cises, the heart will be engaged in approaching to God: the heart will be mingled with it, as the expression signifies.

3. It includes constancy and unshaken firmness, steadfastness of resolution to cleave to God. have sworn," says David, " and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgements. I have inclined my heart to perform thy statutes always, even unto the end."

Contrast this with the conduct of the Children of Israel at the Red Sea, and with Saul.

XXVI.

ON FAMILY WORSHIP.

1 CHRON. xvi. 43.-And all the people departed every man to his house and David returned to bless his house.

PUBLIC exercises of religion, when properly conducted, have a happy tendency to prepare the mind for those of a more private nature. When the soul is elevated and the heart softened by the feelings which public worship is calculated to inspire, we are prepared to address the throne of grace with peculiar advantage; we are disposed to enter with a proper relish on such a duty, and thus " go from strength to strength." David, at the time to which this passage refers, had been assisting at a great and joyful solemnity, that of bringing the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom, where it had abode three months,

to the place which he had prepared for it. The joy which David felt on this interesting occasion was very rapturous. He conducted it to Jerusalem, and set it in the midst of the tent he had pitched for it. He offered, as a testimony of his zeal and devotion, burnt offerings and sacrifices to God, and then closed the solemnity.

We need be at no loss to ascertain the import of this expression. It undoubtedly signifies his imploring the blessing of God upon his people by prayer and supplication. Under the ancient law, God was pleased to appoint a form in which Aaron, the high-priest, was commanded to bless the people. "On this wise ye shall bless the Children of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: the Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace."*

This instructs us how to understand what is meant by "David's returning to bless his house;" it was to present them to God in prayer, and entreat his blessing upon them.

I shall take occasion from these words to urge upon you the duty of family prayer; a duty, I fear, too much neglected amongst us, though it is one of high importance and indispensable obligation. In bringing this subject before you, I shall, first, attempt to shew the solid reasons on which it is founded; and, secondly, endeavour, with the

*Numb. vi. 23-26.

blessing of God, to suggest a few hints respecting the best method of performing it.

1. The passage before us invites us to consider it as a practice by which good men have been distinguished in every age.

It pleads the sanction of the highest example. It was exemplified, we see, in the conduct of David, "the sweet Psalmist of Israel," "the man after God's own heart;" a great victorious prince, who did not suppose the cares of royalty a sufficient reason for neglecting it. In the various removals of Abraham from place to place, we find that wherever he came to sojourn he built an altar, to call upon the name of the Lord: an altar at which there is the greatest reason to believe he was wont to assemble his family, and to present his addresses on their, as well as his own, behalf. We know, from the testimony of scripture, that he was eminently conspicuous for the care he took of the religious instruction of his household. This part of his character is attested in the following emphatic manner: "For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgement; that I may bring upon Abraham that which I have spoken of him."*

But wherein, we may safely ask, was this solicitude for the spiritual welfare of his household displayed, if he never bowed the knee before them in prayer; never exemplified before their eyes so

*Gen. xviii. 19.

important a duty as that of devout supplication to the Almighty?

In the history of Isaac we read of his building an altar at Beersheba, and calling upon the name of the Lord. Such also was the custom of Jacob at the different places where he fixed his habitation. On one of these occasions we find him thus addressing his household: "Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments: and let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went."*

Thus ancient is the practice on which we are now insisting. It appears to have formed a prominent part of the religion of patriarchal times, and it has subsisted in every period of the christian church.

In later ages, who among the devoted servants of Christ can be mentioned, who have neglected it? The pious reformers, the venerable founders of the Established Church of England, we know, conscientiously practised and earnestly enforced it; and so did our pious forefathers amongst the nonconformists. This was a branch of their conduct for which they incurred the ridicule of a careless and ungodly world; and in their days it was ever recognized as an inseparable appendage of true piety. They would have required no *Gen. xxxv. 2, 3.

further proof of the absence of the fear of God in a family than the want of a domestic altar, at which its members might call on the name of the Lord.

2. Family prayer is a natural and necessary acknowledgement of the dependence of families upon God, and of the innumerable obligations they are under to his goodness. The union of mankind in families is ascribed to God, and is a distinguished [mark] of his loving-kindness. “He setteth the solitary in families.”*

"He maketh

the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children." The ties of domestic society are of his forming: the birth and preservation of children are eminent instances of his favour and beneficence. It is surely incumbent on families, then, to acknowledge him in their domestic relation.

Every family is a separate community, placed under one head, and governed by laws independent of foreign control. This sort of society is the root and origin of every other; and as it is the most ancient, so it is bound together by ties [the most] tender and sacred. Every other social bond in which men are united is loose and incidental, compared to that which unites the members of the same family.

On what, let me ask, does the obligation of social worship rest? Is it not in the social nature by which man is distinguished? It is because we are destined to live in society, and are bound *Psalm lxviii. 6. Psalm cxiii. 9.