woman's estate, she was restored to the arms of the astonished and delighted mother. And what a meeting was that, after such a separation! It was truly as life from the dead! So, when the mother meets on high, Hath she not then, for pains and fears,- An over-payment of delight? The following beautiful Hymn is from the pen of a great man, who, when President of the United States, repeated the prayers his mother taught him: That inextinguishable beam, With dust united at our birth, But when the Lord of mortal breath No passion fierce, no low desire, Has quenched the radiance of the flame; Reverts unclouded as it came. Then at the Heavenly Father's hand, Behold the infant seraphs stand And dazzling shine where all are bright. If then, it be the will of our Heavenly Father, that those whom he has decreed to remove before the period of personal accountability, should enjoy the efficacious influences of the Spirit, why not much more those whom he has decreed to remain here, to grow up in time, and under parental instruction? Why not expect regenerating influence, almost as a matter of course, in the latter case, as well as in the former? It is the same power that does the work in both cases, and if the children of Christians are not sanctified in infancy, let them remember, that sanctifying grace is abundant, and ready in the hands of Christ, who has received gifts for men, and moreover, if they have true faith, that is the channel ready provided for that grace to flow through, and they must beware lest it be said in the end, "Ye had not because ye asked not," when they see their children on the left hand of the Judge. God does regard his holy covenant; he cannot deny himself. The Church is an organized body, perpetuating itself. It is true, that in its progress, it incorporates some foreign elements; it draws in many from the world that lieth in wickedness, and makes them fellow-citizens with the saints; but the main body, from generation to generation, is from within itself. As the gulf stream along our coast, passes through the waters of the ocean, commingling in some small degree, though for the most part, preserving its own, so is the course of the church in the midst of an adulterous and sinful generation. If statistics could be collected from most of our churches, we should, in all probability, be astonished at the result. It was found that, in a congregation in one of the Northern States, where two-thirds of the attendants were not professors of religion, there were added to the church, in a course of years, five hundred members, and out of these, four hundred and eighty were the children of the church, and of the covenant. It is a great blessing to be connected with the household of faith, even externally. "It is a fact, that a comparatively large proportion of the descendants of the pious themselves, for many generations, become true Christians." "Some of the most devotedly pious people of this land, are the descendants of the Hugonots, who were expelled from France. A very large proportion of the piety in this country has been derived from the "Pilgrims," who landed on the rock of Plymouth, and God has blessed their descendants in New England and elsewhere, with numerous revivals of religion. We are acquainted with the descendants of John Rogers, the first martyr in Queen Mary's reign, of the tenth and eleventh generations. With a single exception, the oldest son in the family has been a clergyman,-some of them eminently distinguished for learning and piety, and there are few families in this land, a greater propor tion of whom are more pious than that family. The Secretary of the Massachusetts Sabbath School Society, in 1838, made a limited investigation for the purpose of ascertaining the facts about the religious character of the families of Ministers and Deacons, with reference to the charge so often urged, that the "sons and daughters of Ministers and Deacons were worse than common children." In 268 families he found 1290 children over fifteen years of age. Of these, 884, almost three-fourths, were hopefully pious; 794 had united with the churches; 61 entered the ministry; only 17 are dissipated, and about half only of these became so while with their parents. In eleven of these families, there are 123 children, and all but seven pious. In fifty-six families, there are 249 children over fifteen, and all hopefully pious."* There are many advantages in early conversion. We can but just indicate a few of them: 1. It is, humanly speaking, easier, and the longer a person lives at enmity with God, the less hope of his conversion. 2. True piety makes children more lovely and obedient, and causes more satisfaction to parents. An ungodly child is a fountain of misery to both father and mother. 3. If they live they will be saved from many sins of youth. And how many suffer deep remorse all the latter part of life for these. So prays the Psalmist, "Remember not against me the sins of my youth."+ 4. They will be better qualified to serve God as they grow up. Their piety will increase in power, and become the habit of the soul. It will prevent the forma tion of sinful habits to be broken up and corrected afterward. 5. If they die early, their great work will be done; and if they live, they will have so much longer time to lay up treasure in Heaven. 1. This subject has an important bearing on the conversion of the world, and the introduction of the millennium. Piety must flourish in the family, then its diffu *Rev. A. Barnes' Com. Isa. ch. lix: 21. Ps. xxv: 1. See also, Job xiii: 26, xx: 11; 2 Tim. ii: 22. sive influence spread through the church, and then, like leaven, it will spread over the world. The love of the Christian heart will first embrace friend, parent, brother, his country next, and then the human race. The moral power of progress in the church is home piety. This is the nursery where souls are born into the kingdom and trained up for glory. Here are the centres of that influence that is felt, and will be to the uttermost parts of the earth, and to the remotest ages of time. This is the real missionary spirit, that carries the sons and daughters of the church to the arid wastes of Africa, the burning clime of India, or to the snows and ice of Greenland, to seek the welfare of their race. 2. It is both impossible and absurd, that the minds of children shall be left free froin all bias till they come to maturity, and exercise their own choice as to the opinions they shall adopt, as is often claimed by infidels. The seeds of sin and error are already planted; unless checked and restrained by pious culture, they will grow and bear fruit unto death. Instead of being left free and untrammelled, to make choice, the die is cast, the soul is committed; and to leave the matter there is to give great vantage ground to the enemy. Train up a child in the way he should go, or he will go in the wrong way. 3. There is great value in church relations and privileges, if rightly improved. It is a great blessing to be a member of a Christian family, and hence "holy," in the sense of the apostle. God remembers mercy to a thousand generations of them that love him and keep his commandments. The estimate that should be put upon such a connection with the church, as follows the line of Christian parentage, may be seen by comparing the influence brought to bear upon the mind and heart in a well ordered household, where God, and his law, and his ordinances are honoured, with those that tend to prove the character in the families of the irreligious, the worldly, the profane. By comparing the condition of those placed by Providence under the discipline and instruction of persons of consistent piety, with the families of the heathen, who call not upon the name of God, but whose tender mercies are cruelty, we may see what they lost, when broken off from their own olive tree, to whom once belonged "the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God and the promises." They rejected the Messiah and he rejected them, and the unbelief and guilt of the fathers are perpetuated in their children to the latest generations, while we, Gentiles, succeed to the inheritance, and stand, while we do stand, by faith. And it is a thought that should weigh heavily on the minds of ungodly heads of families, that they are sinning, not only against their own souls, but depriving their children of a great blessing. It is often remarked of those who have been connected with the church, and have taken offence at the truth, and turned persecutors of godly Ministers, that their families become irreligious, dissipated, and go to ruin. "Yea," says a quaint old divine, "you may sometimes mark it in our churches; a church has long enjoyed an excellent Minister, but they grow at length full of unaccountable prejudices against him: the Son of God seeing this, their folly, sends for that Minister away to Heaven presently, and lets them supply themselves with such another when they can find him." ARTICLE IV. BLEDSOE'S THEODICY. A Theodicy; or vindication of the Divine glory, as manifested in the Constitution and government of the moral world. By ALBERT TAYLOR BLEDSOE, Profess or of Mathematics in the University of Mississippi. 1854. We feel rather surprised that this book says nothing about poor, dear, Michael Servetus. It omits also, the nasal psalms of the ancient covenanters ;-says nothing about the burning of witches in New England;-nothing |