You perceive nothing like distraction in this house. Every one knows what he has to do. Nor is the sound judgment of the auperintendents more conspicuous than the happiness of the members of this family. Indeed, order is to be recommended, from its tendency to render every one comfortable. It was this excellency and happy tendency of order, exhibited on a large scale, that contributed very much to raise the royal visitor of Solomon to that high pitch of admiration, in which she exclaimed, "Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand and hear thy wis dom continually."

The hints which I have given to you are the result of observation; and give me leave to say, that in the whole course of my observation there is nothing that has so frequently struck me as a cause of unhappiness to married people, as the want of religion. This defect, nearly or remotely, produces most of the miseries of a state,

which was designed for the happiness of

the sexes.

The evil effects of disregarding God are seldom more shockingly exhibited than in the history of an irreligious couple. Here, where the greatest temporal enjoyments might be found, there are frequently experienced the most exquisite of human miseries. The fear of God being wanting, the union becomes a source of incessant woes. How can it be otherwise with those whose nature is depraved, and who, living without any acknowledgment of God, are under no superior influence to regulate their temper, and to prevent the violence to which ungoverned passions are subject? They become the tempters and punishers of each other. Offences are given; and no principle existing that would lead them either to forgive injuries or suppress resentment, mutual offences are freely multiplied, and the quantity of wretchedness increases to a dreadful amount. What wonder is it,

then, to hear of dire distress in such a family?

But many of the evils proceeding from irreligion are concealed from the public eye. And were all the grief, the loathing, the hatred, the remorse, the apprehensions which are experienced, as conspicuous as the actions to which they give birth, we should not even then have a complete view of the case. We must follow the guilty pair into the eternal world, if we would ascertain all the effects of their impiety. We must hear their reproaches. We must see them, who once exchanged vows of eternal tenderness, transformed into beings of the most hostile dispositions towards each other, and meeting only to augment their mutual accusations. This is the dreadful end to which the history of an irreligious couple tends.

CHAPTER V.

Short account of Evander and Theodosia.-How Christianity supports the members of a Religious Family under afflictive events, exhibited in the death of Theodosia. Conclusion.

EVANDER and THEODOSIA were both the offspring of pious parents. Their union was a natural one. It had all the qualities which accompany an attachment founded not merely on similarity of religious views: it was such an affection as they could neither suppress nor direct to another object. But though their attachment was not produced by their religion, it was nourished by it. Whatever they saw in each other's person or temper to unite their hearts, was heightened by the satisfaction they had in each other's piety, and the consequent prospect of spending a harmonious life, and a blessed eternity together.

Their hands were joined, and they entered on a state blessed with all the enjoyments which an unshackled affection could yield to minds seasoned with the benevolence and purity of Christianity. Their equal regard to God diminished not one enjoyment in which a fond couple could share; but was, on the contrary, an additional source of pleasure. They "delighted in God;" and they delighted in the society of each other.

Their unanimity, their visible, though unstudied interchanges of kindness, had an assimilating influence on their family, and served to give considerable effect to that religious order which they had established. The invisible world being in a great measure nabitually before them, they both, in their respective departments, attended to those who were under them, (whether children or domestics,) as having the charge of immortals.

Such was their behavior towards their