a bearing upon the practice of the duties we owe to God, to our Saviour, to one another, and to our own souls; and we rejoice to think that in proportion as christian truth bears more directly upon these subjects, it is clear, satisfactory and undisputed. We rejoice to believe that He who made us, and is to be our final judge, is a perfectly just Being; and that, having given us our conscience, our judgment, and the light of revelation to be our guides, he will not condemn us, if humbly and prayerfully following them, we should, through our natural frailty, be led into error.

W. F. R.

Haven'd at home, the dark abyss
Of waters pass'd, all perils o'er,

Give us to know the full glad bliss
Of friends long sever'd met once more.

Then with united heart and voice
We'll wake th' exulting hymn of praise,

And evermore in thee rejoice,
Our sun and shield in all our ways.

J. F. S.

RELIGION IN DOMESTIC LIFE.

RELIGION is necessary to render domestic life a scene of uninterrupted enjoyment. Marriage was designed by our heavenly Father to be a source of the most perfect temporal happiness. And when the religion of Jesus exerts its governing and sanctifying influence on the heart and life; and causes the wedded pair to cultivate mutual friendship and affection; to be uniformly kind and obliging; accommodating and forbearing; charitable and forgiving; patient, and contented, and cheerful; and truly devoted to the promotion of each other's welfare this benevolent design is answered, and this purest of earthly felicity is secured. But when this is not the case, as sometimes happens; when those are united who have no correct knowledge of each other's characters; whose tastes, and dispositions, and habits are unlike; and over whose feelings, and passions, and conduct, christian principles exercise no controlling power, the wise plan of providence is frustrated. Thence arise those complaints and criminations; those angry disputes and unhappy difficulties; that unkind treatment and alienation of

affection, which render this connexion a state of contention, discord and misery.

But this is not all. The example of parents is ever carefully watched and imitated by their children. If the injunctions of the Gospel are habitually disregarded by the parents; if the words of profanity, and falsehood, and passion often fall from their lips; if the trifles of earth, the failings of acquaintances, the tales of passing scandal, the means and measures of acquiring popularity and wealth; and the follies, and fashions, and amusements of gay life constitute the chief subjects of conversation; if the supply of animal wants, and the gratification of vain desires, and the promotion of temporal aggrandizement are made the principal objects of attention and pursuit ; if no decided respect is shown for undeviating rectitude and moral goodness; if the word and ordinances of God. are slighted; and they attend the sanctuary only in compliance with fashion, or habit, or a love of excitement and display;—if the christian instruction of their children is neglected; if the good seeds of virtue are never implanted on their tender minds; if the pernicious weeds of vice and ungoverned passion are suffered to spring up and flourish unchecked; if they are permitted to resort to places of idleness and dissipation for amusement and companions; after such an education, if they become useful and religious members of society, it will not be in consequence of the example and instruction of their parents. They may indeed, as some few have done, break the shackles of ignorance and irreligion, and become ornaments in our christian community. But this is scarcely probable. For they will be peculiarly exposed to so many temptations; to temptations from their own

undisciplined passions and ungoverned desires; from thoughtless and profligate companions; from vice and infidelity, which will beset them in every form; that there is danger, great danger, of their becoming pests to the community, scourges to their friends, and curses to themselves. And all this would be but the natural consequence of the examples they have imitated, the instructions they have received, the principles they have imbibed, and the habits they have formed, while under the paternal roof.

On the other hand, if the parents endeavor to regulate their conduct and their household by the precepts of religion; if they are kindly attentive to each other's wishes and wants, mild and equable in their tempers, circumspect and amiable in their manners, true and candid and improving in their conversation; if they manifest the sympathies of an expansive benevolence, and exhibit the fruits of genuine goodness and unaffected piety;—if parental discipline and instruction be added to this worthy example; and their offspring are early taught to obey the dictates of their parents, their reason, and their Maker; if their risings of rebellious passion are checked and controlled; and they are aided in forming habits of truth, honesty, industry, self-government, and virtue; if they are assisted in cultivating cheerful, contented, generous, happy dispositions; if they are instructed to look upon the honors, emoluments, and pleasures of this world as uncertain, temporary and unsatisfying; and upon christian goodness as the one thing truly essential to their happiness in every period of their existence; if they are induced to believe that the religion of Jesus is a certain guide to peace, usefulness, respecta

bility, and salvation; and that God is their ever present, unfailing Friend and Father-thus educated by precept and example, they will be prepared for the evils that are in the world. And though they may leave the happy scenes of infancy and childhood with regret, they will soon secure the esteem of all who know them; they will be blessings to their friends and ornaments of society. And should they be greatly exposed to the influence of corrupting example, in the moment of strong temptation, if their early impressions, their virtuous habits, their christian principles will not save them from ruin, there is good hope they will be saved by the remembrance of a virtuous home; by the recollection of a brother's affectionate warnings, a father's agitated countenance, a sister's earnest entreaties, a fond mother's tears. If then we would have uninterrupted happiness in our family circle, we must cherish religion on the domestic altar. Her heavenly influence must purify our motives, refine our feelings, mould our dispositions, elevate our affections, dignify our conversation, and direct our conduct. Then we shall have felicity in our own bosoms, and the same blessing will rest upon our dependants and children.

B. W,

THE GOOD PASTOR OF WALDBACH.

[Compiled.]

In a wild, mountainous canton of Alsace, the Ban de la Roche, are five obscure villages, of which Waldbach is the principal. This place has acquired a moral interest far exceeding that which is ever inspired by the finest