grateful flavour, and pleasant sights and melodious sounds on the right hand and on the left-and the way thus profitable and delightful to walk in, leads straightly and without peradventure to the garden of Paradise and the tree of life.*

If there be any doubt remaining as to what should be the chief object of education, it may be solved by one supposition, which I entreat each one of you to make in reference to yourselves. Suppose your child to have arrived at that period when education is esteemed completed, and to be ready to go forth into the active scenes of life. At that moment the beloved of your soul is seized with a fatal disease, which is rapidly doing its work of destruction to the body, while it leaves the mind unclouded and strong. You, parents, are around the bed watching the progress of the fatal destroyer-and you are thus addressed in the faltering accents of

* See a letter on education. Milton's prose works.

approaching dissolution-Oh! my beloved parents, how have you mistaken the object of my existence-that you have been thoughtful of me, I know by the innumerable instances of kindness which memory recalls-that you love me dearly, I see by your anguish and tears at the prospect of my death. But alas! you have been training me for the worldyou have cultivated my mind-you have accomplished my person-but what avails all this care and labour now? You have not told me of the world whither I am hasteningyou have not pressed upon me my accountability to God-you have not made me comprehend the solemn truths of my Bible. Oh! that you had done this, then anxiety for the future, and remorse for time spent in folly and vanity, would not press heavily upon my spirit and conscience, as now. Beloved parents, hearken to the dying request of your child-hearken to the solemn truths which are spoken in the groanings of a wounded spirit-the world is indeed vanity, but heaven and eternity, and God and the Saviour, are

awful realities-think of them yourselves, and oh! urge their consideration upon the little circle of our family, that, when brought to my condition, you may all die in peace, in the hope of sins pardoned, and a happy immortality secured, through the merits and intercession of that Saviour who is now my only consolation and support.

SERMON III.

THE MEANS OF CONDUCTING A RELIGIOUS

EDUCATION.

PROVERBS Xxii. 6.

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

THE education of children will be among the most interesting and important of duties in the estimation of all conscientious parents. They will devote to it a serious attention; and in promoting it, they will cheerfully endure much self-denial, and will be ready to incur every necessary expense within the limit of their means. Schools and instructors will be selected with the utmost care, and the progress of their children will be constantly watched over, and promoted by

discipline and encouragement at home. Such,

we believe, is the light in which this subject is generally viewed at the present day; and we cannot accuse the parents with whom we are acquainted, of inattention to the various departments of secular education. But as regards bringing up children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, we must, with sorrow, declare, that it does not receive that consideration which its paramount importance demands. The fact, I presume, will not be denied. Why then is this dangerous and criminal negligence permitted to exist so extensively? Is it from incorrect or unformed opinions concerning the true end and design of education, or from ignorance and inefficiency in regard to the right mode of conducting it? Believing that both these inquiries must be answered in the affirmative, and that very many parents have never thought much about the true design of education, and have given little, if any, attention to the moral and religious discipline of their children, the preacher has been induced to lay the whole subject before you.