Many side with the church, on the one hand, or with dissent, upon the other, not from heart-felt preference, but from expediency and meaner ends. And on the other hand, very many may assist in extending the cause of Christ on the earth, who shall not be saved by it. It is a very solemn thing, that there will be ministers who shall form and build up churches for eternity, who shall perish themselves; that many shall contribute to build schools, and to circulate Bibles, and to extend missions, out of benevolent motives not out of Christian ones, who are not Christians themselves. When we give to the cause of Christ, let us always precede that gift by this first and chiefest question, "Do I belong to Christ myself? Am I a Christian myself?" He only who is a Christian can give truly to the extension of Christ's cause; and the little that he gives, being the most that he can spare, will be blessed by Him who gave him grace to give it.

The same wave which raised the ark of Noah to the sky, overwhelmed the towers and the citadels of the earth. The same gospel that is "a savor of life unto life" to many, is "the savor of death unto death" to others. It is a great law in God's providence, just as it is a law in God's grace, that what is death to the unbeliever is salvation to the child of God; the same sermon that carries quickening hopes into one heart, carries a hardening process into a second; the same tribulation that is sanctified to one man, hardens a second man; the same wave that carried Noah nearer to his God, overwhelmed those that were without the ark in irresistible destruction; the same lightning flash that rent the rocks and citadels of the world, only shone upon the surging waters before Noah, and illuminated his troubled pathway, till he rested finally upon Ararat. Let us, then, pray that the gospel we hear may be made a blessing to us, not a calamity—that the truth we hear may be the means of our

acquittal, not the cause of our condemnation, at the judgment-seat of Christ.

We and our children are invited, just as Noah and his children, and all his family, were invited into the ark.

There is nothing to be done now, but simply to accept what has been done for us. The great misapprehension of many is, that they have something to do, or something to suffer, before they can be justified. Now the revelation of the gospel of Christ is, that all has been done that God required to be done, all suffered that the law demanded to be suffered, and that now we have only to repose upon that sacrifice, and rest upon that righteousness, and be everlastingly saved; what we are called upon to do, is just what Noah was called upon to do-to bring not only ourselves, but our children, to Christ, and just as they are.

Has any one a prodigal son? Bring him upon your prayers to a throne of grace; beseech Him in whose hands are all hearts, to change that heart; and that prodigal will yet gratify your spirits, by presenting the spectacle of one prostrate at his Father's footstool, and that Father falling on his neck, and kissing him, and bidding him welcome home. Have you infants? Bring them into the ark also; let these flowers be presented before "the Sun of righteousness; " let these babes be dedicated to Christ, and be taught to feel that their safety is to be within the ark—their peril to be out of it.

There is no safety for us or for our children anywhere but in the true church of the redeemed, that is, washed in the blood and arrayed in the righteousness of Jesus. This one thought should absorb or annihilate every other consideration. Be not anxious so much whether your offspring shall be churchmen or dissenters, as whether they shall be Christians. Bring them first to Christ, and then they will not go to a wrong church; make them first acquainted with the

excellences of the Saviour, and then they will prefer the communion that reflects his glory most brightly, and makes known his gospel most faithfully; bring your children first to the ark, and then let them determine at their leisure into which chamber or partition of the ark they shall prefer permanently to dwell, - - recollecting that if we are in the true ark, there is but one door for admission, but one window to enlighten them, as there is but one God to protect them, and one mountain, more glorious than Ararat, on which they shall rest and dwell for ever.

But it may be asked, "What is to become of those children who are not so privileged as Noah's, in having a father to bring them to Christ, and into the true ark?" In such a case a Christian church is the sponsor for such outcast ones. The duty-nay, not the duty, but the privilege— devolves upon us of "suffering such little ones to come to Jesus." Those children that wander in our streets, who are our future housebreakers, the inmates of our prisons for the next twenty years, and the exiles to Botany Bay, are not poisonous weeds - they are only soiled and trampled flowers; we need only to gather them up, to bring them beneath the beams of the everlasting Sun, and beneath the rains of the sky, and they will bloom and beautify the land which they now threaten to discredit or destroy.

To these children we must give not merely a secular education, but also, and emphatically, a religious education. Secular education without scriptural is giving power, but giving no principle to regulate that power: it is like building ships of the most approved construction, but forgetting or neglecting to put on board a compass and a chart, and to append to each ship a helm; and then letting these vessels float upon the ocean, where they must founder in the first hurricane. We teach the young secular knowledge, because it is useful, important, nay, necessary to do so; but we teach

them, contemporaneously, the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus, which not only beautifies and regulates the other, but "opens" for them "the kingdom of heaven," as "for all believers."

Some, notwithstanding, are advocates for teaching secular knowledge only. I have always felt great pity for the schoolmaster who is placed in a school and told - "Now teach every thing upon earth, but do not meddle with religion;" and I have often thought of the difficulties in which he must be placed. Suppose the master, for instance, is explaining botany to his school. He selects a rose, and begins to tell the children that it belongs to such a class, or to such a genus, and has such a property- - such fragrance, such virtues; he then begins to tell them that it is a favorite symbol with poets, and adds also that it is associated with the history of England - the white and red roses of the houses of York and Lancaster; he then begins to tell them that it is used also in a book called the Bible, and in that book it describes the excellency of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Rose of Sharon. Up starts one of the boys66 Hold, sir; I am a Jew; I do not believe in such a Saviour, and I cannot admit of such an application." Or I can imagine him describing the origin of books—what they were made of- first leaves, then parchment on a roller; and then he begins to tell his scholars that the Bible is so called as being The Book, the best book in the world. Up starts a sceptic child - My father does not believe the Bible, and I do not believe it; you are violating the rules of the school." Now, I ask, must not such a teacher be placed in a very awkward situation? He may speak of every book, from the book of Jasher down to the books of Mormon, but he must not speak one word concerning the Bible; may mention every illustrious person, from Noah down to Napoleon, but he dare not speak of Him who hallowed

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the very universe with his glory-the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is difficult to conceive secular education conveyed in schools separate from religious education. I do not wish the mere sectarianism of religion to be taught; let the Bible be the school-book, and I am satisfied; let the Bible be the great Directory in the school, and it seems to me to be enough.

We are not against teaching secular knowledge. Far from it. Many persons err in this respect. They teach their children the way to heaven, but do not teach them the duties and responsibilities of earth. Many parents educate their children as if they had nothing to do with the world, but to get over it like skaters upon thin ice, as rapidly as they can, in order to be sure at length to be in heaven. Now it seems to me, that we must educate our children for this world, as well as for heaven; not for the adoption of the world's maxims, or for the imitation of the world's example, but for the discharge of the world's duties. We must teach our children, by all means, to pray, to read, to come to the house of God, to visit the throne of grace; and fit them, by the grace of God, for the house of God in glory; but we must also prepare them for the counter, and for the exchange, and for the army, and for the navy,for they have to fulfil responsibilities in the world, as well as to prepare for heaven; they have duties to discharge to Cæsar, as well as privileges to receive from Christ. The child that gets a wrong view of the world, is as likely to make shipwreck as the child that receives a wrong view of heaven. The world is the great battle field, on which the conflict is to be sustained: the shop, the exchange, the army, the navy, the parliament, are the places where our character is to be tested; and unless we are made acquainted with all that is before us in the world, and all that we are to do and dare and conquer, we have not that "faith"