PAM, 
 NEVOTIONAL 
 
 ‘\ THE 
 
 American Cract Sorietp 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 IN 
 
 THE FAMILY. 
 
 BY REV. YATES HICKEY, 
 
 SUPERINTENDENT OF COLPORTAGE, CHICA- 
 GO AGENCY. 
 
 “CHICAGO: 
 ~ NO. 69 STATE-STREET, x 
 
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THE 
 
 AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 THE FAMILY. 
 
 BY YATES HICKEY, 
 
 SUPERINTENDENT OF COLPORTAGE, CHICAGO AGENCY. 
 
 PLC AGO; 
 NO. 69 STATE-STREET. 
 1857. 
 
Meas 5 ae 
 a : te hit f i is ae aa 
 
 1. THE NEED OF IT. 
 2. HOW TO USE IT. ae 
 3. WHAT IT IS DOING. Wis: 
 | 4, WHAT IT PROMISES, OR IS ADAPTED 1 TO Do. 
 
 o « 
 
 
 
 
 
THE 
 
 AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY — 
 IN THE FAMILY. 
 
 Ix order to appreciate the value of an instru: 
 mentality designed to bless our households, we 
 must hold an intelligent estimate of the impor- 
 tance God attaches to the family, at all times and 
 in all nations. Having this, and then finding our 
 providential position discovered to us by the light 
 of facts in current history, we may learn and feel 
 what are our necessities. 
 
 In the early time God made this announce- 
 ment: “Abraham shall surely become a great 
 and mighty nation, and all the nations of the 
 earth shall be blessed in him. For I know him, 
 that he will command his children and his house- 
 hold after him ; and they shall keep the ways of 
 the Lord, to do justice and judgment.” 
 
4 THE TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 So much importance has God attached to the 
 family and its influence in his economy, as a means 
 of social, political, moral, and religious good to 
 our race, that when he declared to Abraham that 
 he should “surely become a great and mighty 
 nation,” and that “all the nations of the earth” 
 should be “blessed in him,” God made this prom- 
 _ise to rest on the fact that Abraham would com- 
 mand his children and his household after him, 
 that they should keep the ways of the Lord. 
 This was a requirement which must be met, in 
 order that the Lord might bring upon Abraham 
 that which he had spoken of him. And ever since, 
 the condition of the family has marked the char- 
 acter and indicated the destiny of nations. When- 
 ever the original, pure, and holy idea of the family 
 has been obscured, and its instruction neglected, 
 then ignorance and licentiousness have prepared 
 the way for decline and ruin. 
 
 But we are assured that the results of family 
 instruction and government in the household of 
 Abraham should have their influence, not only 
 while he lived, but that “all the nations of the 
 earth” should be blessed by it. Let us examine 
 some matters of fact from which we may natu- 
 rally draw principles and considerations of duty. 
 And taking the history of Abraham and his de- 
 scendants as our example, it is not assuming tee 
 
o 
 
 IN THE FAMILY. 5 
 
 much to place this nation in the light of it. By 
 so doing we gain the force of analogy, and more: 
 we have the commands of God for our direction, 
 and his promises for our encouragement. It was 
 God who promised so great things to Abraham, 
 and through him to the nations ; and happy will 
 it be for this people if, by receiving timely warn- 
 ing from the past, we shall be able to perpetuate 
 and secure an increase of those blessings which 
 began to flow upon us at the commencement of 
 our national existence, and are continued still. 
 
 How rich were the promises which God made 
 to Abraham, and how faithfully are they being 
 fulfilled ! And how closely allied to those prom- 
 ises, in their wide and benevolent scope, do we. 
 find the providential history of this great republic. | 
 Yet this young nation, as we trust in God, has 
 but begun its existence, if we consider the amount 
 of influence we hope it is yet to exert on the world. 
 Its influence must be great, greater than it is pos- 
 sible for us now to estimate, and the question for 
 each one to take home to his heart and to daily 
 ponder is, What shall that influence be? for good, 
 or for evil? 
 
 It is not too much to say, that the free air we 
 breathe is a part of the blessing of God through 
 Abraham as a Christian father and faithful gov- 
 ernor of his household. Witness the character of 
 
6% THE TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 his son Isaac, the patriarch Jacob, and the high- 
 minded Joseph, who gained the honors of a king- 
 dom, and saved his own nation from destruction 
 by famine, by a strict adherence to principle as 
 taught by his fathers. Follow the line of glory 
 till the babe was born in Bethlehem and nurtured 
 at Nazareth—till the Saviour was betrayed at 
 Gethsemane, crucified on Calvary, and rose from 
 the dead, to live and reign and make intercession 
 for sinners for whom he had made atonement— 
 and know that ‘‘the nations of the earth” have been, 
 are, and shall be blessed in Him, the natural de- 
 scendant of Abraham. And mark, that all this 
 was made to depend upon Abraham’s fulfilling 
 the condition which God made binding, even that 
 he should command his children and his household 
 after him—that he should instruct and guide them 
 as a Christian father. 
 
 We have adduced this example as one of many 
 furnished in the Bible, to show what importance 
 God attaches to the family, and to its correct 
 moral and religious instruction and government ; 
 and we see what blessings follow, and how gen- 
 eral they become. 
 
 This example has a contrast most sad and 
 suggestive, in the course which Eli pursued with 
 his sons; for we learn that they caused his 
 death and their own ruin, because they were not 
 
IN THE FAMILY. mT 
 
 commanded in the sense in which braham com- 
 manded his children, but were left to their own 
 uncontrolled waywardness. God declares, “I 
 have told him that I will judge his house for 
 ever,” “because his sons made themselves vile, 
 and he restrained them not.” 
 
 The truth taught by the examples here refer- 
 red to is abundantly attested by instances which 
 come within the range of ordinary observation, 
 and concerning which we only add the following 
 contrasted and most significant scripture com- 
 ments : 
 
 “Train up a child in the way he should go; and 
 when he is old he will not depart from it.” 
 
 “But a child left to himself bringeth his mother 
 to shame.” 
 
 “The just man walketh in his integrity: his 
 children are blessed after him.” 
 
 “Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, 
 I will also forget thy children.” 
 
 “Wonor thy father and thy mother, that thy 
 days may be long in the land which the Lord thy 
 God giveth thee.” 
 
 “The eye that mocketh at his father, or despis- 
 eth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley 
 shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat 
 it.” 
 
8 THE TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 And may we not hence see that what we as a 
 people have been and have done, and what we are and 
 are now doing in the political, moral, and religious 
 world, is attributable, in‘an important, if not in a 
 primary sense, to family influence ; and that what 
 we are to be and to do depends on the same? 
 
 We predicate this view on the immutable prin- 
 ciples of God’s government, as revealed in his 
 word, and illustrated in his providence in his 
 dealings with the nations. History is abundant in 
 its proofs, but we have space for only an allusion 
 to some prominent marks in our own country’s 
 record: and we need only allude to our fathers, 
 the dear brave purchasers and transmitters of 
 our liberty, to inspire fresh admiration for their 
 high religious character, and to remind us of the 
 straitness with which they commanded their chil- 
 dren and their households. They discountenanced 
 in the most positive and peremptory manner the 
 violation of the Sabbath, the neglect of public 
 worship, and all kinds of profaneness and licen- 
 tiousness. As parents and heads of families, they 
 felt under obligation to care for the moral deport- 
 ment of all who were committed to their charge. 
 They felt a responsibility for their spiritual and 
 eternal interests ; and the economy of their house- 
 holds was so ordered as to carry the conviction to 
 the minds of their children, that the knowledge, 
 
‘IN THE FAMILY. 9 
 
 the love, and the service of God is the great busv- 
 ness of life, to which every thing else is to be sub- 
 servient. They understood full well, from the 
 Bible and their own experience, that the family is 
 the great school for educating freemen, the great 
 nursery of piety; and that whatever tends to ele- 
 vate and purify the family, so far promotes the 
 peace, liberty, safety, and well-being of the state, 
 and the prosperity of the church. And we know 
 that men holding and carrying out such principles 
 as these founded our colleges, originated our sys- 
 tems of common schools, offered the first intelli- 
 gent resistance to tyranny, struck the first blow 
 for liberty, and framed and executed our best 
 laws. 
 
 Our beloved country’s “father” was a child and 
 youth of careful instruction and training. He 
 knew and bore testimony to the value of family 
 religion; and down to the latest age it will be 
 well for parents to encourage their own hearts 
 and strengthen the principles of their children by 
 frequent reference to the story of “ Washington 
 and the Cherry-tree.” It shows that “the boy is 
 father to the man ;” that the man is in the boy, and 
 that then his character is formed. It shows that 
 mothers are the framers of man’s character, and 
 that “whatever may be the fate of man, one stamp 
 he always bears on his brow—that which the 
 
10 THE TRACT SOCIETY ba 
 
 mother’s hand impressed on the soul of the 
 child.” 
 
 It was through the influence of men who had 
 such home advantages as Washington, that suc- 
 cess crowned the revolutionary struggle, and that 
 our Constitution was framed on principles so 
 nearly in accordance with the will of God as ex- 
 pressed in the Bible. And thus far the God of 
 nations has continued to us the blessed inheri- 
 tance, transmitting it in an almost unbroken line 
 of presidents who have devotedly loved or openly 
 sustained the institutions of the gospel; through 
 such hands as the venerated Adams, who never 
 forgot that when a child his mother taught him 
 that beautiful evening prayer, ‘‘Now I lay me 
 down to sleep,” etc. 
 
 We would gladly linger to recount the bless- 
 ings which the influence of the family have con- 
 ferred upon us politically, but must pass to an- 
 other view. ; 
 
 The household religion of our fathers prepared 
 the way for civil liberty ; and in turn those insti- 
 tutions which are the fruit of religion, inspiring 
 and giving a safe direction to patriotism, have 
 blessed the church, and secured to her those 
 greater means of usefulness which can be enjoyed 
 only in a free and happy country. Religious in- 
 struction has been permitted and encouraged in 
 
nett 
 * IN THE FAMILY. 11 
 the family, the school, and the college. The Bible 
 has, with a few dark exceptions, been an open 
 book, and we have no law to check the usefulness 
 of the moral and religious press. 
 
 Under the influence of religion as developed 
 in that first divine institution the family, this 
 republic has stood firm; while others which 
 had not the bulwark of intelligence and religion 
 for their defence, have risen and fallen by the 
 score. 
 
 Under the influence of religion as thus devel- 
 oped, the church of Christ bas prospered in all 
 quarters of the land, and from the older portions 
 have gone forth piety, talent, and wealth, to bless 
 the benighted of our own and other nations. Nor 
 is this a time or an age in which it will do to 
 stand still. We must see to it that the instruc- 
 tive lessons of the past are improved in securing 
 far greater achievements in the future. 
 
 We have seen the extent of God’s promise to 
 Abraham, and it requires no stretch of faith to be- 
 lieve that this nation was baptized with the influ- 
 ence transmitted through him as a true Christian 
 father. We covet the continuance of that blessing : 
 but if we would enjoy it, we must comply with 
 the conditions as Abraham did; for if we forget 
 “the law of our God,” he will forget our children ; 
 and if they be forsaken of God, our criminality 
 
12 THE TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 will be as immediate as the results upon our 
 nation must be dreadful. 
 
 Is it not safe and wise to infer, then, that the 
 future of ths nation’s greatness and usefulness, and 
 the futwre of the blessings which may flow through the 
 American churches to the world, depend, wnder God, 
 primarily upon the kind of wmstruction and govern- 
 ment which shall be maintained in owr families ? 
 
 We can, in the space we wish to occupy, only 
 thus allude to the marked resemblance between 
 Abraham’s circumstances and the promises made 
 to him, and the position and the promises implied 
 in providence to this young nation. The analogy 
 might be carried out with great completeness. 
 It is not the analogy of theory merely, by which 
 nothing is very definitely proved, but the analogy 
 of facts. Facts carry conviction to the mind, and 
 these are so plainly written on the face of our 
 history, that he who will may compare them with 
 the word of God, and learn that He has not for- 
 gotten his covenant and promises, nor failed to 
 bless the use of appointed instrumentalities for 
 elevating the position of nations, or the labors 
 of those who reverence his law. 
 
 And it is thus certain that the family, in its 
 proper institution and with its proper moral and 
 religious instruction, is necessary to maintain the 
 position of those who have been elevated by its 
 
IN THE FAMILY. 13 
 
 blessings. How much more necessary, how indispen- 
 sable must vt then be, in the work of elevating the wn- 
 blest masses, the ignorant and the vicious, the scattered, 
 neglected, and degraded. 
 
 It is in connection with this last thought, and 
 in view of the importance which God manifestly 
 attaches to the family, and the perils which must 
 attend the neglect of its instruction, that we 
 would speak of 
 
 THE FAMILY IN OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 Individuals good and bad are here. Families 
 are here the heads of which ‘‘ command their chil- 
 dren” in the high and beneficent sense of God’s di- 
 rection, and families wethout instruction or government 
 abound. Communities are found which are bless- 
 ed with family religion and instruction, and their 
 universal fruits, the school, the Sabbath, the gos- 
 pel, the church, and the capacity to live and en- 
 joy them ; and from these go our intelligent and 
 safe law-makers and executors, our pastors, teach- 
 ers, and missionaries : in these is our hope, while 
 upon them rests a great responsibility. But the 
 general fact is different. There are broad prai- 
 ries and mountain fastnesses and the sparsely set- 
 tled wilderness ; cities but recently founded, and 
 so rapidly grown as to present a most heteroge- 
 neous collection of names, nations, habits, and 
 
14 THE TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 tongues ; and multitudes of places in parts of the 
 country, both old and new, presenting grounds 
 where the minister of Christ cannot go and stat- 
 edly deliver his messages of love. And all these 
 are the very places where pernicious influences 
 grow and strengthen. 
 
 There are vast numbers of children and youth, 
 and young men and young women, and those of 
 all ages, who enjoy no proper family influence. 
 Multitudes are literally afloat, and have no steady 
 abiding-place ; and many who have long enjoyed 
 a home and the blessings of the family, are rap- 
 idly losing all restraints, and taking license to do 
 all manner of evil. 
 
 And where the family is maintained in form, 
 there is an alarming and growing absence of that 
 instruction and government which are absolutely 
 necessary to keep the family alive. The father is 
 intent upon his gains, or is obliged to exert all 
 his energies to supply the wants of his house- 
 hold ; and having never known books, or having 
 left his books behind him in his migrations from 
 place to place, he gives up thought and study and 
 instruction, and takes on the rough features of 
 his home and his labors, leaving all instruction 
 and discipline to the mother. She, with many 
 cares and trials and labors, and with no means or 
 aids in books, or lessons remembered, soon learns 
 
IN THE FAMILY. 15 
 
 to put off the first duty she owes to her children ; 
 and they grow up wild and rude, without know- 
 ledge of society, laws, or religion, and are the 
 ready tools of the strong and the easy dupes of 
 the designing. 
 
 A sad specimen of this large class of families, 
 thus imperfectly described, was personally known 
 to the writer within a few months past. A young 
 man who had enjoyed the pious instructions of a 
 praying mother in the east, married and moved 
 west. He made no profession of love for the Sav- 
 jour, but lived a moral life, and was held in high 
 esteem by his neighbors. He believed it his duty 
 to labor hard and gain a worldly inheritance, and 
 that if he wronged no one he was safe. The Bible 
 was neglected ; churches were remote, and no ef- 
 fort was made to attend them. Years have passed. 
 A large family are living on a cultivated farm. To 
 labor and to gain has been the chief concern ; 
 and as a result, sons have almost no education, 
 and not even common respect for the religion of 
 the Bible. Daughters grow up who know not the 
 meaning of the cross, the precious and sad em- 
 blem of Christ’s death, with the story of which 
 they are unfamiliar. Vain amusements occupy 
 the time and thoughts, and absorb the earnings 
 which might otherwise be employed to obtain 
 useful furniture for mind and heart. And now 
 
16 THE TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 the moral man comes to see his mistake. He 
 sees his godless family are going astray in many 
 different roads, and are unprepared to walk up- 
 rightly in any. He finds out his own need of a 
 regenerated heart and a renovated character. He 
 embraces the truth, and attempts to set up the 
 true standard of living ; but opposition, ridicule, 
 and disorder discover to him how sad a thing it 
 is to allow a household to grow up without the 
 salutary “command” to which God attaches so 
 much importance. 
 
 And this is only an average case. It is probably 
 better than the average ; for here we see the father 
 of the family turning to God, and trying to lead 
 his household with him to the family altar, the 
 church, and the Sunday-school ; while in most 
 cases the whole pass on to ruin in an unbroken 
 company. We are no alarmists ; but the true pic 
 twre, a picture which may be found in almost any, 
 nay, which has been found in every district of our 
 country, is sad; and there are dangers to souls, 
 and to peace, order, and prosperity. 
 
 Here is the seat of error. Here errors propa. 
 gate themselves with wonderful success. Here, © 
 notwithstanding all that has been done, are vast 
 regions where families enjoy no schools, no preach- 
 ing, no religious books or Sabbath-schools, and 
 oftentimes no Bible ; and hence the ease with 
 
IN THE FAMILY. LY 
 
 which errors multiply themselves and spread 
 among the people. Their name is legion. From 
 blank Atheism to Universalism, Mormonism, Ro- 
 manism, and all the minor isms which hang so 
 heavily on the progress of the gospel, all find 
 zealous adherents ; and amid these influences the 
 youth receive their impressions, and the family is 
 lost. For these errorists, disagreeing among 
 themselves and with each other, yet are agreed 
 in rejecting the great principles of Bible Chris- 
 tianity, and unite their forces in denouncing evan- 
 gelical truth and all those institutions which aim 
 at the education and elevation of the people. A 
 vast, diversified, and powerful set of machinery is 
 at work in our country, which, if left to its own 
 unchecked operation, would quickly demolish ed- 
 ucation and the Sabbath, drive out the Bible, and 
 leave a moral wreck. 
 
 These are truths whose illustration has become 
 too familiar to admit of doubt ; and it becomes 
 considerate men to pause and inquire whereunto 
 this may grow. It is well for us to reflect that 
 it is in a land as open to the assaults of error as 
 to the teachings of truth, and among a people 
 making haste to be rich. It is preventing and 
 destroying the legitimate influence of the family, 
 which this population cannot, must not lose, or 
 they are lost, and incalculable evil must follow. 
 
 2% 
 
18 THE TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 Not here only, but here chiefly must far present 
 efforts be expended. The safety of our institu- 
 tions and the interests of the cause of Christ 
 throughout the world demand it. So largely do 
 universal liberty and the prevalence of Christian- 
 ity depend upon the issue of the great struggle 
 here commenced, the great battle here thicken- 
 ing between truth and error, liberty and despot- 
 ism, Christ and antichrist, that we cannot esti- 
 mate too highly the importance of thickly setting 
 and manfully defending here the standards of » 
 truth and a pure gospel. 
 
 Romanism, now but another name for despot- 
 ism, and infidelity are combined, and determined 
 to govern our country. All our danger should be 
 truly apprehended, and the proper defences at 
 once made ready. While the disease is yet in a 
 manageable state, the wisest physician should be 
 called. Our only sure remedy is in the gospel, 
 and this can take effect primarily only in individ- 
 ual hearts. It is only by its effect upon individ- 
 uals that it can reach the whole body, and curing 
 all our ills, save our people, our country, and our 
 institutions, and through them bless the world ; 
 and we are assured by all past history and the 
 well-known necessities of the present, that most 
 of this work must be begun and conan in the 
 family. 
 
IN THE FAMILY. _ “19, 
 
 Respecting all his holy commands and instruc- 
 tions, our heavenly Father says expressly, ‘‘ And 
 these words, which I command thee this day, 
 shall be in thy heart; and thou shalt teach them 
 diligently unto thy children ; and thou shalt talk 
 of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when 
 thou walkest in the way, and when thou liest 
 down, and when thou risest up.” 
 
 The necessity is here asserted for the universal 
 prevalence of Bible instruction and evangelical 
 religion in families, in another form and at a later 
 day ; and it may be inferred as particularly nec- 
 essary in a country like ours, insomuch that the 
 intelligent observer of our wants must hail with 
 pleasure and with hope any and every institution 
 which is wisely adapted to promote these objects. 
 We therefore present 
 
 THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY IN THE 
 FAMILY, 
 
 And assume that it is such an institution as the 
 family needs. The Tract Society, with its choice 
 selections and numerous issues of the best books 
 of all ages, is peculiarly an institution for the family. 
 For this sphere it was designed and is adapted, as 
 appears on its very face, in its history, and by the 
 titles of its publications. First of all we have — 
 the “Family Bible” with brief notes and instruc- 
 
¥. 
 
 | 20. = THE TRACT SOCIETY 
 € 
 
 — , ’, 
 
 tions, and other valuable helps to its. study. We 
 have “Sacred Songs for Family Worship,” “Songs” 
 and ‘Easy Lessons for the Little Ones at Home,” 
 “The Child’s Paper,” “Child at Home,” “Mother 
 at Home,” ‘Letters to a Daughter,” “Counsels to 
 Young Men,” “ Advice to a Married Couple,” and 
 many others of hallowed remembrance, to which 
 God has given great power to do good in the 
 family. 
 
 In speaking of “the Tract Society in the fami- 
 ly,” we call attention to, 1. The need of it; 2. 
 How to use it; 3. What it is doing; and, 4. 
 What it promises, or is adapted todo. And for. 
 all these views we should have a sufficient illus- 
 tration, could we print the observations and expe- 
 riences to the amount of one month’s time select- 
 ed from the labors of our brethren in different 
 parts of the country. We should learn from 
 these, | 
 
 1. The need of the Tract Society in the family, from 
 the disorganized state of society in all the newer 
 districts, tending to the neglect of instruction and 
 the disregard of restraints, and to general dissi- 
 pation of mind. These are the first-fruits of emi- 
 gration, and in connection with them we find 
 much destitution and neglect. In many families 
 there is no Bible; in many more no religious 
 book is found. Multitudes have not the gospel 
 
IN THE FAMILY. 21 
 
 ¥ 
 in any form, and never hear it preached. And 
 here we can see how easy it is to lead the active 
 mind to evil, if pernicious influences prevail; and 
 they are sure to enter unoccupied ground. We 
 see also how greatly the Tract Society, as a pio- 
 neer missionary agency, is needed to come into 
 all such families and communities, and occupy 
 the minds of the people ; to secure the continu- 
 ance of any former good habits ; to reiterate the 
 command to keep the Sabbath holy ; to urge to 
 temperance ; to guard against the thousand er- 
 rors which rush into minds not preoccupied with 
 the truth ; and to lead immortal souls to Christ. 
 
 It is needed in very many places as the only 
 means of religious instruction and training which 
 can be brought to bear or gain access through 
 the superstitions and prejudices which lie against 
 denominations ; and it is needed to render the 
 family intelligent and ready to believe, and also to 
 guide and educate for usefulness after conver- 
 sion. Many false professions are made from want 
 of definite and full instruction in the gospel plan 
 of salvation, and the Tract Society is needed to 
 prevent the evils which follow the making of false 
 professions, by its abundant teaching in tracts 
 and books where other means are not enjoyed. 
 
 It is needed as an auxiliary to the preaching 
 and teaching of the ministry everywhere, and to 
 
22 THE TRACT SOCIETY 
 « 
 
 help forward every true and well-defined reform 
 through the family. The great and vital cause of 
 home or domestic missions requires such an aux- 
 iliary as the system of colportage, and both are 
 becoming more and more a necessity for our 
 whole country. 
 
 It is needed to give to many foreigners a cor- 
 rect idea of what the true family is, and to teach 
 them American law, acquaint them with gospel 
 institutions, and show them the nature and fruits 
 of evangelical religion. 
 
 And it is needed, greatly needed to counteract 
 and displace the corrupt literature which is most 
 industriously spread abroad in the daily, weekly, 
 and monthly press, and in pamphlets and books, 
 and which is gaining access to and destroying 
 many thousands of families, and helping to fill 
 the land and the world with crime and disorder. 
 “Tt should not be forgotten that the agency of 
 the press, which is so powerful as a means of in- 
 tellectual and spiritual elevation, has equal power 
 for evil when employed by infidel or irreligious 
 hands.” There are large numbers of persons and 
 a vast amount of capital employed in “ deluding 
 our youth with dreams of unreal bliss, pandering 
 to the taste of the licentious, seducing the inno- 
 cent, profaning all sacred things, sacrificing the 
 temporal and eternal welfare of thousands by 
 
IN THE FAMILY. 23 
 
 prostituting the press for the sake of gain.” And 
 all the marvellous facilities for giving rapid circu- 
 lation are pressed into the service of this death- 
 dealing traffic. “The ravages of this misnamed 
 ‘literature’ are scarcely less wide-spread than 
 those of intemperance. It has demoralized thou- 
 sands of the unsuspecting, and is known to have 
 been the occasion of ruin to many of both sexes 
 by its polluting pages; and an immense propor- 
 tion of the issues of the popular press are of this 
 sort—too vast a proportion for the temporal or 
 spiritual well-being of this reading nation, or for 
 the safety of institutions based on the sound in- 
 telligence and virtue of the people.” See tract 
 No. 493. 
 
 Surely here is a work for the Tract Society 
 with its printed gospel and attractive issues, 
 suited to persons of all ages and all conditions of 
 society. It is needed in all our families, both as 
 preventive and cure for the evils of worthless or 
 injurious publications. 
 
 2. How to use the Tract Society in the family. 
 As a fact it is used with the greatest pleasure 
 and advantage in tens of thousands of families in 
 all parts of the land, and in other lands, and is 
 employed in very many ways to accomplish a 
 great many good objects. How shall we use the 
 Tract Society? Why, the question which multi- 
 
24 THE TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 tudes are ready to ask is, “How could we do 
 without it?” so deeply has it become rooted in 
 the affections of those families which have learn- 
 ed its value, and “how to use it.” 
 
 Use it to interest and instruct the youngest 
 and tenderest mind capable of receiving impres- 
 sions through the eye or ear, and fix upon that 
 mind some simple lesson of truth which shall 
 grow up with it and become part of its charac- 
 ter. Yes, let the youngest children have it, and 
 the older children, the youth, the young man and 
 the young woman, the middle-aged and the old. 
 Let all use it, for there is something to interest 
 and benefit all. Employ it on the Sabbath and 
 every day in the week. Let the mothers and 
 the fathers, and teachers, use it diligently and 
 prayerfully, as God’s instrument of great power 
 in guiding the minds and forming the principles 
 of the multitude who may be benefited by it. 
 Take it with you when you journey; use it in 
 your shops and factories and stores and offices, 
 and give it a place on your farms and plantations, 
 for in all these ways it will gain access to the 
 family, and with God’s blessing it will do great 
 good. Employ it in personal efforts to bless your 
 needy neighbors, and encourage others to use it. 
 Have its issues always at hand, and study to use 
 them to the best advantage, and you will ever 
 
IN THE FAMILY. 25 
 
 be discovering fresh occasions and new ways in 
 which to use it. 
 
 Let the private Christian thus use it; and we 
 would respectfully suggest also, let the minestry 
 use it more and more; and after filling their own 
 minds and hearts with the glowing illustrations 
 of divine truth and grace found in the publica- 
 tions of this Society, let them employ their help 
 more fully in pastoral labors, and in a hundred 
 ways which practice will suggest and render 
 easy and pleasant. 
 
 3. What the Tract Socety is doing in our fam- 
 ilies. It is teaching sound morals and pure re- 
 ligion. It is visiting, by its colporteurs, life 
 members, directors, and active friends, all the 
 families of our land, and supplying, by sale or 
 gift, every accessible household with the means 
 of such religious instruction as is, by the bless- 
 ing of God, bringing many souls to Christ, and fit- 
 ting them for usefulness. There are tens of thou- 
 sands of persons in as many families in our coun- 
 try who will praise God with their latest breath, 
 while pointing to some book or tract as God’s 
 means of blessing their households and saving 
 their souls. 
 
 It is a blessed instrumentality for counteract- 
 ing the infidel, irreligious, and corrupt press, and 
 is owned of God in this important work, as fre- 
 
26 THE TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 quent reports and statistics abundantly prove, 
 As a fair example in proof, I would remark, that 
 a colporteur recently said to me that he visited a 
 Christian family in which was a young man who 
 had devoted much time to reading the bad pub- 
 lications to which I here refer, and had, by their 
 influence, become reckless, and, as he afterwards 
 admitted, “As much an infidel as any thing.” 
 The colporteur succeeded in selling to him “ Nel- 
 son on Infidelity.” The young man read it, was 
 convinced of his errors, and at once resolved to 
 unburden his shelves from the large collection of 
 fascinating, but worthless and pernicious books 
 he had gathered. To use his own language, he 
 “took off the griddle, and shoved them in.” And 
 thus may we not hope that multitudes who are 
 now eagerly receiving and reading what the 
 emissaries of darkness are so diligently scatter- 
 ing, will bring forth their books to be burned ?— 
 the only safe way in which to dispose of them. 
 Such indeed is the direct influence of this Society’s 
 labors; and who will refuse to pray for its far 
 ereater, even its complete success ? 
 
 It is reclaiming the wanderer, and saving from 
 error; is helping individuals and families to re- 
 form bad habits, and cultivate better ones ; it is 
 moulding many characters for this world and for 
 the next, and exerting an incalculable influence 
 
IN. THE FAMILY. 27 
 
 on all departments of education, by imparting to 
 the mind desires for knowledge and experience 
 of its benefits. Its colporteurs are placing selec- 
 tions from its publications in district school libra- 
 ries ; and through all the grades of schools, from 
 the primary to the academy, the college, and even 
 into professional departments in the university, it 
 is found at work; and in not a few instances is 
 known to have been the original agency in open- 
 ing the way for instruction where now flourishing 
 schools are maintained, 
 
 What is it doing? Itis blessed of God in the 
 conversion of many souls among all ages and 
 classes, but especially among the hardened and 
 abandoned, and those wholly neglected or un- 
 reached by other agencies. It is filling school- 
 houses and churches, and helping every other depart- 
 ment of benevolent operations, at home and abroad, by 
 what it does vn the family, in developing a LovE for 
 these active Christian labors. 
 
 It is causing many family altars to be erected 
 where the voice of prayer was never before 
 heard—to which end the Family Testament and 
 Bible have been greatly blessed—and is success- 
 fully teaching that evangelical religion is a ne- 
 cessity in every well-regulated family, and that 
 without it the blessing of God need not be ex- 
 pected, 
 
28 THE TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 It is meeting the foreign immigrants as they 
 land on our shores ; meets them again and again 
 at the various prominent points of transshipment 
 in their journey to the interior; and is following 
 them as they separate into families and go to 
 their cabins on the prairies or along the rivers, 
 in the mountains or the backwoods, not neglect- 
 ing those in cities ; and many of them, after their 
 long wanderings from home and friends and coun- 
 try, are brought by this kind and humble agency 
 to acknowledge the great Father of all, and be- 
 come his servants in efforts to reclaim their coun- 
 trymen who still wander from God. The great 
 variety of the Society’s publications in different 
 languages, enables it to prosecute the work in 
 behalf of our vast foreign population with encour- 
 aging success. 
 
 More than four years ago the writer was per- 
 mitted and constrained to say, in presenting his 
 annual report to this Society, that “so deeply 
 are the efficiency of the religious press and the 
 usefulness of this. Society impressed on my mind 
 from the constant discovery of facts, that I fully 
 believe, if it were to-day forsaken by all except 
 those who have been brought into the kingdom.of Christ 
 through its instrumentality, and are now living, it 
 would be taken up by them and carried forward.” 
 Such was the belief then, and every month of 
 
IN THE FAMILY. 29 
 
 observation and experience since has only served 
 to fasten the delightful conviction more firmly. 
 To God be all the praise. And let his people be 
 encouraged to help, and to pray for the descent of 
 the Holy Spirit, that it may fill all our hearts, and 
 baptize all this admirable machinery, so that its 
 power may be manifestly of God, and not of man. 
 Then shall the report of “what it is doing” be in 
 better proportion to its providential adaptation 
 to the great work before it, and the urgent. de- 
 mand for its agency. 
 
 4. What the Tract Society promises, or 1s adapted 
 to do. ‘The only hope of a lost world is, that the 
 Saviour lives and loves souls; that this love is 
 shed abroad in the hearts of Christians, and is 
 leading them, as light increases, more and more 
 to see and feel that effort is best expended in 
 works of benevolence ; that money is best invest- 
 ed, and will ultimately bring the richest harvest, 
 when lent to the Lord; and that union of hearts 
 and hands in labors of love, is the best business 
 for all the family of the redeemed. 
 
 And just here comes in the Tract Society to aid 
 the private Christian, the pastor, and the mission- 
 ary, with its many hundreds of evangelical books 
 and tracts adapted to every age, and to almost 
 every circumstance and condition of every indi- 
 vidual and family, and which are approved, cir- 
 
30 THE TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 culated, and used by all denominations of evan- 
 gelical Christians. 
 
 These the Society publish at the rate of about 
 fifty thousand per day, and can publish in any num- 
 ber demanded by the wisdom and liberality of the 
 churches. These they seek to circulate by any 
 and all available agencies, selling at exceedingly 
 low rates, or giving where the case requires. But 
 the chief instrumentality for circulating publica- 
 tions and benefiting families, is our loved system 
 of colportage. None are desired to engage in this 
 labor but such as consecrate themselves to it, as the 
 work and calling to which God in his providence 
 invites them. Such men the Society will send 
 forth, in such numbers as its funds will enable it 
 to sustain, into all parts of our forming and needy 
 country. 
 
 Let the colporteur go and mingle with our fam- 
 ilies, carrying with him the precious Messenger 
 and the beautiful and instructive Child’s Paper, 
 and the thousand and more of different tracts for 
 all classes and ages. Let him carry the beauti- 
 ful and valuable illustrated series, the Pictorial 
 Tract Primer, the Bible Primers, Child’s Primer, 
 and the great variety of excellent books and 
 tracts for children; let him take to the sick-room 
 the Afflicted Man’s Companion, or the Dying 
 Thoughts of Baxter; let his satchel be supplied 
 
IN THE FAMILY. dL 
 
 with copies of the Mother at Home, that it may 
 counsel and guide mothers in the discharge of 
 duty; Morrison’s Counsels, and the Young Man 
 from Home, to guard the youth from temptation 
 and teach him the way of life; Nelson, Spring, 
 and other authors, to stop the mouths of infidels 
 and lead them to Christ ; the works of Doddridge, 
 Bunyan, Baxter, Wilberforce, Edwards, and oth- 
 ers, to teach, instruct, defend against error, and 
 build up in faith and love; Flavel, pointing so 
 plainly and affectionately to the Fountain of Life 
 and the Method of Grace, and to Christ Knock- 
 ing at the Door of the sinner’s heart; Pike, to 
 persuade to Early Piety and Guide the Young 
 Disciple; the enchanting History of the great 
 Reformation, the Spirit of Popery, the Colporteur 
 and Roman-catholic, and others, to show the pa- 
 pist his errors and point him to the life of faith. 
 
 To the sordid, the avaricious, and the selfish, 
 and those too much absorbed in the world, let 
 him furnish the premium essays on beneficence, 
 and other books and tracts which call for a self- 
 denying benevolence, and point for motives to it 
 to the word of God, the wants of the world, and 
 the day of final judgment. 
 
 Let him exhibit the missionary spirit, and 
 arouse it in others, by the lives of Brainerd and 
 Martyn, of Mrs. Winslow and Mrs. Smith, and let 
 
32 THE TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 him scatter broadcast the Temperance and Sab- 
 bath Manuals. 
 
 Let the colporteur carry these and hundreds 
 more of the Society’s books and tracts, so honored 
 by usefulness, as he visits the villages, towns, 
 and cities, or penetrates the forests, or rides over 
 prairies, and searches out every abode in every 
 district, and our families may be snatched from 
 the grasping hand of error; and the terrible 
 plague of ignorance, of infidelity, and of vice in 
 every form and in its most dreadful effects, may 
 be stayed. 
 
 The want is appalling. The remedy is sure. 
 God has chosen it, and is blessing it. There is 
 hope ; but this rests on the diligent use-of means, 
 the efficient use of those agencies which God in 
 his providence has provided. These are now fur- 
 nished to our hand, and there is too much to do to 
 allow of inaction anywhere in any one. 
 
 The Bible and an authorized ministry are the 
 primary instrumentalities for making known the 
 truth in the family, and we praise God for all that 
 has been done. We exalt the Bible, we honor 
 the ministry, as God’s chosen and favored instru- 
 ments of salvation. They have done more than 
 all others combined to make the family what it 
 is In character ‘and influence in Christian lands. 
 But their number! The number now or to be in 
 
IN THE FAMILY. oo 
 
 the ministry, alas, is too small to do all the work 
 of evangelization ; nor does God design that they 
 should do it all. The chwrch must work for God, 
 and her sons must consecrate themselves to his 
 service in other spheres than the ministry. The 
 faithful colporteur, hired or voluntary, may ena- 
 ble many servants of the church who are dead to 
 preach to thousands and millions without cessa- 
 tion. The Bible must have distributers ; and so 
 must the works of those who have loved the 
 Bible, and have expressed most faithfully, plain- 
 ly, and forcibly the teachings of the Bible, and 
 have placed their illustrations of divine truth on 
 the printed page to supply the lack of living 
 teachers. 
 
 The sanctified press and personal Christian 
 effort are the means by which the American 
 Tract Society is prepared in part, and is prepar- 
 ing more fully as Providence brings to it the 
 needed aid, to assist in the great work of evan- 
 gelization, by securing a healthful, a saving fam- 
 ily influence ; and if pure religion be the fruit, 
 the remedy for vice and every ill will be found by 
 this laying of the axe at the root of the tree. If 
 all the power which God is manifesting his will- 
 ingness to give to these instrumentalities is to 
 be made available in this time of our nation’s 
 need, the disciples of Christ must work; and all 
 
’ 
 34 THE TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 who love their country must help to save it by 
 contributing, by every way in their power, to 
 give efficiency to all means for placing our fam- 
 ilies in a position to accomplish the purposes of 
 their divine appointment; and there is something 
 for all Christians and all patriots to do. ‘The 
 world is becoming more and more known, wider 
 in magnitude, closer in intercourse, more loving 
 and more eventful than of old” The savor of 
 Christ and his cross is securing more and more 
 rapidly the triumphs of the Prince of peace, and 
 our entire nation should be trained and fitted to bear 
 a noble part in the conquest of the kingdoms of the 
 earth to pure Christianity. 
 
 Our entire history is one of blessing, and no 
 suitable acknowledgment of mercies received can 
 be made without corresponding efforts cheer- 
 fully put forth to bless others. This involves in- 
 dividual responsibility and action, and necessi- 
 tates personal consecration. With these felt and 
 made, and God’s blessing added, the work may 
 be done. ‘There are whole states and territories 
 in the West fast springing into importance, for 
 whose wants this Society seems to have been 
 especially contrived by Providence; while we 
 have wide districts in every part of the land 
 which cannot be effectually reached with evan- 
 gelical instruction by any other means. There 
 
IN THE FAMILY. 35 
 
 are souls in countless families beyond the reach 
 of the minister’s voice, and in regions wehene he 
 cannot be supported. 
 
 In the system of colportage, there is a happy 
 combination of personal labor and teaching by 
 means of the press. Who can doubt its efficien- 
 cy? Certainly not those who are conversant 
 with the happy fruits. Avenues are opened, and 
 our heterogeneous population is accessible, if we 
 will meet them kindly at their homes, carrying 
 with us the spirit and the messages of Christ. 
 And lightly as the momentous fact seems to have 
 impressed the minds of multitudes, it is scarcely 
 a paradox to say that this Society has raised the 
 dead and is sending them forth to the help of the 
 living. Nay, more, it has multiplied each of 
 them in their works, and enables them to preach 
 permanently in thousands of places, and may en- 
 able them to preach in the street, in the palace, 
 and in the cottage and cabin, in the rail-car, on 
 the steam-boat, in the school, in the family, and 
 from house to house, in hundreds of thousands of 
 places at the same time and all the time. Yes, 
 “the mightiest minds, the warmest hearts, the 
 most active and devoted and eminent servants of 
 God of every age, these they have summoned 
 back from eternity, and holding them in commis- 
 sion in their immortal works, are now ready tc 
 
36 THE TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 send them to every village and hamlet,” to every 
 individual and family in our land and the world. 
 And who will help us do it? 
 
 The more we reflect upon the character of our 
 population and the influences at work here for 
 evil, the more important do we regard the efforts 
 of this Society to evangelize this vast community 
 of congregated nations. 
 
 The importance of early influences, in forming the 
 character of such a people, surpasses estimation. 
 Our numbers now are comparatively few, and 
 access is easy. If the moral force of the settled 
 portions of our country be put in operation now, 
 it can mould the character of the many increasing 
 settlements. But without these influences on the 
 family, Christian character is never formed, either 
 in individuals or nations ; and what is to become 
 of a large portion of our population, native and 
 foreign, unless faithful colporteurs in greatly in- 
 creased numbers are sent to their doors, carrying 
 with them the publications of this Society, “culled 
 by judicious hands as gems from the mine of 
 truth,” attractive in style, cheap in price, and 
 selected by the colporteur with reference to the 
 wants of individuals and families as he comes 
 personally to know them? From what can the 
 church hope more than from this agency? Many 
 thousands of these families must perish in hea- 
 
IN THE FAMILY. an 
 
 then darkness in the midst of a Christian land, if 
 the means to save them be refused ; and who will 
 have to answer for it? The instrumentality is at 
 hand, and the opportunities for using it are rapid- 
 ly passing. Shall they be improved fully, par- 
 tially, or not at all? God has made our duty 
 very plain. 
 
 There is hope in the fact that society is yet in’ 
 a plastic state. The enemy is at work, and is 
 terribly successful; but let this Society aid the 
 home missionaries, and send out its own laborers 
 with publications teeming from the sanctified — 
 press in English, German, French, Spanish, Dutch, 
 Welsh, Danish, Italian, Swedish, and Hungarian, 
 and with them all carrying the Bible, and we 
 shall see pious mothers and intelligent and obe- 
 dient children, family religion, and a light in 
 many hearts and homes where now all is dark. 
 Temperance will triumph, the Sabbath will be 
 remembered and kept holy, ignorance will give 
 place to intelligence, souls will be saved, error 
 will die out for want of sustenance, and Zion will 
 become beautiful for situation. Neglect it, and 
 darkness that may be felt and days of disaster 
 must soon succeed, 
 
 The mission of Jesus is to be accomplished 
 amid commotions; and the busy, moving charac- 
 ter of our population is much more hopeful than 
 
¥ 
 
 38 THE TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 it would be, did we see the pall of a dead passiy- 
 ity resting upon the land. Let the advantage be 
 improved, and the generations following shall 
 rise up and call us blessed. And let the person 
 who contributes only enough to pay the expense 
 of publishing a single volume, reflect that he is 
 providing spiritual nutriment not only for the 
 families of this generation, but for generations 
 yet to be born. ‘The tracts of Luther more 
 than three hundred years old have been found, 
 not only preserved in public libraries, but in the 
 possession of the German emigrant on our west- 
 ern borders, teaching the same truths that shook 
 
 _ the papacy and convulsed the world in the period 
 
 of the Reformation, still reiterating in American 
 forests the glorious doctrine that ‘the just shall 
 live by faith’ The publications now going forth 
 in such numbers from a sanctified press may be 
 doing their silent work of mercy centuries hence, 
 and until the world is destroyed.” And if, instead 
 of giving circulation to one volume, this person 
 contributes funds enough for a hundred or a thou- 
 sand volumes, who can calculate the amount of 
 good which a Christian, or any man in moderate 
 circumstances, may accomplish for the families of 
 our land? 
 
 And if, in addition to helping publish, he has the 
 means to support one or more living agents who 
 
IN THE FAMILY. 39 
 
 will go forth prayerfully to distribute these immor- 
 tal works, pleading with God at every step to wa- 
 ter the seed sown and make it bear a hundred-fold 
 increase, who can tell where the circling waves 
 of blessing to the needy will end, or how many 
 precious souls one may thus be instrumental in 
 bringing home to his glorious Redeemer ? 
 
 ‘‘Oh how sweet, to dwellings lonely 
 Leaves of heavenly truth to bear ; 
 Dropping print where printing only 
 Comes to bring salvation there ; 
 Kindling in each house a flame 
 With my Saviour’s glowing name.”’ 
 
 Notse.— We would respectfully and earnestly request that 
 all who desire to help us in this good work of the Tract So- 
 ciety, in any or all of its departments—any who love our 
 common Saviour, and desire to take part with us in this 
 labor of love, will not wait to be called upon for aid, but 
 send as soon as practicable, and whenever practicable, to 
 any of the Society’s agents or superintendents, at their sev- 
 eral places of residence, or to O. R. Kingsbury, Esq., Assist- 
 ant Treasurer, 150 Nassau-street, New York. 
 
Che American Cract Society 
 PUBLISH 
 A CHOICE SELECTION 
 
 OF 
 
 STANDARD EVANGELICAL WORKS, 
 Comprising the best treatises 
 OF 
 
 BUNYAN, BAXTER, FLAVEL, OWEN, ALLEINE, 
 BISHOPS HOPKINS AND HALL, 
 AND OTHERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY; 
 
 EDWARDS, VENN, DODDRIDGE, WILBERFORCE, 
 : AND 
 HANNAH MORE; 
 
 OLINTHUS GREGORY, WILLIAM JAY, JOHN 
 ANGELL JAMES, DR. MERLE D’AUBIGNE, 
 - NEVINS, GALLAUDET, AND OTHERS; 
 
 THE BEST WORKS 
 ON 
 THE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY; 
 CHRISTIAN MEMOIRS; 
 AND 
 A LARGE VARIETY 
 OF : 
 BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED PUBLICATIONS, 
 FOR 
 YOUTH AND CHILDREN. 
 

 
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 THE FAMILY BIBLE, Le 
 
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 Bs PRICE $2 25, ORIN 3 VOLS. CLOTH $3. NS 
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