Is it to be denied that parents have continually brought their children to baptism, without any, the least apprehension, of what we are so significantly taught by it, (as we wash our hands or our clothes when they are not clean,) that the child's soul is unclean, and that unless washed in what alone can remove the soul's uncleanness, it can never be admitted where nothing can enter that defileth ?

Is it not to be denied, that parents have continually brought their children to baptism, as though they attached no meaning to such words as those of the Psalmist, "Behold, I was shapen in wickedness, and in sin did my mother conceive me;" or to such as those of the prophet, "The heart"-the heart which we bring into the world with us " is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked;" and as though we had nothing to remind us of the inbred corruption in the love of mischief in the screaming self-will-in the bursts of passion-in the untruth in these and other like breakings out of it, which we see even at the earliest age; and as if the Lord had never said, "Except we be born again" except a second birth pass upon us altogether distinct from that of nature" We cannot see the kingdom of God?"

Nay; but has not baptism been regarded in such a light, that in the minds of many, the thought of festivity, rather than of a holy sacrament, has come to be associated with the thought of a christening? Oh! it would seem often, so far from being the solemn act of renouncing the world and the flesh, to be one by which our children were initiated into the service and love of the world, and the indulgence of the flesh?"

And could we expect that God should put his seal to the profanation, to the mockery of his sacrament that he should honour those in it who thus dishonour him in it? If we can come to one sacrament unworthily, is it to be supposed that we cannot come unworthily also to

Here, then, we have the explanation why it is we see so few traces of baptismal grace-why it is those who are born in sin grow up in sin, grow old in sin.It is not that there was no grace in baptism for them, no more than it is to be inferred, because we see so few answers to prayer, because so many pray in their manner, and do not receive, that there is therefore no efficacy in prayer, that there are no promises to prayer; or because so many who hear the preaching of the Gospel go away unimpressed by it, that there are no promises to the preaching of the Gospel. But in all these cases we have the same explanation, that which is given us in the 3d chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, "For what if some did not believe, shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?"

Who is it, then, that forbids the little children to come to their Father and their Saviour? And not only in baptism itself, but in after-life also, who is it forbids them? Oh! how often has a Sunday-school teacher to lament that the instructions given in school, so far from being enforced and recommended, are counteracted and defeated, by the example set at home. Is a child sly, deceitful, not to be depended upon?How often you will find in such a case, that those who have the care of the child, are persons, who would themselves make an appearance before men, rather than single-eyed towards God.

I seem to see the Saviour looking on, his heart yearning over those whom he loves so tenderly; and will you not, then, suffer them to come to me? Why will you dress out that child as you are doing, instead of turning its thoughts to the soul's dress? Why lead your child to think, that a place in this world is so much more to be thought of, than a place in my kingdom? And as though he said, What can you expect, when your child sees such tempers indulged, hears the conversation at which it is present, sees you making such provision for the this day, had such joy and gladness at his birth, while she could think of him as "holy from the womb," as one who would be "great in the sight of the Lord."

Ah! and not a few, it is to be feared, my brethren, even of those who would do better by their children, and are not without concern for their souls, yet, by a forbidding manner with them, by a repulsive, un-Christ-like treatment of them, forbid them to come to Christ. His religion is made to appear unamiable, if not untrue, to the child, who sees so much of what is contrary to it in the parent who professes it.

But it is not always thus. I trust that among ourselves, there have been, and are, delightful exceptions. I cannot say what I have felt, as I have taken a child in my arms, which, I had reason to hope, its parents had been holding at the throne of grace before, in prayer, that none of their sins might be visited upon it, that all those thick clouds might be blotted out, which would separate between God and their child; and whose prayers, I could think, were still going up, that as I held its body in my arms, Christ would clasp its soul in his-that, as I sprinkled it with water, Christ would sprinkle it with his own blood; and that "hereafter it might not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified, and continue his faithful soldier and servant unto its life's end:" and when, as I have returned it, I could think of the mother receiving it as warm from the arms of Christ himself, and to nurse and bring it up for Christ himself; and could then think of her, as spending the christening evening, not in levity and folly, but as though she would say to the friends around her, "Come, magnify the Lord with me," for have I not cause to magnify him, mother as I am of a child of God, a member of Christ, an inheritor of glory ? even as they mo

And happy have I felt, as I have seen those coming up as godfathers and godmothers, whom I could expect to assist with their prayers also, and not with their prayers only. We know, a mother who is unable to nurse her child, will be not a little particular in securing one of a healthy constitution to nurse it; in ascertaining that there are no corrupt humours in her blood, which she would be in danger of communicating to the child. And shall we be less careful in the choice of those who are to stand in a like spiritual relation to our children? Shall we choose them because of their station and respectability in life, or their relationship to the child, be their Christian character what it may, or with a view to their Christian character, be theirstation or the relationship what it may ?

And I would hope that the children brought here to be baptized are not without your prayers, as a congregation, my brethren. It is for the sake of your prayers especially, as a congregation, that we thus administer baptism while you are all present--that, as the apostle speaks, you may be "helping together by prayer for them" with those who are the most nearly interested in them. For is it not for every one of us to be interested for those in whom our divine Lord expresses such an interest? Oh! when we see him thus taking them up in his arms, putting his hands upon them and blessing them, how ought not our hearts to go out to them, and our prayers to go up for them! When we hear him saying, "Suffer the little children to come to me," is it not for every one of us to do what in us lies to bring them to him? There is not one of us who, if we were passing by a house on fire, and heard there was a child in it in danger of being burnt to death, but would make every exertion to St. John the Baptist.

What encouragement is there not in this passage for those also, who, though

And you, dear children, yourselves, do you see your Saviour's arms thus open to you, and feel no desire to be within those arms? You would not so refuse to run into a mother's arms. If even a kind friend should hold out his hand to you, you would not turn your back upon that friend. Is it because they feel no want of a Saviour, no want of what he offers them, that the young so continually turn their back upon their gracious Saviour? And do you then feel no want-Ah! even at your age the want has been keenly felt of the forgiveness of sin, and strength against sin; and do you feel no want of one to guide you by those dangerous rocks, upon which so many young persons are shipwrecked? And have you no desire-Oh! if you but saw your Father's house, aud that great and glorious city, which is up above sun and moon, the New Jerusalem-what would you not give to be carried in your Saviour's arms to it this hour!

And, my dear young frieuds, you are entering life at a time when you little know what storms there may not be before you storms from which you may indeed feel the want of shelter.

But live in what times we may, as soon as the soul shall go ont of the body, and when may not that be? will it feel no want of shelter then? Oh! unless while you are in the body, you are in Christ, you will then feel the want of a drop of water to cool your tongue. Yet I feel as though He in whose name I am speaking to you, dear young friends, would not himself have said this last to you Oh! no-He would not have you to be pelted with stones to him I was going to say; bnt he would have you to be drawn with the cords of love to him. As he would have every one of us to be drawn to him, dear brethren.

be such for their weakness and helplessness! It is with reference to them also, he says, " It is not the will of your Father which is in Heaven, that one of these little ones should perish." Or do you say, you have no learning? but you hear your Saviour saying, "I thank thee Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." Or is it your feeling, what can such a weak, helpless, insignificant creature as I am, do? Of what use am I in the world? But has he not chosen "the weak things of this world, and the things that are despised in the world," to be the very props and pillars of his kingdom in it? For "to those who have no might he encreaseth strength." Nay, is a person deficient in intellect_half-witted? But the foolish things of this world God has chosen to confound the wise. In the way to heaven which grace has opened for us, "the wayfaring men, though fools shall not err."

The only question is_but it is one upon which your state for eternity is depending have you received the kingdom of God, as a little child? that is, as it has been explained-have you, in a deep sense of your own nothingness, and worse than nothingness, cast yourself upon the mercy of God in Christ Jesus? And is your whole soul, at this moment, hanging upon Christ, as the child hangs upon its mother? You are then of the number of those of whom the Saviour says, "Of such is the kingdom of God." Or, in other words it is not whether you have great gifts we are to ask you, or anything which has the glare of greatness upon it, as this world accounts of greatness; but whether you have the greatness-whether in the course and habits of your life, whether in yonr contentment with your lot in life, in the absence of all pretension, in every thing about you in your dress, in your house, at your table, in your conversation, in your behaviour to those inferior to you, in teachableness under instruction, in meekness under reproof or provocation, whether in these and like particulars, that disposition appears and expresses itself in you which constitutes the greatness of the kingdom of heaven, according to what we hear from him whose kingdom it is, "Whosoever shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

pressing it: that we may be, in a manner not to be mistaken, ourselves of the number of the little children, of the number of those, of whom the Saviour says, " Of such is the kingdom of heaven!"

Then it is such views will then be given us of the glory of his kingdom, of the extent of his love, of the unsearchable riches of his grace, of the fulness of joy in his presence, and the pleasures for evermore at his right hand for he reveals these things to his babes then it is we shall be desirous, as earnestly desirous to bring our little ones also to him, if were possible, as He is himself to have

Oh! yes; that we may be “ clothed with humility"-every thing about us ex.

world we shall be seeking for them, bu a place in His arms, in His kingdom.