his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.” And in like manner you are to be known to God, and to command your children and your household after you, to keep the way of the Lord, and to do justice and judgment. As parents, you are to have and to exercise authority in your own families. You are not only to advise and to recommend, but you are to command, and to be obeyed. You are “to rule your children and your own houses well; having your children in subjection with all gravity; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever Christ has commanded;” and ever, acting in accordance with the vow which you have made, “as for me, _and my house_, we will serve the Lord.” Having baptized your children unto Christ, you have motives and encouragements of the most powerful and constraining character, to “bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” You can appeal to them by the fact that you have given them to Christ; that you “have opened your mouth unto the Lord concerning them, and you cannot go back;” and that, by their baptism, they and you have incurred responsibilities from which neither of you can be released, and which should lead both of you to serious consideration, and to unreserved consecration to God. Oh! then, christian parents, use the power and the privilege which God hath thus put into your hands; use them in connection with earnest and unceasing prayer; enforce them by consistent and holy example; cherish “the full assurance of hope” that, through the grace of God, you will succeed. And you shall succeed; “the Lord will bring upon you that which he hath spoken.” “He will be a God unto you, and unto your seed after you.” Your house shall be saved as well as yourself. “He will pour out his Spirit upon your seed, and his blessing upon your offspring; and they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses. One shall say I am the Lord’s; another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel.”