FAMILY DEVOTION. THE PROFITABLE PERFORMANCE OF FAMILY WORSHIP. THIS interesting exercise is generally admitted to include, Praise, the perusal of the Sacred Scriptures, and Prayer. 1. Family Praise. - Unquestionably this is one of the most delightful ways of "showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done." To the younger branches of the household it conveys an evident proof, that the hearts of their Parents are touched, and that to them praise is pleasant; and long after they are cold in the dust, the recollection of these hallowed moments may, and in most instances will, return with peculiar and most salutary effect. For what signifies all our talk, whether to children or servants, if we discover not at such stated intervals, that our interest in divine things has furnished to us ground for thanksgiving and the voice of melody? And since the fury of the Almighty is in reserve for the families that call not upon his name, how or where is God "daily to be praised," if the voice of rejoicing and salvation is not to be heard in the tabernacles of the righteous? No, this is an appropriate, an incumbent, and a comely exercise ; and often has it most powerfully commanded the willing admiration of only an occasional visitant. When the children are all seated, according to their age; when every servant knows at once and fills the appropriate place at Family Worship, and the Book of God is opened; how is it, that, before the Parent begins, the eye of the Mother, or of the Christian friend, turns so involuntarily round the room? Is it not because family order, which is always an interesting and pleasing sight, is now about to show itself in one of its most endearing aspects? Besides, when it is remembered, alas, alas! that the most affectionate and interesting family must sooner or later be broken up, in the very songs of such families, there are touches which must affect the tenderest strings of the human heart. 2. Perusal of the Sacred Volume. This most interesting and im portant branch of domestic religion, if attended to with becoming solemnity, as the voice of God, cannot fail to acquaint the whole family, in a greater or less degree, with the ge neral contents and main design of divine revelation; as, without such daily perusal of some portion, I may truly assert, not only that some of the inmates, whether children or servants, may and will remain grossly ignorant, but the family, as such, will be found extremely confused and superficial, and consequently at variance, in their ideas respecting divine truth. Here, however, I require to remind parents, as the conductors of Family Worship, of the all-important distinction between the Scriptures, as a book, and all other volumes whatever. Other volumes might be read aloud, with some benefit to your families, in many frames of mind, and some in almost any; while, in regard to the inspired writings, every thing depends upon the dispositions in which you generally open and read them. There are, in the family, unprofitable readers, and there may be even in the pulpit; but wherever these exist, the baneful consequence must follow: there are to be found also unprofitable hearers, or mere lookers-on; and these too, observe, as a conse quence of the dispositions of the reader. The meekest of men could not be permitted to go over Jordan into Canaan, because he once "spake unadvisedly with his lips." What then will become of the Parent, and what impression can he expect to produce, who reads unadvisedly, and thus reads the words of Him whe gave us existence, and who is gra ciously unfolding those eternal truths, according to which the final and everlasting state of the reader and his hearers is to be unchangeably determined? One essential disposition, therefore, on the part of a Parent, when opening this book daily, is that of reverence. Holy men of God spake these words as they were moved by the Holy Spirit; how necessary then must it be that we should read them as influenced by Him? One of these men said, "My heart standeth in awe of thy word;" but since his day, Jehovah hath also spoken to us by his Son, and said of Him, "They will reverence my Son." The favourite of Heaven is said to be the man who trembleth at the word of the Lord; but there can be no doubt, that such veneration is materially promoted by a regular and reverent perusal of the Sacred Record itself. The finest human composition must lose somewhat by every successive reading; but with the Inspired Volume, familiarity, far from generating contempt, absolutely begets reverence; while, for the farther discovery of divine truth, this disposition is at once indispensable and invaluable. "In the word of the living God," says such a man, "should I find any thing enjoined, whether as a matter of faith or of Christian duty, conscious of its being imposed by that Father of Spirits, who hath both right to enact laws, which must therefore be just, because he enacts them, and power to punish the transgression of them with no less than eternal death, I then leave roving, and see where to cast anchor. I think it my part, without disputing them, to obey his orders, and acquiesce more in that imperious, Thus saith the Lord,' than in a whole dialogue of Plato, or epistle of Seneca. I therefore love to build my morals, as well as my creed, upon the Rock; and esteeming nothing but the true, and proper, and strict sense of the Scripture to be indispensably obligatory, either as to faith or practice, it is no wonder if I study God's will most in that book, wherein alone I think it revealed; and truly, find ing in myself no motive more justly prevalent to obedience than His right to exact it, who requires it, few men are more ready than I am, in distinguishing what indeed God says, from what man would make him say." In one word, "I use the Scriptures, not as an arsenal, to be resorted to only for arms and weapons to defend this or that party, or to defeat its enemies; but as a matchless temple where I delight to be; to contemplate the beauty, the symmetry, and the magnificence of the structure, and to increase my awe, and excite my devotion to the Deity there preached and adored!"-The Honourable Robert Boyle. The Nor is gratitude less incumbent in daily family reading. It was often said of the posterity of Abraham, and first said to them by God himself, who alone knows wherein earthly happiness consists, "Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like unto thee?" And what advantage, then, had the Jew? and what profit was there in circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the Oracles of God. Oracles of God!-which not merely explain the cause of all sorrow and of death itself, but point out the way to pardon and perpetual day: which reveal a Saviour, and unfold, as far as mortal language may, the glorious subjects which interest and engage, and so fill the capacious faculties, as to produce the homage of prostration in the spirits of the just, and the burning seraphim before the throne. Surely, then, gratitude well becomes us when perusing the pages from which even angels have derived instruction with gratitude; (Ephes. iii. 10;) nay, which even the Messiah himself read and expounded, and which he counselled us to search. "Should God have been pleased to instruct us, as he did Jonah, by the shadow of a weed, it had been our duty to acquiesce; how much more then, when he vouchsafes to speak to us in almost as glorious a manner as he did to Moses; in a Scripture that hath such resemblances to the sanc tuary; which contained the law of God; exhibited the mercy-seat; and in which the two golden cherubims, like the two precious and harmonious testaments, looked towards one another, and both towards the mercysea that typified the Messias ?” Surely, then, it becomes us, "not only with acquiescence but gratitude, to look upon God's having appointed the Scripture to be the light in which his Spirit regularly shines upon his church, since the luminary is as well refulgent as the choice of it His, whose blessing can prosper any means of grace, as without his blessing no means of grace can prosper." -Boyle. I need scarcely add a disposition to receive as true what God has said, since a captious spirit was one which the Saviour himself regarded as the most desperate of cases. "Why," said He,"do ye not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my word." They would not give Him so much as one patient hearing, although He had condescended to say to them, only the day before, "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." Clearly intimating, that there is required, if I may so express it, a disposition in the eye of the mind towards the object proposed, in order to any man discerning at once the excellence and the origin of what is taught. The impatient and the querulous must therefore be left till they come to reflection, or they must perish; but I introduce these few remarks chiefly with a view to remind the Christian Parent, that faith (without which a disposition to receive the word, as it is in truth the word of God, cannot exist) is not natural to any man, and that it is often weak indeed even in those who possess it. See, then, that your faith, however weak, be influential, see that it be unfeigned; then, before the power and authority of this daily reading, will you find every vain imagination in yourself cast down, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and every thought brought into captivity, so as to be charmed with obedience to Christ Jesus. Finally, with regard to requisite dispositions, if the Scriptures are read without a spirit of expectation, there can be no desire.' To excite this habitually expecting spirit, this watching for information, only let me ask, Where is the book to be found, from which you not only may daily derive new ideas, and from which you can reason negatively with great profit, as some old expositors have done with such effect? Yes; well may you "adore the fulness of the Scriptures:" for in that book, as Mr. Boyle says, rising upon the idea of Lord Bacon," there is such a fulness, that oftentimes it says much by saying nothing; as not only its expressions but its silences are teaching: like a dial, in which the shadow as well as the light informs us." Family reading, on the part of a Parent, ought therefore, unquestionably, to be associated with a spirit of desire or reverent inquiry, and more especially since it is to be immediately followed by family prayer. The man who expects to find little or nothing in his daily reading, will insensibly turn the means into an end, which is a flagrant abuse, and sink down to the low and dull ground of what is called, though falsely, doing duty." But should the Parent only possess the desire or spirit for discovering the mind of God in the Scriptures; should he thus be found watching daily at the gates of wisdom, and thus waiting at the posts of her doors; I am saved at once from almost any directions as to the manner of reading. He will then certainly read as one who himself expects either to be gratified or refreshed with what he has known, and relished, or admired before; or as one who expects to observe somewhat which he had never till then discovered. Yes, if he is expecting information, and watching for excitement, this will serve instead of many, if not any directions; for this will induce a liabit of reading deliberately,--of reading distinctly,-and with what is of the greatest moment, in promoting attention and abiding impression,-occasional pauses. This desire of his own too, accompanied as it is with such delight, the Parent will as certainly wish to impart to his children and servants, so that the explanation, occasionally, of particular words, will follow of course, a practice which is of essential importance, if interest is to be kept up, or ideas fixed in the mind. With dispositions such as these, the leader of daily Family Devotion cannot fail to derive immense benefit himself from thus daily reading alcud to his family the living Oracles of God. Such a man will not only be charmed by seeing different passages interchange light with each other; not only will he be convinced that the doctrines there are of importance, but he will own, that even those truths which require but few perusals to be understood, require many to be duly impressed; our prepos terously partial memories being but too rarely like quicksilver, in which nothing will sink but gold. "The word of God," he will say, "must not be as a passenger, or sparingly entertained in our minds, but must dwell there, and that richly; for that word which James pronounces to be able to save our souls,' he describes as a graff, which must not only be closely embraced by that wherein it is to fructify, but must continue there, to bring the stock and the graff, if I may so speak, to concorporate."-Boyle. Such a man, it is true, hears some persons complain of the obscurity of Scripture; but all that obscurity of which they complain, to him has often appeared merely like a mist, which seems thicker at a distance than when you enter it. Many a time has he entered this prosperously, and found, to his joyful experience, that that which at a distance overawed him, was not intended to frustrate industry, but to check the presumptuous, or punish indolence. Nay, even as to profound obscurities, or the dazzling and sublime of Scripture, this daily reader says, "The apostle's motive to hospitality, Be not forgetful to entertain stran gers, for thereby some have enter tained angels unawares,' will, without being overstretched, take in those texts of Scripture with which we are unacquainted. For in them we may easily, with Abraham and Lot, entertain greater guests than we are aware of; and who, when their true condition appears, may recompence our entertainment of them, by showering down blessings upon us, and rescuing us from the company and destiny of the wicked." Great, alas! are the evils, and immense the loss, which have resulted from reading the Sacred Volume, during Family Worship, in a slovenly and irreverent manner, or even in the absence of such dispositions as have now been recommended; and this must form my apology for dwelling on the subject so long: while, on the other hand, I feel the more disposed to enforce such reverent and grateful perusal of the Sacred Vofume; and such disposedness to receive this word as the truth of God, which effectually worketh in all who believe; and such eager desire after discovering His mind there; from a deep persuasion that great and egregious ignorance still remains in the world, as to the precise meaning of the sacred text: because also, I am fully assured, that many a such devout daily reader might discover a ray of light, or a hidden beauty, which has hitherto escaped the searching eye of the deepest Divine. No hurry of business, nor any lawful occupation of this transitory and uncertain life, can form any apology for one short historical or prophetical passage not being read in the morning and one devotional or epistolary passage in the evening of the day. And no business of life whatever need prevent such discovery as ought ever to be the object of every reader: nor when the humblest Christian comes daily with a degree of this thirst after truth, will any occupation be permitted to prevent him. Certainly, it was not a man who had nothing else to do; nor was it a man sitting down deliberately, in a professional way, who once said, "O how I love thy law! it is my meditation all the day," or every day. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation: l'understand more than the ancients, be cause I keep thy precepts." "When I first began attentively to read the Scriptures, and, according to my custom when I read books, whereof O were the Sacred Scriptures only thus daily read in Christian families, the effects could not, in the I have a promising expectation, to mark in the margin the passages that seemed to deserve a peculiar notice or reflec tion, I marked but here and there some verses in a chapter; but when upon a greater familiarity with the idiotisms, or peculiarity of expression, the sense and the applicableness of Scripture, I came to survey it, I then, in some places, marked the whole chapter, and, in most others, left much fewer texts than before, unfurnished with some mark of reference, And whereas, at my entrance, I took even the choicest part of the Bible to be at best but like some Indian province, wherein, though miues and gems were more abundant than in other countries, yet were they but sparingly to be met with here and there: After a competent stay, my ensuing perusals presented it me, if not as a royal jewel made up of gold and precious stones, yet (which is more glorious) like Aaron's breast-plate,-a sacred jewel,the particular instructions for which were given by God himself, and which, besides the various flaming gems, set in fine gold, and placed in a mysterious order, was ennobled by that Urim and Thummin, wherein God vouchsafed to reveal himself to mortals; and which was adorned with so much cunning work in gold, with blue, purple, scarlet, and finetwined linen, that the contrivance and workmanship lent a lustre to the glittering materials, without being obscured by them. This experiment keeps me from wondering to find in the inspired Poet's description of the man, to whom he attributes a blessedness, that his (chaphatz) delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. For the word other translations render voluntas and studium, ours has rendered delight. Indeed, the Hebrew will bear both senses, and seems there emphatically to signify, a study replenished with so much delight to the devout and intelligent prosecutors of it, that, like the hallelujabs of the blessed, it is at once a duty and a pleasure, an exercise and a recompense of piety. And, indeed, if God's blessing upon the devout Christian's study of that book do open his eyes to discern the hidden wonders' contained in it, he should, and he will, in imitation of the Psalmist in the same Psalm, say of his God, I rejoice at thy word as one that findeth great nature of things, remain long hid; nor could these be long confined only to a blessing on the humble habitation of the righteous. Then would the low estimate, which, alas ! many entertain of the written word, be tenable no more: then, too, would the great value of this instrument,this means to an end; for, after all that has been said, the Scriptures are only an instrument, and only a means to an end: but then would their true value and divine intent become both striking and most delightful: then head, and stand up, and shake her. would the Church begin to erect her self from the dust of ages and ge nerations: then would her members, not merely know how to behave themselves in the house of God, but then would the Church manifestly appear to be "the Church of the living God;" nay, the very "pillar, and ground, or stay of the truth." Let not, then, any Christian parent, however humble his lot, or even scanty his fare, be diverted from endeavouring to drink deeply of such dispositions towards this thriceblessed Book. His own progress in discovering the mind of God, though it should be slow at first, will cheer him on his way; and a discovery, however small, will occasionally fill him with an admiration and joy akin to those which once animated" our beloved brother Paul," when the very Spirit, by which he was writing at the moment, induced him to exclaim, —“O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his spoil, and am as satisfied as navigators that discover unknown countries. And I must confess, that, when sometimes, with the apostles in the mount, I contemplate Moses and Elias talking with phets symphonizing with the Gospel, Christ, I mean the Law and the ProI cannot but, resemblingly transported It is good for me to be here;' and I with a like motive, exclaim with Peter, bolist, for comparing the transcendant cease to think the Psalmist a hypersweetness of God's word to that infe nothing more than in that, of both rior one of honey; which is like it in their suavities, experience gives much more advantageous notions than de scriptions can.”—Boyle. 1 |