is to be lamented that prejudice should ever preclude the use of them when it is needful.

"But I have neglected it so long that I am "ashamed to begin!" You ought to be ashamed of sin, but not of duty. You ought to be ashamed that you have lived so lo long without it; but you ought no to be ashamed that you are wiser and better than you once were.Again. You say, "if"But I will answer no more of your objections. They are only excuses—and you know-yes you know-that they do not satisfy your own consciences now, and will avail you nothing in the great and terrible day of the Lord.

But some of you live in the habit of family worship. It will not therefore be amiss to conclude with a few words by way of direction.

Be spiritual in the performance. There is great danger of formality, where things customarily return, and with little possibility of variation. Think of God. Remember with whom you have to do and what you have to do with him.

..Do not confine family worship to prayer.Include also reading the scripture, and if possible sing the praises of God.

Be short. A few minutes of simple and affectionate devotion is far better than eking out

nearly half an hour by doubling over the name of God, telling the Supreme Being what he is, and by vain repetitions.

common.

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Be early. Do not leave it till the family are drowsy and stupid.-But here a case of conscience occurs, and such alas! as the inconsistencies of the present day would render too "When should those of us have family worship who attend public amusements; "for instance--the theatre." I answer, by all means, have it before you go. When you return it will be late; and you may not feel yourselves quite so well affected towards it. We have known professors who have always omitted it, when they came home from the play-house.Besides, if you have it before, you can implore the divine blessing upon it; and to assist you in redeeming time, in overcoming the world, in preparing for eternity.

Reader! You may imagine that the author has written this with a smile, but he has written it with shame and grief. He earnestly wishes that many would adopt family worship -but he is free to confess that there are some of whom he should be glad to hear that they had laid it aside.

DISCOURSE I.

RETURNING FROM A JOURNEY.

Thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace; and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shall not sin.-Job v. 24.

a

IN the scripture God hath abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence. There is suitableness in it to every character, and to every situation in life. It cautions youth, and it sustains age. It soothes the poor, and it humbles the rich. It is equally useful whether we are in a state of solitude or society. It teaches us how to behave ourselves in every connexion we form, and in all the circumstances through which we pass.

The words which I have read may be considered as a promise made to a good man -" with regard to his absence from home." When he goes a journey at the call of provi

dence, he may leave all his concerns with the Lord whom he serves, for he will sustain him, and suffer no evil to befal him, nor any plague to come night his dwelling.

The person to whom this promise is made is supposed to have a-house. It is called a tabernacle, and it is so named in allusion to the houses of the Easterns, which, especially in the days of Job, were principally tents or tabernacles to enable them to move the more easily from place to place, in feeding their flocks and herds. Abraham is commended for not building a fixed mansion, but reminding himself even by his external circumstances that he was a stranger and a sojourner as were all his fathers, and that there is none abiding-By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God. And would it not be well for us to view our abode however pleasing and durable it may appear as only a temporary residence-a shelter of accommodation for a traveller. "Soon shall I be called to "leave this dwelling-I am going the way of all the earth-Soon shall I ascend these stairs for “the last time, and in this bed I shall soon close

"mine eyes to sleep till the heavens be no more." David therefore calls his palace the tabernacle of his house.

However plain the building may be, it is a mercy to have a house to live in. To be homeless is a condition the most pitiable. Let us think of Cain expelled from the presence of the Lord, a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth. Let us think of those whose doom David does not implore but foretel; let his children be continually vagabonds and beg; let them seek bread also out of their desolate places. Let us think of those good men who wandered in deserts and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. Of the apostles who could say we have no certain dwelling place; and above all of our Lord and Saviour who, while foxes had holes and the birds of the air had nests, had not where to lay his head. Let us think of all this and be thankful to the kindness of providence for ́á tabernacle to which human skill has added so many conveniences and comforts. Hence springs the powerful idea of home, to which the wandering tribes in savage countries are strangers. We insensibly acquire a love to inanimate things, and derive no little pleasure even from local prejudices. Who can feel indifferent to a place where he received his birth

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