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a Selection of Hymns, and mend it continually, as opportunity was given. In such a Selection there should be Hymns which would be tauntingly, but truly, called political, by many who could not feel how their taunt was condemning themselves, and implying that their religion did not and should not govern their conduct towards their King, and his Officers, and their fellow-subjects. As such a Selection is to act upon the people, so it should in some measure be acted upon by them; until, by such action and re-action, it became fitted for their daily use. All public and private duties might well stand together in the familiar language and unpretending stanzas of the same book which teaches us how to sing the praises of our God.

Men

There is in our days a sad want of due subordination throughout all classes of society, which is at once the cause and effect of much evil. are again trying to live in God's world without Him; to enjoy the gifts, while they blaspheme the Giver, and deny His providence. Yet God alone can keep society together. Love alone, the love of Jesus Christ, can conquer selfishness, and form, through Him, a bond of union among men.

There is an obedience, for the sake of conscience, due to our Rulers; and we should yield it cheerfully. The Rulers, on the other hand, should not ever require an obedience to what is not shewn to be reasonable. They who can understand the reasons so put forward, will, under the blessing of God, be enough in number and influence to maintain the just authority of our laws in this kingdom, and preserve the conscientious obedience of the people at large. The same bad principle that makes us sinners before God will incline us to be rebels against those earthly Rulers who bear His

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authority, and should use it to His honour. At the beginning of our career, Religion and Government alike imply restraint upon those who are to become religious by denying themselves, and dutiful by sacrificing direct advantages to the good of their neighbour, and by subjecting their conduct to the laws of the community. The good subjects of our Crown acknowledge God as the author of their Government, and His word as its sanction. They who are by Him rendered able and willing to restrain themselves, are the only class that will not feel the restraint of government. They who cannot and will not restrain themselves must be restrained by parents and by laws; and will naturally complain of the restraint, and elude it if they can. Their path must be hedged on both sides, until they acknowledge the Star, the only Star that can guide them through this world: and are thankful to consult their only compass, when earth-born clouds obscure that Star.

There are individuals in every rank that need this restraint: and the restraint itself is not as strong in many cases as it should be; for instance, in prohibiting the desecration of the Lord's Day, and the sale of blasphemous books, and books intended to enlist our passions on the side of blasphemy. Legislators seem to forget their primary duties, in spurious generalities, and a philosophy falsely so called: they give away what does not belong to them, and boast of their liberality: they sacrifice what they do not value, and call it patriotism. The poor have not the Gospel preached unto them, for want of church room, in the large towns, where they most need its lessons: while all our land through, mischief-makers, that could not influence their equals or find among them the

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means of indulging their vanity and restlessness, are allowed, with impunity, to preach and print the lessons of the Devil. Alas! for such teachers! Why will they close their eyes against the whip by which they are driven to their task and labour, deceiving and deceived, in the vilest slavery, to corrupt their inferiors in station and learning? Alas, still more, for the nation which permits such an enormity!

The outbreak of a rebellious spirit should be checked in its earliest stage. When the fathers of our flesh have not their proper honour, we are so much the more ready to disobey our King and to deny our God. When mothers are unheeded by the children they tended through their infancy, and would love while they have life, how can conscience make us good subjects, or affection bind our hearts to Him who gave His only Son to die for us! Few children so conduct themselves to their parents, that manhood is not full of sorrow for past unkindness to father or mother, unless, indeed, they have gone on from one sin to another. "The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.” Disobedience to parents is a fatal sign that we are in perilous times. The wages that render a youth independent of his father for maintenance are ill earned, if they render him also independent of his father for his blessing. A golden idol is an idol still; and only more dangerous for its apparent worth and costliness. It were much better for parent and child to be living in mutual love on bread and water, than to be worshipping Mammon, to the increase of selfishness, and the destruction of moral feeling. Affectionate discipline should

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THREE PRAYERS

FROM

ANCIENT DEVOTIONS.

Almighty God! Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in Heaven and earth is named, I give Thee most humble thanks for that Thou didst, of Thy divine providence, vouchsafe to let me be born of Christian parents, by whose care I was first brought unto Thy holy baptism, and afterwards brought up in Thy holy religion. I beseech (Thee), O blessed God, who art the rewarder of every good work, to recompense them their full reward, even out of the riches of Thy bountie and goodness! Give them peace and plenty; defend them from all dangers, both of bodie and soul; keep them in the stedfastness of Thy faith, and in the obedience of Thy holy commandments; that so, having Thee, their merciful and gentle Father, after many happy days here in this life, they may at last be brought into life everlasting, through Jesus Christ! Amen.

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