Tatian, in the year after Christ 172, says, "Free will destroyed us. Being free we became slaves; we were sold because of sin. No evil proceeds from God. We have produced wickedness; but those who have produced it have it in their power again to renounce it."

Irenæus, about the year of Christ 178, says, "The expression, How often would I have gathered thy children together, and ye would not,' manifested the ancient law of human liberty, because God made man free from the beginning, having his own power, as he had also his own soul, to use the sentence of God voluntarily, and not by compulsion from God. For there is no force with God, but a good intention is always in him. And therefore he gives good counsel to all. But he has placed the power of choice in man, as also in angels, for angels are endowed with reason, that those who should obey might justly possess good, given, indeed, by God, but preserved by themselves."

Clement of Alexandria, A. D. 194,-"His will is that we should be saved by ourselves. This, then, is the nature of the soul, to move by itself. Then we, who are rational, philosophy itself being rational, have some relation to it. Fitness, indeed, is a tendency to virtue, but it is not virtue. All men, then, as I said, are qualified by nature for the acquisition of virtue."

Tertullian, A. D. 200,- Therefore, though we have learned from the commands of God both what he wills and what he forbids, yet we have a will and power to choose either, as it is written, Behold, I have set before you good and evil'; for you have tasted of the tree of knowledge. Therefore that which is subject to our own will, we ought to refer to the will of God: he who wills no evil, wills that we have a will."

Origen, A. D. 230, was a strong defender of the freedom of the will. "This also is settled in the doctrine of the Church," says he, "that every rational soul has free will, and that it has to contend against the Devil and his angels, and the powers which oppose it, because they strive to burden it with sins; but we, if we live rightly and prudently, endeavour to rescue ourselves from this kind of burden. Whence, consequently, we may understand that we are not subject to necessity, so as to be compelled by all means to do either bad or good things, although it be against our will. For if we be masters of our own will, some powers, perhaps, may urge us to sin, and others assist us to safety, yet we are not compelled by necessity to act either rightly or wrongly."

Cyprian, A. D. 248," Nor should any one wonder that a servant of Christ set over his flock is deserted by some of them, since our Lord himself was deserted by his disciples, at the very time when he was performing the greatest miracles, and displaying the power of God the Father by the testimony of mighty works. And yet he did not reprove those who left him, or threaten them severely, but rather, turning to his disciples, said, Will ye also go away?' preserving the law by which man, being left to his own liberty, and endowed with free will, seeks for himself death or salvation."

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Lactantius, A. D. 306,· "But because God is merciful and kind towards his creatures, he sent him (Christ) to those very persons whom he hated, that the way of salvation might not be for ever shut against them, but that he might give them a free power to follow God, that they might obtain the reward of life if they did follow him, which many of them do and have done, and that, through

their own fault, they might incur the punishment of death if they should reject their King."

Eusebius, A. D. 315,-" The fault is in him who chooses, not in God. For God has not made nature or the substance of the soul bad; for he who is good can make nothing but what is good. Every thing is good which is according to nature. Every rational soul has naturally a good free will, formed for the choice of that which is good."

Athanasius, A. D. 326,-"For the knowledge and accurate comprehension of the way of truth, we have need of nothing but ourselves. Not as God is above all things, so is the way which leads to these things remote or extraneous to ourselves, but it is in ourselves, and it is possible to find its beginning in ourselves."

Cyril of Jerusalem, A. D. 348,-"The soul has free will; the Devil, indeed, may suggest, but he has no power to compel contrary to will. He suggests the thought of fornication; if you be willing you accept it, if unwilling you do not accept it. For if you committed fornication by necessity, why did God prepare hell? If you acted justly by nature, and not according to your own free choice, why did God prepare unutterable rewards?"

Thus it is that the Fathers testify with one voice, down to the time of Augustine. A large volume might be filled with quotations just like these.

DISCOURSE XIX.

WHAT IS IMPLIED IN THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN.

AND, YE FATHERS, PROVOKE NOT YOUR CHILDREN TO WRATH; BUT BRING THEM UP IN THE NURTURE AND ADMONITION OF THE LORD.

THE patriarchal, the Jewish, and the Christian religions agree in recommending and enjoining the religious education of children. "I know him," said God of Abraham, "that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him."

Said Moses to the Israelites, "Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."

In the midst of the successful administration of the

Old Dispensation, the wisest of mankind declares, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Here is the highest testimony to the practical success of the religious training of the young.

In the New Testament, the same religious education of the young is made a part of Christian duty. They are to be "trained up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." The power of such education is abundantly testified in the case of Timothy, one of the most eminent of the early Christians. "And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation." His father was a Greek, and of course from him he could have received no religious training. But this deficiency was amply made up in the diligence and example of the mother, and, perhaps, the grandmother. "When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also."

Accordingly, in the first ages of the Christian Church, the most careful provisions were made for the religious education of the young in the principles of the Gospel. There were officers in the Church, very nearly corresponding to our Sunday-school teachers, called Catechists, whose business it was to instruct the rising generation. This was in fact the real reason for the introduction of sponsors, or godfathers and godmothers, in the early Church at the ceremony of baptism. They were considered as additional security for the performance of that which baptism signified and promised, the religious and Christian education of the child. The history of practical religion has borne testimony to the wisdom and