which we have in the gospel, and to ask ourselves, what will be our prospects, to whom we shall go, if we neglect the Redeemer? Lovers of virtue, anxious to elevate your nature by adorning it with the qualities which are "pure," "lovely," and "of good report," are not your ways made plain and your strength increased by the instructions and influences of Christianity? Children of sorrow, whose day of life is overcast with gloom, are not your sighs suspended and your bosoms composed, when the Angel of the Gospel descends through the cloud, speaking peace to your perturbated spirits, and opening to you a state in which, with your friends, you shall be forever removed from trouble and death, "and God shall wipe away all tears from every eye." Followers of the Lamb, incumbered with the frailties and imperfections of nature, yet conscious of accountability, and fearfully looking forward to the "judgment to come," is it not your choicest felicity to know, that ye "have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and that he is the propitiation for your sins." Will ye then go away? Alas! to whom will you go? Will you leave "the Rock of Ages," and throw yourselves upon the unbounded, confused, and perilous ocean of uncertainty? Cleave, rather, to the only hope of this ruined world. Abide in the Lord Jesus. Prize, above all price, the knowledge of his grace and faith in him. Let the language of your lips and souls, in every hour of distrust or temptation be, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life."

SERMON XXXVIII.

ON THE CHRISTIAN EDUCATION OF CHILDREN.

EXODUS, ii. 9.

"Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages."

THE

HE Christian education of children is among the most interesting and momentous concerns of the Christian world. A cruel adversary intends the destruction of them all. Nature frames for them, it is all she can do, frames for them an ark, no better, alas! than "an ark of bulrushes;" and in it she leaves them to waves, and winds, and monsters, prowling for what they may destroy. The Son of God descries them in their exposed situation. He sends his ministering servants and takes them from it. He procures for them by the order of his providence, those who may protect and nurture them till they shall be grown up, for a noble and happy life. And to the parents, the guardians, the sponsors to whom he commits them, I conceive him saying, in every case, "Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will give thee thy wages."

What are the wages of fidelity in the important work of the Christian education of children? Upon this inquiry, my respected hearers, I would invite you to bestow your consideration. For such are these wages, so numerous, so great, and of such duration, that whoever will faithfully estimate and sum them up, shall be unable to refrain from wonder, that all who have children under their care, in the Christian world, are not much and anxiously engaged in nursing them for God.

In the first place, then, a part of the reward of fidelity in religiously educating your children, consists in the pleasure of the work. It is an innocent, an interesting, and an honourable occupation. In the performance of it, there is a delight, of a pure and durable character, worthy of the intelligence of man. That heart must surely be destitute itself of lively affection for the Deity, and for the truths which he has revealed, which finds no pleasure in guiding the youthful mind to its Creator, and imbuing it with the principles which may remove its deformities, and fit it for eternal life. Do you take delight in raising a precious plant, in propping an opening flower, in guiding a luxuuriant vine, in pruning, for its health and its beauty, a fruitful tree; and shall you not find a much more exalted satisfaction in training the germs of virtue, and cherishing the opening flowers of grace, in pruning from the heart its excrescences, and the branches of its defects, and guiding the disposition into all the forms of beauty? Do you experience a lively gratification in adorning the bodies, accomplishing the manners, and developing the personal beauties of your offspring; and shall you not find higher pleasure in the business of cultivating their minds, adorning them with the qualities and graces in which they will be lovely in the sight of God and angels, and nurturing the beauties which you know shall live forever? Consider that your children have spirits; consider they are destined for immortality. Every plant of virtue which you plant in them, shall bloom through eternity. By every progress you make in rendering them good, you beautify the intellectual creation of God. What interest does this give to the work of their education? How great the designs it intends! How pleasing the expectations which animate it! If "these little ones" have "angels, who always behold the face of their Father in heaven," the delight which springs to these angels, from their relation to them, is found, I conceive, in the work of ministering to their salvation.

Again. There enters into the reward of religiously educating children, the pleasure which arises from doing good to so

ciety. It is a generous satisfaction which flows in the bosom of man, from the consciousness of having benefited mankind. And who are they that benefit mankind? Let the question be answered by adverting to the sources from which the imperfections and miseries of society proceed. Have they not all proceeded, either mediately or immediately, from the passions and vices, the moral feebleness, and spiritual death to which, since the fall, our race have been subject? And who are they that have most effectually contracted these sources? Let the question be put to wisdom, who stands by the throne of God, and she will turn from the splendid hero, and busy statesman, and fastening her eyes upon the parents, whose goodly offspring are abroad in society, fearing God, practicing charity, and subduing in themselves the wrong passions and inclinations of their nature, and cheering their hearts, and the hearts of others, with the prospect of a better world; and will say of such parents, these are the men. He who introduces the seed of a useful grain into a country, contributes more, as some one has well observed, to the happiness of that country, than its mightiest warrior, and most victorious chief. But more highly founded yet, is their claim to this pre-eminence, whose culture is the hearts of the young, and the seeds they introduce, seeds of goodness, brought by his beloved Son to our world from the garner of God. To know the real condition of mankind, you must go home with them to their business and their bosoms; you must look into their families, their houses, and their souls. It is here, in their domestic scenes, amidst their daily enjoyments and sorrows, that the good is to be weighed, by the amount of of which, the measure of their happiness will be most correctly estimated. To this good no individuals, perhaps, contribute more largely than those parents who give to society a race of children, enriched with the principles and habits on which this good does chiefly depend. Of the high satisfaction, therefore, which rewards him who can say, I have benefited my country, I have added to the happiness and honour of my race, every such parent, whatever his condition in life, when he looks upon

his children, is entitled to partake. It is of such offspring that the Psalmist must be understood to speak, when he says, "Like as the arrows in the hand of the giant, so are the young children. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them; they shall not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate."

Further. There is high honour in co-operating with God, and great happiness in conforming to the intentions of his providence. Of this honour and happiness, they eminently are sharers, who are engaged in guiding the young children in the paths of his will. Their salvation is dear to God. For it he hath given his Son to live in our flesh, and die upon the cross; for it he hath condescended to furnish the light of his word, and to offer the assistance of his Holy Spirit. The accomplishment of his wishes he has very much confided to their parents. and spiritual guardians. He hath committed to them the care of the souls, as well as of the bodies of their offspring. And in the helplessness of the child, and experience of the parent; in the docility of the former, and authority of the latter, a state of things resulting from that order of nature, which he himself hath constituted, he doubtless intended a provision for the well-being of his human children, not only with respect to the present life, but also to their eternal existence. The affection which moves the parental bosom-it is his voice crying, "Take this child, and nurse him for me." Alas! that through the blindness which has fallen upon our nature this affection is limited in its views, and so many children nursed only for the world. If there be any pleasure in conforming to the intentions of God's providence, in the order of nature which he hath established, and probably the degree of this conformity in every person, is the exact measure of his happiness, of that pleasure they will participate, who train their young for their high moral destinies, who nurture them for immortality. If there be any honour in being co-operators with the Most High God, and it is in this co-operation that the highest Seraph of heaven finds the honour, in which he most delights himself, of that honour they