tion will preserve you from sin, and animate you to the practice of every good work.

Next to God, let your Saviour Jesus Christ be the object of your ardent affection. It is the happiness of the christian, that he has received his religion from a person, who has not only taught him a complete system of duty, but has also established the whole by his own immaculate example. Learn of Jesus what the Lord your God has required of you; and you will obtain rest unto your souls. Obey all his commands; comply with all the ordinances which he has instituted, particularly with the sacred rite of the Lord's supper, which was ordained to commemorate the highest instance of his love to you, his submitting to death for the salvation of mankind. You feel it to be your duty to be grateful to your benefactors: is it not then your duty in a supereminent degree to be grateful to your kind friend, to your generous benefactor, who has done and suffered so much for your benefit? Let not the sophistry of infidels shake your faith, or induce you to reject the christian religion, before you have carefully examined its evidence. If you attend to it with seriousness and impartiality, you will probably believe that it is a system which came from

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heaven; and you will submit to the authority of God, who has established its divinity by many infallible signs, by many convincing arguments. When you are persuaded of the truth of the christian religion, dare to profess it openly. Be not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, even in an age of infidelity. Study the doctrines of divine revelation, as they are contained in the New Testament, carefully rejecting the corrupt additions, which have been made to them by the craft of the designing, or the weakness of the superstitious. Let your faith be simple and rational; equally removed from the two extremes, of credulity on the one hand, and skepticism on the other, Be neither bigoted nor indifferent in maintaining your religious opinions. In a word, as the disciples of Christ, be liberal in your principles, but piously strict, and virtuously scrupulous in your practice.

AFTER the love of God and your Saviour, the most important duties of man are the relative duties. To few of you an opportunity is afforded of performing brilliant acts of virtue; but all of you can fulfil the common obligations of life, by which the happiness of the world will be as effectually promoted.

Say not then, that the commandment, which God commands you, is hidden from you, and that it is far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto you, in your mouth, and in your heart, in your house, and in your daily walks, that you may do it.* If you act well in the relations of husband and wife, parent and child, brother and sister, master and servant, ruler and subject, you have then performed the greatest part of the duty which God requires of you.

I exhort you, who are an husband, in the words of St. Paul, to love your wife, even as you love yourself.† Give honour to her as the more delicate vessel : respect the delicacy of her frame, and the delicacy of her mind. Continue through life the same attention, the same manly tenderness, which in youth gained her affections. Reflect that though her bodily charms have decayed, as she has advanced.

*Deut. xxx. 11-14. Ephes. v. 33. 1 Pet. iii. 7.

in age, yet that her mental charms have increased; and that though novelty is worn off, yet that habit and a thousand acts of kindness have strengthened your mutual friendship. Devote yourself to her; and after the hours of business, let the pleasures which you most highly prize, be found in her society.

I exhort you, who are a wife, to be gentle and condescending to your husband. Let the influence, which you possess over him, arise from the mildness of your manners and the discretion of your conduct. Whilst you are careful to adorn your person with neat and clean apparel-for no woman can long preserve affection, if she is negligent in this point-be still more attentive in ornamenting your mind with meekness and peace, with cheerfulness and good humour. Lighten the cares, and chase away the vexations, to which men in their commerce with the world are unavoidably exposed, by rendering his house pleasant to your husband. Keep at home; let your employments be domestick, and your pleasures domestick.

To both husband and wife I say: Keep a strict guard over your tongues, that you never utter any thing which is rude, contemptuous, or severe; and over your tempers, that you

never appear sullen and morose.

Endeavour

to be perfect yourselves, but expect not too much from each other. If any offence arises, forgive it; and think not a human being can be exempt from faults.

I exhort you, parents, to love your children. Make them as happy as is consistent with innocence. Remember that the periods of childhood and youth soon pass away; and that they ought not to be deprived of any satisfactions, which of right belong to them. Let your government be mild and equable. Provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.* Irritate not their tempers with severity; torture not their hearts with cruelty. The love of power is so natural to man, that even parents are in danger of displaying too much in the management of their children, and of exacting from them too slavish a submission. The wills of children should be regulated, but not broken. Be careful, therefore, whilst you aim to make them modest and obedient, that you do not render them diffident and servile; that you do not stifle manliness of sentiment, and heroism of conduct; that you do not disqualify

* Col. iii. 21.