and an indulgence in sensual pleasures, are as great enemies to virtue as covetousness. They whose hearts are attached to the favorite pursuits of the gay and thoughtless, have no taste for spiritual objects; nor disposition to practice self-denial for the sake of promoting their own spiritual good, and that of others; the affections being selfish, all their means of doing good are employed in sensual gratification.

I. The importance of performing these duties is apparent, from the natural and moral obligations by which men are bound to love their neighbor as themselves. They are all descended from one common origin, are created in the image of God, and alike the objects of his care and protection. "The Lord is good to all; and his tender mercies are over all his works." "He maketh the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." An.external obedience to the commands of the first table of the moral law, affords no sufficient evidence of love to God, without a performance of all the duties which we owe to our neighbor; because the latter requires greater self-denial, and is more contrary to the corrupt propensities of human nature than the former. "If a man say I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can be love God, whom he hath not seen?" "And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also."

[To be continued.].

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EXTRACTS OF A LETTER FROM A FATHER TO HIS SON, ON THE DUTY OF FAMILY PRAYER.

DEAR SON,

You mentioned in your last, some uncertainty respecting the time when family prayer ought to be attended; whether in the morning, evening, or both. I will submit a few thoughts to you on this subject. And for the sake of method will first attend to the voice of reason on this point; second, to Revelation; and third, make some miscellaneous remarks.

I. "Observation teaches that there is a moral defect in man; that he is not naturally what his own reason and conscience tell him he ought to be. This is so obvious that a child may discover it; this I remember you noticed when a child, seven or eight years of age, and asked me why it was so? For an answer to this, and an explanation of its causes, we are wholly indebted to the sacred Word; but that we are in opposition to the divine sovereignty, estranged from God, and ignorant of his true character, must be admitted a fact. Now what would reason dictate as proper to be done in this case? Did not Job's friends follow the suggestions of reason, in advising him to acquaint himself with God and be at peace? Do we even become acquainted with any person, without some mode of communication with him? The more fre quent this correspondence, the stronger is the probability that we shall soon obtain our object. If the person with whom we seek acquaintance be our superior, and this acquaintance is altogether for our benefit, should we not consider ourselves under great obligations to him, to point out the method of communication between us? This obVOL. XIV. 2

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ligation would increase, in proportion to the dignity and authority of the person with whom we sought this acquaintance. How deeply then are we indebted to the great Sovereign of the universe, for designing and executing a plan for our becoming acquainted with, and reconciled to himself! He hath appointed means for us to use in order to form this necessary acquaintance, and is it not reasonable for us to use these means? Rather, is it not most unreasonable and ungrateful to neglect them while in our power? And what means so proper as the word of God and prayer? In his word he speaks to us, and in prayer we speak to him; this is correspondence; this is communion, if done in the spirit of piety and true devotion! Is it not a fair conclusion, that the more frequent these interviews, the sooner the acquaintance will be formed; and the more free and familiar such intercourse, the stronger the ties of friendship thence resulting? Can twice a day then be too often? Is not morning, before we are engaged in worldly affairs, a suitable season? and at evening, when we have completed our daily labors and concerns, should we not have an interview with our best friend? Especially, when we consider, that "in him we live, move, and have our being," and on him depend for life and all its comforts, does it not appear proper to seek his blessing in the morning for the day, and his protection at evening, for the night, and to give thanks for his daily and nightly mercies, besides all special occasions. What less than this would reason dictate? It seems then that reason would point out the morning and evening sacrifice. So do the Scriptures, for we would observe,

II. "That the word of God is not silent on this subject. Though Moses gave but a very brief history of the times before he lived, yet, even in that short history we are not left without some hints of the evening devotion of God's people; but these are mentioned only occasionally, in narrating other events; such in particular, as the condition in which Isaac was found, when Abraham's servant was returning with Rebecca; who was at evening, at the end of his last day's journey, when he found Isaac in the field, meditating, (or praying, as in the margin,) which would have been the case as likely in the morning. But God himself gave particular direction to his people by the hand of Moses. He established the morning and evening burnt-offering; a lamb without blemish. This being a type of Christ, and the worship under the Christian dispensation, points to the fire of divine love, which every Christian, in the exercise of the suitable temper and graces, offers to God every morning and evening, while he by faith remembers the "Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world," and makes mention of his righteousness, and of that only, as the ground of his own hope of pardon and acceptance with God.

"The prophet Ezekiel, xlvi, 13, mentions the morning only to offer the lamb, every morning;" as though looking forward to our day, he saw professed Christians neglecting morning and evening devotions, through the multiplicity of their worldly cares, and contenting them selves with prayer in the evening only; he reminds them of the morn ing burnt offering; not a cold, lifeless, languid devotion, but the fire of divine love must burn! Not on the Lord's day only, when they have more leisure, but every morning. Thus we have Isaac's example for

the evening, the command of God by Ezekiel for the morning, and by Moses for both. But this is not all, we have David's resolution in Ps. lv, 17; and Daniel's example, Dan. vi, 10, for three times a day! which every Christian imitates in a measure, who prays in his family morning and evening, and pays his devout acknowledgments to God at his table every noon.

III. "But some think the New Testament is our only guide in all matters of faith and practice, not properly considering that the writers of the New Testament were Jews, born and educated under the Jewish economy, having no other Scripture than the Old Testament; and that the Gentile believers were grafted into the same stock, built on the same foundation, changing only the typical ceremonies in divine worship, for a practice more pure and spiritual, not encumbered with types and shadows of things to come; because the Antitype having made his appearance, the types must, of course, be useless. The times and seasons which were not in themselves typical, therefore, suffered no alteration, but only the typical forms were laid aside. Thus the morning and evening worship of God would continue, but only the mode of worship be changed. The sacrifice of the lamb might be omitted, being only the type of the great Sacrifice, the Lamb of God, who has long since offered himself once for all; but the prayers that accompanied these sacrifices must be continued morning and evening "as aforetime," there being always the same occasion for prayer, while men continue in a probationary state. If it be asked, whether prayers were offered up to God with the morning and evening oblation, look at Daniel's prayer, recorded ix, 21, where we read of the angel Gabriel coming to him "while he was yet praying," about the time of the evening oblation, and in the New Testament we find the continuance of this practice, as in the instance of Peter and John going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, which was the ninth hour, or the time of offering the evening oblation. The scarcity of the copies of the Scriptures may be assigned as a reason for the families of the Jews assembling in the temple, and in their synagogues, where alone the Scriptures were found, to offer their morning and evening, oblations. But we having the word of God in every house, "have no such lengths to go" to obtain a place for devotion. And having the example of our blessed Lord for morning and evening prayers with his family, (or disciples,) and his gracious promised presence, where two or three are met in his name; and his word, that where two or three shall agree, as touching any thing they shall ask in his name, it shall be done for them, &c. Shall not this combination of commands and promises of God, the examples of the most eminent saints, and the Savior himself, be a sufficient warrant and encouragement to the worship of God in our families every morning and evening?"

USES AND INFLUENCE OF PROPERTY.

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THAT passion for wealth pronounced the root of all evil, in its ascendency over the minds of men, like other mental habits, acquires dif ferent degrees of strength by gratification. No extraordinary sagacity

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is required to discern the process by which an avaricious disposition is increased, till the property, which was first desired as the means of placing the necessaries of life within reach of its possessor, becomes eventually the sole object of pursuit; and after losing sight of those designs, which originally suggested his measures, and prompted their execution, he continues the chase with a celerity proportioned to his distance from the goal whence he took his departure, Among the examples of the wrong propensities of our nature, which multiply at every step as we advance in the knowledge of mankind, a signal one is presented in the fact, that genuine liberality should diminish as the means for its exercise increase; that a diminutive soul should daily grow narrower, while the fortune continues to amplify.

It is not intended that such pursuits necessarily contract the intellect, or are incompatible with its improvement; but we appeal from individual exceptions to general experience, to decide whether the position does not rest on ground which cannot be shaken. It is not, however, to be questioned, that the desire of distinction has, in this as in other instances, unfolded talents, which might otherwise forever have remained unknown to their possessor and the world; talents, that after receiving various degrees of improvement, have subsequently been directed to nobler channel, and have both honored and defended a better cause.

In reflecting on some of the methods of discipline instituted by an all-wise Providence for meliorating the condition of a fallen world, it has often afforded me satisfaction to contemplate the grandeur of that process, whose operations are performed in silence, unknown to the surrounding multitude, and unnoticed even by the actors themselves. While noticing some of the schemes of individuals, and many of the more systematic arrangements of nations, which are planned and executed in the bitterest hostility to the government of God, it is indeed a consoling reflection, that the enormous mass of human misery shall, in some approaching season, awaken the uncontrollable energies of a compassionate Power, to whom the magnitude of that misery presents no obstacle to its removal; that the very means, which for many centuries have been employed in assaulting his institutions, violating his com mands, and insulting ...s majesty, in heaping reproach on his servants, and spreading unmeasured desolation among his works, shall eventually change their direction; in the appointed time, shall be made to abandon the temper and attitude of enemies, and join themselves to that cause, to which is promised the unexampled triumph of witnessing every effort of its opposers swell the tide of its glory.

Seen in this aspect, the large fortunes, which sometimes fall into the hands of unprincipled men, should not excite such gloomy apprehensions in the benevolent mind, as are often indulged. True, it is a terrible judgment by which the Supreme Ruler visits the votaries of a remorseless ambition, when he suffers them to be lulled in the lap of luxury, and pours the gifts of his bounty into their treasures till they overHow. Such indulgences are, to an evil heart, truly dispensations of wrath. And while noticing their effects on the child of affluence, the crimes they enable him to perpetrate, and the wretchedness they furnish

the means of spreading around him, the compassionate mind, which feels for other's woes but forgets its own, may well be afflicted.

When the eye of faith glances at the future destinies of the impenitent, well may the Christian weep in anticipation of the ineffable miserics of those pampered sons of indulgence, whose god has been gold; whose only altar of worship is sensual gratification; and who are dreaming themselves into the belief, that they are fair candidates for a heaven of purity, while rancorously opposing the laws of that Sovereign, by whose mercy it is revealed.

But these evils ought not exclusively to occupy the mind in the season of exertion. For comfortable reflections on a subject productive of so much painful feeling, the eye must be withdrawn from vice and its attendant calamities, and perhaps from all present example, to repose on the milder beauties presented in the landscape drawn by hope. It cannot for a moment be doubted, that so powerful an instrument as wealth, an instrument capable of putting in motion the "moral machinery" of the world, was bestowed for a most signal purpose. None who have seen the objects it has accomplished, need be told how much can be effected by that man, who can bring the productions of every clime to his feet; who can purchase the labors, control the actions, and extort the homage of his fellow-men with almost as much facility, as if he were a being of a superior order. Instead of Bacon's maxim, "Knowledge is power," by substituting a shorter word instead of knowledge, one would express a sentiment equally universal in its application. The noble institutions of benevolence, reared and supported by a small number of men, present some feeble illustration of the grand results to be expected, when the principles of Christianity shall have so far prevailed, as to constitute the prominent features of a state or an empire.

It is not made a question that the physical wants necessarily claim the first attention. Those who have observed how very slowly human society advances, and how long the intellectual faculties are suffered to sleep, after the reasonable demands of animal appetite are supplied, will not be surprised, that so selfish a being should need a strong impulse to engage his philanthropy to seek the moral improvement of others, when he is found so backward in attempting his own. Before this can be done, he must have been so far instructed in the principles of his nature, as to know, and so fully convinced as to feel, that a material substance, created for the service of an imperishable mind, should not be permitted to usurp the dominion over that better part, which it was intended to serve. He must clearly understand that all the enjoyments which deserve the name, are intimately connected with a due subordination of matter to mind; that a being in a state of discipline is not so much to expect pleasure, as to seek improvement. In fine, that the immortal soul, in a world so miserably destitute of substantial happiness, should not seek its food among those atoms of dust in which the body will soon slumber.

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The sources whence he learns the dignity of his nature, and his destination to an hereafter, in which will be rendered impartial retribution, always demand his serious attention. In proportion to the firmness of his own belief of those truths which teach the grandeur of his destiny,,