The practice of domestic worship has, happily, subsisted in every period of the Christian Church. The godly men who effected the great Reformation of the sixteenth century, and the Puritans who followed in their steps, and built up the Church on the foundation they laid, conscientiously practised and earnestly enforced it. This was a branch of their conduct, for which they incurred the ridicule of a careless and ungodly world. Still they regarded it as an inseparable appendage of true piety, and would have required no further proof of irreligion in a family than the absence of domestic prayers. The well-known reformation effected by the labours of good Richard Baxter in the town of Kidderminster, was largely promoted and clearly indicated by his conferences with the families of his parish, and by the establishment of domestic worship in their dwellings. He says in his own simple, beautiful way, “On the Lord's day there was no disorder to be seen in the streets; but you might hear a hundred families singing psalms and repeating sermons as you passed through them. When I came thither first, there was about one family in a street that worshipped God and called on His name; and when I came away there were some streets where there was not one poor family in the street that did not do so; and that did not, by professing serious godliness, give us hopes of their sincerity." It is thought by many persons that the practice of familyworship is not so constantly and earnestly maintained by us as it was by our pious forefathers. The intellectual activity of the age, the keen competition of commercial pursuits, the numerous calls on Christian ministers and laymen for religious services from home, are all more or less unfriendly to the cultivation of family religion for domestic worship; and these things, in many cases, it is feared, lead to the neglect of household-devotion. If there be truth in this supposition, it reveals a state of things which may well awaken concern, and prompt to immediate improvement.

The practice of morning and evening family-prayer commends itself to our judgment and feelings by its reasonable nature and numerous advantages. By this act we socially recognize God as the Author of all temporal and spiritual blessings. It is a natural and necessary acknowledgment of the dependence of families upon Him, and of the innumerable obligations they are under to His goodness. Through its instrumentality, correct impressions of the nature and value of religion are conveyed to children, to servants, and to strangers occasionally "within the gate." The constant recurrence of the hour of prayer must, with its accompanying instruction, increase the religious knowledge of the young and inexperienced. Invalids, and persons who are prevented by domestic duties from a regular attendance on the public

worship of the Church, are by its means, to some extent, compensated for its privation. Personal comfort and domestic order are alike promoted by the exercise. The nameless distinctions of character and varieties of temper in a household are subdued and brought gently into harmony in mutual prayer. Morning and nightly prayer, as it has been well observed by the late Robert Hall, "will serve as an edge and border to preserve the web of life from unravelling; it will tend to keep everything in its proper place, and naturally introduce a similar regularity into other employments." At the family altar the difficulties and sorrows of life are sanctified; gratitude for daily mercies is excited; the bonds of social attachment are strengthened; and a holy influence is shed over all the relations and engagements of the family, which renders it, in an humble degree, a type of the family in heaven.

There is a peculiar charm in household devotion, which is often intensified by a number of interesting circumstances belonging to the ever-varying history of the family. He who conducts its devotions aright, will not fail to allude to the more striking incidents of daily life, whether of a pleasing or of a painful kind, and seek to derive from these the appropriate utterances of gratitude, or of calm submission to the divine will. At such seasons, the parent, whether father or mother, is invested, to a child, with unearthly features, doubly sacred, not only as the natural head, but as the spiritual advocate and instructor, invested not only with parental authority, but with "the beauty of holiness." Recollections of some of these hallowed seasons of family-worship have often followed the youthful wanderer from his father's house to the ends of the earth, and terminated in a return to Christ. It was the deliberate conviction of Matthew Henry,-a conviction shared by many godly men, that if domestic worship were more what it ought to be, conversion, as a rule, would occur not in our congregations, but in our families. We should then have a Church in the house. Our sons would be "as plants grown up in their youth," and our "daughters as corner-stones, polished after the similitude of a palace.”

Very much of the benefit of family-worship may be lost by an injudicious manner of conducting it. This should be carefully avoided. All unnaturalness and affected mannerism ought to be shunned. Some good people, both in the social meeting for prayer, and at the family altar, the moment they begin to pray, employ a mournful tone and lugubrious method which may readily induce indifference and aversion, especially on the part of the young. Some prayers become wearisome by their length and numerous repetitions. These evils can readily be avoided. Nowhere should prayer be happier than in the domestic sanctuary, so as to teach those who join in it, that the ways of religion are

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pleasantness, and all her paths" paths of "peace." The Scriptures to be read at family worship should be carefully selected, so as to make them profitable. Where the Bible is read consecutively through, as it is in some families, the reading should be diversified by taking the Old Testament generally for one part of the day, and the New Testament, with the Book of Psalms, for the other. Certain portions from the former may be omitted, as not suitable for domestic worship; [and long lists of names, genealogies, &c., may, in many instances, be properly passed over]. If comments or reflections be read, they may judiciously be selected from such works as the Family Expositor of Dr. Doddridge, [or the Commentary of the Rev. Joseph Sutcliffe]; but in each case they should be brief and pointed. All the persons expected to join in the worship should be furnished with a copy of a Bible, so that the eye may follow the reading, and assist the mind in comprehending its meaning. The service may be enlivened by the reading of a hymn; and, in some cases, by a short service of song. It requires but an ordinary amount of diligent attention on the part of those who lead domestic worship to make it at once attractive and useful.—Evangelical Magazine.

KIND WORDS.

KIND words do not cost much. They never blister the tongue or the lips of him who speaks them; nor have we ever heard of any mental trouble arising therefrom. But though kind words cost little, they accomplish a great deal. In the first place, they help one's own good nature and good will. Soft words soften one's own soul. Angry words are fuel to the flame of wrath, and make it blaze all the more fiercely. In the second place, kind words make other people kind and good-natured. Cold words freeze people; hot words scorch them; sarcastic words irritate them; bitter words make them bitter, and wrathful words make them wrathful. And there is such a rush of all other kinds of words, that it seems desirous to give kind words a chance among them. There are vain words, and idle words, and hasty words, and spiteful words, and silly words, and empty words, and profane words, and boisterous words, and war-like words. These all produce bad impressions, and impressions, too, that may last for ever. But kind words produce their own image on men's souls, and a beautiful image it

is. They soothe and soften the ruffled temper, and quiet and comfort the troubled heart. They are like oil upon the troubled waters. They shame men out of their sour, snappish, morose, unkind feelings, and often turn the lion into a lamb. "A soft answer turneth away wrath; but grievous words stir up anger." If, however, you meet with a man whose hot temper is proof against the power of kind words, better let him alone than fight with him. The fire will presently burn out for the want of fuel. Like a boiler, he may be ready to burst, but let him alone he will be quiet enough presently when the steam has blown off. A man may fight duels all his life if he is disposed to quarrel; but life is too precious to be spent in such unhallowed employment.

J. VAUGHAN.

GOOD RESOLUTIONS FOR BEGINNING A NEW YEAR.

BY THE HELP OF GOD,

1. I WILL seriously examine my heart and past conduct, and penitently seek, until I obtain, pardon for all my past unfaithfulness, and a sense of the favour of God. (2 Cor. xiii. 5.)

2. I will fervently and believingly seek the spiritual blessings held out to me in the provisions and promises of the Gospel. (1 Thess. V. 16-18.)

3. I will endeavour, in my thoughts, words, and actions, exactly to conform to the revealed will of God, which is my "reasonable service," shunning not only evil itself, but also all appearance of it. (John xiv. 21; James i. 22; 1 John iii. 7; 1 John v. 3.)

4. I will, unless a case of necessity arises, keep my tongue from speaking what is to the discredit of absent persons, whether it be true or false; because thus to speak is not "doing to others as I would they should do to me." (James iv. 11, 12.)

5. In hearing the preached word, I will judge myself rather than the preacher; remembering that Providence has given me the privilege of hearing the Gospel, not to amuse me, but to instruct and edify me. (2 Cor. v. 18-20; 1 Thess. v. 12, 13.)

6. I will read every day at least one chapter of the inspired epistles, that my knowledge of my personal and relative duties may be constantly on the increase. (Psalm cxix. 11, 97; John v. 39; 2 Peter iii. 1, 2.)

7. I will every day, in secret, pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon myself, upon the Church to which I belong, and upon all mankind. (Psalm xxxiv. 15; Matt. vi. 6.)

8. As often as possible I will attend the weekly prayer-meeting, held expressly to seek a blessing upon the Church and upon the world; and, when there, I will strive to follow with my heart, to the throne of grace, all those who audibly call upon God. (Matt. xviii. 19, 20; 2 Thess. iii. 1; 1 Tim. ii. 8; Heb. xiii. 18.)

9. I will endeavour to persuade all with whom I have any influence to attend the house of God. (Rom. x. 14.)

10. I will entreat the undecided to join themselves to the professed people of God, assured that there cannot be a good reason for remaining at a distance from them. (Matt. x. 32, 33; Matt. xii. 30; Matt. xvi. 24, 26; Luke xii. 8, 9; 1. Thess. v. 11.)

11. That God's service may be to me perfect freedom, I will cherish as my sole motive, in doing or giving, grateful love to my Saviour. (John xiv. 21; 1 Cor. x. 31.)

12. I will seek to strengthen my purpose by the recollection, that to act upon these, or similar, resolutions, will, at least, add greatly to my own spiritual benefit. (Job xvii. 9.)

13. I will refresh my memory as to these resolutions at least once a week, seriously examining how far I have kept them, and with what promptitude and zeal. (Prov. iv. 25, 26.)

Reader! are not all the sentiments in these resolutions included in * Christianity in earnest ?" Then art thou in earnest ? "Strive to enter in at the strait gate." (Rom. xii. 1, 2.)

THE FAITHFULLY TRIUMPHANT.

"ALL these died in faith." They were his witnesses, that He kept everything hurtful from them, and brought them in triumph to the end of their lives. That great company round his throne who are crowned conquerors, testify for Him that He did not leave them, nor forsake them one moment. He kept his word with them. He smoothed their bed in their sickness. He was tender over them, and wiped away all tears from their eyes. When fainting, He gave them strong consolation. He was with them-their Saviour and their God-the tender care of his heart and the mighty power of his arm, were never more felt than when most wanted. He kept his peace ruling in their consciences always and by all means, and gave them to feel that bodily pain could not lessen his love to them, nor abate or stop their love to Him.-Rom tine.