most attractive scene this side of
heaven. Now, I will freely acknowledge that in urging this duty upon
brothers and sisters, I am setting you upon no easy work; I know that it
will require often much self-denial, much restraint in word and deed,
but the gain will far more than repay the struggle.

* * * * *

Original.

THE FAMILY PROMISE.

BY JOSEPH McCARRELL, D.D.

The promise is to you and to your children, and to all that are afar
off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. From the beginning of
the creation God has dealt with man as a social being. He made them a
male and a female, and the first institution in innocence and in Eden,
was marriage. In his dealings with Adam, God deals with the race. He
made with them his covenant when he made it with Him. Hence, by the
disobedience of one, many were made sinners; in Adam all die. With Noah
he made a covenant never to drown the world again by the waters of a
flood. This promise belongs to the children of Noah, the human race.

To Abraham, the father of the faithful, the Almighty God said, "I will
establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in
their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee
and to thy seed after thee." (Gen. 17:7.) In token of this covenant,
Abraham was circumcised, and his family, and his posterity, at eight
days old. This principle of the ecclesiastical unity of the many, this
family, is continued under the new dispensation of the covenant, and
distinctly announced in the memorable sermon of Peter, on the day of
Pentecost: "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, for the remission
of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost; for the
promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that are afar off,
even as many as the Lord our God shall call." (Acts 2:38, 39.)
Accordingly, when Lydia believed she was baptized, and her household;
and when the jailor believed he was baptized, he and his, straightway.
(Acts 16.) And so clearly was this principle established, that it
extends to the children of parents of whom one only is in the covenant;
"for the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the
unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband, else were your children
unclean, but now are they holy." (1 Cor. 7:14.) The first mother derived
her personal name from this great principle. Under the covenant of works
her name is simply the femini