father and mother forsake them, may the Lord take them up. Very few indeed in after years are really deprived of the food for kindly feeling, for at any rate there is neighbourhood, with its numberless charities, its calls out of selfishness, even where there are no native ties of kindred, no sought and plighted bonds of holy union. Continual in

terest in those about us will lead to continual prayer both for them and for ourselves. There are circumstances indeed of stong and peculiar emotion, let them too have their sway, we cannot but feel their impulse, but let it aid, not disorder the steadier operation of more equal springs of action. When we behold the youth, in eager hope, and reckless gaiety, quitting the roof of his parents, the care of tutors and governors, and venturing on the hazards of an untried and dangerous world; or the bride with fluttering heart and tearful eye, tremblingly withdrawing from the altar of God, to encounter, what must be the cares and trials, what may be the bitter sorrows of a new name, and a new home; or God's labourer that is to be, now in the act of entering into his master's special service, and after the most solemn vows, receiving the holy office of the ministry, the awful charge of the souls of his fellow-men; or the frame that with age is bowed to the earth, the

head that in the snows of years is dressed for the grave, the ripe grain that but waits for the reaper, and be it for the barn or for the burning, alike must forthwith be gathered; when such objects are before us, they move our feelings, and therefore they have our prayers. When such occasions come, it is well to use them for raising devout and pious sentiments, but if we would keep alive our human sympathies, and through them win blessings to ourselves by seeking blessings for others, we need not wait for accidental excitements, for there is daily before us, a supply of regular, wholesome, and sufficient food to enables us to live unto prayer. To point this remark for use, and to make it serve our purpose in the outset, I would say, if you would cherish the spirit of prayer, cultivate (as all may do,) an interest in children.

As I have been speaking to and for children, let me for a short time speak something of children. To engage your attention to the value of their influence on your souls, I would first appeal to your experience. Who has not felt, (alas for that human being, man or woman, who cannot feel it!) the power in the voice or look of a child, to touch a spring in our breasts, which helps to check the coarse manner, to soothe the ruffled

temper, to beguile the anxious care, to cheer the drooping spirits, to banish the unholy thought, and to kindle heavenward aspirations? Who that has known the changes, the toils, and troubles of earthly life, can look without affectionate concern on those who must tread its paths through the dark mazes of a yet uncertain lot? These universal sentiments are enough to gain the heart for their objects, but these, and more than these, have been the feelings of those who never knew Christ. One heathen has taught us to speak of the majesty of childhood, another has told in solemn terms of the cautious reverence that is due to the earliest years, that neither sight nor sound unholy should be allowed within the walls where there is a child, and that the very sight or image of a babe should be enough to check the man who is bent on a deed of shame and sin. Thus much may nature teach, where there is left in it a spark that mounts upwards, but how should the child be regarded, when earth and heaven are brought together in the Christian's view, and the first moments of breath below, are known to be the beginning of the ages of eternity. That first feeble cry, which calls on woman to forget her anguish, for the joy that a man is born into the world, hath a far reaching tone, which ringing through the universe,

peals forth the arrival of an heir of immortality, and rousing the echoes both of heaven and of hell, proclaims to angels and to devils, that to one or the other, in bliss or in woe, shall be added a companion for ever. It is but a little while that passes onwards from birth, before the solemn feeling belonging to the prospect of two-sided futurity, is increased by contemplations, more present, and in that regard, more awful. We cannot indeed say at what moment begins that fearful knowledge which savours of life and of death, the knowledge of good and evil, but well may we be persuaded, that at that moment also doth natural corruption begin to work, and the child's soul surely becomes, at once both the battle-field and the prize, in and for which commences, and perchance will forthwith be decided, the struggle between the powers of the world to come. Comparatively and vaguely, it may be allowed us to talk of infantine purity and innocence. Such may be said to be the qualities of children, when measured against us, whose sins in after life have been growing faster than our days, but when in matters of God's truth I would utter the words of soberness, I dare not indulge fancy so as to speak of a sinless child. How soon, alas! are to be observed the workings of self-will, disobedience,

pride, envy, hatred, and deceit. The spirit of evil is busy at his deadly toil; but, blessed be God, His Spirit of good is in course of taking his own due means. One of these means seems to

be in this wise. In progress of time, we are, generally speaking, allowed, under God, to teach children to pray. Our thought perhaps may be, that we are but furnishing them in good season, with that which they will understand and apply with growing intelligence. But if we are working in faith, let us not suppose but that the Holy Spirit is working with us, and supplying our insufficiency. If we press the mind of a very young child for an explanation in words of the prayer which it has been taught to utter, the answer, if one be obtained at all, will probably be but babble and nonsense. Let this reprove our want of caution and discernment in the inquiry, but let us look for other and more suitable signs that the mind is opening towards heavenly things. There may be thoughts in the child's breast that are not as our thoughts, and therefore cannot be put into our words, even if language were possessed by it. We have been the means of furnishing terms of prayer, Christ, let us trust, has supplied the Spirit, and taught the child how to pray. This is an operation which cannot be told to man, but