rents shall teach their children, and that the children so taught, shall, in their turn, become teachers of the next generation, from age to age, to the end of the world,—this is the Divine plan. An ordinance delivered from the earliest times; and renewed, in every succeeding stage, in every fresh modification of God's revealed will.

Thus, in the choice of an individual, fitted to become the father of the faithful, the founder of the Patriarchal system, we discover this to be the leading principle: "For I know him," said the Almighty, speaking of his servant Abraham, "that he will command his children and his household after him; and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment."

Again, after the delivery of the written law, when oral and traditional instruction might seem to have been, in a great measure, superseded, the same principle of hereditary and transmissive religion is yet more fully developed, and incorporated, in the Jewish dispensation: "What nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous, as all this law, which I set before you this day? Only, take heed unto thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thine heart, all the days of thy life; but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons.

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And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children; and shalt talk of them, when thou sittest in the house, and when thou walkest by the way: and when thou liest down and when thou risest up." And, at a more advanced period of the Jewish most instructive Psalm of Asaph, itself a recapitulation of God's providential dealings with his people, we find the full developement of this wise and profound appointment, in the words of our text: "He made a covenant with Jacob, and gave Israel a law; which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children; that their posterity might know it, and the children that were yet unborn; to the intent, that when they came up, they might show their children the same; that they might put their trust in God; and not to forget the works of God; but to keep his commandments." Such was the ordinance of God: and the fruits of this ordinance are to be seen, in the writings of some, and in the lives of more, of the Old-Testament worthies. The fact is, that, in various instances, Judaism appears to have produced specimens of spiritual excellence, quite beyond the power of the Jewish system. And in subordination to the grace of God, the existence of these specimens can be

accounted for, only on this one principle, that the early religious training, enjoyed and practised under the Patriarchal dispensation, was transfered to the Jewish dispensation, and was not overwhelmed by the multiplied ceremonies of the Mosaic law. Thus, it can be shown, was nurtured and matured, the piety of Samuel and David, of Symeon and Anna, and of all those, who, towards the close of the Jewish economy, were "waiting for the consolation of Israel," and 'spake often, one to another" respecting that dayspring from on high, that Sun of righteousness, who was soon to arise, with "healing in his wings."

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Nor, in Christianity, the last and best dispensation of the grace of God, is this masterprinciple discarded, or forgotten. When our Lord commanded little children to be brought unto him; when he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them; when he declared, that each of his followers must "enter into the kingdom of heaven as a little child;" when Saint Paul recognized in Saint Timothy, the faith which had dwelt in his grandmother Lois, and his mother Eunice, and reminded him, that, from a child he had known the holy Scriptures; when the same Saint Paul, exhorts all Christian parents, to "bring up their children, in the nurture and admonition of the

Lord," ," in these and various passages of like import, we cannot but discern the identity, in this particular, of the Patriarchal, the Jewish, and the Christian schemes. In each, and in all of them, instruction is to be communicated in early youth; in each, and all of them, instruction is to be communicated, in order, that, through the grace of God, religion may become hereditary and transmissive; in each, and all of them, the religious institution of one generation, is intended to become the seed-plot of religion, in future generations, and in ages still to come.

There is no room, then, for mistaking the will of God, as to the way in which religion, his own revealed religion, should be communicated to mankind. But it is not enough, that we know the divine will concerning us; it is essential, also, that, so far as practicable, we acquaint ourselves with the grounds and reasons of that will. It is our bounden duty, in order to make this great law of revelation practically efficacious, that we enquire into its foundations and to this inquiry it is, that the text particularly invites us. The covenant made with Jacob, the law given unto Israel, God commanded the first generation of his people to teach their children: but, not satisfied with an authoritative command, he was graciously pleased to assign the reasons of it;

and thus; the duty of examining into this matter more largely for ourselves, is at once imposed, and impressed upon us.

Let us consider, therefore, in the first place, the natural causes which conduce to render a youthful training in religion, the best and most salutary training for man; why it is, that, if the child be trained up in the way he should go, when he is old he will not, probably, depart from it. Let us consider, secondly, the mode and process, in which early training will be most likely to produce its desired effect. And, lastly, let us consider the character of this training, as exemplified in its fruits.

I. First, then, with respect to the reasonableness of this divine appointment. The text itself, sets forth one particular, of the widest and most comprehensive kind; namely, that provision is thus made, which could be made in no other imaginable way, for linking together, in the one true faith and worship, the successive generations of mankind. And viewed in this single light, the benefits of this injunction are incalculable. Religion, thus received, on the one hand, from the parent, and communicated, on the other, to the child, will, in the nature of things, be likely to expand, and improve in quality, from generation to generation. In no other