they cannot attend to these subjects, because they themselves are not Christians; while yet they will not move the short and more important previous question: Why not? And it is still more to be regretted, that some persons, professing Christianity, who ought rather to blush for their ignorance and want of principle, have given their guilty sanction to such folly, by replying merely: "Well, to be sure, this is very true, and, until you are a converted individual, you cannot attend to these subjects in a manner acceptable to God."

Now, instead of thus betraying, at once, the rights of God, and the dearest interests of humanity, let me entreat the reader, if it is necessary, to look directly and alone to this very disinclination and professed inability. These you will find are not only consistent with obligation: but this obligation regards them with the eye of authority and command. This inability and disinclination are, in themselves, to your conscience, at this moment, the proof of personal guilt, and the very ground of condemnation. In other words, these are, my friend, by no means your misfortunes only, but your crimes, and therefore it becomes a shame for any Parent to indulge, much more to plead, such dispositions.

The organization of your family, and the end proposed, with the chain of connection between these two, or, what have been called the means in order to that end, are all to be resolved into the prerogative or peculiar privilege of Almighty God. He who creates and thus establishes the constitution, has also, in the depth of his wisdom and goodness, equally established the means to his own end or design. Here, therefore, you stand, in the same situation with every Parent, as the head of his family. Thus, life and death, or good and evil, are, by God, set before you, as well as every other Parent; and from you and your partner, as from a fountain, will the waters proceed,

sweet or bitter. Yes, the frame of the human family was created for action, and strikingly exhibits the means to an end. The moral obligations of Parents, therefore, who occupy the most important place in a family, like all other moral obligations, consist in an indispensable connection between the means and the end; so that, if they would gain the unspeakable blessings of the end, they are indispensably bound, that is, they are obliged, to use the means. On the contrary, if they will not, all the evils which result must follow by a necessity of consequence, and all these, too, in consequence of their negligence and impiety.

You may, indeed, not like the means, and if you require any argument, you do not. Now, upon this aversion itself I fix, and tell you that it constitutes the ground of condemnation. So conscience will also tell you every morning you rise, and she will add, too, that moral ability is not necessary to constitute moral obligation. At such a moment look round upon your infant charge, and remember that these young immortals are growing up under the moral Government of God their Creator: while you are free indeed, as far as any creature can be; that is, you are free to obey; for to admit indifference here would be to legalize rebellion.

In these circumstances, therefore, to every Parent who objects or even hesitates, I have only three questions for conscience to answer, and the party is speechless; and, if he is so from conviction, he will then not unnecessarily delay one hour, in considering the importance and the necessity of personal religion.

First, Have you a natural capacity; or have you a conscience, and are you possessed of reason? Second, Have you a Bible at home, as the means of information ? Third, Is no one compelling you to act as you have done hitherto ?

These simple interrogations you will not hesitate to answer; the first, in the affirmative; the last, in the negative; and the second, just as the case may be. Then, my reader, I want, I need, no more. You are in a situation suitable enough for even me to blame you, and assuredly for God to hold you responsible, as at this moment he does. Nay, I object not even to narrow this ground for you still farther. Answer me only the first question? Then this alone constitutes you a subject of God's moral government to the utmost extent. You are now bound to procure the means of information, if you have them not: you are now bound to resist all interference. But, in this country especially, no one dare, no one does interfere, from the king downward. You are now therefore stripped of every plea, and left with these, and many such words, in your ear- "A son honoreth his father, and a servant his master. If, then, I be a Father, where is mine honor? and if I be a Master, where is my fear, saith the Lord of hosts ?"

Beware, therefore, reader, beware now especially, of any subterfuge. Tell me not even that divine influence is requisite to your choice of these means: because, though it be, I can and do immediately reply, that this is no interference with your act of choice itself; nor has it, as you know, or may know, any conscious influence in breaking the connection between your present motive and choice, between your present disinclination and your incumbent duty. No, no, the question is not what moves or causes obedience; but what is the rule of it?

Perhaps the reader, now aware of the meaning of what has been advanced, is disposed to say "But stop one moment. If you are right, I am involved indeed in a serious situation; for it seems, my very will itself, rather than any mean, is the precise and proper object of precept and command." I answer precisely so: now, at last, we

are right. The heart, the whole heart, is demanded first by God, and to be, by him, directed for his purposes, and in entire subordination to his revealed will, whatever that will may prove. And, oh, my friend, if this is the height, it is also the measure of your being. By God's unaltered, nay, unalterable law, your heart is so demanded: now, the design of law is to bind to one side, and the design of authoritative command is to turn the will one way.

Obligation therefore admitted, you may now cast your eye upon these means: since the prodigious extent and strength of your obligation is to be seen in them, and in your natural or relative connection with them. Indeed, with reference to them, on account of which the family has been gathered, over which you preside, the obligation on you is so strong, that I might ask you, if you can, to point out a stronger. You are bound in conscience and in duty, in law and in honesty, in gratitude and in kindness: you are bound by the nature of the Family Constitution, and by the design of its constitution: bound by regard to your own character as a Parent, by regard to the highest interests of your offspring, as well as the peace and wellbeing of posterity: bound, in short, by the strongest ties of our nature, as well as the revealed will of God. How strong must that obligation be, the violation of which can and will secure the united testimony of so many witnesses against you: and, ah! how could you ever meet them, and meet them all in union another day? Suffer them but to speak now, and you will not be able to endure even the prospect.

After all, this is by no means the only line of argument which might be adopted. Did you never think of the meaning of the English word Paternity, or Fathership? This relation as such necessarily involves much. Consider it only for a moment in two points of view, as connected with God and with your family. In the first

connection, does it not involve trust? When God places any man, before solitary, or only a son, at the head of a family, does he not say by such a step,-"I constitute you as the trustee, the guide, the guardian of this part of mankind? All under the roof are your charge, and to you intrusted." Now, for what end? To be ruled, or not? to be instructed, or not? to be by your example and your precepts, led to heaven, or not? The negative, in such cases, is not merely monstrous; it is profane. If the first connection involves duty to be discharged for God, the second involves love of and care over those given to you by him. But of the body only, or of the body without any reference to the great inhabitant within? The negative here is not less objectionable; it is cruelty and hatred. Only act, therefore, under the influence of this trust, and this incumbent love and care; then might one say to you,-"Neglect Family Government, or even Family Devotion, if you can."

The obligation to Family Government being, therefore, granted, all that is necessary in illustration of the subject may be comprehended under the three following heads, viz. Family Order, Subordination, and Harmony.

Order. Every person is pleased with this exhibition of a Family, though many are by no means equally in love with its cause; just as many are pleased with the humble man, who do not love humility. But still order is but another name for an effect whose cause is government; and as it is in the world of nature where effects are viewed with delight, when their proximate cause is kept concealed by Infinite Wisdom, so the order of a Family rises in our admiration just in proportion as its cause is withdrawn from public view, or the notice of a stranger. On the other hand, nothing is more irksome to the visitors in a family, than to see the cause and its effects justle with