in disciplining his children to righteousness: "I have told him,” said God himself by the mouth of Samuel, "that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not." Let not then, I beseech you, the only conversation you hold with your children, be upon their pastimes or their pleasures; upon the progress they have made in worldly knowledge, or worldly accomplishments. Seek rather to train their young hearts to love the future world better than the present, and God's mercies rather than human follies. There will come a time, my brethren, when the fashion of this earth shall fade away, and we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And it will be a sound of comfort to the Christian father in that day, to hear the voices of his own children swelling the choir around the throne of the Redeemer. And with your servants too, let not the only intercourse you hold, be upon the offices of their daily labour, or the careful or careless discharge of the duties which devolve upon them: but strive both by precept and example, by prayer and admonition, to bring them also to the knowledge of Christ. Consider yourselves all interested in the great work of salvation; let rich and poor alike feel anxious to make its glad tidings known through all the land. And with this holy hope strong upon your minds,

make your dwellings, as it were, the temples of God, and seek to serve him there, as well as within these sacred walls. And whilst some, in ignorance of the high and holy duties which they are called upon to perform, raise no altar within the privacy of their own homes; be it your care to let the incense of your morning and evening sacrifice ascend to the throne of grace, and to say, with holy Joshua, to the world around you, "If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord."

SERMON XXIII.

ROMANS X, 17.

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

THE profession of Christianity, my brethren, is one which involves both our temporal and eternal interests so entirely, that it is strange to conceive how men can assume it so lightly and so carelessly, as they too often do. It was truly, indeed, observed by our blessed Redeemer, that "the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light." For, if we compare the negligent and heedless manuer in which men take upon them the name of Christ, with the diligent investigation which they employ, before they enter upon any earthly speculation, we shall too soon discover that the heart is in the one pursuit, but that the heart is not in the other; and we shall immediately be brought to see, that whilst there is wisdom in the care with

which we pursue the treasure that perisheth, there is little real sagacity in the lukewarm spirit with which we seek the riches that are unfading. Now, if we could but impress this solemn truth upon the hearts and understandings of men; if we could only bring them to think that they were sluggish runners in the Christian race, cowardly combatants in the Christian warfare; we should, I doubt not, preach the gospel with better success, and number many more converts within the Christian fold. But unhappily, the nature of the gospel is mistaken, as well as the means by which its promises are to be attained. It is thought sufficient, if we are sealed with the seal of baptism, if we make an outward profession of the gospel faith, and regularly attend some place of public worship. Thousands, it is to be feared, there are, who pass through life with this easy and drowsy piety, and go down to their graves without being aware, until, it may be, conviction comes with the death-stroke, that their religion has been useless, and their faith a barren sound.

Now, that the rite of baptism does give us an entrance into the Christian covenant, we have the sure word of Scripture for believing; and our church enjoins that sacrament upon all her members, as generally necessary to salvation, and deems it perilous for a soul to go down to

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world can offer him. ich we are speaking, ience of every soul in r he has not either hallowed transformacknowledge, (however such alterations,) that e took no pleasure in o heeded not the abunnercies, but who now temple with constant e found that faith in hey can be justified in ey stand.

at renewing of the heart, Bible so frequently and prophet Ezekiel has a on this subject; particuit is the record of one, the sound of the gospel

world. "A new heart

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statutes, and ye shall keep

In the New Tesrase by which this change

being born of God. Thus