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although not by their own will, to suffer for Him and in His place? Surely their lot was indeed blessed, to be thus early sealed as Christ's, "redeemed from among men, being the first-fruits unto God and unto the Lamb." Might not the words of the prophet which follow be applied to the weeping mothers, in their highest sense? "Thus saith the Lord, Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears; for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord: and they shall come again from the hand of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border."

And so it is in very many, if not all, of the dispensations of God; we know not (we cannot know) what is good for ourselves and others. And chiefly is this true of health and sickness, of life and death. Our times are in God's hand, and it is best for us that they should be in God's hand. We sorrow when the young die, as if their early death were untimely; not remembering how little there is in human life to satisfy the soul of man, how much, it may be, to corrupt and harden the heart. Surely we may, in faith, be thankful, when God grants a long life; and, in faith, be no less thankful when God sees fit to cut it short. If our children are already, by

holy baptism," members of Christ, children of God," surely, whatever trial it may be to us, to them it is a blessed exchange to be taken from an evil world, from sin and sorrow; to be with Christ, to be safe under the shadow of their heavenly Father, to be already entered into their rest, within the limits of that kingdom of heaven, whereunto the grace of God hath called them, to be heirs with Christ.

And may we not also from this day's festival, learn something of our duty towards our children, (so many of us as are parents or teachers,) in bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? If God may require them so soon, so early, at our hands, (and who shall say how soon the call may come to any of us?) how careful ought we to be, how watchful, from earliest childhood, to check and restrain what is evil, to foster and cherish what is good. Remember that in the youngest baptized child there are two principles at war, the Holy Spirit of God and man's corrupt nature. From the first hour that the child can will, or think, or know what is right and what is wrong, the trial begins, on the issue of which depends the child's eternal state, the weal or woe of the child's undying soul. And when

God removes any from life, even a child, we may be sure that the trial is over; the trial of life over for ever, when (it may be) but a few short years have passed. Therefore, to as many as are parents I say, (as in God's sight,) look not to the future, build not upon the future, for your child, any more than for yourself; you know that it is sin and madness in your own case to put off repentance, faith, obedience, to a future day, which may never come; surely it is not less sin and madness to do so in the case of your child; to risk his soul is not less sin and madness than to risk your own. Why should a Christian child (with God's Holy Spirit within him, brought up under Christian parents, and in a Christian family, and within the secure fold of the Christian Church) ever so fail of God's grace as to fall into grievous sins, such as mar baptismal purity, and darken and embitter after years? Why should not the course of Christian children be such as that, by God's help, they "shall go from strength to strength, until before the God of Gods appeareth every one of them in Zion ?" The fault is with us. We are content with a low standard of holiness and obedience. We do not propose to ourselves, and so we dare not propose to our children, such patterns of holiness and obedi

ence from childhood upwards as holy Scripture furnishes. We do not call them to be such as was Samuel, such as was Timothy. We think it a great thing if, after careless and worldly lives, (not to say sinful lives,) men turn to God and repent; but we know so little of this other and better state (of childhood and youth dedicated to God's service and spent in God's fear), that we fail to propose it as a pattern to our children, because we have not proved it ourselves. And yet, (not to speak here of how few persons turn to God in earnest, and repent effectually, in manhood and old age,) how do we know that our children will ever attain unto either manhood or old age? God may take them from us at any time, (the very young die hardly less frequently than men of mature years ;) and if they shall at the hour of death be found unprepared, after their measure, for the change, shall we be altogether free from sin? will not God require at our hands their blood? at our hands, to whose charge, as parents and teachers, He has entrusted these, the lambs of His flock.

Surely ours is a very solemn and awful, as well as a precious and holy charge; so far as we may, to keep the young from pollution and defilement of sin: to reverence in them, and to

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teach them to reverence, the seal of Christ, the power and presence of His Holy Spirit to suf fer no stain of evil to mar the whiteness of their baptism-robe of righteousness: but to guard them jealously and tenderly from all that may lead them astray from the ways of holiness and of God: this is our charge: and blessed are we, and blessed are our children also, if, with God's help, we perform it for early piety, early purity, early religion, has a freshness and grace, such as usually no change of after life can attain unto: has promises of peace and quietness such as may well lead us to labour all we can to secure them to our children: we may indeed be thankful when any turn to God and repent after careless or sinful lives, whether in manhood or old age: still such change and repentance is not such as the purity and holiness of Christian childhood, trained in God's ways from the first, and loving and fearing God from early years; offering unto God the spring-tide of life, its strength, its freshness, its manifold gifts, and like our blessed Lord Himself, each year increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.

JOHN HENRY FARKER, OXFORD AND LONDON.

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