Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken of him."

O Christian parents, and Christian masters and mistresses! is the obligation less binding upon us, than it was upon those who stood in the same relation to children and servants under the dispensation of Moses? those who are entrusted to us for instruction in righteousness, different from that of the children of olden times? Is there no evil tendency in our children and servants, which needs restraint and correction? Are there no seeds of evil, which need to be watched, and checked, and supplanted with good seed? Are religious knowledge and love to God and man innate in children of the present day? While we tend and train them, as in sheltered spots and rich pastures, for performing their part as citizens of this world, which is soon to pass away; shall we turn them out, as upon the common of Christendom, to pick up, where they can find it, the spiritual food by which they are to be nourished and instructed for the world in which

Is the human nature of

* Gen. xviii. 19.

they are to live for ever? Have we less of an interesting kind to teach them than the Israelites of old had? What had they, which we have not? We have the inimitably beautiful domestic and national Histories of the earlier Books of the Old Testament-the simple and sublime moral precepts of the Law-the typical institutions of the Ceremonial Law, formerly difficult to understand; but now comparatively easy, since they have been explained by the events of the Christian dispensation-the Prophecies, once all obscure, but now, some of them, made intelligible, by their fulfilment, even to the understanding of a child. Are the miracles, and parables, and discourses of our Lord less suitable, or less interesting, to the mind of a child, than the educational furniture of the Israelitish instructor? My Brethren, we are utterly without excuse, if, with such helps as we of the present day, especially, have-now that the Bible, in a cheap and portable form, may be possessed by every one who has the least desire to possess it-we fail in obedience to that command, " Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lordt.” + Eph. vi. 4.

But the passage of Scripture by which I have been led to make these remarks, more directly leads us to consider the duty of children and young people in reference to the religious instructions of their parents and teachers. If it is the duty of parents and heads of families to train their children and dependants, so far as in them lies, in the right ways of the Lord, it is also the duty of the young diligently to improve the opportunities of religious instruction and edification, with which they are furnished through the instrumentality of kind friends. Without your concurrence, my dear young friends, the labour of those who watch and pray and labour for your spiritual good, will be in danger of being lost. Those of you who are peculiarly favoured in this respect, who have affectionate and intelligent parents or teachers to instruct you in what they themselves have learnt from the only source of light and truth, the Bible -you, I say, have much to answer for:-" Unto whomsoever," said our Lord," much is given, of him shall be much required*." Let, then, your prayers be joined to the prayers of your instructors,

* Luke xii. 48.

that you may not render fruitless the time and pains which are spent upon you. Remember, that you are warned in Holy Scripture, that you have not only ignorance, but sinful hearts to strive against, in coming to that knowledge and love of God which shall make you wise unto salvation. You have, therefore, need to pray for the teaching and help of God's Holy Spirit, to render effectual to your good what is taught to you by your parents and other kind Christian friends. You need to have your understanding, which is naturally dark in the things of God, enlightened. You need to have your will, which is naturally contrary to the will of God, directed aright. You need to have your affections, which are naturally evil and corrupt, made pure and spiritual. All this is the work of the Holy Spirit of God, for which you must pray ;—and God hears the prayers of children, as well as of grown people, for the gift of His Holy Spirit. Children may not understand how the Holy Spirit helps their infirmities; neither do any of us understand it perfectly but He will, and does help those, whether young or old, who pray to God, in the name of

Christ, for His direction and help. If your earthly parents will not, as you know they will not, withhold from you such good things as they can give you; much more will your Heavenly Father, who is Almighty, and who has especially charged you to ask of Him this precious gift, grant it liberally to those who ask it in His Son's name.

Besides attention to direct religious instruction, there is another branch of the duty of young persons, which this chapter leads us particularly to notice: I mean, submission-cheerful and respectful submission to the restraints, which their pious parents and friends may impose upon them, in some matters which they may think should rather be left to their own discretion. I do not speak with reference to the singular habits enjoined upon his family by the ancestor of the Rechabites; for we, circumstanced as we actually are, are not competent judges of the reasons which influenced him in his injunctions. But I make the remark generally, that submission to the restraints and rules imposed or recommended by their parents, even in indifferent matters, is, in most cases, the duty of