at home or abroad; are engaged in agricultural or mechanical labour; work with our heads, or our hands, or both—we are engaged in acts of charity and usefulness; and, hence, our minds become enlarged, and our faculties diffused laterally in every direction, we look around into the world, and perform respectively our duties in the sphere in which Providence has appointed us to move; and thus the faculties in the middle region of our minds operate.
And lastly, we must look to ourselves, and to those who are dependent upon us; and so long as we do this without injury to others, and in subserviency to the divine precept, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," we fulfil the end of our natural existence, and prepare ourselves for a higher state of being. To enable us to fulfil our duty to ourselves, our heavenly Father has planted within us affections and desires, which are constantly urging for gratification. The strongest of these affections is natural love, and is the feeling which ministers to the formation of the conjugial principle. "Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord," is a precept which awakens within us a strong feeling of regard for these dear pledges of affection. Our toil is sweetened by the recollection of their innocent smiles; and when labour is ended, and the social circle assembled in the peaceful home, how happy do those parents feel who hear many gentle voices call them "Father!" or "Mother!" How watchful is the good parent to protect his children from danger! how eager to defend them against being smitten by the fist of wickedness! how prudent in securing their temporal interests, and laying a solid foundation for future spiritual blessings! how economical in His expenses,
