youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity or love, in spirit, in faith, in purity." An "example" of these things did he urge? But are these all in which the Minister of Christ is to excel? Or is he left to gather, from general terms only, his peculiar obligation as a Parent of Children or the Master of a Family? What then, in these days, were the qualifications for office? Alas! my friend, what reply is ready for the man, for even any man who is able to stand up and say "Look to the Children or Servants of that Minister! See how they conduct themselves, and judge how they must have been trained! Grace he cannot communicate, nor do we ask him; but has he been vigilant at home? Has he been patient and moderate at home?-generous, or given to hospitality, and not covetous? Has he, as a sine qua non, ruled well his own house, and had his Children in subjection with all gravity? Whence, then, this lightness-these expensive habits-and this insubordina tion? How can this man ever expect to make full proof of his Ministry? How can he take care of the Church of God? These, my reader, if we are wise, are not provoking questions. No; they are but the reverberations of Infinite Wisdom, come from what lips they may; and they ought to induce every man, who sustains the office of the Ministry, or the office of a Deacon, frequently to observe, that the Great Head of the Church, as has been already noticed, by glancing at this subject, and fixing the eye of his associated people, at the moment of induction into both offices, intended, while providing for the government of his own Family upon earth, to bring up also that of the Domestic Circle, to the highest possible state of perfection. And O were these Families once but what they ought to be once but what they might be-once what the great Head of the Church hath actually demanded, and what therefore he must expect from them—then indeed would they prove, in their respective enclosures, like so many "trees of life" in the garden of the Lord. For such a consummation, however, though not a groundless expectation, let no Christian Parent wait. The frame of human society is incessantly giving way; Families are daily breaking up; and the Church universal has yet to pass the scrutiny of an omniscient eye: then must every man's work be made manifest-then must every man bear his own burden, and every man give an account of himself unto God. 219 398 INDEX. The Names of Individuals are noticed, in connection with the Domestic Constitution, principally ABIATHAR, Abimelech, Abraham, 77-79, 82, 154, 206-211 Page. Eli, 212, 223 Alfred the Great, Alpheus, or Cleopas, 90-92 Family Blessings, 71-79 Andrew, Apostle, 85 Connections, 28-59 Apostles, Parents of, Augustine, 311, 417 Authority, Parental, 208, 301 Power of the, 80-183 Extent of, 396 Lord, 136 Punishments, 60, 306 Miss, 337 Bates, Dr., 136 Worship, 335 Beza, 136 Filial Piety of Jesus, 89 Boerhaave, 122-124 Flavel, 135 Blessing, descending, 71-79 Gardiner, Colonel, 136 peculiar, 403 Generosity, 387 Brainerd, 136 Gospel of Salvation, 364 Brother and Sister, 48-50 Gratitude for the Scriptures, 339 Grotius, 136 Mrs., 146 Hall, Bishop, 136, 137 157 Halyburton, 136 136 Hannah, 215 67 Heavenly World, 365 243-248 Heber the Kenite, 166 Cornelius, 281 Hemath, 167 Cottons, Family of, Cruelty to Animals, David, King of Israel, Deborah, Devotion, Domestic, 378 Hervey, 136 Devotional Spirit, 351 | Humanity, 112, 376 Doddridge, 136, 138 Husband and Wife, 28-34 Dwight, Mrs. 146 Hutchison, Mrs. L., 145 Early Christianity, 228 Ebedmelech, 157 Industry and Economy, 375 Education, provision for, 189 Infidels, Parents of, 148 354 · Children of, 150 of Circumstances, 356 Instruction, Religious, 361 Edward, King, 360 Interference, dangerous, 184 82, 155 |