T
“ The Lord God is a Sun and Shield.4’
VOL. III.
hillsborougW, n. c., October, mi
No. 10.
From the Southern Christian Advocate:
JAMILI GOVERNMENT.
BY THE BEY. BISHOP ANDREW;
[Continued.]
We will suppose that yoil have follow
ed the advices already suggested ; that
with Christian prudence, and in the spirit
of prayer, yctu have taken this most im
portant step. You are married ;• you
have formed a union which death alone
can dissolve; and it is now a matter of
the utmost importance that you deport
yourselves in such a manner as to make
the union mutually productive of happi
ness. In order to this let each consider
well the duties and responsibilities appro
priate to his or her station, and from the
very commencement resoJve, in humble
dependence upon divine,grace, to attempt
earnestly and perseveringlv the perform
ance of every one of them/ As we like
always to begin af the beginning, let us
suppose that you are just married and
gone home to housekeeping! The very
first night you spend in your netv habita
tion let there be family worship, in pro
per form and spirit. Very likely the de
vil will whisper, that as there are none
present but you and your wife* and you
both pray in secret, there is no need for
family worship; but do not, I beseech
you, suffer yourself to be thus beguiled.
Be assured there is a fine moral influence
growing out of the fact that they have
bowed together morning and evening at
the family altar ; and if you neglect this
important duty at first, it will be* proba
bly, very difficult to excite you to its per
formance when increasing family cares
shall seem to oiler a plausible pretext fof
eontinued neglect. Attend punctually to
family devotion, though only you and
your wife kneel together in its perform
ance. Let the- family Bible he there at
and wife,
the start, the first book in your library,
and permit no volume afterwards to ob
trude itself, which canhot, with a hearty ^
good will, afford to keep company with
that blessed old book. And when I say
a family Bible, l mean a respectably siz
ed one* with good print, such as will not
tax the eyes of any aged prophet of God,
who may chance to sojoufifwith you. I
doubt the cleverness of him, who with the
ability to do better, hands me at prayer
ftime a little duodecimo Bible, because it
cost something less than a larger one
wOuld have done. And now, having be
gun right, continue; hold on steadily in
your Course. Having taken up family
worship, never neglect, it. Let neither
your weariness at night, nor your haste
in the morning, nor the presence of stran
gers, nor )|ojur supposed tVant of gifts, be
pleaded in justification of such neglect.
Let your wife, your children, your ser
vants, in all their interests of soul and bo
dy, be the subjects of voiir petitions ; and
let prayers and thanksgivings embrace
your fields, your barns, and all the inte
rests which pertain to you as a Christian
man. So may you expect GodV bles
sing to rest richly on you and yours.
But remember that prayer is not all that
is necessary. You pray for grace, and
grace is given : but it must be exhibited
in your temper add conversation, for therej 1
fore was it bestowed. What does St<
Paul say of the duties, of husbands?
“ Husbands, love your wives.” Now*
here is the duty: love your wife as yout
own flesh : if you hate her you hate your
self ; if you love her you but love your
Otvii flesh. Treat her not tvith harshness,
not with lordly superiority, not as a slave,
not as an inferior, not as an idol; but as ,
art helper sent thee from God; as the con
fidential friend of thy heart, thy counsel
lor, thy comforter, an heir with thee of
■immoitelity and eternal life; Let thin*
•?