and private, and he enjoyed in return the richest reward which a British Monarch can require-the affections of a free and loyal people. At the time of the French Revolution, and when many of his misguided subjects were desiring a similar convulsion at home, he has been known to weep over their infatuation, and to say that it was not for his own sake, but for theirs, that he felt so deeply affected at their conduct. His devotional habits heightened and adorned his other qualities. It would be difficult, in the whole course of British history, to find a sovereign who shewed more profound veneration for religion, or greater regularity and and fervour in his attendance upon the public ministrations of the church. He is stated to have been much attached to the writings of some of our best divines; and his general conduct shewed how sincerely he venerated Him who is the King of kings and Lord of lords. It would be superfluous to collect particular incidents illustrative of this point, when his whole life, and especially his humble behaviour and earnest devotion in public worship, were a constant commentary upon the stateof his mind inapproaching his Creator. He appears to have been also a firm believer in the Divinity of our Lord, and in the necessity and merits of his all-sufficient Atonement. Surely, then, the personal character of such a Monarch is a powerful claim on our gratitude to God. By his influence, and that of his revered queen, the British court became the purest in Europe. Our very satyrists could find nothing worse to say than that his Majesty was too pious to be a king, and too virtuous to lead a court. The prolongation of his life was also a blessing of considerable magnitude. He lived through and survived a period of unexampled peril to all our most cherished institutions, civil and ecclesiastical; and, by his influence, contributed greatly to the internal securities of this country, while almost every other European power was shaken to its foundation. When we look back at the events of his reign, we cannot but fear that there were periods in which his demise might have produced very dangerous consequences. The change of power, especially in turbulent times, is always more or less hazardous. We have, therefore, reason to bless God for his late Majesty's protracted reign, and that his sceptre has been peaceably transmitted to his successor. In this view, even the painful circumstances which rendered the late King, for several of his last years, unable to conduct in person the affairs of the country, may not have been without their use in smoothing the way for a new reign. The crown has in consequence devolved upon one already accustomed to hold the reins of government, and who ac tually held them at the time, and whose line of policy had previously been chosen and acted upon. The gracious providence of God has thus relieved us from the apprehension of those hazards and changes to which a new reign so often gives rise, and which the annals of our own country prove to have been often productive of fatal consequences. Nor are these the only claims upon our gratitude to Him by whom kings reign and princes decree justice. It is true, that there have been wars and discords; and that our sins as a nation have justly provoked, in many instances, the wrath of God against us: yet, amidst all, we may pronounce the late reign eminently auspicious. Our commerce has been increased, our territories have been extended, and our rank among the nations of the earth raised to a pitch of unexampled elevation. Our court has been conspicuous for its comparative morality, and the nation at large for their increased attention to the duties of religion. The benefits of education have been far more widely diffused; and it deserves remark, that their late Majesties were among the earliest patrons of a more extended education of the poor, especially in the case of Sunday schools. The progress of benevolent exertion of every kind has been also very great; and there was scarcely any species of charity that did not derive countenance from the crown. An increased attention to the privileges and comforts of the subject has been also very conspicuous. The unrivalled purity and impartiality of our public tribunals, caused no doubt, in a considerable measure, by the judges being rendered independent of the crown, deserves a large share of national gratitude to God; in connexion with which, it may be mentioned, that during the late reign, fewer persons have suffered capital punishment for offences against the state, than perhaps was ever the case in a like period of our history. Other topics, such as the improved moral character of our army and navy, and the preservation of these realms from invasion, when almost all others were exposed to that evil, if not subjected also to conquest, deserve our humble acknowledgments to the Author of all good. The abolition of the slave-trade, and the efforts to extend Christianity throughout the world, are also among our many motives to thankfulness. And, to add but one instance more, the improved character of our clergy, and the increase of genuine religion in the church, are blessings which justly demand, that the long reign which has now closed, should not be forgotten in the annals of a grateful country. With regard to our duties to the royal successor, we think it highly important, in times like these, to impress the obligation of transferring our allegiance with true loyalty and sincerity of heart. The duties of the Christian to constituted authorities do not waver with every breath of popular applause or dislike. By Me kings reign." Our duty to our sovereign is founded upon our duty to God. A sense of this duty will prevent our indulging a captious and discontented spirit, or transferring the petty scandal of private life into our public conduct, as men and Christians. We need scarce ly urge the apostolic duty of praying for our monarch, especially at a time like the present.-The first month of the new reign has not been calculated to increase our envy for the honours of a crown. The severe illness of the king, at the very time when his father and brother lay unburied, was a monitory lesson to himself, and to us all, of the frailness of the tenure by which we hold every earthly enjoyment. To add to this, a question has occurred, deeply affecting his domestic happiness. This question is said to have been for the present laid at rest by the determination of ministers not to bring forward the subject in a judicial form, and the king has acquiesced in this determination. To complete the occurrences of the month, a plot has been discovered, having for its alleged object the assassination of all the cabinet ministers. Nine of the conspirators were seized armed, in an obscure apartment, near the Edgeware-road, in the north-west extremity of London, after a desperate resistance, in which one of the officers was killed, and several were wounded. Thistlewood, who struck the fatal blow, and who is regarded as the ringleader, escaped, but was seized the next day; and seve ral more have since been apprehended. But, late as it now is in the month, it will be impossible for us to add any se farther details to this brief notice of the providential defeat of a most alarming conspiracy, which might have produced results of the most disastrous kind. Surely, under circumstances like these, the duty of every Christian is clear; and the ensuing election will give a favourable opportunity of practiseing this duty, by selecting men who are neither the tools of a faction, nor mere aspirants for the honours or emoluments of office, but who have given, or are willing to give, adequate pledges of unshaken loyalty, combined with a conscientious zeal for the religion, morals, and public welfare of their country. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. T. Y. S. was too late for our present Number, but will appear in the next; as will also the Obituaries of Col. Trotter, of Palamcotta, and J. M. Wallace, Esq. of New Jersey. We fully agree with AMICUs in his censure of the language of certain Advertisements, and have repeatedly expressed our opinion on this very point E. J. V. P.; S. E. R.; CREDENS; AN INQUIRING CHRISTIAN; J. B. O. C. and IMPARTIAL, are under consideration. We can give no pledge to A. B. C. till we see his papers. The letter of the Curates' Committee did not reach us till after the date mentioned for the return of their paper. We await their farther directions. We are glad to find that we were mistaken as to the drift of PHILODOXUS's letter; which, he states, was not to deny "the ineffable union of Deity with the human soul of the Mediator," but only to guard agamst "what in the fifth century would have been condemned as the Eutychian heresy." We are much obliged to H., but have been somewhat afraid of wearying our readers with too much even on an interesting subject. We have not, however, forgotten this or his more recent paper. A CLERGYMAN OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, in his censure upon the management of briefs, should not be angry with us respecting them. We are totally at a loss to know upon what he grounds his supposition of our being so perfectly satisfied with the present system. "THE CHRISTIAN OBSERVER. No. 219.] MARCH, 1820. [No. 3. Vol. XIX. RELIGIOUS COMMUNICATIONS. with which we desire none but our To the Editor of the Christian Observer. Maker and ourselves to be ac IF you deem the following re- quainted. In the house of God an marks on Family Prayer, writ- assembled district unite in acknowten originally for a friend, worthy ledging their common wants and of insertion in your pages, I shall imploring general blessings. And be glad if they meet the eye of any though we ought to rejoice in the who, living in the habitual neglect provision made for our devotion by of the duty of which they treat, the wisdom and piety of our Remay be induced to bestow upon formers, in the use of a pure and them a practical attention. The simple, but sublime ritual, which very heathens had their penates, applies to some of the most retiring and household gods; yet many a feelings of the heart, while it grasps, family of professed Christians in its comprehensive range, the will not blush to avow, in the state and condition of the world, words of the Roman historian, it is obvious that some intermediate "Nobis larem familiarem nullum!" link is needed, suited to the scenes No altar! no priest! no sacrifice! and events which form the history A divine of the last century ob- of each family in this great assemserved, that a family without prayer blage. Some altar should be set is, like a house without a roof, ex- up without the precincts both of the posed to every storm. Would that temple and the chamber, to be pethis paper might, under the Divine riodically approached by the memblessing, induce even one such fa- bers of each social circle, where mily to institute this hallowed rite; their united spiritual concerns may and should" the rains descend, be transacted with the Universal and the winds beat upon that Parent in heaven, the God and Fahouse," may they find that the father of all the families of the earth. your of the God whom they worship is their protection in every storm! H. FAMILY PRAYER may be regarded as a kind of supplementary service. It occupies a place between public worship and private devotion. The latter is too special and particular, the former too general, to meet the exigencies of social and domestic life. In priyate, we unbosom our inmost souls to our Father which seeth in secret; and when no eye is fixed upon us but his, and no ear but his is open to our accents, we disclose difficulties and temptations, hopes and fears, CHRIST. OBSERV, No. 219. I propose to consider the obligation, the privilege, and the advantages of family devotion. 1. With regard to the obligation, it has been commanded by God himself, if not expressly, yet, at least, by implication so strong that it is next to impossible to entertain a doubt of his will respecting it. What means, otherwise, the commendation bestowed upon that patriarch who might well be regarded as a model to every parent in respect to family religion-"I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep justice U and judgment?" What mean else those injunctions to the children of Israel to speak of the statutes of God, and to explain his ordinances to their offspring as they walked by the way, or sat in their house, as they lay down, and as they rose up, to the intent that they might not forget the works of God, but teach their children the same? Do we not read also of fury to be poured out on the families that call not on God's name* ? And is there not, likewise, a most encouraging promise made to social prayer? "Wherever two or three," the smallest possible number to compose a family, are met in my name, there am I in the midst of them." " The duty is, in fact, so reason. able and so co-incident with the general injunctions of Scripture, that it seems to need no express appointment. 2. It is a privilege as well as a duty.-It has been truly remarked, that the aged and the young, the parent and the child, the master and the servant, on their knees before the God of heaven, and in the presence of each other, forgetting, for a while, the one his inferiority, the other his preeminence, and only remembering so much of their mutual relation to each other as may unite them more closely in *This and the preceding texts must not, perhaps, be pressed as literally inculcating that stated service which we are accustomed to denominate Family Prayer. But their general import bears fairly and strongly on the point. The religious instructions and exhortations of Abraham and of every pious Israelite in his family, would doubtless take something of a regular form; and though the expression "families that call not upon my name" is primarily only a periphrasis to describe the idolatrous nations, yet the specific fact mentioned serves to indicate that the families of true believers are such as do call upon the name of God generally, and doubtless, among other ways, in stated family devotion, consisting of reading and instruction, of prayer and praise. supplication to their common Father; such a group and such an occasion must kindle zeal in the most languid bosom, and communicate warmth and spirit to the coldest heart." Like the chamber of the dying Christian, this scene is "privileged beyond the common walks of life." The Most High will not disdain to visit such a habitation. "I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God." "Them that honour me, I will honour." And surely the children of such a family will not lose their portion of the hereditary blessing. "Their sons shall grow up as the young plants, and their daughters be like the polished corners of the temple." 3. But the advantages of this venerable custom deserve to be more fully stated.-Most of them may be comprised under religious instruction-domestic government family union-and public peace. That it is the duty of the Christian to convey religious instruction to the several members of his household, cannot admit of a doubt. And surely no general medium of communication for this purpose can be selected with a greater probability of success, than family worship. The perusal of the Scriptures should, of course, form a conspicuous part of this duty, and probably, as far as is practicable and expedient, in a regular series and order. An opportunity is thus afhave little leisure, and, perhaps, forded for those of a family who less ability or inclination, to read for themselves, to acquire a familiarity with the general tenor of the word of God, parts (and but parts) of which they hear explained from the pulpit. There is something so gentle, so free from embarrassments, and yet so forcible, in these daily lessons, when suitably conducted, that the dullest understanding, we might hope, would at length be penetrated, and the hardest heart softened. A second advantage was the fa cility afforded by it in domestic government. It tends to impose a constant check on the bad passions which may be ready to arise in any individual of the household! The instruction thus daily afforded to the members of the family respecting their relative duties and responsibilities, will, under the blessing of God, closely connect itself with the suppression of sinful desires and vain purposes! It will tend to bridle frivolous conversation, to sober the excesses of intemperate mirth, to smooth down the roughnesses of temper, and to banish whatever is morose and gloomy from every brow! Such, at least, is its tendency as far as its beneficial effects come into due operation. And with what ease may a parent or master govern where children and servants approve the command as reasonable, and have learned and loved to obey-not as unto mạn, but unto God! Another benefit resulting from this duty was its tendency to unite the various members of a family, and to inspire mutual confidence and love. Religion, which is confessedly the best bond of union in larger communities, is likewise so among the individuals of more confined circles. A degree of friendship is almost necessarily generated by this daily assembling of the membersof a well-regulated household brothers and sisters, domestics and visitors independently of those frequent allusions which occur in reading the Scriptures and addressing our great common Parent, to the community of their wants, and hopes, and joys. Nil caritate mutua fratrum, nihil Jucundius concordiâ; Aronis in sacrum caput; Hermonis intonsi juga. But effects like these will be ultimately felt beyond the limits of the private circle; for "parents, magistrates, senators, ministers of religion, were once children in a family." And where shall such hopeful subjects be nurtured for the state as in a religious and well ordered household? Where can loyal obedience be better learned towards that authority which is as the parent of the people, than in a scene in which the parent is acting in the spirit of a mild monarch? And how can insubordination among that great class of the community, the servants of families, be better checked than by plain and affectionate instruction in their duties, combined with the powerful persuasive of a Christian example. It has been justly observed, that "Many call for church-reformation and state-reformation, who yet are the troublers of the times themselves, and will not reform one litthe family. If men would agree in a holy education of their servants and children, church and state would soon be reformed. The efforts of the Christian minister would thus be essentially seconded; for children and servants judge of things, not from what one man says to them one day in a week, but from what every person is saying every day." So forcibly do these considerations strike my mind, that I cannot but adopt the sentiment, that "if the existence of God and the im mortality of man were equivocal, if death and judgment, heaven and hell, were as doubtful as they are sure, yet family worship would possess such recommendations as no prudent man would think it wise to oppose; and finding the order and integrity, the submission and the good will, the fidelity of servants, the love of children, and the union of all springing from this duty, we should still be gainers by assembling our families for the offices of prayer and praise, though it were even ascertained that prayer should be fruitless, and praise superfluous." In concluding this paper, it may |