to the importance of the truths and duties revealed in Scripture, you now place the order of these, whether in the way of enforcement on our part or compliance on yours? and that if this order is disregarded either by us or you, the consequences may be very serious

indeed.

Yes; if the thing itself, the form only of Family Worship is painful, the manner in which it has been actually enforced by some, and in effect by others, is in some respects much more so. And, oh! could I hope to reach the ear of men professing to be the ministers of Christ, nay, of many who really are so, who thus address an audience, I should respectfully, but very seriously entreat them to reflect, and earnestly remonstrate with them. To such I would say, "You know well that there is such a thing as being unskilful in the word of righteousness?' and what if this should prove an unskilfulness for which there is no apology? Surely there is a line, an allimportant line of distinction, between illustrating a subject-explaining man's obligation-taking both as evidences of present guilt and present danger, on the one hand, and our enforcing an IMMEDIATE compliance on the other? For a man to neglect the former is an error of great magnitude, but the last error is worse than the first. Indeed, with the solitary exception of those ideas and arguments, warnings and invitations, which involve the necessity and obligation of immediate conversion to God, of immediate repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ, the last error is, in fact, driving down all that we have built.

Between a man's various obligations and his im

mediate obligation, I would farther say, there is an essential difference; a difference by which the whole course of our ministry should be regulated, so as that it should be not only seen, but, if possible, felt by all. This distinction with their fellow-creatures multitudes observe daily, and why should not we in a ministry for God? You desire your Servant to pay for you a sum of money, and, in order to this, desire him also to go and receive the amount from another individual to meet the demand. To pay the money is his duty; and you blame him if he does not do so; but this was not his immediate duty. The obligation of every man to worship God in his family, equally with every other Christian duty, is undoubted; since it is the duty of every man to repent and believe the Gospel. This obligation, too, has been already illustrated when enforcing Family Government; but still this is not the first and present business of the unregenerate man. To this, as yet, even God does not call him, nor must we. The conversion of the soul itself, and not the result of such conversion, is his immediate concern. To disregard this order, much more to confound it, is at our peril; for, instead of awakening this individual, the usual issue with persons attempting Christian duties, without an interest in Christ himself, will be the result. Whatever duty you thus enforce, and tell him to begin and try, so far as your direction goes, it will first delude-then harden,—and, if God himself do not interpose, ultimately destroy him.

Let any man know, if you will, and as you ought, that Family Worship, in all its branches, is his incumbent duty if you will, and as you ought, take

his neglect of it as an evidence of his living without God, and of the divine displeasure resting on him and his house; or if he has been attempting it in form only, take this also as an evidence of his being far gone indeed in self-deception; but, oh! be not you the instrument of such a man sitting down in self-satisfaction.

It is true, indeed, that, in the wide and delightful compass of Divine Revelation, I have many subjects which I must both illustrate and enforce; but I believe my ministry, with all its imperfections, will be acceptable, only in proportion as I naturally and forcibly, or, in other words, scripturally introduce them; not in the way of requesting the unconverted to conform immediately, which they cannot do, but in the way of argument or evidence, enforcing from each, the absolute and immediate necessity of repentance towards God, and faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh! how many are the arguments which are thus presented! Happy and useful must that minister be who hath his quiver full of them! Coming round, then, always, naturally, to this one point, I may then succeed, not in prevailing with a man merely to begin a form only, but in causing him to arise and go to his Father: in causing him to return home to God through Christ Jesus alone. I grant that this is not to be learnt in a day; and I am aware that it has been asked-" But how can you do this? There are some, if not various things revealed in Scripture, to which one must advert, which seem to have little or no connexion with repentance and faith in the first instance." Indeed! Then I answer, that, like a village which has no road to the capital, if you are drawing

up a map of the country, it is of no moment though you leave all such out of it.

But what if, after this,

not having traced the land with sufficient care, it should be shewn to you, that there is such a road, direct and easy, and that from this village too, it is even a part of the king's highway? Then does it become your business to trace this road, otherwise your map will at last be found defective and even dangerous. So, undoubtedly, if we study divine truth, in all its inimitably beautiful connexions, and study it, as we ought, deeply; between every feeling, and doctrine, and duty, personal, relative, and social, of the Christian, and conversion to God, we shall find a natural and necessary connexion. Hence the necessity for giving ourselves wholly to these things: hence the necessity for being "skilful in the word of righteousness."

The manner of addressing the unconverted, is the grand trial of every minister's skill; and by every man it requires to be deeply studied, otherwise the enforcement and the performance of penance, under another name, must ensue. To my younger brethren in the ministry, especially, I would therefore earnestly recommend this subject; and to them, in particular, I would still farther most affectionately address a few considerations of no inferior moment.

If all duty consists in the genuine operations and expressions of the heart, be careful how you at any time, and in any way, compromise this matter with any part of your audience, however attentively they listen, while as yet they give no evidence of a heart reconciled to God. You may indeed, and you ought to illustrate many subjects, and shew wherein our

obligation to comply consists; but should you, forgetting yourself, urge them to commence external actions, or any such exercises as may be performed without the love of God, what is this but unwittingly betraying the just authority of God over the heart, and admitting the performance of that, which, if offered to yourself from a fellow-creature, you would despise ? Nor is such an address less injurious to your hearers, than it is derogatory to the authority of God. It will tend fatally to quiet their consciences, and to cherish an opinion, that, having complied with your request, they are doing that which is pleasing and acceptable to God. You may think that this is bearing hard upon the unconverted, and reducing them to a terrible situation. This I admit; but since such is the situation of every man in a state of nature, so far from improving this by palliation, by saying that you hope better things of them though you thus speak, or exhorting them to worship God in the first instance, or in the best manner they can, you are only rendering their situation still more terrible! Think, too, for a moment, on the actual cruelty of such mode of address. It is calculated to render the unconverted easy while yet in danger; and is not this cruel? Instead of rendering the situation of those under your eye easy, it certainly ought to be your aim to move them from every refuge, not for the sake of plunging them into despair, but that, through you, they may submit to the righteousness of God, and flee for refuge to the hope set before them in the Gospel; that through you the justification of which God approves, may, by faith in Jesus, become all their own. Most solemnly, therefore, ought you often to assure this