SERMON I. ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. ST MARK, X. 14. Suffer the little children to come unto me, "and forbid them not."* THE HE 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 some VOL. II. Preached in Advent. A thing 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 Christian tongue every 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. is 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 principles of their religion. While we are preparing ourselves for these solemnities," the little children" everywhere surround us, looking with eager eye to |