GENIUS AND DESIGN OF THE DOMESTIC CONSTITUTION, WITH ITS UNTRANSFERABLE OBLIGATIONS AND PECULIAR ADVANTAGES. BY CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON. Respice, Aspice, Prospice. From the Edinburgh Edition. BOSTON: PERKINS, MARVIN & CO., AND WILLIAM PEIRCE. PHILADELPHIA: HENRY PERKINS. 1834. 0 INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. ONE of the most favorable indications of the present period is the fact, that so much attention is directed to the consideration of domestic relations and duties. The prominent feature of the dreadful degeneracy which Malachi and other prophets foretold would prevail among God's ancient covenant people, just before the coming of the Messiah, and bring the desolating curse of Heaven upon them, if not reformed, was the alienation of parents from their children, and of children from their parents-the general neglect of domestic obligations and duties, Mal. iv. 6. And the way in which the nation was to be respited from deserved and impending destruction, was by 'turning the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers' bringing back the people to a degree of proper attention to domestic obligations and duties, 'lest Jehovah should come and smite the land with a curse.' And who that is informed in regard to the calamities with which a righteous Providence has visited certain nations in modern times, and in regard to the state of degeneracy into which domestic society had sunk in those nations, does not see that the principle involved is applicable to all nations, in all ages? |