tions which he has framed: if true, of the man as a solitary being, still more so of the Family: if true, as to the Christian, still more so of the Church.

With regard to a Family, in particular, it is more especially bound to own its dependence and subjection to its Divine author, because it is the foundation or first cause of all society, whether moral, political, or religious. Hence Abraham obtained the testimony of God's highest approbation: hence, long before the Mosaic economy was in existence, there were sacrifices peculiar to families, as already noticed, when the Father acted as the administrator. Thus, Job offered burnt-offerings for himself and for his Children, and Jacob for his. This is particularly worthy of remark, since, though we have no intimation whatever on the subject, there must have been a revelation here from God; for though the duty rises necessarily out of the Constitution itself, the form of it must have been regulated by his will. For the office and duty of a priest, or an offerer of family sacrifices, neither Job nor Jacob had their warrant from the light or law of nature. Such an office depended on institution; and this institution proves to demonstration the early and peculiar regard of God for the family of human beings. Nor did even the Mosaic economy altogether abolish a practice, which stood on far more ancient grounds. So the family of Jesse had a yearly sacrifice, that is, a free-will offering and sacred feast, when the various branches all assembled, even in mature life, to acknowledge a source from whence they had derived such blessings.*

* 1 Samuel xx. 6.

Y

Granting that, in this instance, the whole were pretended, no such pretence would have been sustained, had such things not been customary, to a certain extent, although not so frequent as in the patriarchal age, or before the appointment of the tribe of Levi to act as priests.

Independently, however, of all this evidence with any rational Christian Parent, I may confirm and establish his mind on much higher ground than even that which these pointed examples afford. To such a Parent I might say-" Without hesitation, you will admit that your obligations to your family are to be measured now, and on the day of final account, by your capacity-as a Man by your natural, as a Christian by your spiritual capacity? And however you may feel conscious of falling short daily, that you are under obligation to honour God to the utmost limit of this capacity? You will also allow that, standing where you do, you are not now, like a solitary orphan without relatives, to be regarded only as a single individual? God himself, your Creator, your Saviour, and your Judge, regards you as the head of a family, and therefore, in possession of a sacred trust, you have the care of souls. Now, if you really do measure obligation by capacity, then will you also at once allow, that you must do what you can, that He may, from your Family, have as much honour as possible.

Without hesitation you will also allow that God daily preserves you? And does he not also preserve your Family? But if he preserves, he has a right of property in each and all under your roof. Shall He not, therefore, have from you acknowledgment of this? If daily he preserves, shall he not be daily ac

knowledged? And if acknowledged at all, how ought he to be so, if not upon your knees? And how can they know this, if they do not hear it?

Without hesitation you will also allow that you are a social as well as a reasonable being? And often have you, therefore, felt how much the soothing influence of their sweet society has sustained you under cares, and trials, and grief itself. O! surely then, as a social being, you owe to them social worship; nor should you ever forget, that, in ancient days, there was social worship here before it could be any where else. Nay, even after the gates of Zion were known, next to them, Jehovah continued to love the dwellings of Jacob. And why? Because, though less public, they furnished the nearest resemblance to those gates; and his regard for the Church is magnified by its rising above that of the Family. The love of God is represented as being greater in degree; it was therefore on the same account.

To some minds, the obligation to Family Worship will receive additional support, from reference to the connexion in which prayer is enforced. But before noticing this, it may be remarked, that between all the relative duties incumbent on man, there is not only a powerful and natural connexion, but the performance of one such duty often only lays the foundation for the performance of others, or naturally leads to them as incumbent. The division of the Sacred Writings into chapters and verses, useful only for reference, has not only obscured this connexion, but, in the course of ages, it has created a number of false associations, as well as prevented many from feeling, as they ought, the indissoluble obligations under which

they are laid. This connexion is indeed apparent, and often striking, even as the Scriptures are generally printed; but, owing to the divisions referred to, it requires to be much more frequently pointed out.*

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*There are few subjects which a public expositor should be more solicitous that his hearers should comprehend, than that of the connexion of divine truth, or the manner in which it is introduced to the notice, or enforced on the conscience, of the reader; and it is one which has become far more binding on us, whether ministers or hearers, owing to the universal use of Bibles, divided by fallible men into chapters and verses— a singular destiny to which no other book has ever been subjected! In all other works, the index, or concordance, or subordinate matter, is fashioned so as to be subordinate to the original work; but in the Bible alone, the text and substance of the work is disfigured, in order to be adapted to the concordance that belongs to it! (a book, by the way, which many a reader never saw), and hence the notion of its being perused has been too often sacrificed to that of its being referred to. In consequence of this division, too, the Bible is to the eye, upon opening it, rather a book of reference than a book of perusal and study; and it is to be feared that this circumstance makes it more frequently used merely as such. At least it is far too often referred to for verifying a quotation merely; and then, without observing the preceding or following context, which stands as so much independent matter, it is shut or returned to the shelf. Now, what book can be fundamentally understood if consulted only in this manner ?"* Indeed, of all the ordeals through which any work ever passed, I know not one which, in itself, is more calculated to mislead, and one which, if it is not guarded against, habitually, by the reader, will more effectually conceal from him its force or drift, as well as its beauties. To this simple circumstance alone may be traced whole libraries of wordy and unprofitable religious controversy. It has shattered the line of argument into fragments, and has minced the fine and powerful vein of thought into separate and detached aphorisms. If these endless divisions (useful only for reference) are not vigilantly watched, the divine thread of a historical detail, and the beautiful lines of a parabolical picture, will not be observed, or they will be misunderstood-the nature and genius of Hebrew poetry, on which the pith and argument of its stanza may depend, and the occasionally abrupt, yet irresistible and correctly logical conclusions of Paul, have suffered

* See the Introduction to Reeve's Bible.

Thus, after the relative duties of Parent and Child, of Servant and Master, are mentioned by Paul in his Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians, and by Peter in his First Epistle, it has been remarked, that the subject of prayer, one of the most important branches of Family Worship, is introduced. In the Colossians this connexion is very obvious and striking. "Masters, give unto your Servants that which is just and equal: knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven-Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving."

In conclusion, I query if that beautiful form of prayer which our blessed Lord gave to his followers, does not involve an argument in favour of Family prayer, nay, of daily Family devotion. It is worthy of remark, that, in the sixth chapter of Matthew, after he had directed his disciples with regard to private prayer, he did not stop there. In the seventh verse, he begins to use the plural number, and, proceeding to a social act of worship, he refers to the prayers of such as could pray together daily. In this most comprehensive prayer, after giving to God that place and honour which corresponds to the first table of the moral law, he descends to matters of daily and

equally from the same cause. This circumstance, in itself so insignificant, is, however, of such moment, that it is impossible to say how much it has contributed to misunderstanding among Christians, or how far it has thrown us back in understanding the record itself. In the meanwhile the reader should, at least, be aware of its having so far marred the moral symmetry of divine revelation. One day, in England, several years ago, I recollect of its being remarked as a feature in the character of some Christians resident in North Britain, that, upon any quotation from Scripture being introduced on a given subject, if any question arose, they would say, But what is the connexion? Were this practice universal, the advantages would be incalculable.