the minds of the young. Their observation of nature and of life expands; and, while they look around them with all the keen interest which novelty inspires, a principle that deserves a higher name than curiosity impels them to some new and anxious investigations. They feel themselves just called into being, and something within them tells them, that it was for some great purpose that life was given. They feel themselves the members of a mighty system, in which they are called to co-operate; and they recognize above them some Almighty Power, upon whom they feel themselves dependent, and to whom, the rising voice of conscience tells them, they are accountable. Whoever has attended with care to the progress of the of the young, must have observed the arrival of this important period in the progress of their minds; and whoever has listened to their inquiries, must have found, that the great desire which is then struggling in their bosoms, is to discover the nature and character of that great Being whom their hearts recognize; and the nature of those duties which He requires of them. It is the answer which the parent is able to give to these early and anxious inquiries, that must determine the religious and moral character of their future being. And it is here again, my Christian brethren, that you must feel anew the blessedness of that "light" in which we dwell. The same divine voice which formerly called your "little "children" unto him, and besought you to "forbid "them not," still follows them as they advance upon their road; and, while he entrusts to your hands the

book of salvation, he makes you the instrument of leading them to all those truths which can either give happiness to life, or hope to immortality.

I. To the first and greatest question which agitates the minds of the young,-What is the nature and character of that God whom instinct teaches them to recognize ?—the best and wisest of us, I believe, would tremble to answer, if we were left solely to our own wisdom. The answer, however, is to be found in the words of the text: "And Jesus said “unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with "all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy "mind. This is the first and great commandment." These words, my elder brethren, prescribe to us, not only our own first duty as men, but our first duty as parents. They imply, that if the religion of the gospel rests upon the love of God, the education of the gospel must consist in representing him as the Object of love. They imply that the religious affections which are to form the great distinction of maturity, must be awakened and exercised in youth; and they signify to us, that, to guide the youthful mind to the early love of God, is the great end to which all the labours, and cares, and illustrations of education, ought to be steadily and uniformly directed.

If such be the sublime direction of our Saviour for the general end of education, how beautifully is the volume of Scripture adapted to afford you the means of accomplishing this end ;-and, while the hand of Heaven withdraws for you the veil that covers the sanctuary, how great, but how simple are the truths

which it unfolds, that you "may teach your chil"dren!"

1. Teach them then, my brethren, in the first place, that the Lord their God is One Lord; and that, in the progressive infinity of existence which is opening upon their eyes, there is but one Throne of goodness and of power. Teach them, "that he "that sitteth thereon," is like the sun in this lower firmament; that from him every thing arose, and to him every thing returns ;—that creation, in all its immensity, and in all its forms, sprung at first from his love, and is, in every moment, maintained by his power; and that all the boundless happiness it contains, flows incessantly from him,-from the joy of the insect that sports for its hour in the ray of the sun, to the rapture of the angel and the archangel that burn for ever before the eternal throne. To his perfection, teach them there is no limit; that to his power, space has no bounds, and to his goodness, time no decay; that "he is the Lord, and changeth not; that every good and every perfect gift descends from him;" and that to his beneficence" there is no variableness nor shadow of turn❝ing."

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2. Teach them, in the second place, that this God, all great and glorious as he is, is yet the Father of the race of man; that, in " forming them in his own "image," He has contracted the affections of a parent for them; and that, during all their eventful progress, He has watched over them with the care with which a father watches over the progress of

his infant children, and with the anxiety he feels, that they may come to the maturity of their being. It is this which is the great and distinguishing discovery of Revelation; the mighty discovery which leads the Christian into the moral sanctuary of nature, and enables him to worship there "in spirit and "in truth." This, then, my brethren, is the second great truth which you have to teach your children; and every page of the Scripture, from its first to its last, affords you proofs and illustrations by which it is verified.

After the general enunciation of this great doctrine, you are then enabled to display to them, in detail, those magnificent scenes of the Divine administration which the ancient Scriptures unfold. Shew them then the first origin and cradle of their race, the melancholy fall from that purity in which they were created, and the watchful presence of that paternal Spirit, which, in its visitations of wrath, as well as of mercy, was uniformly leading them on to some distant maturity and regeneration of their nature. As time advances, shew them the selection of that "peculiar people," who were separated from the rudeness of the surrounding world that they might preserve, for happier ages, the name and the worship of the living God; and that long line of prophets and of wise men, who follow each other in bright succession, commissioned by heaven to maintain the lofty truths with which they were entrusted, and to announce the

arrival of one greater Being," in whom all the na"tions of the earth were finally to be blessed."

Mighty as these discoveries are, they are yet simple and intelligible to the young. They assimilate the government of the Almighty to the well-known resemblance of a father in his family; and dark and disastrous as may occasionally be the appearances of the world, they give them still the grateful assurance, that there is "One that careth for them; "and that, as a father pitieth his own children, even "so He pitieth those that he hath made."

3. When the book of the Old Testament is closed, open to them the book of the New Testament, and shew them, in the third place, that these long prophecies have been accomplished; that the promised Saviour came; and that "herein is the love of "God manifested, in that He hath given his Son tọ "be the Redeemer of the world." Teach them, that it is here the full and final demonstration of the paternal goodness of God is given. In the successive missions of wise men and of prophets, they read the unwearied and progressive providence of heaven. But, in the mission of the Son of God, there is something more;-there is an elevation of the race of man to some higher and nearer relation to the Almighty;--there is an "adoption” of it, as it were, into some greater rank of being, and there is a sacrifice involved, which demonstrates (in a manner which human language will never be able adequately to express) how dear the children of men are to the God who made them, when He spared not his only and beloved Son for their sakes.