DISCOURSE II.

PARENTAL DUTIES.

AMONG all the peculiarities attaching to the organization of that great system under which we live, and which forms so important a part of the government of the Creator, one of the most remarkable is the prevalence of a reciprocal dependency, by which every individual is made to derive his happiness, and much of the complexion both of his character and his resulting destiny, from the agency and influence of his fellows. It is worthy of our notice, that the operation of this principle is confined only by the actual limits of the system, being co-extensive with it in every dimension. Like the force of gravitation in the natural world, it is diffused through all that is vital. The inferior animated tribes, by which we are surrounded, acknowledge its dominion equally with man ;-and man, not alone in his physical or mental, but even in his spiritual and immortal characteristics, is, like the meanest and most shortlived amongst them, subject to its control. We do

not so much wonder, when we see it extending to the derivation of corporeal being, together with all its circumstances;-but it becomes an object of

surprise, and of the deepest interest, when it is seen to affect our welfare as candidates even for eternity.

So far as we are able to extend our inquiries, we are not apprized that such an arrangement prevails in other worlds;—and it seems almost certain, that it does not so prevail either in the degree, or the form, of its operation in our own. Elsewhere, its action, if it be felt at all, is probably much more circumscribed; reaching by no means, as it here does, to the communication even of existence, to the virtual control of moral freedom, and the almost immeasurable modification of responsibility.

When we think of angels, we cannot but suppose them to spring immediately from the great Creator, who thus becomes to them the common and universal parent, in like manner as to the first forefather of mankind. And whereas the relations of the husband and the wife subsist not amongst them, any more than they shall amongst ourselves on arriving at that perfection of our nature which awaits us when we become "the children of the resurrection;" so those also of the father and the child are unknown beyond the precincts of the human family.

It would seem, at the first view, most natural, that the great fountain of life should thus universally reveal itself by such immediacy in the derivation of those streams which it is ever pouring forth from its own fulness, that at least the impartation of intelligent and conscious vitality (than which no greater nor higher can be reckoned amongst the most divine of his prerogatives) should be seen to reside in the Creator essentially and singly; and that, however

body might spring from body, yet mind-the brightest and noblest of his resemblances-should be found emanating directly and solely from himself. We do not affirm that the spirit of man is not thus exclusively of his creation. On the contrary, we rejoice in the belief that every separate soul is a fresh production of his power; and comes, as truly as the earliest of creatures, instantly from beneath his hand. Yet, so far as is cognizable in visible phenomena, we seem to deduce our existence, together with all its peculiarities, from those who have gone before us; and thus to owe to them more than the external accidents of our nativity. Such as they were, such, in a thousand things, are we destined to be also; being linked with them in our happiness or misery,our exaltation or meanness,-our intellectual powers, and the great aggregate of all our moral habitudes and endowments.

Now with this arrangement—strange as it is, considered as a deviation from principles that otherwise universally prevail-great advantages are obviously connected. It is adapted to an economy that is, in all its aspects, singular :-chiefly, and above all, because it qualifies us for the operation of that great restorative expedient, in the assumed relationship, and consequent ministrations, of the Son of God, by which we are exempted from the injuries otherwise inseparable from its own application under another shape, in the perilous federality of the first parent of our species:-subordinately, because it becomes the source of unnumbered endearing affinities, and tender attachments;-gives scope for the exercise of

the most kindly and ardent affections,-carrying our nature, by the activity of its own most powerful tendencies, on towards perfection;-exhibits, in the mingled picture of age and infancy, of youth and manhood, of the parental and the filial charities in all their glow and sweetness, more than the vernal bloom of paradise; every season blending its loveliness with the most dissimilar of its companions; and forming a scene, perhaps unrivalled in any other province of creation.

Hence, too, arise obligations the most forcible, and of the noblest character. We are bound to use our exertions, and put forth our resources, for the common good. "None of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself." "If one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; if one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it." Each relationship of life, according to the degree of its proximity, generates new claims of corresponding urgency. The care of households branches out into that of the community;-and that of our country, into that of the world. Every man has thus his natural guardians, and his hereditary friends. And to each is assigned also a proper sphere for the fulfilment of his duty; which, more than all other causes, tends, in its due performance, to the augmentation both of his dignity and happiness. No theory could be more beautiful, no results more salutary;-and it is only sin, with its desolating train of calamity and danger, that, by introducing perplexity into this otherwise perfect arrangement, has converted, perhaps the fairest, though not the lofti