CHRISTIAN FRIENDS, It is not necessary, on these occasions, I conceive, always to enter on the defence of that ordinance in which we are now engaged, before God. It seems reasonable, in accordance with those views we entertain of the divine character, and with the genius of our religion, that, as infants stood in some relation to the church under the former dispensation, they should stand in some relation to it under the present.It is not likely that that economy which Christ came to promulgate, and which was by no means of an exclusive character, should have limited and abridged in this respect the privileges of the church. Without entering on any vindication of what we conceive to be right, the argument in favour of infant baptism, founded on moral considerations, we fear, has not been sufficiently considered. Does it not appear an act to which a parent, who has any just impressions of Christianity, is prompted? Does

it not appear a duty which parental piety and solicitude calls upon us to discharge? And does it not seem to correspond with the interest our Lord took in the rising generation, who, when his disciples officiously and unbecomingly prevented their approach, said, "Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of heaven."

While it is proper to feel that, in the dedication of our children to God, in the ordinance of baptism, we are acting in accordance with Scripture; it is of far greater moment, that we, who sustain the parental character, should entertain correct ideas of the great truth it is designed to shadow forth.Baptism is not merely an initiative but a typical rite. It is a sign of blessings as essential to the purification of the mind as water is to the purification of the body. Connecting the sign and the thing signified, the Saviour said, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be

born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Our blessed Redeemer regards water in the baptismal service as an emblem of that cleansing agency the soul must undergo, ere it can be meet for heaven. And, permit me to say, not merely in my capacity as a minister, but as a friend who cherishes a warm interest in your domestic felicity, that nothing is nothing can be more important than the sanctification of this child. To accomplish it should be the ultimate object of every system you adopt, and of every There are no prayer you offer. accomplishments, however attractive; no acquisitions, however recondite and extended; no manners, however amiable and engaging, that can be regarded as an adequate substitute. This infant is the heir of immortal bliss or pain; and on you depends, in no ordinary degree, whether its immortal state shall be one of rapture or of woe. These are solemn and awakening considerations, considerations that ought to be engraven on your conscience and mine, "as with a pen of iron, and the point of a diamond."

You must be aware that the recent tendency of some of our pulpit instructions precludes the necessity of any allusion to parental duties and discipline. But as it is a work of self-denial, which clashes with the strong emotions of the heart, and in which we are too apt to yield, forget not your encouragements. The end is, by divine appointment, intimately associated with the means. Not more truly is it a law in nature, that a consequent follows on every antedecent, than that it is a law in Scripture that the blessing of suc

* This address was delivered a few days after a sermon had been preached on parental duty and obligation.

cess shall follow the training of youth. It is when parents bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord that he pours out his Spirit upon their seed, and his blessing upon their offspring. It is when they train them up in the way they should go, that he causes them to grow up as among the grass, and as willows by the water-courses. Thus the means are allied to the end, and the Word of God assures us, that a wise and judicious system shall attain the desired result. It may be true that there are occasional failures, that the heart of a fond and aged parent has been pierced by the vices of an unsteady child; but thank God, for your encouragement and mine, they form exceptions to the rule, and not the rule itself.

My Christian friends, the act you propose this night to discharge, is the most momentous and interesting that can engage the mind. This dear infant, after a short and chequered life, must pass into the mansions of bliss, or into the abodes of death. It is an immortal plant, which you are to rear and nourish, and by prayer you may so bring down the dew of heaven, that it may bear fruit for ever in the paradise of God. Let its baptismal dedication be prompted by a sense of religion, as well as by parental affection. Let your heart be set, with a desire that nothing can cool, and with an ardour that nothing can quench, on its salvation. Let your prayers be importunate and constant. Let your exertions be the exertions of faith. "In due season we shall reap if we faint not." Our sons will be " as plants grown up in their youth, our daughters as corner-stones polished after the similitude of a palace.” E. G.

THE truths of the Gospel, although simple and elementary in themselves, may be presented to the attention of mankind in a great variety of ways. In illustrating and in applying them, every order of talent may be called into exercise, and still an exhaustless field of observation and inquiry be left untrodden.

Eighteen hundred years have rolled away since the command first went forth, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature;" and since then, by innumerable methods, and through the most diversified agency, these truths have been unceasingly pressed upon the attention of mankind. The most splendid genius and the humblest talent have been alike consecrated to the work, and a multitude whom no man can number, of every tongue, and out of every nation and people, have been gathered into the fold of the Redeemer. Still it must be allowed, that the progress of the Gospel has not been commensurate with the well-grounded expectations of the Church. Compared with what might have been expected, it has wrought but "little deliverance in the earth."

N. S, NO. 90.

We are not insensible to the necessity which there is, that the helplessness and entire dependance of man should be clearly demonstrated, in order that all glory may be given to God; neither are we at all disposed to call in question the absolute sovereignty of the Redeemer in the disposal of his blessings. "He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy," and God forbid that we should ever seek to tear this brightest jewel from his crown!-But allowing these things their full weight, we must yet maintain that the progress of divine truth has not been commensurate with the well-grounded expectations of the Church.

into

Various circumstances, which it is not possible for us now to enter, may have contributed to this melancholy result. The feeble and inefficient manner in which the appointed means of grace have been hitherto brought to bear upon the conversion of the world, is not one of the least prominent. It may startle, but we really think it very questionable, whether at the present day in our own country, a moral power is employed upon the unconverted, equal to that which was in exercise centuries ago. To illustrate, we need not go further back than to the period of the Reformation. Every one acquainted with history is aware of the surprising change which, in those days, preaching effected in the moral and religious state of England. During the comparatively short period which elapsed between the reigns of Ed-ward the 6th, and Charles the 1st, Ꮓ Ꮓ

the whole nation, by an apparently weak instrumentality, was brought out of the thick darkness of Popery, into the light of Protestantism, and no small proportion of our countrymen were blessed with a saving knowledge of the Gospel. It is quite clear that preaching has no such hold now on the common people. It is difficult to induce them to enter a place of worship, and still more difficult to impress or interest them when there. Strange as it may appear, we are firmly persuaded that the art of preaching was much better understood then than it is now.Our sermons, like our furniture, have, it is true, undergone the various modifications to which time and fashion subject all things; and many, no doubt, think they are much improved, but we very greatly question whether they answer the end better, if so well, as the old ones. We know of no modern sermons except Whitefield's (to which indeed they bear some resemblance), so well calculated to impress the popular mind as good old Latimer's. There is a freshness, an inexplicable charm about them, admirably suited to interest the most stupid, and to awaken the reflective faculty in the most uncultivated. Of Whitefield's sermons we cannot speak too highly. We fully agree with the late Dr. Edward Williams, of Rotherham, (no mean judge,) when he expresses his belief, that "there are no sermons in the English language, capable of exciting the pious passions-of inspiring the soul with holy transport-of admitting warmth and energy of delivery to the degree of his compositions.* We have often been astonished to hear sons say, they have read White

* Life by Gilbert.

per

field's sermons without being able to see any merit in them; such remarks have always appeared to us to arise from mistaken views as to what a sermon should be.

use.

We maintain that a sermon, however full of thought, ought invariably to be vernacular and colloquial. The old wives tales, which the Reformers were in the habit of introducing into their discourses, were suited to the age, and ridiculous as they may appear now, they were not without their Their images might sometimes be mean, but then they were familiar, and they took hold. This conversational style of address was kept up by the successors of the Reformers, and even Barrow, South, and Jeremy Taylor do not scruple to use figures which would now be considered as below the dignity of the pulpit. To these familiar exhortations succeeded the long, heavy, but still familiar and heart-searching discourses of the Puritans. They could preach by the hour-glass, and turn it twice too, without tiring their hearers. After the Restoration a cold, logical, and highly polished form of address prevailed, and now, for the first time, preaching lost nearly all its influence over the people.— The rural population relapsed into little short of barbarism, and the more polished inhabitants of the towns, became profane scoffers or heartless speculatists. Whitefield and his coadjutors at length broke upon the slumberers like a thunderbolt. Multitudes were alarmed; sleepy consciences were awakened; convictions of sin seized upon thousands; "the kingdom of heaven suffered violence, and the violent took it by force." The efforts of this wonderful man, and the success which attended his labours, had the effect of greatly modifying pulpit oratory. The stilts were

partially thrown aside and from that day to this, they have never been thoroughly resumed. Of late years a new style has sprung up amongst us, a dash of literature has been thrown into our divinity, and if a sermon be "interesting," "in good taste," or "eloquent," the preacher will commonly be pardoned by the politer portion of his audience for having been somewhat unintelligible to the vulgar. We are not advocating extemporaneous, much less unpremeditated effusions. We have no objection to a sermon being written, provided the object of writing be to condense thought, or to attain a clear perspicuous style; it is only when writing is abused to the purposes of literary ambition that we condemn and abhor it. The ambitious style of preaching, which, with many, very many, honourable exceptions, still too much prevails, may, we think, be traced in part to the influence of the press. Every body publishes now-a-days, and popular sermons which read well become the models on which young ministers form the style of their pulpit addresses. The fact is, a sermon, properly so called, ought seldom if ever to be printed. It is by no means the best way of communicating theological truth, and is, in its immediate consequences, ruinous to ease and efficiency in the pulpit. Let treatises be printed, but let sermons be preached. If preaching the Gospel be persuading men alike by the terrors and loving kindness of God to be reconciled to their maker, he preaches best who uses that method which is best calculated to persuade his hearers to attend to the truths he sets before

them. The language of persuasion is necessarily colloquial-it implies a great deal of repetition, and of the most familiar illustration,

it has much to do with the head, but still more with the heart. It despises all the tricks of rhetoric. Who ever set seriously about persuading his friend to pursue any particular course with regard to this world's interests by the skilful management of nicely balanced periods? What language would any one think under such circumstances of employing, but that of deep impassioned earnestness.— What barrister, of any eminence, except with a view to the press, ever addressed a jury of uneducated countrymen, in the way that many ministers preach to equally uneducated congregations? How careful is he that every argument he uses be understood! How skilfully does he go over his ground again and again, lest any should mistake or fail to comprehend his meaning! How frequently does he repeat, without wearying by repetition! How vividly does he depict! How tenderly does he appeal! How eagerly he seizes upon every illustration which he thinks likely to answer his purpose, and how anxiously does he avail himself of every local association which is calculated to affect their minds; until conscious, by the expression of their countenances, that they at length thoroughly comprehend his statements, he sits down with the conviction, that whatsoever be the result of his efforts, he has at least fulfilled his duty towards his client. But alas! "the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light."

Intimately connected with the evil of which we have complained, is the custom of preaching great sermons as they are sometimes called, chiefly for the purpose of subserving the interests of some general or local charity. a stranger from some unknown

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