death" in the first family, in the murder of Abel, was perpetuated in every succeeding generation. Just in proportion as each generation allowed the tide of evil to roll on, did nothing to arrest its progress or diminish its force, but contributed to swell the evil by its own additions, it stood chargeable with the guilt of all the past. The last generation, therefore, of any given period, standing, as it would, amid the comparative wreck of all that depended on the human will in the family constitution; surrounded by the most monstrous forms of evil, the growth of centuries; ever and anon startled by Divine indications of a coming judgment; and yet evincing no disposition to retrace its. steps, but rather to advance in evil, deterred by nothing but the dread of consequences; that generation justly inherits the guilt of all the past.

To God; or re

If it be important to show the child that ligious obligations. his appetites are not the central and supreme part of himself, that he is not the center of his family, nor his family the center around which other families are to revolve, how important that his views should be directed to that glorious Being who has organized the domestic constitution, and who is at once its center and circumference. Every new view which he receives in childhood of the Divine character brings with it a corresponding duty. The motive which would lead him to trace with interest his derivation from some distinguished human ancestor, should receive an indefinite accession of strength, as often as he refers his origin to the Father of Spirits. And the gratitude with which he refers his daily comforts to his earthly parents, should be heightened immeasurably as he comes to understand the great system of Providence which originates and includes all his daily mercies, and all the channels.

through which they come to him. As life advances and opportunities offer, he is bound to examine and to verify for himself all the religious truths which he had previously received on parental testimony, and to see that no portion of Divine revelation had been omitted. As other intimations of the Divine will presented themselves during the antediluvian period, whether directly by the inspiration of holy men of God, or inductively by the advancing course of nature, he was bound to add them to his previous store of sacred knowledge, as full of practical applications. Ast he rose from the dominion of sensible objects, it was his duty to look at the character and will of God through the more ethereal medium of faith; and, from being satisfied with the intercession of others, and with stated times and places of devotion, to advance to hold personal intercourse with God; and, like Enoch, habitually to "walk with God." Thus from the first moment in which he lisped the awful name of God, till the hour when he was waiting to ascend into His immediate presence, he was to grow in grace and in the knowledge of God.

Each generation

Similarly, it devolved on each generation had its own relig- to transmit from the past to the future every particle of Divine revelation; all its relig

ious duties.

ious advantages of Divine appointment; the evidences of that revelation and those appointments; the supposed meaning of that revelation, and all the providential illustrations of the spirit and value of those advantages. The generation cotemporary with Noah, for example, were bound to perpetuate the memory of the first promise, and the celebration of the great institute of sacrifice, and the evidence on which they both rested. They were bound to show that the revelations afterward made from time to

time were in perfect agreement with each other, with the character and wants of the times when each was given, with the spirit and design of the first promise and of sacrifice, with the law of Paradise, and with the prior truths involved in external nature; and they were bound to accompany all this with the abundant evidence which they had at command. And, further, it was their duty to notice and point out all the admirable illustrations of the dispensation to the family constitution. Every family was bound to exhibit the enlightened, useful, and united character of a church or society protesting against prevailing error; worshiping God collectively in spirit and in truth; interceding for the religious well-being of every family; ready in every way consistent with the time to promote that well-being; and thus aiming to arrest the flow of evil from the past to the future, and to acquire such fitness for usefulness, that, through it, all the families of the earth should be blessed.

Obligations of the parent to pre

ious duties.

Every parent, therefore, was to be the prepare for his relig- pared religious instructor of his family. In order to this, it devolved on him to acquaint himself with the origin, history, and evils of prevailing errors; with the evidence and claims of every antagonist truth; and with the peculiar moral wants and "signs of the times." Whatever time was necessary for the efficient discharge of this obligation, it was his duty to secure. The occupation of the parents was not to be such as to leave the child an orphan. Neither was their object to be their own quiet rather than his well-being. And whatever means it may have been necessary to employ in order to secure that well-being, they were bound to employ them. This is the great lesson deducible from the whole: that if

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OBLIGATIONS OF THE FAMILY CONSTITUTION.

the branches are to bear, we must begin with watering the roots; that education alone produces education; the teachers themselves must be taught. No amount of genius exempts an artist from the necessity of study and practice; and shall education, the noblest of all the arts, be the only one not studied? At present, the family, in which every thing should be sacred to law and duty, is pre-eminently the sphere abandoned, as by common consent, to chance. Let the period of parental education arrive-especially of female education to qualify for maternal duty—and a family millennium would begin.

CHAPTER X.

THE WELL-BEING OF THE DOMESTIC CONSTITUTION MEASURED

BY THE DISCHARGE OF ITS OBLIGATIONS.

Law of well-being.

Ir is a law of the family, as well as of the individual, that each shall "enjoy an amount of good or of well-being proportioned to the discharge. of its obligations." For to fulfill the law of its being, or to find its own highest end, is to answer the great end. Nor could it be supposed to be in any way deprived of its right, while thus fulfilling the law of its being, without the great end itself being, in so far, defeated.

law.

Every thing in

The more important of the conditions of the family is under the well-being of the family are considered in the chapters on its relations, its laws, and its consequent obligations. From these, it appears that every thing relating to it is, and must be, in contravention of, or in obedience to, a law. And to suppose that the same effects would follow from the contravention as from the obedience, is to confound together things inherently different; and to imply that there is no end to be answered by the domestic economy, no well-being to be aimed at, or no appropriate means for its attainment. Yet, judging from its history, such would appear to have been the prevailing practical creed on the subject in all ages. That, in