Influence of Family-Worship on Posterity
He was a churl who said, Why should I care for posterity? What has posterity done for me?” Only a mean and selfish mind can be indifferent as to what is coming on the earth. If any such meaning was involved in the obscure words of king Hezekiah, he was certainly not generous in his thoughts, when, on hearing the sentence of God, he exclaimed, ‘’ Is it not good, if peace and truth be in my days?“t We take pleasure in receiving the words in a nobler gense. There are men, however, whose maxim is, “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. “J They close their eyes to every thing which may happen after they are gone, content to live in self-indulgence, and to let their children take
* Psa. lxvii. 5, 6, 7. 2 Kings xx. 19. t 1 Cor. xv. 32.
their chance. The religion of the Bible sets itself in stern opposition to such a temper. It constantly directs our view to children, and children’s children; teaching us that all the good which we have is to be transmitted. The Church, the Bible, and the Sacraments, are made a part of this chain. Our children are brought to baptism, as the sons of ancient believers were brought to circumcision, that they may be introduced into this series, and the blessings of the Church are a sacred trust for remote ages. True patriotism speaks the same language. The fathers of our Constitution provided for contingencies yet in reserve, and far distant, and wise legislation is perpetually endeavouring to pierce the future, and to secure the welfare of the country when the present generation shall be no more. Institutions which hold out a promise of good to those who shall come after us, cannot but be dear to the patriot and the parent. Natural affection and parental piety are far-sighted, and look down the misty prospect wdth an anxious gaze. No man who is worthy of the name of a father, can be unconcerned in regard to the destiny of his children, or even his remote descendants.
This consideration has entered largely into the leo-al usagres and statutes of all nations, and especially colours the common law of our ancestors. We observe it in the primogeniture and entails of England, and in all that relates to the tenure of lands. It is remarkably operative in all testamentary disposition of estates. Those who accumulate property are chiefly influenced by a regard for their offspring, and when they can no longer enjoy it themselves, leave no cautions “unobserved in order to secure it to their families. Rising to a level of higher benevolence, we observe the principle operating in charitable bequests, and endowments, and in the founding of institutions which are known to be capable of only a partial influence in the present day. It is the chief function of governments to provide for this very result, to be realized long after those who make and administer the laws have passed from human things.
It cannot have escaped the observation of any reflective mind, that, among the links which connect the existing race with posterity, the most essential is the Familij. It is, indeed, the very point of connexion. The whole series is resolvable into the natural sequence of father and son. For which reason Divine Providence has seized upon this relation as the channel for conveying down the blessings of religion, as we may observe in numerous rites and institutions. We regard Family -Worship as one of the most important of these.
While it is true that all religious institutions aflect posterity, it is more eminently true that those institutions have this tendency, which bear primarily and directly on the family-connexion. If the piety of any man is likely to carry its impulse into coming years, more signally will that piety do so, which, through sovereign grace, flows from the father to the child, and above all in those particular acts which concern the education of the child. We never aim so immediately at the next generation, as when we govern the parental influence: it is directing and purifying the spring, before it widens into the stream. The geometrical ratio of human increase adds force to this consideration, and shows that in the economy of means we work at a great advantage, when we secure any good to the prolific source of rnultitudes of men. It is, therefore, far more hopeful to pour truth and holiness on a single household, now, than to found a system which shall address its influence to hundreds half a century hence. Family-religion gathers fresh importance when we extend our views a little into the future.
It has pleased God to have special regard to the transmission of religion by domestic means. His covenant is from father to son. He is the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. Circumcision was the “token of the covenant,” between Jehovah and his people.* The Passover was a family-rite. It had regard to posterity. ‘’ Ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever.’’ It was part of the annual family- worship of Israel. It was a means of instruction for the perpetuation of the truth. “It shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? that ye shall say. It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses.”! Infant baptism, which has
* Gen. xvii. 11. f Exod. xii. 24. Exod. xii. 26, 27.
16 come in the place of the ancient initiation, under the enlarged privileges of the Christian church, has not abandoned the principle, but involves the obligation of parents to pray with and for their children, and to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
The gracious promises of God to his Church, while they do not necessarily transmit salvation in the line of natural descent, perpetually recognise the relation of parent and child. God determines that his great favours shall descend from age to age. The promise is to you and to your children. From the beginning: of the world, he has dealt with mankind on the family-principle. Every covenant has comprised succeeding generations. The federal and representative element, variously modified, is in every system, from Eden to Pentecost. It is breathed in the first promise — it beams in the bow of Ararat — it fills the starry page of Abraham* — it is uttered through the fires of Sinai — it is inscribed on the bloody lintel of Egypt — it flows in the household-baptism of the New Testament. God, in his sovereign pleasure,
* Gen. XV. 5.
makes the parental and filial relation the means of great blessing in natural things; he is further pleased to sanctify it, and use it as a vehicle for heavenly things. He might have saved us singly, in insulation, plucking one and another from the corrupt, perishing mass. It would have been infinite grace! But, blessed be his name, he has decreed otherwise. The ‘’ word of this life” is not a cistern, but a fountain; and it flows from father to child. Not that by natural descent, or inheritance, we can convey this deposite. Not that the succession is always unbroken. Even here Jehovah reserves a place for the display of his sovereignty, and a motive for the diligence of the parent. Ahi we cannot forget the names of Hophni and Phinehas, of Amnon and Absalom. Yet the principle abides. Branches may die, but the tree still flourishes. Families may die out, but the race is not extinct. Nay, more, it is remark* able how generally and how widely religion descends in the line of father and son. There is every thing to encourage prayer and faithful training, and living hope, even while we are not allowed to look for the salvation of our children as a matter of course.
Here is our chief hope for posterity. This kindles an altar of perpetual fire in the house. This lightens our faces when we hold our little ones for the affusion of baptism. This revives our souls when we fold their hands in ours, as they kneel beside us. This consecrates the delightful moment, when their lisping words first echo to us the name of Jesus. This spreads a canopy of promise over the morning and’ the evening group in the tabernacle of prayer. And this lifts us above ourselves when we catch a Sabbath glimpse of the towers of the sanctuary, and lead our chief treasures along the way; when the little hand throbs in ours, and we say, ^’ Come, let us go up to the house of the Lord.”
It is by the salvation of the children of the Church, more than from all other means, that we hope for the salvation of the world. It is by this very method, as we observe in history, that the word of grace has been carried abroad from land to land, and brought down to us. Amidst many seeming failures, the holy seed is kept up. Take the darkest view, there is scarcely a Christian family in a thousand, of those who daily worship God, in which one member does not maintain the succession, while there are thousands, of which everij member is a visible believer. The stream often runs under ground. The descendants of the first converts are possibly on earth now. Within a very few years the descendants of Luther, whose life was thought extinct, have been picked up in Germany, poor and squalid, to be embraced by Christian charity. There are clergymen now in the Scottish church, who have descended from an unbroken line, not only of believers, but of ministers: and there is a blessed instance in our own communion, of six living preachers of the gospel, all “sons of one man,” himself a servant of the sanctuary. He who preserves the seed of Abraham, though sifted among all nations, will find it easy to preserve his spiritual seed. When the terms of this covenant are, by divine power, made to take effect by means of Christian education, holy example, and family prayer, the increase is often manifold, in that astonishing, redoubling proportion, which is a law of human growth. Thus the tree spreads its boughs, and scatters its fruit; the original blessing does not die in the hands 16* of those who receive it, but is widely communicated. And the latter glory shall be a period when, as we think, the promise shall be accomplished universally. “-As the days of a tree are the days of my people, and they shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble, for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their children with them.”*
A few years ago there met upon the platform of one of our great benevolent societies, on an anniversary, a grandson of Isabella Graham, and a grandson of John Brown of Haddinoton, both warm in aid of the blessed cause, and both eminent ministers of the gospel, though in different hemispheres. A Christian lady, whose “works praise her in the gates,” and whom the author is thankful to number among his flock, sent up to the treasurer a billet enclosing her contribution, and marked with these words:” As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the * Isaiah lxv. 22.
mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and forever.’’*
In our visions of good for our beloved land, we look upon vast tracts of yet uninhabited country, stretching over the mountains to the Western Ocean, as to be peopled by a mighty nation, such as the world has never seen comprehended in one polity. The tribute of many kingdoms is pouring its tide of population. But shall it be Christian or unchristian? This is the forming period; and these new societies are takinor their mould and direction. Public means of instruction can by no effort keep pace with the colossal strides of population. Yet among those who migrate to these unbroken wastes, there are some who have been bred in the school of domestic piety, in Europe or America. What can they do better for their children, or better for their country, than to found the “church in the house?” In the absence of other means, they will thus be leaving the best inheritance to their children — one that is infinitely better than gold or silver. Five years ago, the writer of these lines procured,
* Isaiah lix. 21.
at the clerk’s office of Charlotte county in Virginia, a certified extract from the last will of the great orator and patriot, Patrick Henry. It is in these words: ‘’ This is all the inheritance I can give to my dear family: the religion of Christ can giwe them one which will mak them rich indeed.” This is the provision which we recommend to our brethren in new countries to make for posterity. Colonies and settlements founded in prayer will have a blessing. Those who emigrate are sometimes more concerned about the richness of the soil and the salubrity of the climate, than about the spiritual advancement of their house. Their error is like that of Lot.* The young race grow up without a sanctuary. How invaluable, in such situations, is the domestic worship! It may go far to supply the public ministration of the word; it will certainly draw down family blessings from the Hearer of prayer; it will make itself felt in coming generations. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, answers the prayers of departed saints, who still “live unto him.”t Posterity reaps harvests from seed sown in the tears of former ages. We
* Gen. xiii. 10. t Luke xx. 38.
are, perhaps, this day receiving blessings in answer to the prayers f)f our forefathers, offered in the glens and moors of the old world. There is encouragement to extend as widely as possible the daily supplications of Christian families.
No pious heart can fail to be transported at the prospect of a whole nation of praying houses. It is possible with God. It is a consummation worth striving for, and worth a more distinct, energetic, and united effort, than the church has yet put forth. Every approximation towards it should be hailed with delight. Every church court, every pastor, missionary, and ruling elder, every Sabbath-school teacher, and colporteur, out of love for the generation to come, should make the establishment of Family- Worship an object of separate and earnest endeavour. Every father of a family should consider himself as charged with the souls of those whom he hopes to leave behind him, and as contributing to the future propagation of the truth, by every a«t of devotion performed in his house. Wherever he has a tent, God should have an altar. Every professing Christian, who has hitherto lived in neglect
18G FAMTLY-WORSHTP.
of this great duty of a householder, should repent, and liumWe himself, and establish God’s service at his fireside, before he sleeps another night in a prayerless dwelling. Such resolutions, efforts, and devotions, will do more for the happiness of that exceeding great multitude of future Americans, whom some compute at a hundred millions of souls, than all the accumulations of family wealth, all the internal improvements, all the legislation of States and of the Union, and all the schemes of general education. We cannot close our eyes to the dangers which threaten our country, from an augmentation of the people, without a corresponding growth of piety. The church must lose its vital warmth and power, unless some new impulse be given from within, and among the means for enkindling this central fire, we reckon Family-Worship to be not the least. In the conflict of our hopes and fears, we think we descry a ray of brightness in the expectation that Christ’s people will awake to consider the power of an instrumentality which is within their very doors; which operates directly on the objects of their most tender love; which will be (‘arried down the stream of time by their increasing progeny; which will bless the race which is unborn; and which will still subsist in its triumphant vigour when the Lord shall come. The treasure in our hands has been conveyed to us from those who were our fathers according to the flesh. It was coeval with the Reformation; it was held dear by our suffering ancestors, in the British isles; it was delivered over by confessors and martyrs to their children; it is in its very nature fit for transmission; it must not perish in our charge. No! with the help of the Lord, we wdll convey his testimonies, and the record of his mighty deeds, to our offspring. ‘^ We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done; that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children, that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.”*
A new dignity shines around the simple daily worship of the lowliest Christian cot-
* Psalm lxxviii. 4, 6, 7.
taore, when we resrard it as one of the most direct means for perpetuating the love and service of God, .through our descendants, to the whole land, and the universal race of man. Afflicted and tempest-tossed Zion has this word of reviving promise: “All th j children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children.”*