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tive blessings on the head of Timothy, what was the consequence? Why, that when but a young man, he was capable of being urged, by his spiritual Father, to reach the very height or acmé of all Christian excellence. "Let no man," said he to him, "despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity or love, in spirit, in faith, in purity."

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An example" of these things did he urge? But are these all in which the Minister of Christ is to excel? Or is he left to gather, from general terms only, his peculiar obligations as a Parent of Children or the Master of a Family? What then, in these days, were the qualifications for office? Alas! my friend, what reply is ready for the man, for even any man who is able to stand up and say-" Look to the Children or Servants of that Minister! See how they conduct themselves, and judge how they must have been trained! Grace he cannot communicate, nor do we ask him; but has he been vigilant at home? Has he been patient and moderate at home?-generous, or given to hospitality, and not covetous? Has he, as a sine qua non, ruled well his own house, and had his Children in subjection with all gravity? Whence, then, this lightness-these expensive habits—and this insubordination? How can this man ever expect to make full proof of his Ministry? How can he take care of the Church of God?

These, my reader, if we are wise, are not provoking questions. No; they are but the reverberations of Infinite Wisdom, come from what lips they may; and they ought to induce every man, who sustains the office of the Ministry, or the office of a Deacon,

frequently to observe, that the Great Head of the Church, as has been already noticed, by glancing at this subject, and fixing the eye of his associated people, at the moment of induction into both offices, intended, while providing for the government of his own Family upon earth, to bring up also that of the Domestic Circle, to the highest possible state of perfection. And O were these Families once but what they ought to be-once but what they might beonce what the great Head of the Church hath actually demanded, and what therefore he must expect from them-then indeed would they prove, in their respective enclosures, like so many "trees of life" in the garden of the Lord.

For such a consummation, however, though not a groundless expectation, let no Christian Parent wait. The frame of human society is incessantly giving way; Families are daily breaking up; and the Church universal has yet to pass the scrutiny of an omniscient eye: then must every man's work be made manifest— then must every man bear his own burden, and every man give an account of himself unto God.

THE END.

The Names of Individuals are noticed, in connexion with the Domestic Constitution, principally
as Parents or Children, occasionally as Masters or Servants.

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