urging upon them, with redoubled earnestness and effect, the great truths of the Gospel; and engaging them, as it were, in a sacred covenant, to cleave steadfastly to God, to the end of their life. It is to this holy ordinance, that many of the most excellent of the earth have ascribed the commencement of their steady and uniform Christian course. It became a sort of starting point. They had long intended to be religious; and had fixed on various periods for setting out in earnest; but, alas! when these arrived, other objects had taken possession of their affections, and the important concern was still postponed to a "more convenient season." But the call to a preparation for confirmation arrested their attention; fixed their volatile thoughts; excited serious reflection; put an end to procrastination; determined them to take the side of God; showed them the necessity of a renewed mind; induced them to seek for aid at a throne of grace; and finally effected that change of heart and life, which rendered them, in their day

and generation, blessings to the world, and issued in their own everlasting happiness.

As soon as my beloved daughter had been confirmed, her attention was directed. to the Lord's Supper; and this gave occasion to increased seriousness and selfexamination. Suitable instructions were given, and appropriate books put into her hands and I have the most satisfactory evidence, that this ordinance was exceedingly blessed to her religious improvement. I cannot easily forget the emotion I felt when I first presented my beloved child with the sacred elements; nor the tears which flowed down her cheeks, when she received, into her trembling hand, the memorials of the Saviour's dying love. I know she felt that her "sins were grievous, and the burthen of them intolerable:" I know she had no other hope that they would be pardoned, but through "the blood of the cross ;" and I have not the least doubt that it was her most earnest prayer, as it was mine, that she might be

"one with Christ, and Christ with her;" and that she might be strengthened and enabled to run the Christian course. And I may here observe, that at no future time did I administer the sacrament to her, without observing in her the greatest seriousness and solemnity: and had she not told me with the deepest grief in her last illness, that she had once or twice attended this holy institution without due preparation, I should have concluded that no individual had approached the table at all times with deeper contrition for sin; nor with more earnest desires for an increase of grace; nor with a more fixed determination to seek after holiness, than herself. I never remember seeing her at the Lord's Table without manifest emotion of mind: and seldom without tears. So great was her humility, and such the overwhelming sense she felt of her utter unworthiness to partake of" those holy mysteries," and exalted privileges, that I believe the sentiment of awe usually predominated on these occasions: but she would not be the less accept

able to the compassionate Saviour, because she felt herself "unworthy even to gather up the crumbs which fall under his table;" and because she "looked upon him whom she had pierced, and mourned because of him." If" to this man God looks, who is of a humble and contrite heart, and that trembles at his word," then was my dear daughter always an acceptable guest at that holy table; and departed from it, in possession of the sacramental blessing.

And here I cannot help remarking, how admirably the institutions of our church are adapted to keep up, in succession, the proper Christian feeling; and to promote our "growth in grace, and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." At the commencement of life, we are set apart for the worship and service of God, and made partakers of the blessed privileges of the Christian covenant, by an ordinance, at once the most simple, significant, and solemn. Every thing which piety or prudence could suggest, to make the first and best impressions, and to secure the most

early attention to the "one thing needful," is done for us in baptism. As soon as it is supposed that the mind is properly stored with Christian knowledge, and the heart duly influenced by spiritual principles, and the habits formed for holy living, we are invited to make a public profession of our faith in Jesus Christ, and to seek an increased portion of the influences of the Holy Spirit, by earnest prayer and the primitive custom of "laying on of hands," that we may "continue Christ's faithful soldiers and servants, to our life's end." We are next called upon to bind ourselves, by the most affecting and sacred tokens, to perpetual fidelity to our "Lord and Master;" and to enter into the most intimate union and fellowship with him, by partaking of elements, which represent the body that was crucified, and the blood which was shed for our eternal salvation. And in order to

keep up a perpetual memory of these inestimable blessings, exalted privileges, and solemn obligations, we are required, from time to time, to repeat the sacred ceremony,