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.*

* 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.

common interest in a family; and among these, here instructing the poorest Parent how to dismiss inordinate anxiety as to the common provision for this little band, he directs him to pray-"Our Father who art in heaven-give us this day our daily bread." The petition immediately preceding this had been-"thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven." Now, I would only ask, if, over the wide world, the will of God were done, by whom would, nay, by whom could this petition, in general, fall to be offered, if not by the Parent at the head of his Family, to whom, as an instrument under God, we look for the provision of such daily sustenance? Or, I ask, can a more beautiful morning-picture be conceived, than that of the Fathers below thus beginning the day? Meanwhile, should the solitary Christian, retiring to his closet, and carrying the social spirit of Christianity along with him, use this form, unquestionably he will be heard; and in the house of God, leaving the world behind us, let us do the same occasionally, but still in form and spirit, this will ever remain a week-day social Family prayer.

II. The Abuse of Family Worship.-The obligation to this delightful duty being fully admitted, before proceeding to the subject itself, I cannot help noticing one most melancholy and dangerous prostitution of it; I mean the form without the power. Thousands, at least in this country, profess to feel a horror of such a translation of Scripture as this-" Do penance, and believe the Gospel." The vows and the satisfactions of antichrist we denounce; but what is the form of Family Worship, by unregenerate Pa

rents, if not penance? And such assuredly it is often felt to be by both Parents and Children. In some Families this form is only occasional; in others it is gone about regularly, perhaps once a-week, on Sabbath-day, or only on Sabbath-evening. Now, I not only inquire, where is the authority, but what is the use of all this? A burden, at best, on the head of the Family, it is, at the same time, rendering Christianity itself disgusting to all under that roof. And why should not the sound of such a form be as painful to my ear as the sound of the monastic whip? With the body, separated from the soul, what can we do? After death, the fairest frame must soon be consigned by us to its native element, the dust; and what, then, can the Almighty do with the form of godliness without the power? Offensive to him, must it not very soon also be removed entirely out of his sight?

Have I a reader, at any time, who is disposed to object here, and say, "But how is all this? After lamenting over the degeneracy and the wide-spreading ungodliness of the times, that fruitful subject of declamation in every age, have I not heard my very minister address himself to the prayerless families in his audience, and exhort them, in so many words, to set up, as he called it, Family Worship? Did he not represent this to them as a good work, and urge them to lose no time, but immediately to begin it ?" All this, my friend, is very probable. Not only have such indiscriminate, not to say unskilful and unwise addresses been tendered from the pulpit; they have been issued from the press. If you happen, however, to have perused these pages thus far, I hope it is not expecting too much, when I suppose that, next