manner, can the religious affections be so happily elicited, as by the union, in one and the same person, of the parent and instructor. For, each father, and each mother, in every lesson that they give, will thus recall, by the strongest and most delightful associations, the tenderness and feeling, with which, lessons of the same kind, had been imparted to themselves, by parents now no more. Never, perhaps, do children arise, and so emphatically call their departed parents blessed, as when they are communicating Christian instruction to children of their own. Thus, our best natural affections are enlisted in the service of religion; and the piety and goodness of generations that are past, are the pledge and preparation, of equal piety, and equal goodness, in generations still to come.

It is a peculiar advantage of this mode of training, that it gives, in the infant mind and heart, the pre-occupancy to right views and feelings. The importance of first impressions, has, at all times, been acknowledged and enforced, by all moralists. But its religious importance, is transcendantly great. And here, it is matter of thankfulness, that, in the department where first impressions are, beyond comparison, the most important, they are, if the right course be pursued, the most easily secured.

In all ordinary pursuits, in all which relate to this world, as contradistinguished from the next, we must become proficients, through the exercise of reason and of taste. In religion, it is otherwise. Here, we must become proficients, chiefly by the right engagements of our affections. Now, it is certain, that our reason and our taste are of slow growth, and not promptly forthcoming at a tender age; while, it is equally certain, that, from the very first, the affections are in full vigour, in full play, and perhaps, in their most perfect state. The seeds of the future artist or poet, or politician, or philosopher, cannot be sown, till the reason and the taste are somewhat developed; that is, till the infant has, at least, become the child; perhaps, we may say, till the child is grown into the youth. But, in earlier infancy, the affections are at once the most readily engaged, and the most deeply interested. And, in the soil of the affections, the seeds of Christianity may be sown, by a judicious parent, long before it shall be possible even to suggest, with any hopes of being understood, the difference between one and another of the common walks and professions of life. But this is not all; for while, in earliest infancy, the affections, the great auxiliaries of religion, are most impressible, in earliest infancy, too,

the passions, which are the great antagonists of religion, are most easily regulated and controlled. Constituted as human nature is, and ever has been since the fall, it is indispensable to the very existence of religion in the heart, that the passions be subjugated. But this subjugation cannot be either so certain, or so complete, if attempted, for the first time, in after life. "It is good for a man," says the word of inspiration, "that he bear the yoke in his youth;" and that, among other reasons, for this reason especially, that, in youth, the yoke is most easy, and the burthen is most light. It is before the passions have gained strength, that they will be most successfully encountered; these serpents will be most surely strangled in the cradle. Thus, will be avoided the rude shocks, and bitter pangs, which else, must be encountered in the course of life. Thus, will be secured, from the beginning, that tenderness of conscience, which, at all times, can be managed with a light hand, and an easy curb.

Another reason, why the earliest age is the best age, for the conveyance of religion, is this; that the young mind is the most flexible and tender; the most apt to receive, with accuracy, the stamp impressed upon it; and, not only the most apt to receive, but the most certain to

retain. Contraries are here united; the softness of wax, with the tenacity of marble. And the reality of this union may be illustrated, by the familiar experience of every day. We see, that old persons commonly forget the transactions of the last week, the conversation of the last hour; but they are perfectly at home, in the occurrences of their early youth; they can repeat, with ease, and fidelity, the lessons which they learned, and the words which they heard, when they were children. Why? because their minds were then both tender, and tenacious. How important, then, that nothing be said, nothing done, in the presence of the infant, which we should not wish to see transferred into the life and conduct of the future man :-that the best truths, the best principles, the best feelings, be implanted at that age, when every thing is easily impressed; and when all that is once impressed, is lastingly retained!

Again; religion should be communicated early, because it can then then be communicated most agreeably. The religion which is taken up after the character is formed, is, commonly, attained with pain and difficulty; it has more in it of the task-master, than of the companion and the friend. Hence it is, that the Christianity, the sincere Christianity, of many worthy

and valuable persons, is, too often, gloomy and repulsive. But when the infant spirit is, gently and insensibly, drawn to delight itself in God; when the endearments of parental kindness, are associated with daily lessons of religious truth; when the child has been habituated to look to its parents, in the place of God, and drawn to look through its parents, up to God; when it has learned, to extend the notion of natural parents, friends, protectors, and benefactors, and to apply this extended notion, in a higher sense, to the great and good God, then, provision is made, for uniting the sense of happiness, with all religious exercises. And, in after life, to go to the place of public worship, to join in family prayer, to engage in the secret devotions of the closet, all these things, instead of being irksome, will be delightful it will be going to a Father's house; taking sweet counsel with those whom we love; and feeding on thoughts, which spontaneously transport us, from a world of vanity and vexation, to the calm delightfulness of heavenly enjoyment.

II. Thus far, we have been considering the principles and reasons of that law of God in the text, which declares, that religion is to be made hereditary and transmissive; it is my duty, in the next place, to view this law, in its practical