or service common to all, assuredly this is the case with regard to a family or household, since it is not only the well-spring of every other, or of all society, but a well-spring of God's own institution.

For another world, therefore, yes, for the eternal world, and with a view to it principally, does the Almighty set the solitary in families. Every family has in fact a sacred character belonging to it, which may indeed be forgotten or disdained; but the family is constituted, and ought therefore to be conducted, with the prospect of the rising generation following that which precedes it, not only to the grave, but into eternity.

This fine constitution of things, which is founded in nature, and exists, therefore, in every family, is only visible, it is true, in all its beauty, when both parents are Christians; because the mixed character of the family constitution attaches itself peculiarly to the person of its head. There are two terms employed in Scripture to describe the present character and daily obligations of the Christian, which apply with peculiar force to the Christian parent or head of a family; one borrowed from what is civil, and the other from what is sacred. These are king and priest, and to these that of a prophet might be added; but I notice at present only the two former. By his Saviour, even in this life, the Christian is made a king and a priest unto God. These high favours, once bestowed, are to be carried about with him as robes of office and obligation which he cannot lay aside. Now, in the family-circle, there is provided, by God, one of the most interesting and important fields for the exercise and display of both characters. There he may,

and there he does reign as a king, in sovereign and undisputed authority; and there, too, as a priest, is he to officiate on behalf of others as well as himself. By the exercise of the former character, his veneration for God is advanced, while he remembers, that, as a king unto God,' an account must be rendered of the daily exercise of his authority: by his priestly character, compassion and sympathy are greatly promoted; since it is impossible for a man to pray often for his family, without feeling increasing tenderness for it.

This beautiful and affecting arrangement of our Creator, the civil and sacred character, united at once in the very constitution of a family, and in the person of its head, gives rise to some of the most important coincidences with which we are acquainted. Here is a constitution favourable to the state, in the very highest degree, and whatever may be its form of government. In such a family it is that the child, as a child, learns to be a good subject, and that the brother or sister, as such, learns to be a good citizen; and here is a state of things equally favourable to the increase of the church, as it is to that of the state: for if this is not understood, the highest end of its existence is not understood. Here, in short, both the church and the world meet, and it is the only spot on earth where it is at once lawful and incumbent on them so to do. You will not fail, however, to observe, that this meeting is upon a very small scale, and under very peculiar circumstances. It is not that the constitution of the church is to be confounded with that of the family. Since God himself does not govern the church as he does the family, so neither must we confound them.

Not that these two con

stitutions, in themselves considered, are in any one point at variance with each other: so far from this, for particular ends, they are in perfect harmony; but still they are so distinct, that neither can be fully understood, much less seen in all its beauty, if confounded with the other. The peculiar genius of their several constitutions can never be violated with impunity. Here, however, in the family, members of the church and of the world must actually meet; and doing so by divine appointment, how peculiar and important is the situation of a parent? Both worlds meeting, both must be kept in view; but no Christian will for a moment hesitate as to which world should have the pre-eminence.

Such, at least in part, seems to be the peculiar character of the little group assembled round the household fire. The family may increase; the establishment extend; but beyond the limits of a household properly so called, the constitution, as to its main design, cannot extend. Yet, however small in point of number, or unpretending in point of aspect, its connexions and laws, its spirit and principles, being altogether sui generis, well deserve, and will richly reward the most careful examination.

SECTION THIRD.

CONNEXIONS SUBSISTING BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT BRANCHES OF THE DOMESTIC CONSTITUTION.

Connexions peculiar to this constitution—Husband and Wife— Parent and Child-Brothers and Sisters-Master and ServantSuperior and inferior Servant-Servant and Child.

In many passages of Sacred Writ, there will be seen much of force and beauty, when the connexions subsisting between the several parts of this constitution are fully considered.

HUSBAND AND WIFE.-The connexion between husband and wife, being at once the ground of all other domestic ties, and in many respects their pattern, naturally claims the first attention. Indeed, not only the connexion itself, but the rule laid down in Scripture, to the Christian, for its formation, equally demand notice.

A constitution so singular as that of a Family, is thus found to rise out of a connexion quite in character in point of singularity, while the harmony of the whole superstructure rests, of necessity, upon it. To refer, therefore, again to a passage of Scripture, already noticed in a former section, "Have ye not read," said Jesus, "that he which made them (i. e. man and wife) at the beginning, made them (a) male and (a) female?” as intending to prevent both polygamy and divorce; "and said," at least by Moses,

if not by Adam himself, divinely instructed into the ends and obligation of marriage in all ages; "for this cause," or on account of engaging in the married state," shall a man leave his father and mother," the nearest relation he has hitherto sustained, "and cleave to his wife," a more intimate relation still, "and they twain shall be one flesh." Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh." A stronger expression it was not possible to employ. As though it had been said, nothing should separate, but that which separates the soul from the body, and even the component parts of the body from each other. "What, therefore, God hath joined together, let not man put asunder."

For the nature and intimacy of this connexion, therefore, our Lord refers to the original design of the Creator himself, just as Malachi had done before him. Indeed it is not unworthy of remark, that, as introductory to that glorious dispensation, when Elias was to come and restore all things, in preparation for his Lord, who was to confirm and establish them, the last of the prophets abounds with reference to first principles. To the honour due to a father-the honour due to a master-respect to a civil governorto man's common descent from Adam; nay to his original creation by God, he appeals. So in the passage referred to, as quoted both by the Saviour, and the prophet whose authority he thus sanctioned, the reasoning goes back, not to Moses merely, or to any peculiarity in the Mosaic economy; not to Abraham or the covenant made with him, but to the creation of man at the beginning. It points directly at the special design of the Creator himself, in the formation of the first pair, and explains the intimacy of the con