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The last judgment, when the dead shall have been raised, will be but the formal consummation of what has been practi cally and unchangeably decided here. And it has been, in this. view, as truly as it was strikingly and solemnly said, “Our sentence, in truth, is passed before our graves are dug."Bush.

So that this revalation to us, of an hour in which all that are in the graves shall hear Christ's voice, and shall come forth, they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation --with all the stupendous scenery of the coming judgmentmingled with the discipline of life-the invitations of the Gospel a Saviour's love-the testimony of conscience, and the stirrings of the Holy Spirit, in urging all of us, and every one of us, to prepare to meet our God. Especially do they urge. us to fly to the Saviour, to make the Judge our Friend.

SERMON XX.

BY REV. JOSEPH F. TUTTLE,

PASTOR OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ROCKAWAY, N. J.

DUTIES OF HEADS OF HOUSEHOLDS.

"For I know him, that he will command his chhildren and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him."-GENESIS Xviii. 19.

"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."-JOSHUA Xxiv. 15. "For I have told him, that I will judge his house for ever, for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not."-1 SAMUEL iii. 13.

In each of these passages, the responsibilities of parents to their children stand prominent; and, in the first two, those responsibilities are extended to all composing the household. The Lord commended Abraham because he would enjoin his children and his household to keep the way of the Lord, and Joshua boldly declares that his house, as well as himself, shall serve the Lord. The honor of these eminent men did not consist in doing more than their duty, nor did the curse on Eli's family arise from neglecting a work of supererogation, but one of highest obligation and necessity.

These facts in sacred history furnish a theme of immense importance, viz. the responsibilities of the heads of households. By the head of a household I mean primarily, any one who stands at the head of, and has control of, a family, who, by the laws of God and man, is placed in this relation to a family.

In commending Abraham, it is to be remarked that the name

of Sarah is not mentioned, and also that Joshua does not qualify his vow so as to depend on the aid of his wife. So also the wife of Eli is not mentioned.

A household, according to the Scripture, and common use, may consist of a wife, of children, and of those in the employ or under the guardianship of the head, residing in the family. Children, wards, servants, apprentices, and other laborers connected with the family, are all embraced in the definition of the household. Here, as in all other relations, responsibility is coextensive with obligation.

And, in examining the responsibilities of heads of households I may remark,-First, that whatever those responsibilities may be, the Scriptures make no exception in favor of the age or any other circumstances connected with members of the household. The fact of having attained legal majority, or the fact of being of a different religion, or even that of the dependent being older than the head of the family, are nowhere mentioned as exceptions. The only question to be considered is this, "Does the person belong to the household in such a sense that he is under the control of its head?" Abraham had a great household, yet the text no more exempts from the general law, the gray-headed servant, than the young heardsman; the steward Eliezer of Damascus, than Ishmael or the child of promise. All the household were included, without one specified exemp tion. The same unqualified law is seen in the vow of Joshua, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." In the fourth commandment, the obligation to keep the Sabbath is not only imposed on the head, but the household also. Nor is it made a general obligation, resting on each individual, for which each is himself responsible, but the obligation to enforce that law on all the household is imposed on the head. He was not even to consider his duty bounded by the limits which embrace the son and daughter, the man servant and the maidservant, the ox and the ass, but as extending even to the stranger who might be holding a temporary relation to the household.

This is an exceedingly important view, since it is common among pious men to relieve themselves of some part of these obligations which God has fixed on them. Some parents seem to feel that they are not bound to look after the conduct of their children who may have attained the age of sixteen, eighteen, or twenty years, much less when they attain their majority, although still members of the household. Others entertain the same erronous opinion concerning their domestics and laborers. They sometimes excuse themselves by saying, the the man or woman is of age, or of a different religious belief; or he is so ignorant and low-minded as to have no religious sentiment, or some other excuse. To such an extent is this true, that some domestics are suffered to live years in pious families,

without the heads of those families insisting on an undoubted right, the presence of all committed to their care, at the regular worship of God at home, and publicly.

I cannot forbear enlarging on a topic which is becoming practical in this country. A large number of families rely on colored or foreign laborers. The latter are especially to be pitied, because so many pious employers regard themselves as favored with a special exemption from the rigid principles on which God has constituted the household. These laborers, in many cases, believe things which are likely to prove fatal to their salvation. We need not go so far as to say that no Romanist can be saved, but the most of those who make up our laborers, are in great ignorance of the way of salvation through Christ, and, in many cases, with all their devotion to their religion, they do not consider profane swearing, drunkenness, and other vices, as inconsistent with that religion. They know more about confessing sin to a fellow-sinner than to God-about the Virgin than Christ-about holy water than the pure water of life. Education has done nothing for them. but to bind chains upon them, and to draw around them a thick veil of darkness. To such an extent is this true, that persons may be found among us who are just as ignorant of what God requires of them to be saved, as if they had always lived in the darkest corner of Burmah or China.

And when such voluntarily become members of our household, does not God in his providence make it our duty, if possible, to remove the deep darkness, and break the heavy chains which afflict these strangers? And yet some of us per mit such to remain months and years under our roofs, without once telling them kindly what we conceive to be our duty to them a duty so plainly involved in the household relation, that we must insist on maintaining it. It is greatly to our shame to be guilty of this neglect. Faithfulness on our part might save many deceived souls from delusion, and bring them out of the deep darkness into the clear light of the Gospel of Christ.

When a foreigner entered the family of an Israelite, without regard to his religious belief or worship, he must conform to those religious regulations which Jehovah had prescribed for the conduct of the household. If he refused to comply, he could not remain. Not only, in that case, must he leave the the family, but the nation. Nor do I speak of this as a matter of religious dictation, but of truth. There is something unseemly, and outraging all proper law, that a foreign priest, without a single sympathy for the Bible into which our civil institutions are engrafted, should be allowed to exert more power in our houses than we ourselves when we are convinced that he is wrong in doctrine and practice, and that we are right, that his teaching is according to the tradition of the elders, and

that ours is from God. It is insufferable that, when a good man is striving to lead his own children to heaven through means of family religion, any members of his household should be instigated to disturb even the time devoted to worship, not only by absenting themselves, but by continuing their custom ary work.

And does it not appear plain, that those heads of households who permit such things, have forgotten a plain principle laid down in the scriptures, that no exception is made in favor of any member of the household, be he a heathen, a Mahommedan, a Romanist, or an infidel? Such do not imitate Abraham, commanding his household to keep the right way of the Lord; nor Joshua, who bodly said, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord-"

Let this illustration stand for the principle in its application to all the possible cases arising in the regulation of family religion.

We may now consider, secondly, the nature of the obligation which rests on the heads of households.

And for the sake of clearness and simplicity, we may consider the nature of this obligation in two parts, viz.: 1st, the obligation to secure a proper external conduct in those who compose the household; and 2d, the obligation to use all spiritual means to bring every member of the household to a saving knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus Christ.

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1st. The obligations resting on the heads of households to secure a proper external conduct in those committed to their This brings the history of Eli's family distinctly before us. It is worthy of special notice, that Eli gave the best advice to his sons, for "he said unto them, Why do ye do such things? for I hear of your evil doings by all this people. Nay, my sons, for it is no good report that I hear. Ye make the Lord's people to transgress. If any man sin against another, the judge shall judge him; but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him?" [1 Sam. ii. 23, 25.] We can scarcely imagine a more searching exhortation than is found in these words. The age of these sons we do not know, but gather from the context that they had nearly or quite attained to manhood.

When Samuel repeated to Eli what God had communicated to him, the reply of Eli showed that he possessed personally no ordinary piety: "It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good." [Ibid. iii. 18.] And he possessed another notable trait of piety. Israel was battling with the Philistines, and they had taken the ark of the Lord that it might save them out of the hands of their enemies. The sons of Eli, already marked as early victims of the divine displeasure, accompanied the ark. The aged priest and father sat by the wayside watching for news concerning the battle, and lo, what was the

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trouble uppermost in his heart? Was it those sons with the curse hanging over them? No. The record of the fact is very affecting: "Eli sat upon s seat by the seat by the wayside watching, for his heart trembled for the ark of God." [Ibid. iv. 13. The panting messenger has already told him, "Hophm Phinehas are dead;" but the narative informs us that two sons cut off in one day did not inflict, the keenest pang. It was when he made mention of the ark of God, that he fell from off his seat backwards by the side of the gate, and his neck brake, and he died," V. 18.] The heaviest judgment which came on this extraordinary man was the wrong done to the Lord, in that the divine prediction [Ibid. ii. 32.] was fulfilled: "Thou shalt see an enemy in my habitat

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of Our laws do not suffer such a resort in case of filial and incorrigible disobedience, as that pointed out in the Mosaic code,

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