stances are thus connected with religion, it is not unreasonable to hope that, through Divine grace, some lasting and useful impressions will be made. Is not some part of the good seed thus sown, and thus nurtured, likely to take root and to become fruitful? Deeply as we are convinced of the deplorable corruption of the human heart, and the necessity, consequent on this, of divine agency to accomplish a saving purpose, we must not forget that God is accustomed to work by means; and surely none can be conceived more likely to meet the end. What can be so likely to impress a child with a dread of sin, as to hear his parent constantly deprecating the wrath of God as justly due to it; or to induce him to seek an interest in the mediation and intercession of the Saviour, as to hear him imploring it for him, day by day, with an importunity proportioned to the magnitude of the subject? By a daily attention on such exercises, children and servants are taught most effectually how to pray: suitable topics are suggested to their minds; suitable petitions are put into their mouths; while their growing acquaintance with the Scriptures furnishes the arguments by which they may "plead with God.".

May I not appeal to you who have enjoyed the blessing of being trained up under religious parents, whether you do not often recall with solemn tenderness what you felt in domestic worship; how amiable your parent appeared interceding for you with God? His character appeared at such seasons doubly sacred, while you beheld in him, not only the father, but the priest over his household; invested, not only with parental authority, but with the beauty of holiness.

Where a principle of religion is not yet planted in the hearts of the young, family prayer, accompanied with the reading of the Scriptures, is, with the Divine blessing, the most likely means of introducing it. Where it already subsists, it is admirably adapted to cherish, strengthen, and advance it to maturity: in the latter case it is like the morning and the evening dew at the root of the tender blade.

On the contrary, when there is no public acknowledgment of God in a family, nothing can be expected but that children and servants should grow up ignorant and careless of their highest concerns. You may pretend, indeed, that you are punctual in your private devotions; but without observing that this pretence, under such circumstances, will seldom bear a rigorous examination. What is that part of your conduct that falls under the notice of your domestics, that distinguishes you from those unhappy persons who live without God in the world? If the Scriptures are not read, if your family is never convened for worship, no trace or vestige of religion remains. A stranger who sojourns in such a family will be tempted to exclaim, with much more truth and propriety than Abraham on another occasion, "Surely the fear of God is not in this place."

4. The practice of family worship may be expected to have a most beneficial influence on the character and conduct of the heads of families themselves. In common with other means of grace, it is rea sonable to expect it will have this influence. Of all the means of

grace, prayer is the most beneficial. But prayer, under the circumstances we are now contemplating, is likely to be productive of advantages which deserve to be considered by themselves.

He who statedly invites others to be witnesses of his devotions invites a peculiar inspection of his behaviour, and must be conscious to how much observation and contempt he lays himself open, should he betray a flagrant inconsistency between his prayers and his conduct. That parent who morning and evening summons his family to acts of devotion is not perhaps distinctly aware of the total amount of the influence this circumstance has upon his mind. It will act as a continual monitor, and will impose useful restraint upon his behaviour. He recollects that he is about to assume an awful and venerable character in the eyes of his domestics-a character which must set the indulgence of a multitude of improprieties in a most glaring light. Is he in danger of being ensnared into indecent levity, or of contracting a habit of foolish jesting and talking? he recollects he is soon to appear as the mouth of his family in addressing the blessed God. Is he surrounded with temptations to an immoderate indulgence of his fleshly appetites in meats and drinks; should he yield to the temptation, how would he bear in the eyes of his family to appear on his knees before God? Is he tempted to use harsh and provoking language to his children? he recollects he is in a few hours to bear them in his arms before the Lord. He is to commend his companion in life to the Divine mercy and protection; how then can he be " bitter against her?" The case of his servants is to be shortly presented before God in social prayer: under such a recollection, it will surely not be difficult for him to forbear threatening, reflecting that he himself has a Master in heaven. Knowing that in the hearing of all his inmates he is about to bewail the corruptions of his nature, to implore pardon for his sins and strength to resist temptation; will he not feel a double obligation on this account to struggle against that corruption, and anxiously to shun temptation? The punctual discharge of the duty we are contending for will naturally strengthen his sense of the obligation of domestic duties, forcibly remind him of what he owes to every member of the domestic circle, and cement the ties of conjugal and parental affection.

5. I proceed to notice a few of the probable pleas which will be urged for the neglect of this duty.

(1.) The most plausible I can think of is want of ability. To this it would not be easy to furnish a reply, did it absolutely require a degree of ability above the most ordinary measure. They who urge this plea may be conscious of their incapacity to become the mouth of others in extemporary prayer, but this is by no means necessary. Excellent forms, expressive of the wants and desires of all Christian families, may be obtained, which, supposing the inability alleged to be real, ought by all means to be employed. We, as dissenters, for the most part use and prefer free prayer. But God forbid we should ever imagine this the only mode of prayer which is acceptable to God. We cannot doubt that multitudes of devout persons have used forms of devotion with great and eminent advantage. To present our desires

before God, in reliance on the atonement of the Mediator, is the real end of prayer, [and] is equally acceptable whether it be offered with or without a preconceived form of words.

The plea of mental inability will not stand the test of an examination, unless it include an incapacity to read; a case comparatively rare, and which we hope is continually becoming rarer, and applies to few instances of the neglect we are complaining of.

It is more than probable that those who complain of this inability have never made the trial, and consequently never can form any accurate judgment of their qualifications. Were you to make the attempt, beginning with the use of a form if absolutely necessary, and making variations and additions as your feelings may suggest, you would find the accomplishment of that gracious promise, "They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength."

If your omission of family prayer is accompanied with a similar neglect of private devotion, your situation is indeed deplorable; you are living without God in the world." But supposing you to make conscience of private prayer, why not adopt the same method in domestic worship, with the addition of such petitions as the circumstance of its greater publicity may require? Beware lest a secret disaffection to God, a secret enmity to his person and his ways, lies at the foundation of this apology. It wears a show of humility, but it is but a mere shadow of it without the substance.

(2.) Another class of persons are ready to admit the propriety and utility of this practice, but allege that such is the variety and multitude of their worldly avocations, that they cannot spare the time requisite for this exercise. Let such be urged to remember that the time necessary for the purpose we are recommending is very small-five minutes will suffice for reading an ordinary chapter; [not many more for the utterance of a fervent] prayer; so that the exercise, morning and evening, need occupy little, if any thing, more than half an hour. And is this a space too much to be allotted, in the most busy life, for an exercise so sacred in its obligation, and so replete with advantage as this has been shown to be? Where is the man so incessantly occupied as not to allow himself more leisure than this, frequently, if not habitually-that does not allot more time to objects of confessedly inferior magnitude?

In addition to what has been advanced, it would not be difficult to prove that no loss of time will usually result; for what may seem a loss will be more than compensated by that spirit of order and regu larity which the stated observance of this duty tends to produce. It will serve as an edge and border to preserve the web of life from unravelling it will tend to keep every thing in its proper place and [time]; and this practice will naturally introduce a similar regularity into other employments.

Consider for a moment on what principle does the plea of want of time depend. Plainly on this: that religion is not the grand concern; that there is something more important than the service of God; that the pleasing and glorifying of our Maker is not the great end of human

existence ;-a fatal delusion, a soul-destroying mistake, which militates against the whole spirit of the gospel, and presumptuously impeaches the wisdom of that Saviour who exclaimed, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."*

(3.) Another class will perhaps reply, "We are convinced of the urgent obligation of the duty which has been recommended; but we have so long neglected it that we know not how to begin,-are ashamed at the prospect of the surprise, the curiosity it will occasion."

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But there is much impiety in this shame; and if it be permitted to deter you from complying with the dictates of conscience and the commands of God, it will unquestionably class you with the fearful and unbelieving, who shall have their portion in the second death. To be ashamed of the service of Christ is to be ashamed of Christ and his cross; and you have heard the Divine denunciation of judgment on such characters: "Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." You are afraid of presenting yourself under a singular aspect to your domestics and acquaintance: have you not reflected on the awful and trying situation in which you will be placed by the infliction of the sentence, justly merited, "Of him will I be ashamed;" "Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee?"

II. Hints on the practice. Best mode of performing it.

1. Let it ever be joined with reading the Scriptures.

2. Let it be constant.

3. Attend with a full decision of mind, with the utmost seriousness, 4. Seek the aid of the Spirit.

XXVII.

REFLECTIONS ON THE INEVITABLE LOT OF HUMAN LIFE.

ECCLES. xi. 8.-If a man live many years, and rejoice in them all, yet let him remember the days of darkness, for they shall be many.

THERE is nothing better established by universal observation, than that the condition of man upon earth is, less or more, an afflicted condition: "Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward." As the sparks ascend by an immutable law in nature, so the sorrows to which we are exposed spring from necessity, from causes whose operation is unavoidable and universal. Look through all the genera

* Matt. vi. 33.

† Mark viii. 28

Job v. 7.

tions of man, throughout all times and places, and see if you can discover a single individual who has not, at one period or another, been exposed to the arrows of adversity. The roll or record of human destiny is written "within and without, with lamentation, and mourning, and wo.'

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We are naturally extremely and immoderately attached to worldly enjoyments and to temporal prospects. Our souls cleave to them with an eagerness extremely disproportioned to their real value, which is one of the maledictions incurred by the fall. The curse denounced upon the earth for man's sake has contracted the sum of earthly good within a narrow compass, and blasted it with much vanity, but has not had the effect of dispelling the charm by which it engages our affections. It is a part of the misery of man, in his fallen state, that he has become more attached than ever to the world, now that it has lost its value. Having swerved from God, and lost his true centre, he has fallen into an idolatry of the world, and makes it the exclusive object of his attachment, even at the very time that its beauty is marred and its satisfactions impaired.

"It is a pleasant thing for the eyes to behold the sun." While the sun of earthly prospects shines we are apt to feel the day of evil at a distance from our minds, we are reluctant to admit the possibility of a change of scene,—we shut out the thought of calamity and distress, as an unwelcome intruder.

The young revel in the enjoyment of health, and exult in the gay hopes and enchanting gratifications suited to that delightful [season], as though they were never to know a period. Amused and transported with [their] situation and [their] prospects, it is with extreme difficulty they admit the conviction that the days are fast approaching when they shall confess they have no pleasure in them. "Let us enjoy the good things that are present." "Let us fill ourselves with costly wine and ointments, and let no flower of the spring pass by us." "Let us crown ourselves with rose-buds before they be withered."‡

Experience, in most cases, soon alters their sentiments, and events arise which impress an indelible conviction of the short duration of earthly good. The bloom of health is blasted by disease; the seeds of some incurable malady begin to shoot up and make their appearance; or the agony of disappointed passions is impressed; or cares and anxieties begin to corrode the mind; or the hand of death [inflicts] some fatal stroke by which the object of the tenderest affection is snatched away.

If a long course of prosperity has been enjoyed, during which almost every thing has succeeded to the wish (which sometimes, though very rarely, occurs), the confidence in worldly hopes and prospects is mightily increased; the mind is more softened and enervated by an uninterrupted series of prosperity, and is the more unfitted to [go through] those scenes of distress which inevitably await him. He who is in this situation is tempted to say, "I shall surely die in my nest;" or, in the language of the rich man in the gospel, "Soul, eat, drink, and be merry,-thou hast goods laid up for many years."|

* Ezek. ii. 10. † Eccles. xi. 7. + Wisdom of Solomon ii. 8.

Job xxix. 18. ⇓ Luke xii. 19