let your fervent and grateful prayers frequently ascend in secret to him, who seeth in secret, and who will reward you openly. In a word, let God be in all your thoughts. Consider yourselves as ever in his presence, and as acting under his eye. This consideration 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 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? 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.

But the word is very nigh

In the words of St Paul, I exhort you, who are a husband, to love your wife, even as you love yourselves,

Give honor 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 are decayed, as she is advanced in age, yet that her mental charms are 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 humor. 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 domestic, and your pleasures domestic.

To both husband and wife I say: Preserve a strict guard over your tongues, that you never utter anything which is rude, contemptuous, or severe; and over your tempers, that you never appear sullen and morose. Endeavor to be perfect yourselves, but expect not too much from each other. If any offence arises, forgive it ; and think not that 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 them from serving their country as seamen and soldiers, as statesmen and orators. But in avoiding this extreme, guard at the same time against an excessive indulgence, an error, which is equally pernicious. Do not, for the sake of gratifying them in a present moment, lay up for them many future years of bitter repentance. Though · the minds of children may be innocent, yet they are not, previous to instruction, positively virtuous. They are a soil, where every kind of seed will vegetate. Now the air is filled with the seeds of vice: Pluck up therefore the weeds of evil, as soon as they appear. Be constantly employed in cultivating the manners, the understandings, and the hearts of your offspring. Let the hours, which are not spent in the schools of judicious and enlightened preceptors, be passed under your own eyes. Let not your children be educated in the street, where

they will be in constant danger of learning impure and profane language, and of becoming rude, mischievous, and quarrelsome. In fine, bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the LORD: make them

pious Christians and good men. Remember that you are intrusted with an important charge; and that the welfare of your country, and the prosperity of the church depend on your domestic discipline; for the best and wisest laws, and the most rational and instructive preaching avail little in a country, where family government is generally neglected.

I exhort you, children, to love, obey, and honor your parents. Let your mother in particular, who, in your tender years, has the more immediate charge of you, be, on earth, the most sacred object of your affections. Let her be your first friend and chief confidant. Conceal nothing from her: but make her acquainted with the company which you keep, the books which you read, and even the faults which you commit. Happy is the son, and particularly happy is the daughter, who is not afraid to communicate to her mother her most secret thoughts. Whilst she remains thus artless and undisguised, she is in little danger of losing her innocence. Children, obey your parents in your youth; but when you are no longer under their care, let not your reverence abate. If by the providence of God, you should rise above them in the world, grow not ashamed of them. When they are bending under the infirmities of old age, still continue to treat them with respect, as well as affection.

I exhort you, brothers and sisters, to love each other. Live in peace; and let not jealousy and contention im、 bitter the sources of domestic happiness,