member of his family may feel the force of those principles, by which he himself is made. holy and happy,

It is easy to imagine how men of true piety will fill up this outline. In some particulars they may vary from each other; but there is one ancient and godly custom, which unquestionably will have a chief place with them all, in the order of their households: I mean, the regular performance of religious worship.'

The arguments in support of family religion lie in a small compass. They are at the same time so obvious to a serious Christian, that it may almost seem unnecessary to insist upon them. It is scarcely possible that a man, conversant with the Holy Scriptures, and truly concerned for the temporal and eternal interests of those who are under his care, can doubt of its being his duty to worship God in his family. With such a man, the commendation given to * Abraham will have the force of an express injunction.

* Gen. xviii. 19.

Moreover, how reasonable a thing is it, that God should be honoured in that community, which derives all its comforts from him. In a family, there are mercies received from God, of which all the members are equal partakers. How fit and becoming a thing is it then, that all the members should join in acts of devout homage to their common protector and benefactor.

The assembling every day to worship the supreme Being, has a tendency to produce the happiest effects in forming the conduct of our domestics. To recall the attention of a family frequently to GOD, tends to impress the members of it with an idea of his authority, and their dependence upon his providence. It holds forth religion to them as a duty not of occasional, but daily obligation. The constant reading of the Holy Scriptures, the frequent imploring of the pardon of sin, and petitioning for grace to act aright toward God and man, imperceptibly convey into their minds, a knowledge of the duties which they owe to God, to themselves, and to each other.

Accordingly, we find that where religious order prevails in families, there a knowledge of right and wrong obtains; and although evil passions occasionally discover themselves, we do not see their unrestrained violence : the good effects of daily instruction, and daily worship, are manifest in the tempers and conduct of the domestics, amidst all their imperfections.

On the other hand, in those houses in which instruction is never heard, nor any act of devotion seen, we observe a deplorable ignorance of moral obligation. We therefore cannot wonder, that there should be so general a complaint of the behaviour of servants: for what means are there employed in many families to teach them their duty? How unlikely is it, that there should be a steady obedience rendered to man, where the fear of God is not inculcated, either by precept, or example!

If therefore we consult merely our own comfort, the best course we can pursue, is to tread in the steps of those godly men, whose houses were consecrated, by the daily performance of family worship. The comfort of

families is so effectually destroyed by careless, idle, unfaithful, and dissolute servants, that a remedy for this serious and increasing evil would be generally accounted a very great benefit to the public. But there is no reason to believe that a radical cure will be obtained, till the almost exploded piety of former times is revived, by making religious instruction and worship a stated observance in our houses.

The

But there is another consideration which ought to have great weight with us. regard we should pay to the welfare of society at large, obliges us to employ all those means which tend to the cultivation of religious principle. Families are the nurseries of the state. Parents, magistrates, senators, ministers of religion, were once children in a family, and have probably brought with them into their important stations, a strong tincture of the habits which prevailed where they spent their tender years. We retain the impressions which we receive in early life; and if they be not favourable to virtue, their corrupt influence may be traced in the actions of a riper period. Licentious children become ungo,

vernable men. From not being habituated to reverence God and eternal things, when children, men are frequently found to grow up with an heathenish insensibility in matters of religion; an insensibility which they discover, amidst all the improvements they derive from a polite and liberal education. When to such persons a moral trust is committed, it is easy to conjecture how it will be discharged.

A man who has a truly christian mind, feels a benevolent concern for the interest of society; and he will have a regard to this in the management of those who are committed to his care. He will make it his business to send them forth into the world, well principled; that when they are added to the mass of the people, they may communicate to it a correcting influence, calculated to diminish, and not to augment, the too great quantity of evil which pervades it. Now if a man can devise a better method of doing this, than by the regular discharge of religious instruction and worship in his family, let him, for the benefit of society, acquaint the world with it; for it will be a valuable discovery.