SERMON IV. THE BLESSINGS CONSEQUENT UPON 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. In our present discourse we shall consider the inducement which parents have to bestow upon their children a religious education, as inferred from the blessings consequent upon it. These are comprehended in the latter clause of the text; if a child be trained up in the way he should go, when he is old, he will not depart from it. This is a proverb, and therefore must be interpreted with the latitude permitted to proverbial expressions. It is equivalent to asserting, that in general the good influences of a moral and religious education will be obvious during the whole subsequent life of those who have received this inestimable advantage. Sometimes, however, we know that the fond anticipations of pious parents are blasted; that their offspring set at naught the principles in which they have been trained; that the lessons of parental instruction become effaced from their minds, and they themselves run to every excess of folly and depravity. Solomon himself furnished a lamentable instance of this perversity. He had been the object of affectionate care and instruction. He says of himself, I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thy heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live. Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with How all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thy head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee. But notwithstanding such exhortations, his early discipline, and subsequent improvement from the meditations of his own highly gifted mind, yet in declining age he went, far astray-he forsook the guide of his youth, and forgot the covenant of his God. long he was estranged from the right way, and whether or not he returned into it again before his departure from the world, are questions which it is not important for us to examine in this place. The fact of his dereliction from virtue and true religion, notwithstanding the pious instructions of his parents, is alone essential to our present subject, as it naturally suggests to us the objections which are sometimes made to the inference we have drawn from our text, in favour of religious *Proverbs iv. 5-9. † Proverbs ii, 17. education. To these objections we will first direct our attention, as they meet us upon the threshold of our discourse, and must be removed before we can proceed with ease and satisfaction. Being removed, a few observations in connexion with what has been advanced in our previous discourses, we trust will satisfy all serious persons, that the blessings consequent upon a religious education are of inestimable value, and will deserve the most earnest and unremitted efforts to secure them. We must acknowledge then, that when the child arrives at man's estate, he does not, in every instance, walk in conformity with his training. This event, however, does not occur as frequently as is imagined and declared by persons inimical to the progress of revealed truth. They have an impression that the children of those who should be best instructed in the principles of morality and religion, are as frequently reprobate as other children, who are supposed to have less |