IT IS VERY MUCH OWING TO THE PREVALENCE OF THESE INDISCRIMINATE AND UNHALLOWED CONNEXIONS, THAT WE HAVE FALLEN SO FAR SHORT OF THOSE MEN OF GOD WHO ARE GONE BEFORE US, IN OUR SECLUSION FROM THE WORLD, IN THE SIMPLICITY OF OUR MANNERS, IN THE UNIFORMITY OF OUR PROFESSION, IN THE DISCHARGE OF FAMILY WORSHIP, AND IN THE TRAINING UP OF OUR HOUSEHOLDS IN THE NURTURE AND ADMONITION OF THE LORD."

No one should contemplate the prospect of such a connexion as marriage without the greatest and most serious deliberation, nor without the most earnest prayer to God for direction. Prayer, however, to be acceptable to the Almighty, should be sincere, and should be presented with a real desire to know and do his will. Many, I believe, act towards the Deity as they do towards their friends: they make up their minds, and then ask to be directed. They have some doubts, and very often strong ones, of the propriety of the step they are about to take, which are gradually dissipated by their supplications, till they have prayed themselves into a conviction that they are quite right in the decision, which they have, in fact, already made. To pray for direction in an affair which we know to be in opposition to God's word, and on which we have already resolved to act, is adding hypocrisy to rebellion. If there be reason to believe that the individual, who solicits a Christian to unite herself with him in marriage, is not truly pious, what need has she of praying to be directed? This seems like asking the Almighty to be permitted to do that which he has forbidden to be done.

In the case of WIDOWS and WIDOWERS, especially where there is a family, peculiar prudence is necessary. I have known instances in which such persons have sacrificed all their own tastes and predilections, and have made their selection with exclusive reference to their children. Such a sacrifice is indeed generous; but it may become a question whether it is discreet. It is placing their own comfort, and even character, in some degree of peril, neither of which can be lost, without most serious mischief to those very children, whose interests they have so heroically consulted.

This, however, is an error much more rare and venial, than that of the opposite extreme. How unseemly and inconsiderate is it for a sexagenarian to bring home a young wife, and place her over daughters older than herself, and introduce into the family circle aunts and uncles younger than some of the nephews and nieces! Rare is the case, in which such inexpedient connexions are formed, without the authors of them losing much of their own reputation, and destroying much of the comfort of their families. Let not such men wonder, if their daughters by the first marriage are driven from their home by the consequences of the second, and are led to form imprudent matches, to which they were led by the force of parental example, and urged by the consequences of parental folly.

In the selection of a second companion for life, where the first had been eminent for talents or virtues, much care should be taken that there be no great and striking inferiority ; for, in such a case,

-"busy, meddling memory,

In barbarous succession, musters up

The past endearments of their softer hours ;"

which form a contrast ever present and ever painful. The man that never knew by experience the joy of a happy marriage, can never know the ills of an imprudent one, as aggravated by the power of comparison. Let him that has thus known them beware how he expose himself to such helpless, hopeless misery.

Due care should also be exercised in reference to children's interests. Has the woman about to be selected that principle, that prudence, that self-control, that good temper, which, if she become herself a mother, will help her to conceal her partialities, (for to suppress them is impossible, and would be unnatural), and to seem no less kind to her adopted offspring than to her own? That man acts a most cruel, a most wicked part towards the memory of his first wife, who does not provide for her children a kind and judicious friend in his second. What is it but a dread of this, that has made some women, when upon their dying bed, break through the rules of propriety, and recommend their successor in the arms, and heart, and house of their husbands? They trembled for their children,

and seemed at that sad moment to have become willing to be forgotten, provided their babes could find a second mother in her that was to fill their place. Let me then become the advocate of fatherless or motherless children, and entreat, for the sake both of the living and the dead, a due regard to the comfort of these orphans.

Nor should less deliberation be exercised by the party who is about to take, or invited to take, the care of another person's children. Have they love enough for the parent to bear the burden of care for his sake? Have they kindness enough, temper enough, discretion enough, for such a situation, and for such an office? There is no difficulty where the children are lovely in person, and amiable in temper; but when they have no personal attractions, no charms of mind, no endearments of character, then is the time to realize the truth of Mr. Jay's expression, "a wife may be supplied, a mother cannot." The man or the woman that can act a parent's part towards a froward and unlovely child, must have more than nature, (for this belongs only to a real parent), they must have principle and kindness, and need have grace. Let all who are invited to take the superintendence of a family, ask themselves, if they possess the requisites for the comfortable and satisfactory discharge of its duties. Let them inquire whether it is likely they can be happy in such a situation themselves; for if not, they had far better never enter it, as their unhappiness must inevitably fill the whole family circle with misery.

It cannot be sufficiently deplored, that all suitable preparation for the marriage state is usually put aside for the busy activities of vanity, which, in fact, are but as dust in the balance of the conjugal destiny. Every thought, and anticipation, and anxiety, is too often absorbed in the selection of a house and furniture, and in matters still more insignificant and frivolous. How common is it for a female to spend those hours, day after day, and week after week, in communion with her milliner, debating and discussing the subject of the colour, and form, and material, in which she is to shine forth in nuptial splendour, which ought to be employed in meditating the eventful step,

which is to fix for life her destiny, and that of her intended husband; as if the great object were to appear a gay and fashionable bride, rather than to be a good and happy wife! And most pitiable is it to see some mothers, ministering to this folly, and flattering the vanity of their daughters, instead of preparing them, by judicious and seasonable counsels, for discharging the duties of that new and important connexion, into which they are about to enter.

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Study," said an old author, “the duties of marriage before you enter into it. There are crosses to be borne, there are snares to be avoided, and manifold obligations to be discharged, as well as great felicity to be enjoyed. And should no provision be made? For want of this, result the frequent disappointments of that honourable estate. Hence that repentance which is at once too soon, and too late. The husband knows not how to rule; and the wife knows not how to obey. Both are ignorant, both conceited, and both miserable."

IN ALL THY WAYS ACKOWLEDGE HIM, AND HE

SHALL DIRECT THY PATHS.

CHAPTER V.

THE DUTIES OF PARENTS.

"Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath; but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."-ÉPHES. vi. 4. "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it."-PROVERBS xxii. 6.

"And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."-DEUT. vi. 6, 7.

"And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."-MAL. iv. 6.

It is an interesting and important era in the history of domestic life, when the husband and wife receive the new names of father and mother, and become unit

ed by the supplemental tie, which is furnished by the little helpless stranger, so lately introduced into the family. Who, that has felt them, can ever forget the emotions awakened by the first gaze upon the face of his child, by the first embrace of his babe! Little, however, do the bulk of mankind consider, what a weight of obligation, what a degree of responsibility, that child has brought into the world with him for his parents. In the joyousness with which the mother lavishes her fond embraces upon her boy, and in the paternal pride with which the father looks on this new object of their affection, how rarely does either of them revolve, in deep seriousness, the future destiny of this new idol of their hearts; or consider how nearly that destiny is connected with their own conduct! Parental obligations are neither felt nor know by multitudes. How then can they be discharged? Rushing into the connexion of marriage under the mere impulse of passion, without forethought, without prudence, multitudes become parents before they have one right view, or one right feeling, in reference to the duties of the parental relationship; to which they come with scarcely any other preparedness, than that mere animal fondness for their young, which they partake of in common with the irrational creation; but not with that same instinctive ability "to train them up in the way they should go." Who can wonder at the disordered state of society at large, or be surprised at the aboundings of evils and miseries in our world, that looks at the manner in which domestic duties are neglected! When I consider what poor, ignorant, thoughtless, frivolous, wicked creatures are often seen at the head of households, I can only ascribe it to the interference of an all-wise and powerful Providence, that society is not far more chaotic than it is.

My business, in this chapter, is to endeavour to rectify, if possible, some of these evils, and to lay down a rule to guide the parent in discharging his truly important, and awfully responsible obligation; persuaded as I am, that many of the evils and miseries of society would vanish before a right performance of parental duties.

1. It is impossible for parents to discharge their duty

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