things spiritual and divine, is our duty, and if omitted by us, and thereby our own or the good of others is lessened, or the cause of religion injured, we dishonor that cause we profess to love; we wander from him we profess to obey. If then family prayer timely administered, would be profitable to ourselves or others, and honorable to the cause of religion; if thereby any one would be strengthened in the assurance of our faith in God, of our love to Christ and his blessed religion; if to any degree they might be drawn to its precious, its immortal hopes; if the world would have less reason to say "what do you more than other men," and we neglect these means; then do we assuredly neglect an important christian duty. Is it replied, we are commanded to "go into our closets, and when we have shut the door pray to our Father in secret ?" True, and if we do this faithfully, we do well. But idle indeed would it be to, contend, that because we are commanded "not to pray to be seen of men," therefore we should not pray save in secret, lest we should be seen of men, for as well might it be said, all prayers offered in the chamber of sickness or in the house of public worship, are violations of the command of Christ—are "useless ceremonies." Again, what christian father or mother would not blush to own that never had they in the presence or with their children, searched the scriptures, endeavored to make known to them their worth-the duties therein contained-the doctrines therein revealed? But what induces us to do this? Is it not that reason tells us, our own and their good demands it, and as professed disciples of Christ the world expect it? But might we not with equal propriety omit this, as to omit the duty of family prayer? The very instructions we give our children, obligate us to its performance. Said our Savior, "whosoever shall do and teach them, shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Do we then teach our children to rule well

their spirits, to keep their lips from speaking guile, and then allow ourselves in violent fits of passion, or to profane the name of God, would it not lessen, yea destroy the effect the same injunctions might have, if taught by one who was a doer of the word? So also as it respects prayer, if we train up our children in the way they should go, we shall teach them that prayer is an important duty, as well as an invaluable privilege; yet all our instructions will do but little good if unaccompanied by example; for if in their presence, or to their knowledge, we were not accustomed to pray, our precepts would have like influence as in the case before mentioned. If then, upon the example of the parents depends in a great measure the conduct of the child, what must be our feelings if in consequence of our neglect of this, they are drawn from the love of things spiritual, and become attached to those which lead them from the love of Christ? But should they by our precepts and example be led to taste the fruits of early piety-to walk in the delightful paths of wisdom, how richly shall we be rewarded. This one consideration, it should seem, might be a sufficient inducement to urge parents to the discharge of their duty. But again we repeat, your profession, the cause of religion demands, the world justly expects it of you. Therefore, my brethren, are we the professed followers of him, who spent whole nights in prayer? As such, let us at all times endeavor to live; and while we avoid the commission of crime, let us not be unmindful of the sin in omission of duty. While by our acts of charity, we give evidence of the sincerity of our profession, by our unaffected piety, may all men know we have been with Jesus. So may we ever walk family as well as in the good works may glorify

toward those without, in the temple, that all men seeing our our father in heaven.

W.

For the Repository.

REMARKS ON LUKE XX. 35, 36.

"But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; neither can they die any more, for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection."

As this text is a part of the answer of our Lord to the cavils of the Sadducees, about the resurrection of the dead, it demands great consideration, as the foundation of all true knowledge on that subject. Let us as clearly, and yet as briefly, as possible, consider the above quotation. In this quotation our Lord speaks of a future world. The expression, "they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world," obviously alludes to a world then future; a world then to come. Doubtless, therefore, it was what, at that period, was called the world to come, by the sacred writers. Now what is called in scripture the world to come, is generally believed to be, an invisible world, into which the souls of all men enter, immediately after death. But if this notion be correct, why does our Lord speak of those who shall be accounted worthy to obtain it? If all men, or in other words, the souls of all men, go into the world to come at their decease, do they not all obtain it, worthy or unworthy? How is it that Christ and his church, so called, so palpably disagree in this matter? How is it that he asserts some qualification necessary to obtain that world, while the church asserts none, but maintains an indiscriminate admission there? If we are to believe Christ, all men do not, indiscriminately, enter the world to come at death. Again. If we are to believe Christ, all who do enter that world, called the world to come, are equal unto the angels, and are the children of God. Now unless it can be said that men in a sinful state are equal unto the angels and are the children of God, it cannot be said, with truth, that men

in a sinful state obtain the world to come. Nor, for the same reason, can it be said that any individual of the human race can obtain the resurrection from the dead, in a sinful state. All who obtain that world, or the resurrection from the dead, are, according to our Lord's express declaration, equal unto the angels, and are the children of God. Therefore I see not how it is possible that the doctrine of future punishment, either limited or unlimited, can be true. None can be punished in the world to come, unless it be those who are equal unto the angels, and are the children of God; for none else shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, or the resurrection from the dead.

I do not see that it will make any essential difference to substitute the word age for world. Whether it were an age, to come in this world, or a world to come after death, none obtain it but those who are equal unto the angels, and are the children of God.

Again. It is obvious from the text, that the resurrection from the dead, and the world to come, are subjects which are inseparably connected. As neither the world referred to in the text, and understood to be what is usually called the world to come, nor the resurrection from the dead, can be obtained but by those who shall be accounted worthy, those who shall be equal unto the angels, and the children of God; and as that world and the resurrection are coupled together, so that, if a person should obtain the one, he would, of a certainty, obtain the other, it follows that the notion, which some have imbibed, that, at some particular period, all men will, at once, rise from the dead without any previous preparation, is erroneous. In short it follows, that neither the world spoken of, nor the resurrection from the dead, is understood. I shall not have room in this letter to bring forward much proof of what I am about to state, but I am confident, that what used to be called the world

to come, is the reign of the Holy Spirit; and that the resurrection, is the reception of that life which the Holy Spirit imparts. Any person, being quickened by the spirit of God, now in this present time, is raised from the dead; is in possession of immortality and eternal life; and will exist, when the earthly house is dissolved, in a house not made with hands, a spiritual body, eternal in the heavens. When I say a person is now raised from the dead, as above stated, I do not mean that the process is perfected, but only begun; and that its perfection is coincident with the death of the natural body. Now when the Jews rejected the reign of the Holy Spirit, they judged themselves unworthy of eternal life, as we read in Acts xiii. 46. Consequently they, in particular, and all who resemble them in character, generally, are those who are not accounted worthy, for the time being, to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead. But since the kingdom of heaven, or reign of the Holy Spirit, is like leaven hid in meal till the whole is leavened, the time will come when all men will be accounted worthy, being subdued by Christ, to obtain that world aud the resurrection from the dead; for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

But until a person is so prepared by Christ as to be worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, I deny that he can have any existence but in that natural and visible state which appertains to all animals; and I deny that he is, in any sense, superior to other animals, except in intellectual capacity, till he rises from the dead. To explain and confirm these propositions, I wish, occasionally, to write in your very liberal Repository; but whatever may be said in opposition, altho I shall endeavor to profit by it, I shall avoid entering the lists of controversy.

Bernardston, May 1, 1826.

JOHN BROOKS.