it would not
be courteous to speak in their presence.

YOUR DUTY.

The practical and useful object of this sermon is to show to you that
if you have come of a Christian ancestry, then you are solemnly bound
to preserve and develop the glorious inheritance; or if you have come
of a depraved ancestry, then it is your duty to brace yourself against
the evil tendency by all prayer and Christian determination, and you
are to find out what are the family frailties, and in arming the
castle put the strongest guard at the weakest gate. With these smooth
stones from the brook I hope to strike you, not where David struck
Goliath, in the head, but where Nathan struck David, in the heart.
"Whose son art thou, thou young man?"

There is something in the periodical holidays to bring up

THE OLD FOLKS.

Sometime in the winter holiday, when we are accustomed to gather our
families together, old times have come back again, and our thoughts
have been set to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne." The old folks were so
busy at such times in making us happy, and perhaps on less resource
made their sons and daughters happier than you on larger resource are
able to make your sons and daughters happy. The snow lay two feet
above their graves, but they shook off the white blankets and mingled
in the holiday festivities--the same wrinkles, the same stoop of
shoulder under the weight of age, the same old style of dress or coat,
the same smile, the same tones of voice. I hope you remember them
before they went away. If not, I hope there are those who have recited
to you what they were, and that there may be in your house some
article of dress or furniture with which you associate their memories.
I want to arouse the most sacred memories of your heart while I make
the impassioned interrogatory in regard to your pedigree: "Whose son
art thou, thou young man?"

I. First, I accost all those who are descended of a

CHRISTIAN ANCESTRY.

I do not ask if your parents were perfect. There are no perfect people
now, and I do not suppose there were any perfect people then. Perhaps
there was sometimes too much blood in their eye when they chastised
you. But from what I know of you, you got no more than you deserved,
and perhaps a little more chastisement would have been salutary. But
you are willing to acknowledge, I think, that they wanted to do right.
From what you overheard in conversations, and from what you saw at the
family altar and at neighborh