation, at any period, and when judgment began to mend her pace, it had been the custom of the Lord to raise up a monitor; and so he did now. Elias must first come, and restore all things, as far as faithful teaching and solemn warning could do so. 'Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord and he shall turn the heart of the fathers unto the children, and the heart of children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse."

[ocr errors]

* Jewish canon, from Pocock.

[blocks in formation]

Its Singular Character-its Civil Character-its Sacred Character; -the Head of this domestic economy.

WHATEVER opinion may be formed of the preceding observations, the singular and invaluable constitution of a family gives peculiar force and propriety to the prophetic terms already noticed, as well as to many other passages of Sacred Writ. By constitution, I intend the connection of its several parts, and the principles by which each of these is to be governed. There is one society or constitution of things in this world, and only one, which is purely sacred; there are others which are purely civil. Among the latter there is considerable variety; but amidst the various modifications which earthly governments have assumed, from the purest democracy up to monarchy the most despotic, there is not one form which resembles, or which can resemble the constitution of a family. We read, it is granted, of times called patriarchal; but no body of men can ever follow out the principles which rise out of the singular constitution of a family. Below the heavens, on this side of the grave, there is nothing precisely like it. This is more deserving of notice, since it is a remark which

will hold true in every age and in every country. The economy of nations, whether civilized or savage, and the foolish interferences of an injudicious political economy, may derange that of the family, or disregard it, when struggling after a better state of things; but the constitution of a family is in fact the same from the first Adam; the same in any state of society, and in every quarter of the globe.

I have said, therefore, the singular constitution of a family gives peculiar force to these words of Malachi. That constitution resembles entirely neither the world nor the church; neither the civil nor the sacred character; since, in fact, it partakes of both: yes, of both; and it is actually the only constitution upon earth, now in existence, of divine establishment, of which this can be affirmed.

The civil character will not be disputed, since it is generally admitted, that families were evidently formed for this world, and its best interests. Reference to either ancient or modern times will prove, that the state has ever stamped a high value on the rights and duties of parents and children : "The common law itself, which is the best bound of our wisdom, doth even, in hoc individuo, prefer the prerogative of the father before the prerogative of the king; for, if lands descend, held in chief from an ancestor, on the part of a mother, to a man's eldest son, the father being alive, the father shall have custody of the body, and not the king. It is true that this is only for the father, and not any other parent or ancestor; but then if you look to the high law of tutelage and protection, and of obedience and duty, which is the relative thereto, it is not said, 'Honor thy father alone,' but Honor thy father and thy mother,' &c.'

* Bacon.

« PreviousContinue »