the agreement of their practices with their Christian profession; and then the godfathers and godmothers may answer for those whom they have adopted spiritually as far as they can for themselves. The oldest among us cannot answer absolutely for their own perseverance in the faith; but they may consistently if they once believe; and also be as good mouths for their godchildren in that case, as if the little things, or "little ONES," as our Saviour calls them, (Mark ix. 42,) could speak for themselves: by which means they may come unto Christ, and also believe in him sacramentally and effectually before they can walk, or cry Dad! But if the godfathers and godmothers that should be, cannot consistently answer for themselves,not believing perfectly, if at all, in the being of the blessed Trinity; in our Lord's suffering, atonement, and resurrection; in the blessing of the Holy Ghost, and the present communion of saints, extending into futurity,-for them, I say, in such a case to go to answer for others on the same points, would seem very inconsiderate: and inconsiderate answers before God cannot be very becoming.

2. From the little share, however, that godfathers and godmothers generally have in the principles of their godchildren, their part will not be so considerable, even with regard to spirituals, as the part of those who are intrusted with the beginning of their temporal education, and it may be likewise under the superintendence of a spiritual director; nor consequently so hazardous as this may be, considering how "many false prophets are gone out into the world," (suprà,) as before observed *. Alas for you poor innocents! You are launching into a ter

N.B. To know a false prophet from a true,-observe that a prophet, having two parts to sustain at once, example and teaching, may be false in respect of either; or he may be only deficient in respect of either, failing without being false. For he has an arduous undertaking: and THERE IS NO FALSEHOOD IN ENDEAVOURING TO DO ONE'S BEST. The false prophet is he who either teaches falsely for falsehood's sake, or wilfully belies his teaching by his practice for the sake of corruption. Our Sa

rible scene, an ocean of iniquity. May the Holy Spirit be more propitious in your destiny than are too often those employed on your education: for eternity is an awful stake. May the Spirit of God direct you to so good a use of God's Word, that you shall be able to say with David, in the sequel of your education, "Because of men's works that are done against the words of thy lips, I have kept me from the ways of the destroyer.” (Ps. xvii. 4.) We read how one was directed by that Spirit to a certain chapter in Isaiah, and what a blessed train of instruction it led to: (Acts viii. 26, &c.:) there are some beautiful chapters in Genesis, and some very serious; mothers would do well to direct the attention of their sons to them: also, to repress their vanity by all means; especially when they begin to boast their proficiency in iniquity, and how "they overpass the deeds of the wicked." (Jer. v. 28.) It will be time then for their fathers to have the handling of them, and not to spare the rod, either; if they are lawfully begotten. (Heb. xii. 8.)

Ordinarily children, whether baptized or not, will be a mere transcript of their teachers and others with whom they associate, or to whom they are subject, till they come of an age to think for themselves: when they may be removed from the primitive relations through which their mind drew its nourishment, or its corruption, and transplanted into a soil that will seem more like their own, and where they will have, or seem to have, an independent existence. And indeed, the propriety of infant baptism appears to turn, so far as I can perceive, entirely on this principle of separation and support. The godfathers viour's caution to the multitude as well as to his disciples, against such false prophets may be worth remembering.

"The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works." (Matt. xxiii. 2, 3.)

"Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! (says he) For ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves." (Ib. 15.)

and godmothers may be considered as a soul-guard; which the church has appointed over its new member, to secure him in the faith, and preserve him, as far as they are able, from the assaults of Satan, and the contagion of a naughty world: baptism is his fence; and they are its supports. As the Lord is a wall of fire round about Jerusalem, and her glory within, so the elders of the church should be like a cordon of troops, to guard her young colonies from infection and violence.

Would to God, that such elders considered themselves more in that light! There might then be some chance of a general reformation among us, or at least of our not getting worse, if that be possible. The godfathers would then be indeed what they are somewhere supposed to be, "kings and priests unto God," (Rev. i. 6,) and come in for a share of their consequent credit with the natural parents. Or when they take up one of riper years, and bear him off through baptism from the danger of the world, which is our field of combat, they may be compared to a band of warriors encircling some wounded companion in the thickest of the fight, and bearing him to a place of safety. In such a case, they shall have all the credit of his salvation under divine Providence, the parents have nothing to do with it. They shall shine for this hereafter, how indifferently soever actions like these may be regarded at present. "And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever." (Dan. xii. 3.) Only as monitors in an humble degree, they shall not lose their reward. For "brethren, (says St. James,) if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." (Jam. v. 20.)

It be worth while for a married woman to desire may children, as Hannah, Sarah and Rachel did, for the

sake of such an ulterior destiny as we have considered: but, to desire children without any farther purpose were, as an eminent moralist remarked *, rather frivolous. Nay, it may be thought worse than frivolous; considering how the alternative to which every child is born will lie, not between a good and an indifferent position, but between a good and evil-for eternity. If she could be sure that her children by failing in this life would only miss the rewards of the next, or that there is no next life, an indifferent mother might be satisfied with such an indifferent fate for her children when she should have them: but if she had the slightest doubt only on this head, she might think it worth while when she prayed for children, to pray that they might be worth saving at the same time,—that they might be good for something, that they might be fit for the Lord's service. "For behold the days are coming (saith the Lord) in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck." (Luke xxiii. 29.)

Therefore THE EARLY EDUCATION OF YOUR CHILDREN ought to be well looked to. Good principles, founded in true religion, are the common and indispensable basis of every good part in life: but beside that, A PROPER EDUCATION or training for any of them will be required at the same time. If the child should have to walk in ever so humble a sphere, the first rudiments, or what we call A POPULAR EDUCATION, will be due to him; and higher instruction as he walks in an higher sphere. The moral man, and the efficient likewise, must be attended to as well as the religious, unless you would like to see an hospital or a cloister in your house; or your children dozing in a cloister, rather than shining, every one of them, as lights in the world, by some important part or office. Not that such shining is a necessary and inevitable consequence of employment, or can be, while in

* Socrates.

the whole range of useful trades and professions there shall hardly be one that does not tend to disqualify its conductor for the Kingdom of God by some fault or other: one inclining to avarice, another to vain glory, another to hypocrisy, another to craft and duplicity; another steels the heart against every humane impression, another has a wonderful tendency to arrogance and atheism: but the worst of all is not so seductive and certainly mischievous as idleness. Idleness is the root of all evil, and evil enough in itself invariably. Every useful part is good for something, and may be blessed to the performer as well as its object, if he will have it so; notwithstanding the evil direction that is generally given to it by the devil and infidelity: but idleness is not blessed to any party, person, or purpose. According to our excellent adage, "No good comes of idleness."

It cannot now be expected of me to insist on the mode and substance of an early education: I can only indicate its general character; which should be moral, as well as religious. If you can guard the morals of your child in early life, you may hope well not only for these, but for his health and capacity in the sequel; or else not so well. For if Christianity allows and encourages every return from the paths of vice, they cannot be once entered, nor hardly approached without damage to the commonwealth in every department, intellectual, spiritual, and corporeal. From that moment the darling of your heart will be like a citadel taken by the enemy; which you will have to recover by hard stripes, or your child is lost. Shew him this, and make him a confidant in his own behalf, if you can; rather than a slave or a brute, to be disposed of without consultation. The way to deal with such a one is, not to give him the reins, and leave him to be corrected by experience, lest he should be lost in the trial: but to consider what were your own radical errors about his age, and what would have been the likeliest way to correct them, if any one had thought it worth his while