gious character, as well as persons of a worldly, are seldom at home; there is some entertainment every evening in the week; and every hour of the sabbath. And hence there is very little inclination or time for family duty. It is so much easier to go and lounge in a place of worship, and hear some new performer, than to retire into the closet to examine the heart, and call together a family, and endeavor to instruct and impress them, that we cannot help wondering how it was ever possible for the former to be looked upon as a greater test of piety than the latter!—God forbid that we should decry public worship, or the preaching of the word, he has commanded us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is-but that man is surely under a mistake who thinks to please God by incessantly running from one public opportunity to another, while he leaves his children to run wild, to grow up in ignorance, and to profane the sabbath.

I have stated the case strongly, but where this evil does not prevail in the extreme, it operates in the degree, and I cannot help sincerely wishing that the cause of the complaint could be removed. It is very desirable that useful bodies of men should be rendered more useful, and this in the case before us could be easily done, if those who have the lead would more strenuously inculcate the importance of family religion, and regulate the length and frequency of their public services accordingly.

There is another thing which because it has a relation to the subject before us I notice. Of late years a considerable number of persons not in the ministry have been stimulated to go of a Saturday evening, or a Sunday morning into the towns and villages as occasional preachers. The motive was laudable, but it has also contributed to the effect we have deplored: families are thus frequently bereaved of their head on the sabbath —and who knows not that the sabbath is the principal day in which men of business can be much in a religious sense with their families? I hardly know how to cen

sure this and I do not in every instance. But it may be well to ask, whether God ever calls us to a course which requires us to neglect or violate those duties which he has enjoined in his word? In a general way the ministry requires a man's whole attention. And when Providence has furnished the means of a respectable introduction to the office by institutions for improvement, it is a duty to avail ourselves of them.

But to return. Let me beseech masters of families with all imaginable importunity not to think this practice a matter of indifference which they are at liberty to perform or neglect. It is a duty; it is a duty of unspeakable importance. Do not therefore put it off longer-begin this very evening, and before you lie down in your beds honor God in your families.

"We have not time!" But what time does it require? Out of four and twenty hours cannot you furnish a few moments for God, for God, or rather for yourselves? Would you think that time lost which is best employed? "There is nothing got by stealing,

or lost by praying." Surely if you have no time at present, you could redeem a little by order, by economy, by diligence. To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens.

"But I have not capacity!" Have you ever fairly made the trial?-Would not your ability increase by exercise-Is it not a want of inclination rather than of power? "Where there is a will there is a way." And this would be the case here: for you would find that if incapable of leading the devotion of the family extemporaneously, you could furnish yourselves with excellent forms; and it is to be lamented that prejudice should ever preclude the use of them when it is needful.

"But I have neglected it so long that I am asham"ed to begin!" You ought to be ashamed of sin, but not of duty. You ought to be ashamed that you have lived so long without it, but you ought not to be ashamed that you are wiser and better than you once were.-Again. You say, “if”—But I will answer no more

of your objections. They are only excuses-and you know—yes you know-that they do not satisfy your own consciences now, and will avail you nothing in the great and terrible day of the Lord.

But some of you live in the habit of family worship. It will not therefore be amiss to conclude with a few words by way of direction.

Be spiritual in the performance. There is great danger of formality, where things customarily return, and with little possibility of variation. Think of God. Remember with whom you have to do-and what you have to do with him.

Do not confine family worship to prayer. Include also reading the scripture, and if possible singing the praises of God.

Be short. A few minutes of simple and affectionate devotion is far better than eking out nearly half an hour by doubling over the name of God, telling the Supreme Being what he is, and by vain repetitions.

Be early. Do not leave it till the family are drowsy and stupid.—But here a case of conscience occurs, and such alas! as the inconsistencies of the present day would render too common. "When should those of "us have family worship who attend public amuse"ments; for instance the theatre." I answer, by all

means, have it before you go. When you return it will be late; and you may not feel yourselves quite so well affected towards it. We have known professors who have always omitted it when they came home from the play-house. Besides, if you have it before, you can implore the divine blessing; beseech God to be with you; and to assist you in redeeming time, in overcoming the world, in preparing for eternity.

Reader! You may imagine that the author has written this with a smile, but he has written it with shame and grief. He earnestly wishes that many would adopt family worship-but he is free to confess that there are some of whom he should be glad to hear that they had laid it aside.

DISCOURSE I.

RETURNING FROM A JOURNEY.

Thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace; and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shall not sin.-Job v. 24.

IN the scripture God hath abounded towards us in alt wisdom and prudence. There is a suitableness in it to every character, and to every situation in life. It cautions youth, and it sustains age; it soothes the poor and it humbles the rich. It is equally useful whether we are in a state of solitude or society. It teaches us how to behave ourselves in every connection we form, and in all the circumstances through which we pass. The words which I have read may be considered as a promise made to a good man-" with regard to his absence from home." When he goes a journey at the call of providence, he may leave all his concerns with the Lord whom he serves, for he will sustain him, and suffer no evil to befall him nor any plague to come nigh his dwelling.

The person to whom this promise is made is supposed to have a house. It is called a tabernacle, and it is so named in allusion to the houses of the Easterns, which, especially in the days of Job, were principally tents or tabernacles to enable them to move the more easily from place to place, in feeding their flocks and herds. Abraham is commended for not building a fixed mansion, but reminding himself even by his external circumstances that he was a stranger and a sojourner as were all his fathers, and that there is none abiding-By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange