followed the Saviour, when He was entreated to depart out of their coasts. "Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but said: Go home, and tell thy friends how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion upon thee." He did so; and by the next time that his heavenly Physician visited those parts, this grateful patient had made room for him. Far from beseeching Jesus to depart, the whole country was moved with one accord, those in health carrying to him those in sickness; and the sick persuaded, that, if they might but reach the hem of his garment, all would yet be well. Nor were they disappointed, for as many as touched him, were made perfectly whole."

Nor was it only in the days of the Messiah himself, that we see this prophecy of Malachi fulfilled in character. Hence, among the deeds of the apostles, we find recorded the interesting cases of "Lydia and her household" of "the Philippian jailor and his house” -and the "household of Stephanas." All these were the heads of families, and in these fine cases, too, we see both members of this prophetic declaration fully and literally accomplished. The hearts of the Fathers are turned to their Children, and the hearts of the Children are turned to their Fathers, and the Parents rejoiced, as well they might, "believing in the Lord with all their house!"

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The answer of Paul to one of these Parents is ticularly worthy of notice. The jailor, awakened and convinced of his danger and his guilt, had asked with great earnestness of spirit:

"What shall I do to be

saved?" when the apostle as earnestly replied: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be

saved, and thy house”—and thy house! Neither Paul nor Silas could intend to intimate that his faith could save them; or, let his faith be as strong as it might, that it could carry all or any under his roof to heaven along with him. They must, however, have meant something; nay, something to him, next in importance to his own salvation, and even more than this. Taking advantage of the Parental heart, now broken down and tender, through conviction and guilt, they suggested at once that all under his roof stood in equal danger with himself, and in equal need of salva tion-that all required to be saved in the same way— that, if he attached any importance to his present awakened state of mind, he should feel correspondingly for every branch of his family, who had suffered greatly under his past example, and for whose souls he always had been, but was now much more, responsible: nay, in these few expressive words, uttered at such a time, and in such a connexion, the high vantage ground on which the Christian Parent stands is pointed out. If Christianity laid deep hold of him, and if means were used by him in faith, like the consecrated oil poured on the head of Aaron, which went down to the skirts of his garment, so in perfect consonance with the personal confidence in Jesus now demanded of himself, and the rich grace to be thus bestowed, this grace through him, as an instrument, might descend to all at home. Such an opportunity, however, after such an intimation, was not to be lost by the jailor. To every word of their reply he had paid marked attention, and his faith, in these few concluding words, appears very conspicuous from his conduct. Not a moment

was lost; he gave Paul and Silas an immediate opportunity;"" and they spake unto him the word of the Lord," and not to him only, but "to all that were in his house," the wonderful effect we have already remarked-" He believed, with all his house!"

Let it not, therefore, be imagined that it was upon Jewish families only that such rich mercy descended, or that this grace was merely in consonance with some peculiarity in the Old Testament dispensation. The cases already adduced refute this idea, and others might be mentioned. Look at the first streak of day, which gilded the horizon of the Gentile world. Upon opening the door of faith to us, the Gentiles, it is remarkable that we are at once ushered into the bosom of a most delightful family, and that a whole chapter of the Acts is employed in describing the scene, "Cornelius was a devout man, and one that feared God, with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway.”

In the days of Cornelius, the obstacle which seemed insuperable, consisted in a deep Jewish prejudice, affecting even the apostles, against the extension of Christianity and all its blessings to the heathen: in modern times the obstacle to its extension, which also seemed insuperable, consisted in a prejudice, as deep, on the part of the heathen themselves; yet in this case also, the Almighty condescended to enter by the door of a single Family, or household. As he did by Cornelius at Cesarea in Palestine, so he has done, in our day, when breaking the chain of the cast in India. Yes, a departed friend, and old correspondent, so deservedly dear to me, who, before his death, visited this country from India, Mr Ward of Serampore,

may be remembered by some of my readers, as having furnished this affecting modern instance, explanatory and confirmatory, too, of the method laid down by the Messiah in his instructions to the twelve and the seventy. After his faith had long been tried, walking one evening on the banks of the Ganges with Dr Marshman,—“ Oh,” said he, “that God would give us but one family, into which we could go and sit down, and converse about the things of God." At last He mercifully was pleased to do so. He gave them Kristno Pal, and all under his roof! At this the missionaries were greatly affected, and no wonder, after their faith and patience had been tried so long. "This household of Kristno," said Brunsdon, then on the borders of the grave, "this household of Kristno gives us great pleasure." "It is truly pleasant," said Ward, "to be surrounded by Kristno and his Children,"-" a whole Family desiring to hear the gospel, and declaring in favour of it!" On the same evening this Man, his Wife, and her Sister, living with them, had declared their attachment to the Saviour; but, as it was from the beginning, the whole family became the objects of bitter persecution. By violence and stratagem the eldest of his three daughters was afterwards hurried away and carried off, when the other two were known to retire and pray for their Sister's deliverance and their own salvation. One of these, the youngest, a little girl of only seven years old, when earnestly desiring to be baptized, said, "I am but a little child, but my soul is not little, and I have heard that, in Europe, Children of five years old have been saved.” In a word, Kristno, his wife, his wife's sister, and ultimately three daughters, two sons-in-law (one of these

the first converted Brahmin), with a widow residing under his roof, and a daughter of hers, were added to the Church at Serampore. So that, in reference to this mission, one might say: "Ye know the household of Kristno, that they are among the first fruits of India unto God, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints;" since of the three men in it, the Father built a chapel at his own expense, near to his own dwelling, and, being ordained to the ministry, preached throughout Bengal for twenty years, and the son-in-law, Kristno Presaud, though he fell early in the cause, was one of the most able and amiable of Bengalee preachers.

Thus, Kristno, the first man who broke cast, was a Parent, and in a country where the heart is so ossified or rather steeled by idolatry, it remained for vital Christianity thus to open in it, even there, a fountain of tenderness. This very man, who, if he had remained an idolater, would have left his countrymen to perish, was many a day heard to entreat them with the greatest warmth: the man, who, if an idolater, might have thrown his offspring into the Ganges, was seen weeping over his own little grandchild, who died also in the faith, and went before him to glory. This was the same man, who said, when he was just about to expire: "I love my Saviour, though not as he loves me. I find his promise good, 'I will not leave you comfortless.'-I have no fear in death.-My only wishes are, that I and my Family may be his; that all I have may be devoted to him; and that I may depart and be with Christ, which is far better.”

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Indeed, the history of this mission, is the more remarkable, as affording an evidence of God's special