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Do the multitudes who strive so earnestly, and even madly, to be rich, always succeed? Or having succeeded, are the pleasures of wealth full and without alloy? Let those whom God has entrusted with this world's goods, give answer. It is for the Christian to search for gold that never cankereth and to secure wealth that can never be destroyed. There are such riches, imperishable and eternal, beyond all vicissitudes and changes: a heritage with God, upon which no shadow comes, and over which no fire passes. The riches of Christ are such; the wealth and worth of righteousness, the untold and unconceived treasures of heaven, are unsearchable and immortal. Such were the riches proffered to the acceptance of the Gentiles and the world, by the great Apostle; and such is the wealth to be secured by the wise and good of all generations.

The unsearchable riches of Christ were preached by Paul, and became the burden of all his labours. He was a man of strong intellect and great attainments, but there were few charms for him in the science or knowledge that did not centre in, or were in some way connected with, the cause and the cross of Christ. To philosophers and statesmen, martial heroes and mighty princes, he bore the same message, and pressed his way to the throne of the Cæsars, preaching and proffering to all, the riches of Christ and him crucified.

FAMILY CULTURE.*

CONVERSATIONS AT THE CARLTON HOUSE. THIS work may be termed the Parent's Book. It unfolds the method and style best adapted for imparting religious knowledge to the junior members of a family. A domestic circle is presented, in which a father, by kind and familiar, yet dignified and intellectual conversation with his children and servants, leads them on in the knowledge of the Holy.

Family culture is deplorably neglected, even by professing Christians. Those who have entered into covenant with God, and vowed inviolably to observe all the obligations incumbent upon them, carelessly pass by that most solemn one, "Bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Too many parents so immerse their faculties, time, and attention, in the pursuits and anxieties of earth, that they seldom think of tilling the minds of their children. Those grow up to manhood with their intellects uncultivated, their moral sentiments uncherished, and their propensities unpruned. They become as a consequence, useless, if not pestilential members of society, and a source

FAMILY CULTURE was first printed in America, and has been partially reprinted in this country. To meet the urgent request of many, a complete edition, adapted for the family circle, with notes and emendations, will be pub lished when a sufficient numbers of subscribers are obtained. It will make a work of about 350 pages. Subscriber's copy, 2s. 6d. Orders may be sent to the printer of the Banner, Nottingham.

of vexation, if not of grief and shame, to their parents. And these children might have been blessings in every sphere, had they early been the subjects of such culture as is displayed and exemplified in this work.

Parents! purchase and make it your instructor and precedent in the family circle. Train up your children according to its method, and you shall have the pleasure of seeing them grow in knowledge, blossoming in holy desire, and bearing fruit in holiness. Not only is it a book for the parent, but also for the toiler. There are numbers amongst the sons of labour, who earnestly desire to obtain religious knowledge, but whose progress in it is impeded by a grievous obstacle. They have so arduously to exercise their physical, and oft their mental faculties, in securing food and raiment, that when the toil of the day is over, their powers of mind and body are so prostrated, that works written in a close and compact manner, cannot be studied with pleasure and benefit. Their fatigued intellects require that knowledge should be crumbed for them.

To such, this work will be an invaluable preceptor. Its conversations are full of learning and profound thought-yet written so naturally, that the reader becomes deeply interested, and is led on with as much pleasure as if he was a listener to them instead of a reader.

But let not those who are far advanced in religions knowledge imagine, that because it is adapted for the family circle, and the poor man's table, that therefore it deserves not a place in the study. We unhesitatingly affirm that it contains more learning and deep thought, than many of the ponderous and densely written tomes of theology. The intelligent Christian, though well skilled in the word of righteousness, will obtain a great amount of valuable information from its pages.

We present our readers with the Introductory Remarks to the Family Culture, and Conversation I., as a specimen of the book. EDITOR.

INTRODUCTION TO THE FAMILY CIRCLE.

To foretell the fortune of a family with unerring certainty, is not more difficult than to estimate how much good, present and future, direct and indirect, may be achieved in any neighbourhood by only one person of great energy of character, of superior intelligence and moral worth, who sincerely and devoutly undertakes the improvement of society. The excellent Olympas, long resident and master of the Carlton House, in Carmel Place, and his beloved Julia are yet living monuments of the great moral force of well disciplined minds, energetically and affectionately employed in advancing the religious and moral conditions of human existence. Their philanthropy was rational, pure, and fervent; and sought the most natural and capacious channels through which to communicate its blessings to society. While their commiserations and sympathies embraced the Turk, the Jew, and the Indian, they wasted not their time nor their substance in the formation of Utopian schemes for their conversion; but supremely employed their energies in family and neigh

bourhood advancement in the paths of literature, religion, and morality. They felt the impulses of heavenly charity to be warmest and strongest for those at home; and therefore superlatively sought -the moral excellence and eternal salvation of their children, relatives, and neighbours. Yet did they not look with a cold indifference on the destitute and wretched of other climes and languages; but, reversing the policy of soine of their more popular compeers, they contributed their pence to Hindostan and spent their pounds at home.

But their domestic administration and manner of disciplining and training their own immediate family, is that which at this time most especially interests us, because it very happily exemplifies, in an intelligible and practical form, those principles and rules of family culture which both our theory and experience would commend to those who are supremely devoted to the eternal honour and happiness of their own dear households. To further our aims and wishes we shall be at some pains to give in detail a few of those lessons in which we had the pleasure to participate under their consecrated roof, around the family altar, at the morning and evening hour of domestic instruction and social prayer.

The family was large, consisting of nine children, natural and adopted with some half dozen of domestics, of different ages. All were arranged in classes according to their ages and capacities. The first consisted of three, under seven years old; the second of four, under fourteen; and all the rest made up the third class. All that could fluently read, with book in hand sat round the room, and in turn read their several portions of the daily lesson. After the reading of one or two chapters, as the case might be, a free conversation ensued in the form of question and answer, frequently interspersed with practical views and remarks adapted to the capacity of all present, and animated with picus emotions and moral sentiments, fitted to imbue the minds of all with the fear and love of God, and to infix in the youthful heart the solid and enduring principles of pure religion and Christian righteousness.

The morning hour, from six to seven, thus became an intellectual and moral feast-a spiritual breakfast of the most refreshing and invigorating efficacy to us all. The plan in one important feature soon impressed itself upon my admiration. The infant class, as I may call that composed of those from five to seven, was exercised primarily upon the simple facts in the lesson, while the second class explained them; and the third drew the inferences and deduced the practical bearings of the subject as it applied to themselves and society at present.

Another very cardinal view of the whole exhibition immediately

arrested my attention. Olympas, instead of calling upon his family to attend family worship, was accustomed to assemble his household to the morning and evening lesson. Family instruction, rather than family worship, was the prominent idea. True, indeed, the praises of God were frequently sung. and prayer and thanksgiving were always offered at the close of the lesson; but as instruction extended to all present, and only a part could properly unite in the worship of God, it was much more apposite to denominate it family teaching than family worship

Apart from its religious and moral character and influences, contemplated as a literary and intellectual affair-as purely educational in the common acceptance of the term, it was nearly equal to a com mon school course. Two hours per day, well and faithfully applied in this way, gave to the whole household of Olympas a literary and intellectual superiority over every other family in the neighbourhood who enjoyed in every other respect the same educational advantages. Hence it was usual for Susan, James, and Henry, of the junior class, to be foremost in the Sunday school-foremost in the primary school- as it was for William and Mary, Edward and Eliza, of the second class, to gain all honours in all the classes at the common and high schools of Carmel city. The domestics of the Carlton House were a sort of aristocracy for intelligence and respectability among their co-ordinates in profession-among all their compeers who attended at the Carlton church. But it would be impossible for any one often to visit this consecrated family--the Carlton Bethel, and not to anticipate such fruits from a system of instruction and moral government so admirably adapted to all the exigencies of humanity in the morning time of its existence. The pre-eminence mentioned was but the proper fruit, the genuine effects of a system of training in perfect harmony with the conditions and wants of

human nature.

We can only furnish a few conversations of the many we have had the pleasure to hear during our frequent sojournings under this hospitable roof. These are intended as specimens of the plan which we would most affectionately recommend to all Christian parents who have in their hands the immense responsibilities of rearing a family for the Lord.

CONVERSATION I.

MONDAY morning, six o'clock, being a second reading of the two first chapters of Genesis, containing fifty-two verses, eleven persons read five verses each, in rotation. After a distinct enunciation of these chapters, Olympas interrogated the junior class in the following

manner:

Tell me, Susan, who created the heavens and the earth?

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Susan. GOD; which, as you told me, means the GOOD BEING.
When, James, did God create the heaven and the earth?
James. "In the beginning."

In the beginning of what, Henry?

Henry. In the beginning of time.

And what, Susan, was before the beginning of time?
Susan. God.

Were the heavens and the earth, James, both created at the same time?

James. They were both created in the beginning.

And where, Henry, did God dwell before the heavens and the earth were made?

Henry. I cannot tell.

Can any of you tell?

William. Moses does not tell us; but one of the books says, he dwells in Eternity.

Which of the holy scribes says this?

William. Isaiah calls him "the High and Holy One who inhabiteth eternity."

Olympas. Observe, then, that time is no part of eternity: for as in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, the heavens and the earth are the beginning of time. We would then say that God created time by creating the heavens and the earth. In how many days, Henry, did God create the heavens and the earth? Henry. In six days.

What was created the first day?

Susan. Light, which God called day.

And who created darkness, Susan?

Susan. I do not know; but I know what God called it. He called

it night.

And what made the first day, James?

James. "The evening and the morning made the first day."

Then was not darkness between the evening and the morning, William ?

William. It was. Still light is called day; for we have to count darkness in time, and include a portion of it with light, in counting events; and thus evening, night, and morning are computed as one day.

Olympas. You mean, that while day means light, in time it denotes both a portion of light and darkness.

William. Yes; in computing the week we have to count darkness as a portion of time, and make seven days and seven nights a week. Olympas. Mary, can you tell what darkness is?

Mary. It was not created, and is therefore nothing.

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