The ark went away from the house of Obed-edom at the end of three months; but the connection between the ark and his family was not then brought to an end. He is mentioned again, with his sons, in the later history, as established about the ark. They keep the doors; they carry harps; they "excel" in the music, and spend all their time in promoting the worship and kingdom of God in the earth.

So, piety and its blessings often descend in the same house from father to son, from one generation to another. This is according to the law and will of God. We see and regard in our actions only the living. He sees those who are to live, to "the third and fourth generation." In the piety of the living, and in the laws of Christian family life, he makes provision for what we may call the transmission of religion to those who shall come after. The law of transmission is not invariableat any rate, it admits, in so far as we can see, of some sad exceptions. Our Saviour tells us that it is not a law of "blood, or of the will of man," apart from life and character. He warns us against the folly of " saying within ourselves that we have Abraham to our father."

But there is a law, although our mere "will does not command it." That law is "of God." He knows its force. He forms its living links. He binds the generations together. He acknowledges the parental teaching as his own "nurture," the parental warnings as his

own "admonition," and when the child is " trained up in the way that he should go," it is ruled in his counsels that, "when he is old, he shall not depart from it." "Instead of the fathers there are the children, whom he makes princes in the earth."

What a strength of encouragement, and what a depth of solace there is in this gracious law, for all godly parents who are striving, like Abraham, to command their children and their household after them! Such parents may assure themselves that that endeavour is in the very line of God's loving will to them and theirs. In the rule of their house, and in the spirit of their life, they are casting the forms which will be peopled and animated with the future "families of Israel." They are handing down the traditions of greatness, and the sacred roll of their heavenly lineage to those who will know how to value them, and how to transmit them, with added splendours, to a still future age. They are preparing places in that future age, as dwellings for God. They are making room for his Fatherhood. The human fatherhood is a transient and uncertain thing. Every thoughtful father must often think, and the more as life goes on, "I am going the way of all flesh, I must leave my children soon, some of them young, some not clearly formed in character, all of them in a world of searching trial!" And the thought is at least very solemn, if not sad. But let that father

think, for it is true-"I can live after I am dead. I can live in the moral legacy I bequeath, in the principles I inspire, in the blessing I transmit. The God of my fathers will be the God of my children. I see them, like the house of Obed-edom, to the third and fourth generation busy around the ark of God, and I die in peace!"

Such are some, and only some, of the blessings of religion in the home. These are some of the living powers which centre in the ark of God.

Is the

Are we giving that ark entertainment? blessing on our house? on mine? Is our home thrice dear and sacred because filled with the heavenly Fatherhood and Presence? If not, let us, let me see to it without delay. Let me draw down the waiting presence. Let me fill my house with love. Let me bring myself and all I have to Him who has given me all, that he may give me all again—that the Lord may now "bless the house of Obed-edom and all that he has."

Our Own Company.

And being let go, they went to their own company.—ACTS iv. 23.

ETER and John had healed a lame man. A great

PETER

impression was produced, and a great number of people brought together. Taking advantage of the opportunity, they preached the gospel to the people. The rulers came upon them while so engaged, stopped their preaching, and sent them to prison. In due time they were brought before the Sanhedrim for full examination. They declared the whole truth without fear. The rulers, knowing that the miracle was real, and fearing to punish the workers of it, were content to "threaten them," and "let them go." And they, "being let go, went to their own company and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them."

Now, it is a very happy thing, and we should be very thankful for it, that we cannot apply this language in any literal sense to ourselves. We are never put in prison for Christ's sake. We are never in any personal danger through our attachment to his cause. "The Lord maketh us to dwell in safety." We may teach, and testify, and work, and travel for him all the year

round, if we will, and not a hair of our head perish. "The shields of the earth belong unto God." One of the broadest and best of those shields is stretched over our native land, and every assembly, if convened for a legal and peaceful purpose, and every individual who respects the rights of the community, and the constitution under which we live, may do and say what they will.

If, therefore, we are to make application of this language to ourselves, it must be on some principle of accommodation—i.e., the application must be a moral one. But is not that the best application of language? Is it not well-is it not scriptural-to rise from the literal to the spiritual? If we can take the mere outward scenes and incidents in the lives of the apostles and first Christians, and make them minister to our instruction and our spiritual growth, we make, at all events, one of the best uses of them of which they are susceptible.

Let us take, then, for present consideration, these ideas which seem naturally to arise out of the current of this text:-That we suffer a kind of imprisonment by circumstances. That there are occasional openings of the prison in providence. That when so released, we go to our own company.

I.

The first point is, that we all suffer a kind of im