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ness when his "little children" are "thus suffered" to come unto their Lord, and when "he puts his hands "upon them and blesses them."

2. It is a second advantage of this early acquaintance with the gospels of their Saviour, that it affords the best preparation to the infant mind for all the possible scenes of future life. You must have all observed, my brethren, to what a moral extent the example of our Saviour reaches, and how much every station and condition of men may find in Him their model and pattern.

Is it into the scenes of power or greatness that your children are destined to go? Has education given them wisdom, or has heaven lent them genius and talents? It is in His example they will find how all these blessings should be employed. It is there they will see not only power, but Omnipotent Power itself, devoted only to "do good;" and the wisdom "which is from above," consecrated to the instruction of ignorance; and talents, to which every thing that is human must bow, pursuing their unambitious way, in blessing and enlightening an ungrateful world.

Is it into different paths that the providence of God seems to lead your children? Are they born to obscurity and toil? and do you foresee for them a life of suffering and of hardship? It is in his example, again, they will find the model of all the virtues which heaven has called them to employ; of that meekness which no injuries can disturb, and of that patience which no calamities can subdue; of that magnanimity which rises above all the injustice and

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cruelty of men; and of that resignation which looks in the darkest hour from earth to heaven, and rejoices "in doing the will" of the God who reigns there. These are the studies by which every thing that is great or good in the infant mind may be wakened and brought into activity. They give to the young imagination a lofty pattern, and to the opening heart generous desires; and, whatever may be the condition of life which the young are afterwards to fill, they send them into them with an example before them which can never be forgot, and a sense of excellence which nothing else can supply.

3. These are advantages of no slight importance. But there is another advantage of these early studies, which is peculiar to the history of our Lord, and to which nothing in the wisdom of man has any parallel. It is that which arises from the history of his death. At this point all human history ceases, and all beyond, however ardently pursued by the infant eye, is "clouds and darkness." In following Him to the grave, on the contrary, the veil is raised which falls so deep before every created being. Their delighted eye finds him rising again into life and love, and ascending into that heaven which is his proper home, and to which he calls all the wise and good of his people, of every future age, to follow him. If there were no other advantages of the resurrection of our Lord than the influence which the narration of it has upon the minds of "the little "children," I should ever consider the value of it as incalculable. It brings not only the belief, but the conception of immortality, home even to their

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infant minds, and familiarizes it to their earliest imaginations. Before they enter the world, it carries their hopes and their affections beyond it; and ere the waters of baptism are dry upon their heads, it makes them feel that they are not the children of the dust alone, but the heirs of immortality.

Such, my brethren, is the simple instruction which I have at present to offer you with a regard to the education of your "little children." Teach them, first, and before all things, the life of their Saviour. Teach it them regularly and diligently, until they love him, and the great object of your wish is accomplished. It will not indeed make them learned in words which they do not comprehend, nor in doctrines which they cannot understand; but it will furnish their minds with high thoughts and lofty sentiments. It will afford them the genuine model of all that is great or good in time, and open to their undoubting faith all that is blessed or glorious in eternity.

To all of you, my brethren, whether high or low, to whom the sacred name of parent belongs, the duty equally extends; to all of you, the same means of performing it are given: And, upon all of you that are engaged in this tender office of "feeding "the infant flock of Christ," may his blessing descend !—Whenever you are met together with your little ones in his name, may his protecting and paternal spirit be in the midst of you! and so enable you to perform it, that "the rest of their lives may cor"respond to this beginning," and your reward meet you, not only in time, but in immortality.

SERMON II.

ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.

MATTHEW Xxii. 37, 38, 39, 40.

"And Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment, And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

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WHEN we were last assembled, my brethren, I felt my duty to offer you some imperfect observations on one of the great duties which this season involves, that of the religious instruction of the young. The period of life to which I then alluded, was that of infancy; that earliest season of human nature, when reason and reflection are not awakened, but when the heart and the imagination are open to their first and most indelible impressions.

In the performance of this great and sacred duty, I entreated you to observe, that you are not left to the feebleness of your own wisdom;—that heaven itself has deigned to illuminate and to direct you ;-~~-~ that the "Book of Salvation" is put into your hands; --and that almost the moment your "little children” leave their cradle, the Gospels of their Lord are awaiting them, by the study of which you may be able to lead them to the wisdom, not only of time but of eternity.

I reminded you, my brethren,

with what exquisite wisdom these compositions were adapted to the minds of the young; and, in illustrating some of the advantages which arose from early and habitually acquainting them with the history of their Lord, I attempted to explain what was implied by himself in these tender and paternal words,"Suffer the little children to come unto me, and "forbid them not."

The earliest powers that awaken in the infant mind, are those of Affection;-the love of parents,of kinsmen,-of benefactors; and gradually the love of whatever is good or great in the characters or in the history of their species. It is by the presentation of such examples to their infant eyes, that the various capacities of their nature are gradually unfolded; that their tastes and their ambition are formed; and that the character of their future being is perhaps chiefly determined. It is on this account, that the knowledge and the study of the Gospels is of so deep importance in the earliest stage of education, by presenting to the minds of the young, while they are yet susceptible of every noble impression, a model of perfect greatness as well as goodness, in the history of the life of their Saviour, and of his death; and in the narrative of his resurrection from the grave, by exemplifying to them the magnificent truth of their own immortality, and familiarizing it even to their earliest conceptions.

As life advances, however, other powers beside those of affection or imagination are unfolded. The faculties of Reason and Reflection awaken in

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