FAMILY RELIGION.

It is not to be concealed, that the salutary discipline of domestic government, the great business of religious education, and, above all, the reasonable and interesting practice. of family worship, have fallen into a degree of disuse, of which it is more easy to conjecture the extent than to counteract the example, more easy to lament the symptoms than to predict the consequences.

Christians, the worship of God in your families is a reasonable service, and may be rendered a most profitable service. These are the two heads of our remarks. First, then, it is a reasonable service. If there be any who doubt this, their reasons are to me utterly beyond conjecture. It is not easy to imagine any reasons, which can be suggested, in favor of public, congregational worship, which are not equally strong in favor of the worship of families. The same God, whose providence governs communities, presides over the small circles of which communities are composed. It is he, who "setteth the solitary in families." It is he, who has united them in ties more intimate than any which can bind together the members of a large society.

Is it of any consequence, that the public should be impressed with reverence for God and his government? Surely, then, no practice can be indifferent which will make those impressions early, stamp them deeply, and give ideas

of religion an intimate association with the most tender, amiable, and lasting affections of the human heart.

It is not necessary to insist on the authority which the head of a family possesses for this service, and which it is his duty to exercise with fidelity and affection. However much the relaxation of the sentiments of religion, conspiring with other maxims of insubordination, may have enfeebled the authority of parents and masters in this age and under this government, the obligation of those, who are at the head of families, to provide for the religious wants of those who depend on them for support, is still commensurate with the power; for it is the power, which everywhere constitutes the obligation; and I shall refuse to believe that the power is extinct, till some serious attempt to revive and exercise it shall have failed. The father and the master may yet be the priest of his household.

But you ask, Is it not enough, that we observe our private devotions, in which we pray for our families, but must we also pray with them? I might reply by asking, Is it enough, that I give orders for the provision of the day, though I never take a repast with my family? Is it enough, that I secretly wish my children should possess knowledge, which I take no care to communicate; or habits, of which I set not the example; or principles, which I take no pains to enforce? Unless it is first taken for granted, that the practice, which we recommend, is either unnatural, unreasonable, or useless, no man, much less a Christian, can have fulfilled his parental and domestic obligations, while he neglects to make an experiment, at least, of family worship.

Can any one imagine that topics will be wanting, while there are so many subjects of family congratulation and

thanksgiving, so many occasions for acknowledging domestic sins, so many family anxieties and afflictions, wants and mercies, hopes and fears? Is not every occasion, which you are still disposed to acknowledge in public by the notes which you send to be read in the sanctuary, an occasion for domestic gratitude, or supplication, or acknowledgment? Surely, every truly devout sentiment, which you are ready to make the subject of public expression in the house of God, is worthy of being expressed on the spot where it was excited, in the circle where it is most intimately felt; and how many occasions are there, which it would be painful or improper to notice in any other place!

If we look back to the manners of the ancient world, and to the practice of the very heathens themselves, we shall find the rites of family religion everywhere prevailing. It was a dictate of nature to those Gentiles who, "having not the law" of Moses, or any express revelation, were "a law unto themselves." Who can avoid discerning this fact in the frequent mention of the household gods of the pagans? How touching that passage in the Roman poet, where old Anchises is represented escaping from the flames of Troy, and taking in his hand the images of his domestic deities!

"The good old man, with suppliant hands, implored
The gods' protection, and their star adored:

Now, now, my son, no more delay,

I yield, I follow, where Heaven shows the way:
Keep, O my country's gods! our dwelling place,
And guard this relique of the Trojan race,

This tender child!

What! Shall the images of the heathen world cry out against us; and the voice of nature be preserved only in

the fictions of poetry; and the records of idolatry? Shall the men of Troy "rise up in judgment against this generation, and condemn it?"

Our second assertion was, that it is a profitable practice. If anything can effectually revive and secure the fidelity of parents, the affection of husbands and wives, the moral restraint and early piety of children, the peace of domestic life, the attachment of servants, and the general order of families, it must be the revival of family religion. This must impose a check on the impetuosity of our passions, and give to the conversation of the household a sobriety and purity which nothing else can so effectually secure. It is not easy to believe that profaneness and riot should ever find their way, much less take up their abode, in a house, where the presence of God is, every day, recognised, his protection sought, his bounty acknowledged, his pardon implored.

There is also another consideration, which is by no means of little moment. By the regular reading of the Scriptures in select portions, as introductory to the acts of family devotion, there is given to the young a knowledge of these sacred writings, and a reverence for them, which can be in no other way so early and so easily acquired. If it could, for a moment, be supposed, that the heads of families stood not in need of this instruction, and that they would derive from it no advantage, yet a pious and benevolent regard to our children and domestics ought to render us all willing, punctual, and faithful in the performance of a service which would produce the happiest and most lasting effects.

Yet there are those who, insensible to those moral and spiritual benefits, and looking only at present and visi

ble advantages, ask, with a most deplorable unconcern, "What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?" If you think it nothing, then, to have those about you impressed with the fear of God; if you think it a poor consideration, to raise a seed to preserve the sentiments of religion and pure Christianity for succeeding generations; if you think it nothing, that those, who leave your families, to establish families of their own, should carry with them the spirit of prayer, and the faith of the gospel; at least, reflect on the influence which the blessing of God, thus faithfully sought, may have upon your own industry and temporal circumstances, and upon the happiness of domestic life. "The curse of the Lord is in the habitation of the wicked, but he blesseth the habitation of the just."

You complain of the irregularity and perversities of youth, that you have lost the control of your children, and that you cannot correct the evil habits which they have early and unguardedly formed. Do not lament the wickedness of the times, and complain that your children are ruined; but think, what have you done for them? You have neglected to call to your aid, in the government of them, that most powerful of principles, the early fear of God. Could they fail to feel a powerful reverence for the name of God, if they had been daily witnesses of domestic worship? You are shocked with their profaneness; think where they first learned it, and where they might first have been guarded against it. Do you complain of their ingratitude, their irreverence for your advice and correction? Ah! they have not been taught their duty to the Great First Parent! Do you complain of the negligence and unfaithfulness of servants? How should it be otherwise,