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of man, their author, and are not to be compared with the original domestic societies into which we are united by the ordinance of God himself. In the smallest and most familiar things, the thoughts of the Almighty are above our thoughts and his ways above our ways. We have asylums in which many children are fed, clothed, and instructed; hospitals in which many sick, friendless, and destitute persons are received and cared for, and associations whose object is, to spread the knowledge and blessings of Christianity. All these institutions are useful and valuable, and do distinguished honor to the age and country in which we live. But how many children are fed, clothed, and instructed in all our asylums, compared with the multitudes who are thus much more effectually cared for in all the families which fill the land? How many sick, friendless, and destitute persons are relieved in all our hospitals, compared with the number among us, who, at their own houses are watched over by the nursing care of mothers and sisters, and surrounded and soothed by the tenderness which grows up only in the family circle? To how many do our religious associations impart the knowledge and blessings of Christianity, compared with the numbers to whom domestic instruction and example impart their first pious impressions, and their earliest and most effectual religious training? These comparisons are not made in order to depreciate our asylums, hospitals, and missionary associations, — far, very far from it; but that our attention may be distinctly drawn, at the outset, to the importance of our domestic relations and the duties which originate in them, and because we are always in danger of disregarding and neglecting whatever is familiar and of daily recurrence. That simple and unostentatious society which God has instituted, a family, - that refuge from the storms of life, our home, raised and consecrated by the holiest instinct of our nature, is an establishment worth infinitely more than all the institutions great and small, which man has ever devised. In truth, just as far as this is improved, as its duties are suitably performed, and its blessings prized, all artificial institutions are superseded. Here, then, is the appropriate sphere for the agency of the wise

* Isaiah lv. 8, 9.

and good. Improve the family, strengthen the relations of domestic life, and more is done for the happiness and progress of mankind, than by the most splendid charities.

Moreover, whatever there is of dignity, interest or importance in government, education, and religion, is all combined in the family, when well regulated. It includes the maintenance of a just and rightful authority, and the wise administration of discipline. The earliest and most lasting impressions are made at the domestic fireside; the manners are formed there, good or evil principles are imbibed there; the temper and affections are cultivated and regulated there; the habits and sentiments, which in a great measure govern future life, are contracted there; the family, then, is a more extensive and effectual place of education than the school, the college, or the university. There, too, the infant is first taught to lisp its brief, unaffected prayer; there, day by day, the Scriptures are searched; and there, morning and evening, the inmates prostrate themselves, in united prayer to the Father of light, at the domestic altar; the pious family, then, is a church of the most High God.*

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Consulting convenience and perspicuity of arrangement, it will be useful to subdivide this chapter, by reason of its unusual length, and the variety of subjects which it embraces, into several sections. I. The relation of husband and wife, and their reciprocal duties. II. Of parents and children. III. Of brothers, sisters, and more remote relatives. IV. Of master and servant.

SECTION I.

The relation of husband and wife is the first of the domestic relations, and the foundation of all the rest. In all countries raised above barbarism, this relation has been considered peculiarly sacred, and involving duties of the most solemn and responsible kind. Almost universally, a religious sanction has been believed to pertain to this relation; and the narrative of the creation of man, and of the institution of marriage in the persons

* Colossians iv. 15; Philemon ii.; Dr. Channing on Associations, in "The Christian Examiner," of September 1829, pp. 116, 117.

of Adam and Eve, accompanied by the strong declaration of our Saviour, "What God hath joined, let not man put asunder,' "" * seems fully to warrant this belief.

Accordingly, in Christian countries, it has, with almost universal consent and approbation, been solemnized by the ministers of religion, and before the altar; and, in the largest branch of the Christian church, the dignity of a sacrament has been conferred on it, and the consent of the parties is ratified by the solemnities of a sacramental service. In this country, the municipal law regards marriage as a civil contract between the parties, and permits its celebration by a civil magistrate; but public opinion, stronger and more authoritative than law, has made this provision nothing worth, and the marriages are extremely few, which are not celebrated by clergymen. The municipal law, moreover, although it does not acknowledge the religious character of this contract, still treats it as it treats no other contract. In no Christian country, can it be dissolved by the mere consent of both parties, or even of all the persons interested in its continuance; and, in England and every one of the United States, its dissolution can be accomplished only after much delay and expense, and for reasons of the most peculiar and pressing kind. In this State (S. Carolina), there has been no instance, since the revolution, of a divorce of any kind, either by the sentence of a court of justice, or by act of the legislature. †

Nor are the importance of the marriage union, and the objects of its institution, unworthy of its divine origin, and of the numerous and special guards which the law has thrown around it for its protection and perpetuation. The number and solemn nature of the duties springing from the relation, fully correspond to the importance and sacredness which belong to the relation itself. But how shall these duties be enumerated? how described and set forth with adequate fulness and variety of illustration? They occur every day, and almost every hour of every day. They are not confined to the external conduct, nor to the expressions of the tongue; they reach the thoughts and intents of the heart. I Besides being numerous and various, these duties are of every *Matt. xix. 6. + Kent's Commentaries on American Law, Vol. II. p. 88. Matt. v. 28.

degree of magnitude. Some of them are great duties, - so great, indeed, that the comfort, the happiness, nay, the salvation of the parties, may depend on their being suitably performed. Some of them are so delicate as to require the best-disciplined temper and passions, the most just taste, the most mature judgment, and the most cultivated understanding, for their suitable. appreciation and performance. Many of them are too minute and evanescent to be reached by any description short of inspiration itself. And accordingly it is in the Scriptures, that we find this relation and its duties described with a fulness, pertinency, and strength of illustration, which we attempt in vain to find elsewhere. Every image and every expression by which intimacy, delicacy, and tenderness can be conveyed, is exhausted by the sacred writers. The state itself is commended by St. Paul to be honorable in all men.* Christianity recalled marriage to the original standard appointed by the Creator, the union of one man with one woman. This union cannot rightfully be dis

solved, but from a single cause.‡

The equality in number, too, of men and women born in all ages and countries, proves polygamy to be as inconsistent with the law of nature as it is with the ordinance of God. This argument is used by the prophet Malachi, who well says, if it had been the intention of the Almighty to permit a man to have more than one wife, he would have created a greater number of women than of men.§ Thus, as St. Paul says, every man is to have his own wife, and every woman her own husband. The husband is to render unto the wife due benevolence, and likewise, also, the wife unto the husband. Husbands are to dwell with their wives according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that their prayers be not hindered.** The husband is declared to be the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church. Husbands are to love their wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. He that loveth his wife loveth himself; and it is declared to be as inconsistent for

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a husband to hate his own flesh, which he is accustomed to nourish and cherish, as to hate his wife.* A man leaving his father and mother, and being joined to his wife, is called a great mystery. On the other hand, the virtuous wife is called a crown to her husband; the heart of her husband is said safely to trust in her; through her influence, her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land. Her children arise up and call her blessed, her husband also, and he praiseth her.§ Wives are to submit themselves to their own husbands, as unto the Lord. As the church is subject unto Christ, so are wives to be to their own husbands in every thing. The wife is to see, that she reverence her husband.||

Again, the adorning of women, is not to be the outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, and of putting on of apparel; but it is to be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is, in the sight of God, of great price. Sarah, who obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and other holy women of ancient times, are made examples of suitable behaviour, who trusted in God, and adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands. St. Paul declares it to be fit in the Lord, that wives submit themselves to their own husbands; and he exhorts them to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.**

The preceding passages, numerous as they are, are only a small part of what the Scriptures contain, pertaining to this most important of the domestic relations. They are full, distinct, authoritative, and there is no mistaking their import. Still it may be useful specially to illustrate and dwell upon two particulars.

1. The union of feeling and sentiment, so much insisted on between the parties to the marriage relation, in the New Testament, must not rest in theory alone, it is designed to answer the most important practical purposes. Without a good degree

* Eph. v. 28, 29.
§ Prov. xxxi. 11, 23, 28.
¶ 1 Peter iii. 1-6.

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Prov. xii. 4.

+ Eph. v. 31, 32.

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