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is this the duty of a good member of the community, or of a good Christian? The master of a family has an opportunity of informing himself of the character of every individual in it more minutely than any other person can do; he derives a most important weight from his situation, and a little temperate, judicious, and dignified advice from him, will reclaim many a thoughtless young person from destruction, much more effectually than any public, and general instruction can be supposed to do. It is not easy to conceive any thing more respectable, more useful, and more religious, than the conduct of the master of a family, who would condescend, in this manner, to take into his hands the moral guidance of his servants, and to use his influence over them, to make them wiser, and better men: That these exertions would afford to any body a most ample, and abundant return, there can be little reason to doubt: Such a man would feel, in the first place, that most pure, and perfect of all pleasures, the pleasure of doing good; he would be conscious that he had laid up, against the hour of death, and the day of

affliction, a store of complacent reflection, and many remembrances of a well-spent life; his too would be the singular fortune of uniting his duty with his immediate inteterest; for will any human being be long faithful to his worldly master, who has few, and imperfect notions of any other? or can there be a greater security for faithful, and ready obedience, than a mind solemnly impressed with notions of wrong and right, and roused to a love of virtue, and a dread of vice?

There is not perhaps a more pleasant spectacle, than a well-ordered family, where the good sense, and benevolence of the superiors diffuse comfort, and content to the meanest individual of which it is composed; where the kindness of the master is reflected back in the alacrity of the servant; where command is dictated by reason, and obedience comes from the heart: There is here no contest, whether one shall evade, or the other exact the most; but generosity on the one side has begotten fidelity on the other, and two different orders of men are bound together in the common bonds of interest,

and affection: This house is the tabernacle of peace; here it is that virtue, and religion love to dwell; and if the great God ever give us in this melancholy vale to taste one drop of heavenly comfort, in such a calm, wise, and religious state that blessing is surely conferred; good, and surrounded by the good, making use of the superior situation to which fortune has exalted you, to influence your inferiors in the cause of virtue, suffering no bad, no indifferent character near you, but by the incessant efforts of benevolence, and example, transmuting, and subliming every heart into moral, and Christian excellence; this it is to imitate our great Creator, who for ages has seen the nations of the earth gliding away under his throne, and the people mad with folly, and crime; yet he has looked on, and spared us; we are not swallowed up; he is a merciful, and a good God, ́ and he still shows us the light of his countenance, and he opens his hand, and fills all things living with plenteousness: Do thou, therefore, unto thy servants, that which is just, and equal, knowing that thou hast such a master in Heaven.

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MEN OF THE WORLD.

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