EPHESIANS vi. 4.

Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

THE instruction which this precept is designed to convey will be found, upon a strict and careful examination, to be of the highest value and importance; and, though addressed more immediately to Parents, as the persons primarily concerned in it, appears to demand in an equal degree the serious consideration of every one, to whom the charge of education is either wholly or partially entrusted. This claim which it possesses is greatly increased by the emphatic language in which it is conveyed to us, from a due attention to which, in connection with other testimonies, some very pertinent information is derived. For we should observe that the figurative expressions and allusions of the text lead us directly to the very obvious inference, that at the time when St. Paul wrote, the infant children of believers were considered as included in the

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relations, of the truth of which their superiors in age and wisdom seem so little convinced. Religious instruction must be communicated early, as its simplicity intimates, before the mind becomes too strongly engaged on the side of earthly attainments, and in the pursuit of that knowledge which too often unfits it for the reception of divine truth.

The enquiry then presents itself, what may be correctly termed a religious education: and here in conformity with ordinary language, though confessedly inaccurate, we are compelled to distinguish it from what is called a MORAL education, in which obedience to rules and precepts is inculcated, without any proper reference to religious principles and motives. That this method is inaccurately so denominated, may be seen, if we take by way of example any one of the moral virtues, as that of gratitude for instance, and it will be evident that no man can be strictly termed moral who is ungrateful to the Author of his being; yet such is every one who is not actuated by religious principle. The mere statement will probably suffice, in order to expose the error and absurdity of grounding exhortations to virtue, solely on such motives as a regard to reputation or interest, or a desire of the approbation of our fellow creatures: motives which

indeed are excellent and useful in their place, but THAT they do not occupy when made the primary ground of our exhortations. Such a mode of proceeding is nothing else but most unaccountably to overlook the superior authority of God, as if he were excluded from all further concern in the world which he has created. Surely to neglect a motive so powerful and at the same time so obvious as that is, which a sense of the authority and a desire of the approbation of an Almighty Being affords, and to take up with others so inferior and comparatively inoperative, is to treat a solemn subject with a degree of levity which must eventually bring it into contempt; for even the attentive and observing child will be ready almost instinctively to despise the instructions which are enforced in this manner. Let it however be supposed that religious principles are not entirely overlooked, and even then we are not sure but that they are often insufficiently stated, and that a very incorrect mode of reasoning is adopted. This is the case, whenever a child is exhorted to virtuous conduct in order that he may please God, and render himself acceptable to him, and that by thus gaining his favour he may be rewarded by him.

To inculcate obedience to the moral law in

the first place is, as it has been well observed, to attempt to erect the edifice without having previously laid the foundation; it is commencing at that point at which we should rather hope at length to arrive. In order that our endeavours may be crowned with success, we must have recourse to the sublime and ener getic doctrines of our religion, the holy principles which it offers to instill, and the effectual motives which it is able to supply. Whoever disregards these, and attempts to recommend to children the practice of moral duties, with the proud independent notion of pleasing God and gaining his favour, unconscious of obligations already incurred, and uninformed as to any assistance to be obtained, does in reality present to them an effectual discouragement at the very outset; for where is the child who is not sufficiently sensible of his imperfections and natural inability, for to be convinced of the impossibility of the thing itself, and consequently to give up the attempt? Need we wonder if such exhortations are received with listless indifference, or even with aversion? No: a complete change of situation, a new relationship, easier terms of acceptance-the office in short of a Mediator-is what the mind of man will always be looking for, as the appropriate remedy, and only means of success.

Until we can induce the persuasion that such an alteration has been made, nothing can be effected, nor so much as a single step be taken; on the contrary, upon such a persuasion we may safely rely, indeed there is nothing which may not be hoped from it. They therefore who would not willingly bestow labour in vain in this important matter, will act wisely by following the directions of the Church in the Catechism, and by instructing children in the first place without any reserve, as to the nature of the great privileges of which they are actually possessed; viz. that they are already "made members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven."

The formularies of the Church should not be slighted as obsolete, or such as might have sufficed for the time when they were composed, but must now give place to an improved system; for it is perhaps to the neglect of the very one just quoted, that the error I have endeavoured to point out is mainly to be attributed. A frequent recurrence to first principles may be even more necessary now, than it was at any former period. The care which our reformers have taken, to secure to the infant members of the Church a correct religious education, is clearly seen not only in their