of wealth or poverty, of comparative leisure or the reverse, will in this respect have great influence. But the claim of a family for a home sanctified and made happy by religion is the same under all circumstances. This is the Christian man's first care, whether he be rich or poor. He must "learn first to show piety at home." There is no character so contemptible as that of the man whose public religious life is belied by serious defects here; whose home is a place of punishment rather than of pleasure to those who dwell in it; whose coming casts a gloom upon every face. John Bunyan, in his plain and vigorous words, has aptly characterized such an one,-"A saint abroad, and a devil at home."

Burns' "Cotter's Saturday Night," drawn as the description is from scenes not uncommon in Scotland, nor in England, shows us that poverty is no hindrance to a cheerful home piety; and some of the instances already cited show us that wealth and comfort may be made subservient to its promotion. In every rank of life the home is the true test of a man's holiness, of a woman's sincere piety. The moral atmosphere of the house mainly depends on those whom Providence has placed at its head. Whether the life of the household shall be of this world or of heaven; whether the children shall learn to "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," or to prize most the things which are seen and temporal; whether they see piety in its own pure and attractive loveliness, or in harsh and rigid repulsiveness; whether they are made happy by its influence, or get to dread it as the cause of their misery, depends very much on the parents. They

give the tone to the whole household life. The spirit in which they live will insensibly but most powerfully affect each member of the family, the servants and dependents, but most of all, the children.

This influence will be exerted much more by what they habitually are, than by any outward religious observances. These, which ought never to be slighted, and the great importance of which will be hereafter fully discussed, ought to grow out of the sincere and devout spirit of those who govern the house. The enjoined observance of the Lord's day, and of religious worship, should naturally arise from their own devout and loving attention to them. Children and servants should be able to see that those, of whose family they form a part, live in the spirit of the Psalmist, “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord." Religion must evidently be the unfailing spring of their own joy. Their delight in God and his ordinances must be reflected by all their conduct, in all their household arrangements.

Where home piety and home happiness combine, the authority vested in the heads of the household will be blended with true sympathy with all the members of it. In a truly pious household, the servant, the apprentice, the visitor, share in the regard of those under whose roof Providence has made them sojourners. For the time, each one is recognised as belonging to the family circle. They are regarded with affectionate concern. Their well-being is sought. They are made sharers in the common happiness. With what deep solicitude have those occupying positions of service in their family or their business been 1 Psa. cxxii. 1.

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regarded by pious men and women! Considering them as for the time committed to their charge, they have sought to make the temporary sojourn a means of lasting blessing. By acts of kindness, by cheering words, by look, and tone, and temper, by familiar conversation, by the remembrance of them in the daily prayer, or by more direct efforts, and opportunities wisely seized, they have sought to lead them in the right way. And, in many cases, with what blessed results! The servants, the apprentices, the visitors, have seen religion in all its loveliness, and have carried away with them a desire to possess its blessings for themselves.

In a truly Christian home, the supremacy of the claims of religion will be allowed. Business 'engagements, social engagements, even public religious engagements, save only the services of God's house, must be subordinated to the prior claims of home; and where these are rightly allowed, they will never clash with other duties. All the appropriate and admissible duties of social intercourse, and certainly all the public claims of religion, will harmonize with this. For the religious duties of the household, for daily worship, for the instruction of the children, there must always be found time and strength. There cannot be a truly happy home where this is not the case. To neglect household religion, in order to fulfil public claims, is to neglect duties which nature and revelation alike urge most imperatively upon us.

Sir Thomas More was one who thus recognised the claims of home to be as important as the more pressing and obtrusive demands of public business. "While," be says, "in pleading, in hearing, in deciding causes or

composing differences, in waiting on some men about business, and on others out of respect, the greatest part of the day is spent on other men's affairs, the remainder of it must be given to my family at home; so that I can reserve no part of it to myself, that is, to study. I must talk with my wife, and chat with my children, and have somewhat to say to my servants; for all these things I reckon as a part of my business, except a man will resolve to be a stranger at home; and with whomsoever either nature, chance, or choice has engaged a man in any commerce, he must endeavour to make himself as acceptable to those about him as he can." This was his aim; and the daily life of his household, as described by Erasmus, shows with what conscientious care he carried it out. "I should do injustice to his house," Erasmus says, by comparing it to the academy of Plato; . . . it would be more just to call it a school and exercise of the Christian religion. All its inhabitants, male or female, applied their leisure to liberal studies and profitable reading, although piety was their first care. No wrangling, no angry word was heard in it; no one was idle; every one did his duty with alacrity, and not without a temperate cheerfulness."

So, too, the biographer of Dr. Morison writes,"With all his love of work, Dr. Morison did not sacrifice the claims of home and private religion to the demands of public labour." "I may say with truth," he writes of himself, "though with deep humility and without boasting, that I endeavoured to co-operate as best I could with my dear wife in her admirable plans and devisings for the good of our children. My studies, my pastoral visitations, my

attendance on public committees, especially that of the London Missionary Society, occupied much of my time, but I was never a forth-facing man; I never kept late hours; and I never was a stranger in my own family. I dreaded the thought, from my first entrance on married life, and even before, of attending to the vineyards of others and neglecting my own; and though I am conscious, as a parent, of many infirmities, I know that the testimony of all the members of my family, and of my private circle too, must be, that I have always been a domestic man, and that no public duties, however imperative, have withdrawn me at any time from the inexpressible endearments of the home circle."

The gains of a few hours' more business, the fascinations of the social circle, even the enjoyment of eloquence employed upon the loftiest themes of religion, are but ill compensations for a family altar wanting its sacrifice, and the impressible mind of childhood left to the questionable care of hirelings. If he who "provides not for his own has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel," that father, that mother, surely incurs a heavier condemnation who, on any plea whatever, neglects the higher claims of religious duty to his children, or who fails in that childward care by which they might be led, by the Divine blessing, in the "ways of pleasantness and the paths of peace.":

It may be asked, Are we then to have no social intercourse out of our own family circle? To this it may be replied, for it is to mothers particularly, though not exclusively, that this question refers,-Any mother who duly and deeply feels her responsibility will not Prov. iii. 17.

Life, by Rev. J. Kennedy,