own character as a Parent, by regard to the highest interests of your offspring, as well as the peace and well-being of posterity bound, in short, by the strongest ties of our nature, as well as the revealed will of God. How strong must that obligation be, the violation of which can and will secure the united testimony of so many witnesses against you: and, ah! how could you ever meet them, and meet them all in union, another day? Suffer them but to speak now, and you will not be able to endure even the prospect.

After all, this is by no means the only line of argument which might be adopted. Did you never think of the meaning of the English word Paternity, or Fathership? This relation as such necessarily involves much. Consider it only for a moment in two points of view, as connected with God and with your family. In the first connexion, does it not involve trust? When God places any man, before solitary, or only a son, at the head of a family, does he not say by such a step,-"I constitute you as the trustee, the guide, the guardian of this part of mankind? All under the roof are your charge, and to you intrusted." Now, for what end? To be ruled, or not? to be instructed, or not? to be by your example and your precepts led to heaven, or not? The negative, in such cases, is not merely monstrous; it is profane. If the first connexion involves duty to be discharged for God, the second involves love of and care over those given to you by him. But of the body only, or of the body without any reference to the great inhabitant within? The negative here is not less objectionable; it is cruelty and hatred. Only act, therefore, under the influence of this trust, and this incumbent love and

care: then might one say to you,—“ Neglect Family Government, or even Family Devotion, if you can."

The obligation to Family Government being, therefore, granted, all that is necessary in illustration of the subject may be comprehended under the three following heads, viz. Family Order, Subordination, and Harmony.

Order. Every person is pleased with this exhibition of a Family, though many are by no means equally in love with its cause; just as many are pleased with the humble man, who do not love humility. But still order is but another name for an effect whose cause is government; and as it is in the world of nature where effects are viewed with delight, when their proximate cause is kept concealed by Infinite Wisdom, so the order of a Family rises in our admiration just in proportion as its cause is withdrawn from public view, or the notice of a stranger. On the other hand, nothing is more irksome to the visitors in a family, than to see the cause and its effect justle with each other, when authority and disorder are contending for the superiority. The reason of this is obvious. It is a transgression on the part of the Parents in our presence, and involuntarily, as it were, we think of them, not the Children. The government is their affair alone, not ours; the effect is ours, in part, and, on going into a family, is meant at once for our comfort, our encouragement, and our instruction. Never let Parents for one moment suppose, that any friend can be gratified with their chiding, or pointing, or bustling in his presence. This is not the way to proceed even behind the curtain, much

every one of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence her husband."

Thus, lest there should be any mistake or misunderstanding, it is expressly revealed, that in the management of the common Family, the husband stands in a situation analogous to that in which even Christ stands to the Church. Nothing being so essential to mutual harmony, and harmonious operation, as an explanation of the grounds of authority and the true character and connexion of such an intimate relation as this, in addressing the Wife, she is informed, not by the Husband, but by God himself, that, as Christ is her Governor in the Church, so is her Husband in the Family. His authority over her there, however, like that of the Saviour's over the Church, is founded in the love which he bears to her, the protection he affords, and the provision which he makes for her, of all the necessaries, and, if possible, the conveniences of life. What a serious situation, then, and how full of responsibility, is that of every husband! The obedience enjoined by God is, it seems, not for the Husband's gratification merely, but for a higher end; and, in return for the honour which is put upon him, he is bound to the fulfilment of corresponding duties. Should he presume to trifle with this love-this protection-this provision,-then does he vacate the obligation on which the submission of his partner in life is founded. True, she may; and if, under the influence of Christian principle, she will act as consistently as she can; but he has no right whatever to complain, nor can a single intimation as to her duty escape with grace from his lips. The connexion is

of the highest reciprocal character, involving a mutual endeavour to make each other happy: and the Husband, who is conscious of failing in duty, should be led back to his own delinquency, by every failure on the part of his Wife. In one word, if the Wife is to be subject to her Husband as unto the Lord, then is he to love his Wife even as Christ loved the Church.

Parents, it is true, have their infirmities, and do not always see eye to eye; but if each is impressed, as each ought to be, with the importance of every misunderstanding being explained and settled, not in the presence of their Family, but when alone, they will mutually waive any expression of dissent till the proper season. Should this precaution be disregarded, Children will not only range under opposite sides, but they are in imminent danger of failing in duty and respect to that Parent from whom they differ. The tranquillity of both Parents, as well as the peace of all under that roof, are then and thus at an end.

On the other hand, imperfect though Parents be, and though both may and will fall short, occasionally, still success, and safety, and domestic order, depend on both aiming after the right pattern. Should their mutual love be grounded on esteem, there is a secret and instituted virtue in their example, which will descend on a constitution of things divinely adapted and appointed to receive it. In every union of which God approves (and he approves of whatever he has appointed and enjoined), he intends not only the present enjoyment of two or three-he has a higher end in view; and what can that end be, in this case, if it is not to promote in all under our roof, the same mutual endeavour to make each other happy?

The foundation of order being thus laid, as securely as the present state of human nature will admit, in the inviolable and strong attachment, as well as the assiduous endeavours of both Parents; both being bound, and to be themselves governed by law; we are prepared to illustrate the next branch of Family Government.

Subordination, or the establishment of authority.-The peculiarity of the Domestic Constitution is to be seen in a most beautiful and interesting light, by observing the manner in which subordination is established. Our Creator appears here, as on many other occasions, to know our frame, and to remember that we are but dust, by making our commencement as easy as it is possible.

In his own moral government, where conscience is in operation, and reason has dawned, a society of intelligent beings, to which he is united, ruling as Head; knowing that his authority can neither be established nor maintained sufficiently, without exhibiting and enforcing methods, and rules, and ends; therefore has he surrounded us by his works, and put into our hand his own divine revelation. But a

Parent he stations to watch over the seedlings or buds only of this moral government. There, in their most important, because their earliest years, neither conscience nor reason are yet in operation; and for some time, at least, our government of our Children stands in the same relation to them which the Almighty's general government of providential disposal does to us. Men, indeed, who are but Children of larger growth, often complain of Providence, and strangely