No. 105.] 23 



family. Like them, he should rule his household after him — instruct- 

 ing, consoling, supporting. 



And there are others dependant upon him, who owe their comfort 

 and well-being to his care ; and whose dependence may be the means 

 of awakening sentiments, that even religion has not overlooked. 

 When the great lawgiver of the Jews led them from the house of 

 bondage, and by divine command established them as an agricultural 

 people, his laws recognized the advantages of such a life for the 

 formation of character. To remember and love the Giver, and rejoice 

 before Him, in the spring-time and in the harvest, on the anniversary 

 of their deliverance and on festal days, was the first and great com- 

 mandment, and the second was like unto it. Love and kindness to 

 the neighbor, to the stranger, to the widow, to the fatherless, were 

 enjoined as congenial duties. But the directions stopped not here. 

 The brute creation of every kind shared in his remembrance. The 

 Sabbath was to be observed, " that thy ox and thy ass may rest." 

 And when the harvest was gathered in, the mute and patient laborer 

 was not to be forgotten : he should share the grain for which he had 

 toiled, and the command, " thou shalt not muzzle thy ox when he 

 treadeth out the corn," secured to him at least a portion. 



But freedom from temptations, and opportunities of exercising the 

 virtues, are not the only facilities that an agricultural life offers for 

 the formation of an elevated character. The scenes that surround it, 

 the unceasing regularity of cold and heat, summer and winter, seed- 

 time and harvest, cannot but lead the observing mind up to their 

 Author. In no crowded workshop his time is spent. The broad 

 fields and the high mountains, and the running streams, diffuse health 

 and cheerfulness around. No smoky lamp sheds a doubtful glimmer 

 over his task ; the glorious sun sends his rays for millions of miles to 

 warm and enlighten, and gladden his path. The religious sentiment 

 is nowhere so naturally developed as among rural scenery. How 

 great is the charm that agricultural allusions throw over sacred poe- 

 try ! It was a youth spent in rural scenes, that enabled the sweet 

 singer of Israel to touch a chord, responsive to every human heart. 



The voice of the son of Jesse is always sweet, but how different 

 its tones from the various situations of his eventful life. The shep- 

 herd boy, keeping his father's sheep, is filled with adoration as he 

 gazes on the majestic scene above, and exclaims, " what is man that 

 thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that thou visitest him 1" 



