ents; great advantages are theirs, directly and indirectly, from
their relation to those who are the true worshippers of God;
forbearance, long suffering, the remembrance of consecrations and vows,
prevail with God, oftentimes, in their behalf when they have broken
their father's commandment and forsaken the law of their mother. No
words of tenderness, in any relation of life,--said Mr. R., turning to
the Psalms,--surpass those, in which are described the feelings of God
toward the rebellious sons of Abraham: "But he, being full of
compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not; yea, many a
time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath." "For
he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham his servant." God still
remembers Abraham, his servant, in the person of every father and mother
who loves him, and is steadfast in his covenant; and "the generation of
the upright shall be blessed." Mistakes in family government, growing
out of wrong principles, too great reliance upon future conversion, and
the neglect of that moral training which is essential to the best
development of religious character, and, indeed, without which religious
character is often a melancholy distortion, or sadly defective, may be
followed by their natural consequences; and we cannot complain,--for God
works no miracle, nor turns aside any great law, in favor of our
misconduct; yet it remains true that all who love and serve him, and
command their children and households to fear the Lord, enforcing it in
all the proper ways of government, discipline, example, and the right
observance of religious ordinances, public and private, may expect
peculiar blessings upon their offspring.

One of the youngest of the company, the father of one young child, here
inquired, if the speaker would have us infer that the conversion of such
children is to be looked for as a matter of course.

_Mr. R._ Ordinarily, they will grow up in the nurture and admonition of
the Lord, to be followers of Christ; the proportion of persons baptized
on admission to the church, will become small; a healthful tone of
religious feeling will pervade our churches; less and less reliance will
be placed on startling measures, on splendid talents, on novelties, to
promote the cause of religion; but Christian families will extend like
the cultivated fields of different proprietors, whose green and
flowering hedges, instead of stone walls, mingle all into one landscap