tion was founded before the fall, and the Sabbath was appointed also at the same time, the duty of preserving the regular worship of God belonged originally to the family as such, and constitute part of the original and essential idea of a well-ordered household. The particular Christian churches as they were founded by the apostles, were composed of associated families having for their object the mutual and public worship of God, and mutual aid in the Christian life. Hence the gospel ministry, the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, together with the solemn church covenant, are designed to combine the influence of pious families for the extension of the gospel to all families, until the promise made to Abraham is fulfilled.

It may gratify a proper love of investigation to consider the natural affinities which exist between the Christian Church and a Christian family. It will serve to illustrate how easily and how efficiently their influence may be combined for the welfare of society.

1. It is essential to the true idea both of aChurch and family that the sacred Scriptures should be regarded as the supreme and only infallible rule of faith and practice. It is impossible for either to accomplish the main design of their organization where this principle is not adopted with all the heart. The parent needs no stronger support to his authority-the child no better protection, than what is secured in the Bible. Creeds, catechisms, confessions, and all other formularies, are of no binding force except as they agree with and are founded upon the word of God.

2. It is essential that the Church and family should both be considered as consecrated communities of immortal beings. The consecration of households commenced in the earliest ages, and from the days of Abraham to the present it has been signified by a solemn religious rite. It implies a recognition of God's claim as Creator, of our need of a Savior and a Sanctifier. It implies a pledge on the part of the parents to train the family for God, and when the seal is affixed according to divine direction, a promise, on the part of God, of all needed blessings. The church. is a community where these consecrated families associate for

public worship, and is itself a community publicly consecrated to the triune God.

3. It is essential that the Church and Family should remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. The Sabbath was appointed before the church was established and at the constitution of the first human family. It is necessary to the family, for physical rest, for instruction, for worship, and more necessary since the fall than before it. It is necessary to the church for public worship, and for her general influence on mankind. Its delightful associations belong alike to the household and to the church, and it will retain its indispensable importance as long as either shall endure on earth.

4. It is essential to a Church and family, to secure a system of regular instruction. In the church provision is made for this in the stated ministry and especially by the sacred pastoral relation. In the family provision is made in the parental relation, where wisdom, experience and authority, filled with deep affection, are combined to instruct minds dependent from their circumstances on parental leading for their first and most important lessons in divine knowledge.

5. It is essential to a Church and a family to maintain a just and impartial system of government and discipline. In the family the authority for this is invested in the parents, who have a right to punish disobedience, and are commanded to do so. On the preservation of a proper authority in the family, interests of every nature depend. The Church and the State are alike interested in the maintenance of family government, where the first idea of rightful authority is implanted.

6. It is essential to the Church and the family that a regular system of divine worship should be maintained. On the Church depends the public worship of the Sabbath. On the head of the family devolves the responsibility of maintaining daily worship in his household. This obligation grows out of the dependent condition of his family and of his relation to them as a father. In the morning he is bound to render thanks with them for protection, and to plead for guardian grace for the day. In the evening he is bound to commit himself and them to the same

protecting care. It is impossible to suppose a family accomplishing its main purpose where family worship is not regularly

maintained.

From these natural affinities of Churches and families it is plain that where they both fulfil their true idea, their influence must powerfully combine for good. From the families associating arises the Church. On the families associated the influence of the Church descends.

The head of the family is invested with sacred associations as he comes before them, their head, instructor, governor, and minister in holy things. The public institutions of religion encourage and aid pious families, and win other families to their duty. From such families government derives its existence and its stability. Thus society is combined and moulded by the influences of the Christian family and the Christian church; and that minister who can have the assurance that the heads of families in his congregation go home to make their families resemble Churches in all the above respects, may believe that the work of salvation is going on.

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CHARACTER OF CHILDREN INTRUSTED TO MOTHERS.

THAT mothers exert a vast and lasting influence over their children, and bear a great and responsible part in moulding their future characters, there can be no doubt. They direct and bend, as it were, the twig, while it is young, and tender, and pliable; and "just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." There is comparatively but a short period during which mothers, if they have the will, can have the privilege of thus shaping and directing the intellectual and moral growth of their offspring. If it is neglected "in the days of their youth, while the evil days come

not," they will find to their ineffable sorrow and regret, that the twig, which but just now was flexible and yielding in their hands, has become the strong and sturdy oak, unmanageable and incapable of being turned from its course. Thus we see the importance of rightly training youthful minds, while, like wax, they are capable of receiving any impression, either of evil or good.

Many examples might be cited of men, who have risen high in the scale of worldly fame, and who have contributed much to the religious and social improvement of mankind, in whom the true secret of their greatness might be seen in their maternal government and education. The early life and discipline of Doddridge we are all familiar with. Let us hear the words of

the venerable John Quincy Adams, addressed to some young ladies during his late Western tour. Speaking of his mother, he says, "From that mother I derived whatever instructionreligious especially and moral-which has pervaded a long life; I will not say, perfectly and as it ought to be; but I will say, because it is justice only to the memory of her whom I revere, that if, in the course of my life, there has been any imperfection, or deviation from what she has taught me, the fault is mine and not hers." We need but to read a volume of Mrs. Adams' Letters, published a few years since, to discover the true cause of the son's greatness.

But I wish more particularly to speak of the influence a mother may have over the growing character of her children, by bestowing a little attention to the choice of their playthings; for I am convinced that tastes are often acquired, and habits formed, which exist through life, that may be distinctly traced to the apparently trivial toys of childhood. This fact cannot be too indelibly impressed upon the minds of all who sustain the responsibility of educating children. The first plaything ever given to Napoleon Bonaparte was the model of a brass cannon. And who can tell the influence that that warlike toy exerted on the whole life of that celebrated chieftain? Who will say that the little brass cannon was not the indirect cause of the butchery of millions of our fellow-creatures; of the groans

and tears of widows and orphans that filled the land, and more than all, of the eternal loss of myriads of immortal souls? But for that toy, and instead of a Hero wading through the blood of his countrymen to the attainment of his ambitious purposes, we might have seen, for aught we know, a powerful minister of Christ, a second Paul; one who, by the superiority of his mind, in the hands of God, might have created a new era in the civil and religious history of the world. Truly, we may here see 66 great effects resulting from little causes."

It will not be denied that a great portion of the toys displayed for show and attraction, in the windows, at intervals of a few rods, along our streets, consists of guns, swords, banners, and many others unnecessary to mention, of a warlike nature. And who can estimate the influence that these exert towards infusing into youthful minds a martial spirit, and a familiarity with all the barbarous, murderous implements of war, which follows them through manhood, and trains them for the service of strife and death. The penetrating mind of Bonaparte saw this. "Give me," said he, "the direction of the playthings of your children and I will form the character of the nation." He knew that, according to their nature, a love of war or a love of peace could be produced. But I trust sufficient has been said on this subject to show to mothers the necessity of exercising discretion and judgment. From the youth around us are to be taken the pillars that are to uphold the temple of our religious and free institutions. Upon the mothers of the present generation it depends to decide what shall be the future character of our country. If such their charge, then how weighty their responsibility?

J. M. P.

THERE is probably no scene in the present world, which presents a more interesting prospect to the eye, or which is usually described in terms of more ardor and animation, than a well regulated family.

PRESIDENT DWIGHT.