without the friendly aid of religion; nor dispense with the public institutions of worship, and the exercises of private devotion; nor die without the divine presence; these things are both profitable and needful to us. If their strength required to be constantly thus renewed, let us place no confidence in mere mortal energy: let us not turn our feet from the house of God: let us neither despise his ordinances, nor violate the sanctity of his day; let us receive with humility and with gratitude all the means of religious instruction.

MARRIAGE.

SUCH an union, arises out of the necessity of human nature, and is essential to its happiness. It originated in the appointment of God-it received the sanction of his law-it has been honoured and exalted in the New Testament—and it is sealed alike by religion, nature, and reason. It is an institution which gives two parties a common interest, and thus cements an union closer than any worldly friendship, while it builds it upon a basis not to be shaken or destroyed. The sorrows of life are lightened by becoming divided; and its pleasures are multiplied by participation. It gives an impulse to a combination of talents, of zeal, of exertion-and modifies and tempers the asperities of human life. It gives to duty the irresistible force of affection, and the present recom

pense of enjoyment. Where it is sanctified by the influence of religion, solitary devotion becomes social; united prayers and praises ascend to the throne of mercy; and they are mutual helpers of each other's faith and holiness. This institution received the sanction of the presence of Jesus, as a seal to its obligations. This fact points out the only way in which we have a right to expect happiness and prosperity in the connection-to make God a party in the rite, and to invite Jesus as a guest, not merely in the nuptial rejoicings, but also in all the domestic arrangements, and through all the scenes of human life. It was reserved to the profligacy and inimorality of these last days, to pour contempt upon an institution divinely appointed, so repeatedly honoured under every religious dispensation, and so highly distinguished. It is one of the effects of that scepticisin, or rather let me call it infidelity, which strikes at all order, and aims to destroy the very existence of society, by trampling upon the laws of Christianity, and by renouncing its authority. The results of such principles have been too fatally developed, especially of late, in the higher classes of society, by the infringement of the rights of this wise and holy in- . stitution; by a violation of its duties; by outrage upon its feelings; by an invasion of its sanctity, and by a wanton destruction of its domestic happiness. Our public journals are stained and polluted with narratives, but too frequent, of the dishonour endured on the one side, and the indig

nity offered on the other, of the respective parties, and the sweet tranquillity of social order is abolished to make way for the indulgence of the most criminal passions. Families are divided and scattered; divorces succeed debauchery; children are early initiated into the mysteries of vicious refinement; and the morals of a generation to come are already tainted and debilitated, if not totally ruined. It arises from the diffusion of the pernicious principles of scepticism, and not from the pure code of revelation, which has imparted unfading glory to this institution. Out of modern philosophy, (as it has dared to call itself,) has arisen this hardness of the human heart, this contempt of social feeling, this irregularity and impurity of conduct. "Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning, made them male and female; and said, 'for this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What, therefore, God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.""

RELATIVE DUTIES.

OUT of every relation of life, whether it be natural or spiritual, correspondent duties arise. Every step that we take in life, they increase and multiply. He that extends his influence, enlarges his circle, and widens his sphere, augments his obli

gations in the same proportion. Nature constituted him a son, and imposed upon him filial duties. Inclination moulded him into a friend; and out of his affections sprang the obligations of friendship. He becomes, in process of time, a husband, and a parent; his heart thrills with new emotions, his bosom burns with other fires: but these all imply. new duties—all require fresh vigour, diligence, and activity. So of spiritual relations. Our existence links us to the Deity. He is our Creator; for it is he who "hath made us, and not we ourselves." He is our preserver; in defiance of ourselves we must be dependent, because we live upon his bounty; "He gives us life, and breath, and all things." All this constitutes obligation, and, on our part, supposes duty; whether it be acknowledged or denied, whether it be regarded or disregarded. But there are other and voluntary ties: voluntary, because although they were formed by the power and mercy of God, the will which was naturally averse from them, is so changed by divine grace, that it cordially, joyfully, eagerly adopts them, with all their consequences. He becomes our Parent, our Redeemer, our Sanctifier; and we are his adopted children, as well as the workmanship of his hand, and the creatures of his power. This increase of relationship to God necessarily includes an increase of obligation. Out of the union which believers have to their Lord, arise both their privileges, their pleasures, and their duties.

Obligations thus constituted are indissoluble. This is true of both natural and spiritual ties. So long as the parent lives, filial duties can never cease. The son grows up to manhood, enters new connections, forms a circle for himself, becomes in his circumstances independent of the father and the mother; but neither God nor nature release him from the silken bonds of affection and of gratitude. He feels that he has incurred a debt, in the years of his infancy and helplessness, which he can never discharge. Respecting those connections which he voluntarily forms, the obligations are reciprocal, but they are no less permanent. Exactly the same characters of perpetuity distinguish our spiritual relations; or rather, upon these last they are more deeply and indelibly inscribed. Man can never renounce his Creator. Many have attempted to do it-in vain: and the effort, the thought argues distraction. He can never be independent of the hand that feeds him, and of the power in whom "he lives, and moves, and has his being." Atheism can neither affect the existence of God, nor annihilate the obligations of man to him. It may ruin the interests of the creature, but it cannot shake the throne of the Creator; and he who renounces God, will feel how indissoluble are the ties by which he is bound to him, in the day when God rouses himself to vengeance, and renounces him in return; and when all the bonds of his present connection shall be exchanged for chaius of wrath.