Original.

THE FAMILY-ITS DIFFERENT ASPECTS.

BY REV. J. N. DANFORTH.

BEAUTIFUL constitution! How manifestly marked by the Divine impress! "GOD setteth the solitary in families." Atheism would break up the happy organization. Religion approves and sanctifies it. The original home of the family was Paradise. Holiness breathed its harmony over the scene. The sun shone for a brief space over a pure and guiltless pair. Not even the apostasy could destroy the immortal arrangement of the infinitely wise and benevolent God, or extinguish the sacred flame of domestic affection. It survives the ruins of the fall. It kindles into a more intense lustre at the very gates of the grave. Behold the grief of those affectionate children, whose MOTHER is consigned to the tomb. This precious heritage of man—the family— is even enriched and ennobled by an influence from the cross of Him, in whom “all the families of the earth are blessed." What, then, are some of the aspects of interest and beauty, in which this constitution of God may be contemplated?

We may view it as a little EMPIRE, the sovereignty of which is vested in the Father, and is derived from the fountain of all authority. It is indeed absolute, but lest the bosom of its possessor should grow rigid with the spirit of tyranny, paternal affection is planted there, to exert its benignant influence with all the steadiness of an operative law, and keep in check the severer tendencies of the sterner sex. And lest this should not suffice, a softer bosom is at hand, ever ready to shed its gentle influence upon the authoritative government which it acknowledges. Responsibility being the inseparable concomitant of authority and power, and these being in an important sense absolute, how great, how complete that responsibility, which presses upon the head of this government! Even when its weight is divided, how heavily it rests upon conscientious parents! How much more upon the widowed mother, whom death has bereaved of the strong arm on which she VOL. XVIII.-NO. III.-5

leaned for support, and the warm heart that beat responsive to her every affection! To this divinely-constituted authority, unreserved obedience becomes a matter of filial obligation, that the ends of the family government may be answered. And that the obedience may be made easy, whether considered as exacted by the parent, or rendered by the child, the earliest years are appropriated to the formation of the habit; and how much of that precious, golden season is committed to the care and culture of the mother! Then have the statesmen, the warriors, the philosophers, or the divines been created. The child is father to the man."

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at that early period have the destinies of nations been shaped and determined within the limits of this little empire, of which thou, Mother, art the queen regnant. Hence,

The family is a NURSERY. "Christian families are the nurseries of the Church on earth, as the Church is the nursery of the family in heaven." The idea is derived from a material process in nature, to which both animals and plants are subjected. When we speak of nourishing, protecting, bringing to maturity the elements of our moral existence, the allusions are figurative, but perfectly intelligible, as well as impressive. The nursery, though most retired from public observation, is the most important place we occupy. It is the birthplace of the body and the mind. There, in the retirement of home, the intellectual powers are constructed. A train of associations commences, which extends itself through the whole of our future existence. Habitudes are formed, which mould the character of the future man. Impressions are engraven upon the ductile mind, which the tide of time will never obliterate. Then and there the seeds are sown which produce the harvest of life. Whether that harvest be of wheat or tares, holy angels wait and watch to behold! Mental philosophers have held that our character is formed and fixed ere our sixth year has expired. The opinion is of sufficient importance to arrest attention; for even if not strictly and universally true, it indicates an important truth. For the illustration of its truth we might advert to individual examples. The history of the men of genius and power abounds with them. The stamp was received in the nursery. If we enter the walks of poetry, that department of

human genius which exercises so potent an influence over the moral sensibilities, and through them over the actions of mankind, we shall find records of maternal influence, brilliant and suggestive; striking and instructive. COWPER, for instance, with his own peculiar skill, embalms his recollections of the sanctity of home in such a way as to leave a fragrant impression on the mind that feels the smallest congeniality with "home-born delights.”

"My mother! when I learned that thou wert dead,
Say, wast thou conscious of the tears I shed?"

over

Those were tears that flowed from the inmost fountains of the soul. Each one might represent a pearl of inestimable value, and were they strung together, might convey some faint idea of the worth of such maternal affection, as blest the tender boyhood of that poet of the HEART and the HOME, whose strains so sweetly harmonize with the associations of domestic life, and spread the charms of a pure and beautiful poesy all its interior scenery. How different was Byron's estimate of his mother! To him the reminiscences of the nursery seem to have been painful and oppressive. Hear him on the death of his mother: "Some curse hangs over me and mine. My mother lies a corpse in this house. One of my best friends is drowned in a ditch. What can I say, or think, or do?" Nothing, poor comfortless child of infidelity and despair, for

"No mother's tender care

Shielded your infant innocence with prayer."

His splendid genius, prolific on so many other themes, never deigned a filial tribute to the remembrances of home. A few occasional scornful words of prose suffice to express his feelings toward her, who, in a paroxysm of passion, could hurl the tongs or the stool at her erring son. Hence the wretchedness of his own home, from which, reversing the order of those who seek true happiness, he fled, to become a wanderer and an adventurer. While genius, talent, taste, and superior intellectual beauty, were developed in him, the moral sense, the spirit of veneration, was sadly deficient. His pilgrimage through life was like one of his own dark and troubled dreams. Constrained by his remorseful