SERMON I.

ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.

ST. MARK X. 14.

"Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not."*

THE season has again returned, my brethren, when we are to commemorate the arrival of our Saviour; and I believe there are few thoughtful men who do not meet its return with some sentiments of solemn

joy. Whatever may be the interests or the attractions of the world, there is something in them which does not fill all the capacity of the human heart; and there is a kind of sublime delight in leaving the changeable scenes of time, to fix our thoughts upon the unchangeable subjects of religion. It is grateful too, in such seasons, to feel, that all our Christian brethren throughout the world are united with us in the same sentiments and the same services; that

every Christian heart is now beating with the same emotion of gratitude; and every Christian tongue is repeating the same hymn of adoration and praise. But most of all, perhaps, it is affecting to us to feel the sacred influence which time has thrown over these services of religion;-to remember through how many ages of the human race this season has been welcomed with holy joy ;-to think, that the same sentiments which now animate our hearts, have animated the hearts of successive generations which are long cold in the grave; and that the service, to which the voice of religion at this time summons us, is that which has conducted the pious and the good of all those former generations, "into the fulness of their master's joy." In such high and holy meditations, the littleness of present time and present interests disappear. The past and the future rise before us in all the solemn grandeur of religion; and the heart finds at last, objects that can fill all its capacity, and satiate all its desires.

Among the many duties to which seasons of this kind so solemnly invite us, there is one which is, perhaps, above all others, natural and important. It is that of the Instruction of the Young in the principlas of their religion. While we are preparing ourselves for these solemnities, "the

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little children"

every

where surround us, looking with eager eye to the services in which we are employed, and anxious that we should suffer them" to share with us in these exercises of devotion, which a secret instinct has already 'taught them to be the highest duty as well as privilege of their being. It is a call to us "to forbid "them not"-to seize the sacred moments when nature longs for instruction; and (in such hours particularly as the present,) when they see the whole Christian world preparing to commemorate the advent of that Saviour in whose name they were baptized, to teach them the high purposes for which he came, and the mighty blessings which he has bequeathed to

them.

Of this important education, it is very little, you must all perceive, that can be done in this place. The publick education of the church can teach, indeed, a "form of sound words," but it can teach them as a form only. It can furnish the minds of the young with general principles of belief; but it is incapable of furnishing those continued and particular illustrations which alone can bring them home to their imagination and their hearts; and what, I fear, is its worst consequence, it is apt to familiarize the minds of the young too early to conceptions of which their nature is

then incapable; and to give to the great truths upon which the happiness of time and of eternity depend, no higher solemnity than that which belongs to a common lesson. It is not here, in truth, my brethren, that the great task of religious education can be fully accomplished. It is under your own roofs, under your own eyes, and in the sacred retirement of your own homes. It is You alone who can know the various characters of your "little children,”—and follow the progressive opening of their minds, and adapt all your instructions to their wants and their capacities. It is you alone who are "with them always," who can seize the happy moments when instruction will best be received, and avail yourselves of all the little incidents of life from which wisdom may be gathered; and, above all, it is you alone who can convey to them instruction in that tone of parental tenderness which no other human voice can imitate, and to which God hath opened every fountain of the infant heart.

Under the deep impression of this time, and of these duties, I wish, my brethren, to offer to you, in the course of the season, some observations on the conduct of reli

gious education; on its conduct, more particularly, in the early ages of children, from that infant period when they first hear the name into which they were bap,

tized, until that greater hour, when you are to present them, at the altar of their Lord, to take upon themselves the vows of that baptism. Upon so great a subject, I can dare to promise you only a few imperfect reflections; but it is a subject, I know, to which every parental ear will listen; and there is an Almighty Spirit around us, "which can make even the weakness of "man to praise him."-There is something, undoubtedly, very solemn in the task of religious education. The subjects to be taught are so great, and the consequences of errour appear so infinite, that many a conscientious parent trembles at the difficulty; and I know not if it be not chiefly to this cause, that we are to attribute that neglect of this great duty, which is unhappily so apparent in the higher ranks of life, and which has produced that unnatural system, by which they attempt to compensate this neglect, by devolving it upon those assistants whom wealth is ever able to purchase. In answer, then, both to this difficulty and this neglect, I am to entreat you, in the first place, to remember, that to Christian parents this difficulty is removed; that they in fact are not left to their own wisdom; and that a system of instruction is provided for them by Heaven itself, in which they are only called to be the instruments of a greater wisdom. To them, 2 *

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