And, moreover, his /household/ as well as his children, were to be controlled by the patriarch. He is not one of those who forget that their dependants[*3] or domestics have souls, and therefore take no interest in them as immortal beings. He did not act as if there were one God for the master and another for the servant; one rule for the superior, another for the inferior; one way for the lordly, and another for the lowly. Nay, the father of the faithful, combining faith and works in their proper places, "will command his household;" will take the control of it, and see that everything there is done decently and in order. There will be no tampering with a servant's conscience, and as little conniving at his transgressions. The ten commandments were not yet given; but the spirit of them was a part of Abraham's believing nature, and he sought to have duty done wherever he had influence, alike by superiors, inferiors, and equals. In a word, like Cornelius after him, he feared the Lord, with all his house. And farther: the rule, the standard at once for master and servant, is given, "They shall keep /the way of the Lord/." Every other path is that of the destroyer; it tends to death, for "the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked." The question which we should ask in regard to our home religion is not, What is done by others? What do men think? What will the world tolerate? What will be most conducive to present ease or peace? but, What has God said? When that has been ascertained, every departure from it is just a wandering into the way of sorrow. Neither parent nor child, nor any member of a household, need expect to prosper in any path except the way of the Lord; and to anticipate prosperity or peace in any other, just shows that reason is still eclipsed, that conscience is still seared or dormant, that the mind of God is not our mind, that we are still doing as Adam did when he sought happiness in wandering from his Maker. THE EASTERN PRINCE.