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another world, the torments of the wicked, the glories of the just; but what heed will that child give to your instruction if he sees his parent immersed in worldly pursuits, following his temporal interests with ceaseless anxiety, and never bestowing a thought on that heaven, which nevertheless he bids his child beyond all things to seek? You may instruct him in the great truths of the Gospel: you may tell him of the love of God to man; the atonement made by Jesus for our sins; the example which he gave us to follow; the constant presence and aid of the Holy Spirit, to purify our thoughts and aid us in our Christian course ;-but what practical influence will all this doctrine have, if the child observes his parent following all the vanities of the world-courting the great, despising the poor, yielding to resentment, party violence, and other passions; in short, living in no respect differently from what he would have lived, if Jesus Christ had never died for our sins, nor sent the Holy Spirit for our sanctification!

Be well assured, my beloved brethren, that if you would train up good and holy children, meet for godliness in this world or salvation in the next, you must not only instruct them, but must yourselves give them an example of the way in which they should go.

I have one word to say in conclusion, of more importance than all; one point of training without which all your efforts will be vain; and that is, that you earnestly pray to God to direct and sanctify your endeavours. Who can sufficiently estimate the value of faithful prayer,the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous parent? I beg of you therefore, brethren, often and often to lift up your hearts in supplication for those immortal souls whom you have brought into this troublesome world,-souls whose eternal destiny depends so much on you. And doubt not that your prayers will be heard, your exertions rewarded;-but place a full confidence in the gracious promise which God has given you, that if you do really

train up your children in the way they should go,-encouraging them by your example, and aiding them by your prayers, that when they are old they will not depart from it.

SERMON VII.

THE ONLY SOURCE OF TRUE WISDOM.

PROVERBS i. 7.

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."

MUCH has been said and written of late years respecting the great increase of knowledge in the world, the wonderful progress of the human mind in wisdom and understanding, and the vast superiority of the present generation, in intellectual acquirements, above any that has gone before it.

It may be worth our while to enquire into the reality of this superior wisdom which the present age is pleased to arrogate to itself. Right conduct depends very much on the right estimation of our

powers. Prudence, therefore, dictates that men should ascertain the real extent of their acquirements. We all know into what disgrace and trouble any person is apt to fall, if he entertains an overweening conceit of his own abilities; may it not reasonably be feared, lest, if a whole generation fall into the same error, they may be guilty of some extravagance which may bring calamity upon them, and expose them to the pity of posterity?

Amongst the different branches of knowledge, there are some which are continually progressive, and capable of indefinite advancement. Of this sort is natural science, or the knowledge of nature in her operations and phenomena. Science rests on an accumulation of facts and experiments; and what is discovered and recorded by one race of men is funded or realized, so that the next generation has the benefit of this foundation, on which to build a continually increasing fabric. Whatever may be the extent of the world's duration, no generation of men will ever have explored half of

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