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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 favor 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 caste, 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."

Indeed, the history of this mission is the more remarkable, as affording an evidence of God's special regard to the Family Constitution; since the god of this world, availing himself of the peculiar genius of the Hindoo superstition, had applied it to all the ties of nature, and linking together the branches of a household by the chain of the caste, he had then retired to the centre or bosom of every family circle, and there he had thrown up his strongest entrenchment. Yet, taking as a specimen the very first one hundred and fifty individuals who renounced caste and professed Christianity, we find not fewer than sixty-four individuals, at least, who came out of only twenty-five families, and, except in two or three instances,

both Father and Mother were amongst the number. Nay, out of only six families there were twenty-six individuals, Parents and Children, old and young. The most remarkable of these, certainly, was that of this fine character, Kristno Pal-a household, including himself, of not less than ten souls! A particular list of the hundreds who have been since converted, is not upon record, but the same gracious regard to the Family Constitution still is manifest. "I cannot conclude," says one of the missionaries, in 1824, "without telling you, that this morning I have seen a whole family of natives, consisting of Grandfather, Father, Mother, and three Sons, all evidently seeking the way of salvation. They were first aroused to a sense of their condition by a tract left at the house of a neighbor, which he threw indignantly into the road, and one of the boys, about fifteen years of age, carried it home. They read it came for more— -I gave them the four gospels-and I do hope that time will show it has not been in vain."

Thus, certainly, to a remarkable extent has the Almighty delighted to pour honor upon a constitution of his own creation, and his grace, in every age, where Parents are worth the name, will, I am persuaded, be found to run in such a channel. Yes; upon households as such, primitive Christianity beamed with peculiar benignity; but was there not a cause? Yes, had we stronger faith, it might, and without doubt, the day is coming when it will, do so again!

The interesting, the delightful accounts, however, of whole households being converted in a single day or hour, which are left upon record in Scripture, to excite our desire after similar results, are to be accounted for only on the supposition of an extensive and powerful awakening of the public mind; and they stand there in peculiar harmony, or "fine keeping," with the authentic, because inspired, nar

rative of hundreds, nay, thousands, being converted under a single address. The same result, however, let it be remembered, as to families in succeeding ages, has been found to hold good, proportionally to the extent or the intensity of the awakening. Of such results, even in our own day, America, at least, is able to furnish striking instances, proof of which I have now before me, in the periodical accounts from that country.

After such a detail as this, imperfect though it be, there can remain no doubt of the prophecy of Malachi having been literally accomplished. But, with the Sacred narrative in our hand, it would be strange were we to confine it to even instances like these; or suppose that single Families, here and there, though converted at once to Christianity, were all that the Prophet expressed, or the Spirit of God by him intended. No; the apostolic address took the widest range, and it met with correspondent effects, but still the same principle they always kept in view. Thus, to the three thousand Jews in the city of Jerusalem, converted in one day, on the same spot, under a single address, and relieved at the same instant by one and the same reply; when they cried out in an agony of distraction, "Men and brethren, what shall we do ?" we hear the conscience and the parental heart at once addressed by Peter,-" Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit; for the promise (of the Holy Spirit, v. 17 and 33.) is to you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." The promise to which Peter here refers was, of course, that which he had just quoted; where the manner in which "they and their Children" had been referred to by Joel, was peculiarly striking. Their sons-their daughters-their old mentheir young men-their servants and hand-maidens, manv

of whom were even in a state of vassalage, were all to partake of the Spirit; and, as a proof, not only were to believe and be saved, but individuals of every class mentioned were to prophesy or work miracles! So this Spirit had descended first on the Parents of John the Baptist, and the Messiah, and afterwards upon them; on the Parents of most of the apostles, if not all, as well as on them; and so now on the Parents, the Sons, the Daughters, the servants, in the city of Jerusalem; and ultimately, through them, on the Gentiles. This order should never be overlooked; and more especially on account of the interesting terms with which Peter concludes his address: -"Even as many as the Lord our God shall call." From these words it would seem that the entire fulfilment of that prophecy is not to be confined by time or space. Excepting, of course, the miraculous gifts, the proof at that period, of the Holy Spirit being received; as a minister of Christ, I am to use such language at this day, because all that was intended by Infinite Wisdom is not yet fulfilled; no, nor never will be, until God hath done with calling.

In conformity with these ideas, in the still more glorious effusion of the Spirit for which the Church is waiting, so far as the Jews are concerned, the terms employed are, to say the least, of the same character with those to which reference has been so often made. When the Spirit of grace and supplication is once poured out upon them, Husband and Wife, Parents and Children, looking to the cross at last, like as a Father on the dying frame of his first-born, or his only Child, all shall be drowned in grief. "The land shall mourn, every family apart-all the families that remain; every family apart, and their wives apart." In proportion as penitence is deep and pungent, it seeks retirement; but here it has gone to such extent as to sever for a time the strongest, tenderest, and most