WILLIAM P. KENNEDY, 15 ST. ANDREW ST.

GLASGOW: D. BRYCE. DUNDEE:

W. MIDDLETON.

LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO.

MDCCCLIII.

141. d. 545.

TO THE

Members of the Kirk-Session of St Peter's Free Church,

DUNDEE,

THE FOLLOWING PAGES, PUBLISHED AT THEIR REQUEST,

ARE INSCRIBED, BY THEIR AFFECTIONATE

FRIEND AND PASTOR,

THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

THE earnest request of many friends, to whom the substance of the following chapters was addressed in another form, would not have induced the author to commit them to the press, were he not deeply impressed with the vital importance of the subject to which they refer, and were there not some things in regard to it which he could wish to speak in the ears of a wider circle. He believes in "the sanctity of home" in the fullest sense. He regards the family order as a most sacred ordinance of God, destined to subserve the highest ends, and fraught with the most precious and far-reaching blessings for the Church and for the world. While everything else in the