ey are a part of his religion--that in
breaking them, by being an unfaithful husband, a dishonest servant,
an unnatural son, a selfish brother, he sins, not only against man,
and man's order and laws, but against God.

Parent and child, brother and sister--those ties are not of the
earth earthy, but of the heaven of God, eternal. They may begin in
time; of what happened before we came into this world we know
nought. But having begun, they cannot end. Of what will happen
after we leave this world, that at least we know in part.

Parent and child; brother and sister; husband and wife likewise;
these are no ties of man's invention. They are ties of God's
binding; they are patterns and likenesses of his substance, and of
his being. Of the eternal Father, who says for ever to the eternal
Son, 'This day have I begotten THEE.' Of the Son who says for ever
to the Father, 'I come to do thy will, O God.' Of the Son of God,
Jesus Christ, who is not ashamed to call us his brethren; but like a
greater Joseph, was sent before by God to save our lives with a
great deliverance when our forefathers were but savages and
heathens. Husband and wife likewise--are not they two divine words-
-not human words at all? Has not God consecrated the state of
matrimony to such an excellent mystery, that in it is signified and
represented the mystical union between Christ and his Church? Are
not husbands to love their wives, and give themselves for them as
Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it? That, indeed, was
not revealed in the Old Testament, but it is revealed in the New;
and marriage, like all other human ties, is holy and divine, and
comes from God down to men.

Yes. These family ties are of God. It was to show us how sacred,
how Godlike they are--how eternal and necessary for all mankind--
that Joseph's story was written in Holy Scripture.

They are of God, I say. And he who despises them, despises not man
but God; who hath also given us his Holy Spirit to make us know how
sacred these bonds are.

He who looks lightly on the love of child to parent, or brother to
brother, or husband to wife, and bids each man please himself, each
man help himself, and shift for himself, would take away from men
the very thing which raises them above the beasts which perish, and
lower them again to the likeness of the flesh, that they may of the
flesh reap corruption.

They who, under whatever pretence of religion part asunder f