with Him, and all that would have been marred had the king chosen the ungodly for his associates, or even for his servants. The moral discomfort of dwelling side by side with falsehood made it impossible for him to endure it. Such moral degradation chafed his soul, for he could not both smile upon the false, and live in the smile of Him who is holy and true. He felt the presence of the ungodly to be contagious and deadening. To countenance them is to encourage and harden them in guilt-to trust them is only to afford opportunity for further crime. As firmly, therefore, as language could express it, David records the resolution not to harbour the deceitful, not to tolerate in his home, nay, in his sight, "him that telleth lies," and how happy would our homes become were such maxims there supreme!

Such, then, were the purposes, and such the principles of David regarding his Home; these things signalised it far more than gilded domes, or pillars of cedar could do. Truth, in all its beautiful manifestations, was to be patronised on the one hand, and practised on the other. "The ungodly shall not dwell in my house" was the explicit decree of the king. A proud look and a lying tongue are an abomination to God, and they were the same to his servant-he pitied them, and put them far away.

Now starting from this divine model, it is easy to mark what would result were it faithfully copied.

How pleasant the task of ruling a home, were the truth of God enthroned as the guide of all, and nothing but that

truth tolerated there!

How sweet the intercourse between parent and child, or between master and servant, were the soul of each taught to make God's truth his sovereign standard !

THE DWELLINGS OF JACOB.

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How would the pride of power among superiors, or the sorrows of servitude among inferiors, alike disappear; and how would all this serve "to guard our nest against the wily snake!"

How surely would the families which call upon the name of the Lord increase in the land, were men to make God's mind theirs as David did! The dwellings of Jacob would then be loved even as the gates of Zion—that is, the believer's house would become a house of God. "The Church in the house," as in the case of Cornelius the centurion, of Aquila and Priscilla, of Nymphas and Philemon,* would be the meeting-place between God and souls, and joy as serene as that of summer sunset would be diffused where confusion and many evil works too often prevail. Household joys and fireside memories would exert a deeper influence upon life, and the last promise of the Old Testament would be all fulfilled"The hearts of the fathers would be turned to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers,” while the dread alternative, "lest I come and smite the earth with a curse," would be averted from men's homes.

But the case of David, in regard to his home, is more instructive still. Never man knew better than he, that

"It is not they who idly dwell

In cloister gray, or hermit cell,

In prayer and vigil, night and day,

Wearing all their time away,

Lord of heaven! that serve thee well.'

.

Nay, David was a monarch. His empire was one of the widest then in the world, or fast becoming so. His cares, therefore, were manifold. Armies had to be led, and battles fought. Materials for a temple to Jehovah had to be collected. Allies had to be honoured, and enemies sub

* Acts x. 2; Rom. xvi. 5; 1 Cor. xvi. 19; Col. iv. 15; and Philemon 2.

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PRINCIPLE AND PRACTICE.

dued. Rebellion had to be crushed, and conspiracy checked. Laws had to be passed, and their obedience watched over. Hostile princes demanded the monarch's watchful eye; in brief, crowds of disturbing influences beset him both by night and day. And yet, ruling over millions as he did, sustaining in his single person the responsibility of first magistrate and first captain, this wonderful man had time to spare for the concerns, nay, even for the details of his home. He knew it to be the nursery either of all that is good and true, or of all that is godless and false. Even on his throne, therefore, did David find leisure to announce the principles which should regulate a well-ordered family. He prescribed a panacea for social ills, and did what would tend to the subversion of evil, were his maxims firmly obeyed.

Nor was all this a mere theory with David—a fancy sketch -a visionary scene, beautiful as propounded, but neglected in practice. Nay, amid some of his most attractive or most exciting public duties, he was careful to "return to bless his household." Even on his dying bed, when his thoughts clung to the well-ordered covenant and its Eternal Head, he could not but glance once again at his home. The thought of disorder there added one pang more to the dying monarch's sorrow, and the complaint uttered with some of his last breaths was, that his house was not right with God.* Like another Hebrew captain, amid the cares of a vast migration, David had determined that he and his house should serve the Lord. Neither the cares of state, nor the disquietudes of war, nor the harassments of a thousand duties were allowed to interfere with that object; and the king of Israel hence becomes both a model and a rebuke. A model for should not the

* Compare 2 Sam. vi. 20, aud xxiii. 5.

THE RIGHT STANDARD.

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principles which guided him, much more guide us who have none of his cares to plead in defence of neglect? And a rebuke for does not the practice of David, do not his purposes and his vows shame those who allow themselves to be seduced from the right government of home by cares which become sins when they interfere with a duty so solemn, so binding, and so blessed?

But is not David's standard somewhat too high? Is it possible for us to do as he did?-It is so possible, that God has made it an universal duty, and to neglect it is to court sorrow for our homes. Let love to God and man become a presiding principle, and all will be as easy as it is binding. Just let the soul feel like the dying legislator,* when he panted out the words "Jesus Christ - love the same thing,” and all will be plain. Constrained by that love, all that is needful will be attempted, and much of it achieved. No parent who loves his children-no householder who feels responsible to God for the spiritual wellbeing of his home, will then deem even the standard of David too high; and to be guided by it is to be "glad with the spirit of the peace divine."

Now it is in the hope that the principles which guided him may guide many more, that we here attempt to delineate a Christian Home-its component parts, its joys, its sorrows, its maxims, and its aims. Around that sacred name there gather some of the deepest convictions, the most endearing associations, and most sunny influences which control the mind of man.

"In every clime the magnet of man's soul,

Touch'd by remembrance, vibrates to that pole." Even when the King Eternal would depict his deepest love

*Sir James Mackintosh.

B

and tenderness, the language employed is often linked with home. "Like as a father pitieth his children, the Lord pitieth them that fear him;" "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you," and a hundred other texts, indicate the spirit of God's religion; and if more be needed, we find enough in the words "They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that mourneth and is in bitterness for his first born."* In other words, the profoundest of all emotions can find an adequate expression only when represented by the anguish of domestic bereavement, or the tenderness of domestic ties; and as the Word of God thus gives such prominence to home, we should learn to go and do likewise. Let its spirit, its principles and maxims, be in unison with the mind of God, and it becomes a fountain of felicity for ever. But let the world rule there; let the God of all the families of the earth be neglected or disowned; then parents with their children, and masters with their servants, are only preparing to feed the worm which never dies. It is to deepen the felicities of home that these chapters are sent forth; and they go full of the conviction, that none but parents who are taught by the Spirit of God can rule a household in His fear.

* Psalm ciii. 13; Isa. lxvi. 13; Zech. xii. 10.