nay, my sons, for it is no good report that I hear of you; you make the Lord's people to transgress." God therefore declares, "I will judge the house of Eli for ever, for the iniquity which he knoweth, because his sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not."

Let your discipline be cool and dispassionate, that it may appear to proceed from tender concern, not from wrath and revenge.

Frequent threatenings you must forbear. These weaken authority far more than they deter from iniquity.

Choose the fittest seasons of addressing your chil dren. The Lord's day, an awakening providence, a family affliction and the deaths of young persons, may be improved to give weight and energy to your counsels.

3. Regulate the diversions of your children.

They are not to be excluded from all amusements. Too severe restraints would discourage them. But then be careful, that their recreations are innocent in their nature; that they are well timed; and that they are used with moderation. Thus they may contribute to health, cheerfulness, urbanity and benevolence. Diversions of the opposite description injure the body, corrupt the mind, and vitiate the manners.

-

Guard your children against the snares of evil company. Restrain them from all intimate society with the profane, the lewd, the intemperate and the scoffers at religion." He who walketh with wise men, will be wise; but a companion of fools will be destroyed." -"Blessed is he who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful; but he delighteth in the law of the Lord, and therein doth meditate day and night."

4. Maintain the worship of God in your houses. This is a mean of religion: And religion can never flourish where the means of it are neglected.

The young members of your family will form their sentiments in a great measure from your practice. If you neglect prayer to God, they will easily cast off the fear of him. If they entertain an idea that you are indifferent to religion, your serious exhortations and reproofs will be unfelt and disregarded. Abraham, who commanded his children after him, preserved a sacred intercourse with God. Wherever he pitched his tent, there he erected an altar. It was the resolution of Joshua, that as for him and his house, they would serve the Lord. The Apostle exhorts Christians to pray always with all prayer." If there are any reasons to worship God at all, there are reasons for family worship. Whoever denies his obligation to this, will naturally discard all forms of devotion. God therefore ranks among the Heathens such families as call not on his name. Every Christian family should be a church, as the Apostle intimates, when he salutes masters of families, and the churches in their respective houses.

Let your domestic worship be maintained steadily, without unnecessary omissions, and performed solemnly, without any appearance of levity. Let it not, however, be protracted to a tedious length, lest it weary the attention and excite a disgust in tender minds; but let it be prudently adapted to the circumstances of the several members of your household, that it may tend to edification, not to discouragement.

5. Let your conversation be exemplary.

It was David's resolution, "I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way; I will walk within my house with a perfect heart; I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes." Happy if you can appeal to your children in the language of the Apostle to the Thessalonians, "Ye are witnesses, how holily, justly and unblameably we have behaved ourselves among you." And to the Philippians, "those things which ye have learned and received, and heard and seen in me, do, and the God of peace will be with you."

Without example, your instructions and reproofs will be languid and inefficacious. They will be heard with inattention, and treated with neglect.

6. Train up your children to diligence in some honest business.

This is not only necessary to their support and usefulness in life, but important in a religious view. Idleness is the bane and ruin of the young. It begets an indolence and deadness to every thing great, manly and virtuous, and invites every temptation and vice. "The devil, says one, "tempts the active and vigorous into his service, knowing what proper instruments they are to do his drudgery; but the slothful and idle, no body having hired them and set them on work, lie in his way; he stumbles over them, as he goes about. They offer themselves to his service, and, having nothing to do, they even tempt the devil to tempt them, and take them in his way."

Be not, however, rigorous in your exactions; bind not on them heavy burdens, lest they be discouraged; but be reasonable in your requirements, allow them proper relaxations, and give them time, and furnish them with means, for the culture of their minds, and for their improvement in useful knowledge.

Finally Commend your children to God, and to the word of his grace, who is able to bless them, and make them blessings in this world, and to prepare them for, and bring them to an inheritance among them who are sanctified.

Remember, that there is a special promise annexed to the command, which enjoins the reciprocal duties between children and their parents. If you bring them up in the ways of God, and they under your prudent care and influence walk therein, it will be well with them; and in their prosperity you will have a reward. The scripture contains many promises of divine concurrence with parental government, and of the divine blessing on filial obedience. If you wish to see

your children prosperous in the world, reputable in society and useful to mankind; if you wish to see them virtuous here, to experience their dutiful attention in your declining years, and to entertain the pleasing hope of their eternal felicity in the future world, then bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Abraham commanded his children--God promised that they should keep the way of the Lord, and that he would bring on him and them, the great and good things which he had spoken. Be persuaded then by the commands and promises of God-by your love to your children-by your concern for their earthly comfort and heavenly happiness-by your regard to your own peace, hope and joy-by your obligations to society-by your benevolence to mankind, and particularly to the rising race-by the duty which you owe to God and men to the present and succeeding generations, that you present your children to God, train them up in his service, and teach them to keep his ways.

Servants, be obedient to them which are your masters, according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness af your heart as unto Christ; not with eye service, as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men; knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.

And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening, knowing that your master also is in heaven, neither is there any respect of persons with him.

IN the preceding verses the Apostle explains the reciprocal duties of husbands and wives, and of parents and children. In the words now read, he states the mutual obligations of masters and servants. These three sets of duties comprehend all those which result from domestic relations.

Under the name of servants he doubtless means to include all those subordinate members of a family, who are not children, whether they be slaves, properly so called, or servants for a term of years.

His enjoining on servants obedience to their masters, implies a concession, that there might be, and