ful how ye tread. One false parental step may crush a thousand interests! One holy, consecrated parent may yet descry, from the hills of God, some sweet, perpetual stream of far distant ages issuing from the fountains which his faith replenished.

CHAPTER XIII.

Practical reflections. Application of these principles to fathers.

THE train of thought which we have pursued, urges me to address a few considerations to those who are not only parents, but fathers. It proclaims that the paternal relation is pre-eminently responsible. May I not hope that the fathers will listen while I attempt to utter, in appropriate words, its deep and earnest tones. Its call to you is pecu. liarly loud, because you are the constituted head of the family. This station you hold by right of nature, of necessity, and the marriage covenant. Duties grow out of relations. The relation of your sex to the other, is that of the primary to the secondary; of the original to the derived; of the strong to the weak-as is manifest in the order of creation and the constitution of nature. The duties arising from these relations are to cherish, to love, to protect, and to provide. The obligation, thus arising, being as durable as the relations themselves, constitutes the foundation and the safety of the marriage covenant. The marriage covenant, therefore, has bound you, as an individual, to perform these duties towards the wife of your choice. In the same manner these relations have been extended to your off. spring, and these duties are extended as far and as perpetually as these relations. The mother shares with you in the obligations, just in that degree that she shares the extended relations, and therefore subordinately. Your share in them both being primal and paramount, it binds down to

your soul a corresponding weight of responsibility. You, then, as a husband and father, are held supremely responsible both to man and to God, for the support, defence, and welfare of your family. You first sought the matrimonial connection in which you are placed. It was yours first to select; first to mature the proposals and present them.You, in the marriage ceremony itself, first avowed your preference and your purpose-first gave the sacred pledge. From the nature of things, from the necessity of the case, and from the marriage covenant, you have been set forth as the constituted head of the household. On you, therefore, the heaviest bearings of the covenant of consecration are made to rest. Your responsibilities are the corner stone on which its claims are based. That covenant claims your offspring for Christ, and demands of you, as the authorized head, an explicit consent. That covenant claims your paternal influence for Christ, and demands that you, as the head of that family, shall sincerely pledge it to him, and exert it for him. That covenant points you to a code of laws ordained for those young immortals, and claims the whole weight of your supreme authority to sustain and enforce them. That covenant is a system of protection graciously provided in their behalf, from the tyranny of sin and the curse of the law; from the temptations of the world and the wiles of the devil. It claims, therefore, not only that the united parents shall, as such, take hold of it-but that you, in your relation as father, in your station as the head of the household, shall stand forth, and pledge that all the power which God has vested in your hands for these purposes, shall be exerted to give your household its full advantages as a system of protection. Your obligation to stand forth in the obedience of faith in this great matter, as far exceeds your obligation to protect them against an attack of wild beasts or savage men, as the interest at stake

in this case exceeds that in the other. On you, therefore, pre-eminently, the responsibility rests of maintaining family government on the principles of the gospel. Of Abraham God said, I know him, that he will command his household after me. He expects that you will do the same; that you will so rule your own house that your children shall be trained up in the way that they should go. He has placed before you solemn warnings against a refusal in the case of Adam, of Cain, of Eli, and of David. When he maketh inquisition for the blood of souls, shed amidst household scenes, he will call first for the father. Your name will be heard first, as Adam heard his, as Eli and David heard theirs, when the providence of God in one case and his prophet in the other, and his judgment in both, said, "Thou art the man!" The relation you sustain, which thus makes you prominent in responsibility, will set you forth prominent in the final retribution. That station being so conspicuous in view of your offspring, invests your conduct with great solemnity. The whole weight and power connected with it will be thrown on the side of covenant claims, or will ope rate against them. You cannot retain that station, and remain neutral on this question of consecration. You cannot justify yourself before the God of these relations, if you will not govern your life according to them. If, against the voice of God, and against the strong claims of his cove. nant, you deprive your household of this system of perfection, and lead them by your neglect or example into dangerous exposures, God will avenge himself of the insult, and your immortal children of the injury. He has bestowed upon each child a natural right to parental care, instruction, and example. He has demanded of the parents a solemn pledge that this right shall be regarded, and he calls upon you, as the father, to see to it that the pledge is both given and performed. The authority which you possess is conferred

upon you for the sake of the child; and if you misemploy it, by using it for his worldly good only, or for purposes adverse to his spiritual and highest good, you will involve yourself in a condemnation which will be pre-eminently fearful.

Another consideration, which will illustrate the nature of parental responsibility, is, that the father is the constituted priest of the household.

Your household, Christian father, if regulated according to the principles of the covenant, resembles a little Church. Its members are consecrated to God; its great object is his glory in the salvation of souls; its daily meals are feasts of intimate communion, commemorating in the "blessing" and the "thanks" his abounding love. Its family worship speaks for itself. In all these respects it is your place to officiate. To administer its discipline; to direct its religious services; to dispense from the father's seat-that sacred desk of the little sanctuary-the words of life; to expound the sacred page; to lead the confiding group to the throne of grace, is the office work of the father. These duties invest him, in the view of the observing flock, with a sacred character. The God of the household covenant has assigned to you this important station. From day to day, from year to year, your sentiments are thus to be uttered, and your deepest and strongest emotions to be exhibited in their presence. The events of the day; the providences of the week; the affecting incidents of the family, are to collect their lessons in your prayers and instructions at the family altar. If you are spiritually minded, the influence breathed through all the concerns of the week will be spiritual also. It is, therefore, vastly important that your attainments in evangelical knowledge and holiness should be great, eminent, and manifest. If you will feel this as you ought, your heart will burn to obtain the best qualifications,