from the due discharge of their office? In these different ways, whether from ignorance, fashion, or, shall I say, mistaken principle, it is but too evident that the office of Sponsor becomes a dead letter, a name without a thing.

Or put the case in another way: let it be supposed that Parents as generally required of the Godfathers and Godmothers of their Children, the serious performance of the duties which so solemn a name imports, as they are at present negligent in making such requirement. That "after" the "promise made by Christ," their Infant should "also faithfully for his part, promise by his Sureties (until he come of age to take it upon himself) that he will renounce the devil and all his works, and constantly believe God's holy word, and obediently keep his commandments:" and that before their entrance upon such office, a solemn engagement were required of the Sponsors, that they would periodically examine their charge, as to his religious progress, and generally interest themselves in his spiritual welfare, more especially remembering him in their prayers. Could we, in the utmost latitude of charity, believe that such offer would be generally acceptable? rather as Sponsors now act, would not such a requirement, viz. to discharge the duties of the office, be the most certain inducement with such Sponsors to decline the acceptance of it?

To what a lamentable state then, is the office

of Sponsor reduced among us, when it is generally undertaken on the assumption that it is a sinecure; and when even conscientious men engage in it, on the condition that the Parents are virtually responsible for the charge, while they themselves are free from the obligation of their own promises and vows.

But can we subscribe to this decision of good and pious men on this subject? are they not attending more to their fears than their faith? and is this the line of conduct which faith demands of them in our present juncture of spiritual depression? "By whom shall Jacob arise," if those, who are most eminently qualified to assist him, shrink in the hour of difficulty, appalled by a mischief, the very extent of which should form one of their strongest motives to exertion? To whom can spiritual responsibility be reasonably confided but to spiritual men? If Baptism be any thing more than a ceremony, who shall rightly appreciate its value, and teach others rightly to appreciate it, but spiritual men? Who shall practically confute that wide-wasting position, that" every externally baptised person is necessarily regenerated;" but the man, who practically shows, that it is the wildest enthusiasm to expect the end without using the means; and that to instruct a Child that he is enjoying the privilege of " a member of Christ, the child

1 Amos vii. 5.

of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven," while no care is taken, that he shall really renounce the world, the flesh, and the devil, vitally believe in Jesus Christ as his Saviour, readily obey the will of God, and habitually walk in his laws-is the most cruel delusion, and can terminate in nothing but the most hopeless disappointment? Who, but the tried soldier of Christ, shall courageously oppose the evil prevalence of a perverted Sacrament, mischievous almost as the mass itself, and recover the professing Protestant world to the sound conviction, that "if the Lord be" our "God," we must "follow him ; and if Christ be our Saviour, we must "manfully fight under his banner, against sin, the world, and the devil, and continue Christ's faithful soldiers and servants to our life's end?

And if this declining of good men to accept the office of Sponsor be an evidence of weak faith in the promise of God, is it not, as might be expected, the evidence of a cold and calculating charity also? Had such men accompanied Gregory through the streets of Rome, when the helpless state of some of our British ancestors, publicly exposed to sale as slaves, attracted his Christian regard, would they not have rejoiced in the ability to have given liberty to the bodies of their captive countrymen? And if that ability had extended to the purchase of one or more of those interesting children, would they not

have rejoiced to have introduced them into the Christian Church by Baptism,-willingly have undertaken the responsibility of educating them according to the requisition of the Church in Christian principles and Christian practice, and have deemed it the most acceptable exercise of charity, to have been thus instrumental in saving souls from death, and in investing them with all the privileges of a Christian communion, ever pleading the divine promise in prayer for the accomplishment of so desirable an object? Ecclesiastical history records that it was among the brightest exercises of primitive charity for Christians to liberate unhappy slaves from their bondage; and doubtless, in addition to corporeal liberty, they endeavoured to communicate to them that richer liberty of the soul from the thraldom of sin. And were African and New Zealand children at this time exposed for sale as slaves in the streets of London, would not really Christian men delight in emancipating such both from corporeal and spiritual bondage? And where is the difference? Can we cast our eyes around the streets of our vast metropolis, or indeed throughout the cities, and towns, and villages of the land, without discovering, as it were, at every step, objects who should excite similar pity, and who really need the same commiserating attention-" baptised Infidels," baptised worldlings, baptised ignorants, baptised formalists, baptised profligates, baptised of all

descriptions of sinners, who instead of renouncing the world, the flesh, and the devil, exhibit in too glowing colours the very characters which drew tears from the eyes of an Apostle; who under a Christian profession " WALK as enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things?"1 Surely, my Dear Friend, as it is no charity to shut our eyes upon truth, so wide a waste of moral barrenness and spiritual death, may well excite the most awakened feelings of every real Christian, and call forth that charity, the distinguishing character of which is to promote the everlasting interest of the soul.

But I think I hear it said, the cases are widely different: a slave redeemed would be wholly in my own power; I might either take him into my family, or so dispose of him as to ensure my frequent superintendence of his life: but constituted as society is among us, the Child for whom I engage as Sponsor, must necessarily be under the tutelage of his own Parents and Guardians, so that I cannot know enough of his habits and conduct, to justify my undertaking the training of them.

But may not this objection be met by the following considerations? Should you be requested by a friend to accept the office of Sponsor

1 Phil. iii. 18, 19.