which appeared on the features of my father. I followed him as he left the room; he saw what my feelings were, and smiling said, My child, your desires are gratified, you see that I consent to your plan of family worship, and I can increase your joy by telling you, that these moments of meditation and prayer are the happiest of my life. Perhaps your sister has already informed you of the effects of the family worship which you have established; but, probably, she has not told you of the deep impression her example has made upon those who know her. Fulfilling her duties with still greater care, her mildness and goodness increased every day. She has become an example to all of charity, patience, and humility. Surprised at her rapid improvement, I observed her with more attention; I saw that one desire only filled her heart; that her supreme object was to do good; and that she daily became more cheerful, more kind and attentive to the wishes of others. The domestics and inhabitants of the village always spoke of her with affection. I wished to see her in the performance of family worship; and while she prayed and read the Holy Scriptures, I felt an unknown pleasure pervade my heart-this heart which had been so long oppressed with sorrow. I returned the next day to the same relief, and it is thus that I have learned to draw consolation from the only true source. Till then I had opposed His will who had taken from my side her whom I loved. I murmured in my sorrow; I accused God of injustice; I felt not how full of compassion he is, even when he afflicts us. I was professedly a Christian, but did not understand the extent of the obligation which this name imposed upon me; filled with the idea of a sophistical and proud philosophy, I confined my views of Christianity to the narrow limits of my own unenlightened reason. I treated with indifference or contempt all those who laid stress on any particular belief, and considered the precepts of the gospel only as a code of the purest and most complete morals. I trusted to my own strength, thinking that the claims of virtue and duty would keep me right. But this system I found to be vain and insufficient in the hour of affliction. It did not afford me the consolation which I needed. A hope of immortality cannot soothe such sufferings, if it is only the result of our own reason and meditation. Affliction and sorrow come upon us, and we need something more than human to comfort us; we need the word, and the promises of God; we need truth, revealed upon his authority, to sustain and support us on all such occasions. The words of the evangelist to those who are of a broken heart, evince such deep compassion, so much sympathy and piety, that, after having felt their influence, the heart cannot be satisfied with any other consolation. If all unbelieving men, whose hearts are a prey to sorrow, would open this book with humility, and would seek there the consolations which God has prepared for those who mourn, they would feel an inexpressible relief. By its mild influence their troubled passions would be calmed; their fluctuating thoughts would be firmly settled on the truth of God's word. But the gospel must be received in all its truth, as God has given it to us; proclaiming the fall of man; his corruption and misery; the necessity of repentance; of a divine atonement, and of regeneration by the Holy Spirit, which alone can establish a constant communication between the infinite and perfect Creator and feeble and sinful man. My son, God has dissipated the darkness which obscured my understanding; he has opened my eyes, and I have felt his pity. May all who are unhappy receive the same favours which God has granted unto me in answer to your prayers!" I asked my father why he did not himself serve God, by conducting the family worship, instead of leaving it to my sister. He replied, "I was prevented by a false shame; but from this time, I will overcome it: to-morrow I will perform with you the most sacred and the sweetest of duties." In short, my father commenced on that day a regular service, which God blessed more and more to all those who were admitted to it: his example was quickly followed; and in almost every cottage in the neighbourhood family worship was established. Many souls were called to the knowledge of salvation; they served the Lord with reverence and godly fear, enjoying the blessings of this life, and having hope of the hour to come. DOMESTIC DUTIES AND ENJOYMENTS. Onward-heav'nward, let us press Minds are of celestial birth; Sweetest bonds of friendship here, Oh! they wander wide, who roam Bonds of everlasting love PART II. HOME MADE HAPPY. CHAPTER I. LOVE OF HOME. Ir was near the close of an afternoon in the early part of May, that a gentleman, travelling slowly and on horseback, in a retired part of the western country, observed the decisive indications of an approaching storm which were visible in the heavens, and began to look out with no little anxiety for a lodging which might receive him for the night. For some time his wishes were vain, and he rode several miles over the lone and unfrequented road in which he was travelling, without much prospect of a shelter from the rain whose drops were beginning to fall, and from the wind which was fast rising into a furious gale. At last, however, he emerged from a long and dreary wood, and his eye sparkled as the view opened upon a beautiful valley, through which his road wound, and in a distant part of which was pleasantly situated a farm-house of unusually cheerful and happy appearance. The numerous and extensive out-buildings with which it was associated, the fields in a considerable degree beautified by the verdure of spring, which surrounded it, the forests K |