in that of whose perfect rectitude we are nothing sure, has in it a servility, but this is honour, this is exaltation to fulfil all our powers for the purposes for which they were given, and after the rules of him who gave them.

The question therefore of a religious or an irreligious life, when thus opened up, no longer shows itself to be a question of liberty or of compulsion, but of one kind of authority against another. There are two competitors for our service, God and the world; and the question is which will we obey. Will we yield to the sovereignty of the various laws and customs which upon coming to man's estate we find established, time-serving what has in it no wit but the wisdom of man, and no stability but the power of man, and which we had no say whatever in constructing, and which accommodates itself but ill to our conditions; or will we yield to the sovereignty of those institutes which have in them no seed of change, softly framed to sway the heart and to insinuate into all its corners the harmony and peace of heaven, which supply the deficiencies of our wisdom and stay the swervings of our life, and conduct us at length to the unchangeable happiness and honour of the life to come.

And yet though the question when thus accurately stated stands beyond all reasonable doubt, and leaves us without excuse in preferring human authority to divine, such is the antipathy and resistance of human nature to God, that his statutes which rejoice the heart are obstinately withstood, while to the ordinances and customs of men we willingly yield our necks. There be multitudes with whom the voice of the Lord of Hosts hath no sway against the voice of fashion; and the saintly graces of the Spirit of God no chance against the graces of accomplished life. Multitudes with whom the calls of low sensual instinct prevail against the calls of the Almighty to glory and honour. And multitudes to whom life's commonest drudgery is an enjoyment compared with the obedience of a godly custom or a Christian precept.

This reluctance to the divine, and compliance with the human institutions, might seem to bear against what we have advanced upon the superior wisdom and suitableness of the former, and to prove that God in devising for human improvement had missed of his aim. We think it good therefore to show how this reluctance comes about, and how we find ourselves at man's estate so enamoured of the world's bondage as to feel it like a second nature, which we cannot give up for the service of God without the most violent and painful effort. This inquiry, by revealing the sources of our

enmity to the law of God, will show the time at which and the means by which it may be most successfully encountered.

At first our enmity was as strong to the world's institutions as it is now to the institutions of God. There is in every nature a preference of its own will, and a reluctance to surrender it to another. It is not till after many struggles that a mother gains the mastery of her child, and not till after much discipline that a youth gives willingly in to the tasks of his teacher. And to the moral and decent customs of life we know that many youths can never bring themselves to conform at all, but set them at open defiance or hide in secrecy their violation of them. After twenty years of training to what is honourable, and good, never omitted for a day, and hardly for a single hour, with the constant presence of examples and the constant terror of censures, such is the urgency of nature and her reluctance to control, that a youth shall no sooner remove from the neighbourhood of his early restraints than he will cast them at his feet and take the whole scope of his self-willedness; and thus many run to ruin when they leave the home of their father and the eye of their friends. Let us not be amazed, therefore, that the statutes of the Lord, to which there is no constant or sufficient training of parents and of masters, and which take under their control not only the form and fashion of life, but the whole thoughts and intentions of the heart, should fare the same, and have a fearful struggle with Nature's independence.

Now, by the same means of early discipline and example by which we were brought to acquiesce in the government of our parents, the mastery of our teachers, and the authority of life's many forms and customs, we shall most likely be brought to acquiesce in the statutes of the Lord. Just as no parent who wished his child to be a well-doing member of society, would for the first years of his life turn him adrift from counsel and correction, but find for him masters to instruct, and patterns to copy after, adding to all the influence of his own parental authority and affection—even so, if you would have your child to flourish in religious life, you must not sequester the subject of religion from your table or your household, nor keep him in the dark till he arrive at years of reflection; but from the first dawn of thought and effort of will, teach him with a winning voice, and with a gentle hand lead him into the ways of God. The raw opinion that a certain maturity of judgment must be tarried for, be

fore entering into religious conference with our children, comes of that notion which pervades the religious world, that religion rests upon the concoction of certain questions in theology, to which mature years are necessary; whereas it rests upon the authority of God, which a child can comprehend so soon as it can the authority of its father; the love of Christ, which a child can comprehend so soon as it can the love of its mother; the assistance of the Spirit, which it can comprehend so soon as it is alive to the need of instruction or of help from its parents; the difference between right and wrong, which it may be taught so soon as it can perform the one and avoid the other. There is a religion of childhood, and a religion of manhood; the former standing mostly in authority, the latter in authority and reason conjoined; the former referring chiefly to words and actions, the latter embracing also principles and sentiments. But because you canuot instil into children the full maturity of religious truth, is no more argument for neglecting to travel with them on religion, than it would be to refuse teaching teaching them obedience to yourself and respect of others till they could comprehend the principles on which parental obedience and friendly respect are grounded.

Now, we must confess it hath seldom fallen to us to see religion taught in the family with that diligence with which good manners, parental respect, and deference to custom are taught. The right and wrong of things is not distinguished with reference to the divine command, but with reference to the opinion of others and the ways of the world. Excellence is not urged from the approbation of God, and the imitation of Christ, and the rewards of heaven, but out of emulation of rivals, and ambition of the world's places. Companions are not sought according to their piety, their virtue, and their general worth, but according to their rank and their prospects in life. To which neglect of means, parents do often add the practical contradiction of religion, swearing perhaps, perhaps quarrelsome at home, entertaining worldly views of most subjects, religious views of almost none; and for six days in the week, banishing the face and form of religion from the eyes of their household. What glorious opportu nities these for the despight of Satan to revel in. The mind impressible as wax, wandering after novelty, and thirsting after knowledge of good and ill, unbound by habit and roving in its freedom, from within and from without solicited to evil-in this, the spring-time of human character, when ye the husbandmen of your children's minds should be la

bouring the soil, and spreading it out to the sun of righteousness, and sowing it with the seed of the everlasting Word; ye are leaving it waste and undefended, for the enemy to enter in and sow it with the tares of wickedness to take root and flourish, and choke any good seed which the ministers of grace may chance afterwards to scatter.

Have ye the conscience to think, brethren, that for this neglect an occasional visit to the church Catechism of a Sabbath night will compensate, or can you believe that certain words lying dormant in the memory during the years. of budding manhood will operate like an eastern talisman, or a catholic scapular, against the encounter of evil? Why should the wounded prejudices of any man wince while thus we speak, as if it were not God's truth we spoke? Have we not the experience within ourselves of having been mastered by this world's ambitious schools, albeit not untutored in the theological love of childhood, and have ye not the same experience? Feel ye not, when ye would set your hearts in order before the Lord, that they are all like an unweeded garden, and that you have to begin by tearing and lacerating the loves, admirations and proprieties which in early life cast their seducements over you, without note of warning from parents, or from the books in which your parents and your masters schooled you? Take heed, then, and resist the evil in its first beginning. Give the enemy the spring season, and you generally give him the summer, the autumn and the winter of life, with all eternity to boot; but tutor your children in the institutions of God, with a constant watchfulness and a patient perseverance, beginning with restraint, then with soft persuasion leading on, then with arguments of duty and interest confirming; and in the end, habit, which at first is adverse, will turn propitious, and the blessing of God promised to the right training of children, will keep them from leaving his paths when they are old.

The want of a proper selection and application of means in early life, is a chief cause why we all find it such a task to conform our youth and manhood to the laws of God. It is not that these laws are ill adapted to our nature, whereof they are the guides, the sweeteners and the perfecters; but that our nature hath got under adverse government, and been fed up with indulgences, and degraded with services from which we cannot now without great pain and exertion be delivered. It is not that God hath withheld his blessing, which blessing I understand to be like an atmosphere around every man, that he hath at all times free liberty to breathe in

through the use of appointed means. But, it is that in our youth we were not properly applied to, and misthrove for want of proper spiritual treatment. Far from us be the unholy office of reflecting upon our pious parents, whose faults, whatever they be, their children should modestly hide, not rudely discover. Farther be it from us to excuse their unworthy children, who, had they listened to a father's council, or been softened by a mother's tears, had not far wandered from wise and prudent paths. But farther from us than both, be the impious thought, that there is any son of man whom the Almighty doth not wish to become a son of light, and for whose growth in grace, from very childhood, he hath not set forth a sufficient supply in the everlasting gospel. We blame not our parents-ourselves we excuse not, while we justify our Father which is in heaven. Parents may be more parental, children may be more obedient, but our Heavenly Father cannot exceed the boundless dimensions of his love to all mankind. Therefore, wherever the blame is of the present wildness and inculture of our spirits, most certainly it rests not with him.

This our reluctance to divine institutions is a calamity to be accounted for and overcome, not a common place to be idly harangued of; and, instead of inditing popular truisms upon the corruption of human nature, we think it wiser to have pointed out to you the season at which that serpent within us may be most easily strangled. That season to most of us is past and gone; and here we are to contend against the mischief matured by time and confirmed by a thousand habits. To assist this struggle for conformity to the will of God, we brought forward on former occasions every solemn consideration of the honour done us, and the necessity laid on us, by his having ever condescended to become our lawgiver. And now what more can we do, than set before you the consequences of resisting his revealed will, and craving you by every thing safe, manly and honourable, to conform to his commandments, for the sake of all that is dear to you as immortal creatures.

Obey the Scriptures or you perish. You may despise the honour done you by the Majesty above, you may spurn the sovereignty of Almighty God, you may revolt from creation's universal rule to bow before its Creator, and stand in momentary rebellion against his ordinances; his overtures of mercy you may cast contempt on, and crucify afresh the royal personage who bears them; and you may riot in your licentious liberty for a while, and make game of his indul