the Saviour has taught him to address as his Father in heaven,'-it will not be in vain.

Let none neglect a service, whose propriety is evident, whose good influences are so many and sure. Let none omit family worship. We may have implied that there may be circumstances which furnish apology for the omission. But we did not mean, for we do not believe that such circumstances often exist, or are ever to be yielded to without an effort, without a serious, faithful trial. At the present day, there can hardly be a sufficient excuse for any one. Every objection is met, and every real difficulty removed by the many excellent forms and collections that have been prepared for this purpose. Where the exercise cannot be performed extempore, these should be introduced. There are none who cannot use them, and there can be no objection to using them. Indeed this mode of conducting family worship, accompanied with reading the Scriptures, has some obvious advantages, in comparison with any other.

We have heard of people who were so good that they could not listen to prayers that were read in the family. With such feelings we have no sympathy. We believe the devotion to be in the heart, not in the word spoken or read. And though if we have long been accustomed to one mode, the other may not at once be equally pleasant or profitable, habit seldom fails to make it so. Those who can speak easily and suitably from the power of feeling only, ought certainly to do so; and with all, it is worth an effort. But let it not be insisted upon. Let it not be thought indispensable. Let the spirit be re

garded more than the form.

Let the feelings be en

gaged, and the mode of uttering them will be of little importance.

To all we would say, let something be done as a family religious exercise, if it be only reading a passage of Scripture, calling together with each morning's light and evening's shade, those who share the same daily bounty, that they may unite in the same social, cheerful, religious act, thus strengthening the ties which unite them to each other, and to their common Father. not neglect a duty so plain, a service so rational and beneficial. Bring no excuses, such as you would not admit for the neglect of any present duty or interest; pleas of engagement, hurry, inconvenience. Such excuses, if they were founded in truth, would have no

Do

weight in this scale. But they are not founded in truth. No man ever found family worship injurious to his worldly interest, a real interruption or inconvenience. When properly conducted, it will have a direct influence in favor of those habits of method and regularity which are always of use in the concerns of life. And in any situation, in any case, there is one season secure from interruption. At the close of the day, you will surely be able to give a few moments to communion with God and your own spirit. Let those moments at least, be sacred to this use. Let your bodies and spirits which belong to God, be committed to his protecting care, before they are given up to the unconsciousness and insecurity of repose. And then, when the repose of death shall steal upon your senses, you may be able with greater composure, with humble, yet

prevailing trust, to resign yourselves into his arms, who will call you forth to a brighter morning and a 'perfect day.'

H.

THE FRIENDSHIP OF THE WORLD.

THERE are several passages in the New Testament respecting this subject, which deserve peculiar consideration, on account of the use sometimes made of them. Thus St. James says, 'Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God;' and St. John affirms that if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.' Similar passages are found in other parts of the Christian Scriptures.

Now it should be remembered that there were circumstances in the situation of the first Christians, which had no inconsiderable influence on their use of this expression, the world. Christianity was then the religion of a very small and very inconsiderable portion of the community. Those who bore the name of Christ, were not only few in number, but were persecuted and despised by those about them, regarded as outcasts, and exposed, not only to open violence, but to habitual contempt. Of course they became more closely and earnestly united to each other, and justly considered themselves as a wholly separate and distinct community. Nothing has such power to bind a small band

of men together, as persecution and suffering. Let men become the objects of reproach, scorn or violence on account of the cause to which they are attached in common, and from that moment they adhere with a warmer devotion than ever, to that cause and to each other; they gather a compactness and intenseness of feeling, which leads them to draw the most definite and marked lines of distinction between themselves and all others. Such was the state of the first Christians. They were a little community devoted to the cause of their Master, and surrounded by the multitudes who regarded them only with hatred or ridicule. What more natural and proper, than that they should consider themselves as within a consecrated enclosure, and should designate their enemies and persecutors by some peculiar appellation? This they did when they called the opposers of their Master's religion the world. and by the character of the new dispensation to which they belonged, they were still more distinguished from the rest of the community, than by their feeling of brotherhood. The instructions of Jesus Christ had imparted to them such spiritual treasures, as were wholly unknown to mankind before. Any one who considers the low and corrupt views of religious truths and duties which prevailed equally among Jews and heathens, and compares them with the pure and heavenly doctrines inculcated by him who spake as never man spake, must be convinced that in this respect there was indeed a wide space of separation between his disciples and others. Furthermore, that age was an age of great and peculiar corruption of practical morals.

There is scarcely a spot on the map of man's history which is more deeply stained with vice and crime. The most impure practices were not only allowed, but encouraged, even under the name of religion, and by the authority of teachers and guides. On the contrary, holiness of heart and life was the very essence of the religion of Christ; and without it no one could claim the honor of being his follower. From these, and from other circumstances, it is manifest that there was a broad and deep distinction between the disciples of Jesus and the rest of mankind, a distinction which partly arose out of the peculiar circumstances of the times, or at least received from them a peculiar cast and aspect.

It is just what we ought to expect, that the traces of this special distinction should be found in the language habitually used by the first Christians. And such is the fact. Peculiar names were assigned to the two very different portions into which the community were divided. The followers of Christ were called saints, and their enemies, opposers, and persecutors were called the world; the former, including those who received the instructions of Jesus Christ as their rule of faith and practice, the latter being the appellation of those who had not received the Gospel, were involved in darkness and corruption, and hated and reviled the disciples of the Saviour. The instances in which these terms are thus applied are so numerous, especially in the writings of Paul, that I need not cite them. By a very natural process of association in the use of language, the word world was employed to signify in general whatever was low or corrrupt in religion or morals, whatever was