ew that Abraham
would do this, he gave it as a reason for his love and confidence in
him, in not concealing from him his purpose to destroy Sodom. 'Shall I
hide from Abraham that thing which I do? For I know him that he will
command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep
the ways of the Lord.' So, in order to remind Abraham of what was
expected by the Most High in making his children the presumptive heirs
of grace, and to remind the children of it when they came to years of
understanding, God gave him and them this mark and seal."

"Well, then," said Mr. Benson, "it seems to me Abraham was better off
than we, if he had God in covenant with him for his children, and we
have not. I sometimes wish that I could have God covenant with me about
my boy, as Abraham had about Isaac."

"I should like," said Mrs. B., "to hear him say, 'I will be a God to
him,' and then tell us to do something of his own appointment that
should be like our signing and sealing a covenant together, as the
Lord's Supper enables us to do with Christ."

"If we have no such blessed privilege," said I, "then, as Abraham
desired to see our day, I should, in this respect, rejoice to see
Abraham's day. I cannot forego the privilege of having God in covenant
with me for my children as he was with Abraham for his; and I crave some
divine seal affixed to it.

"You said, Mrs. Benson, that you would like to have God promise to be
the God of your child, and then command you to do something which would
be like God and you signing and sealing it together. But do you think,
Mrs. B., that this is necessary? Why is it not enough for God to make a
promise, and you make one, and let it be without any sign or seal?"

"People don't do things in that way," said Mr. Benson, with a decided
motion, two or three times, with his head. "They call a wedding a
ceremony, it is true, and some say, 'So long as people are engaged to be
man and wife, the ceremony makes little difference.' But it does make
all the difference in the world,--this mere ceremony, as they call it.
They never like to dispense with it themselves, at least; because, you
see, it makes all the difference between unlawful, sinful union, and
marriage. It makes married life; which could not exist, without the
ceremony, among decent people. It gives a title and ground to a thing
which could not be without it. So, I begin to see and feel, it is with
regard to what some call the ceremony of b