Page images
PDF
EPUB

flesh, sees every thing about you savour-, ther of him whose birth we commemorate ing of the flesh, spotted with the flesh? this day,* had such joy and gladness at How many children of such parents his birth, while she could think of him as are at this moment following their wretch-"holy from the womb," as one who would ed parents up and down the lake of fire, | be “great in the sight of the Lord." charging those who brought them into the world with having brought them into that place of torment!

Ah! and not a few, it is to be feared, my brethren, even of those who would do better by their children, and are not without concern for their souls, yet, by a forbidding manner with them, by a repulsive, un-Christ-like treatment of them, forbid them to come to Christ. His religion is made to appear unamiable, if not untrue, to the child, who sees so much of what is contrary to it in the parent who professes it.

But it is not always thus. I trust that among ourselves, there have been, and are, delightful exceptions. I cannot say what I have felt, as I have taken a child in my arms, which, I had reason to hope, its parents had been holding at the throne of grace before, in prayer, that none of their sins might be visited upon it, that all those thick clouds might be blotted out, which would separate between God and their child; and whose prayers, I could think, were still going up, that as I held its body in my arms, Christ would clasp its soul in his-that, as I sprinkled it with water, Christ would sprinkle it with his own blood; and that "hereafter it might not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified, and continue his faithful soldier and servant unto its life's end :” and when, as I have returned it, I could think of the mother receiving it as warm from the arms of Christ himself, and to nurse and bring it up for Christ himself; and could then think of her, as spending the christening evening, not in levity and folly, but as though she would say to the friends around her, "Come, magnify the Lord with me," for have I not cause to magnify him, mother as I am of a child of God, a member of Christ, an inheritor of glory? even as they mo

And happy have I felt, as I have seen those coming up as godfathers and godmothers, whom I could expect to assist with their prayers also, and not with their prayers only. We know, a mother who is unable to nurse her child, will be not a little particular in securing one of a healthy constitution to nurse it; in ascertaining that there are no corrupt humours in her blood, which she would be in danger of communicating to the child. And shall we be less careful in the choice of those who are to stand in a like spiritual relation to our children? Shall we choose them because of their station and respectability in life, or their relationship to the child, be their Christian character what it may, or with a view to their Christian character, be their station or the relationship what it may ?

For

And I would hope that the children brought here to be baptized are not without your prayers, as a congregation, my brethren. It is for the sake of your prayers especially, as a congregation, that we thus administer baptism while you are all present--that, as the apostle speaks, you may be "helping together by prayer for them" with those who are the most nearly interested in them. is it not for every one of us to be interested for those in whom our divine Lord expresses such an interest? Oh! when we see him thus taking them up in his arms, putting his hands upon them and blessing them, how ought not our hearts to go out to them, and our prayers to go up for them! When we hear him saying, "Suffer the little children to come to me," is it not for every one of us to do what in us lies to bring them to him? There is not one of us who, if we were passing by a house on fire, and heard there was a child in it in danger of beiug burnt to death, but would make every exertion to

St. John the Baptist.

snatch it out of the flames. And what exertions should we not be willing to make to bring such to Him, who came to snatch them out of the fire that never shall be quenched?

And you, dear children, yourselves, do you see your Saviour's arms thus open to you, and feel no desire to be within those arms? You would not so refuse to run into a mother's arms. If even a kind friend should hold out his hand to you, you would not turn your back upon that friend. Is it because they feel no want of a Saviour, no want of what he offers them, that the young so continually turn their back upon their gracious Saviour? And do you then feel no want-Ah! even at your age the want has been keenly felt of the forgiveness of sin, and strength against sin; and do you feel no want of one to guide you by those dangerous rocks, upon which so many young persons are shipwrecked? And have you no desire-Oh! if you but saw your Father's house, aud that great and glorious city, which is up above sun and moon, the New Jerusalem-what would you not give to be carried in your Saviour's arms to it this hour!

And, my dear young frieuds, you are entering life at a time when you little know what storms 'there may not be before you storms from which you may indeed feel the want of shelter.

What encouragement is there not in this passage for those also, who, though not children in age, yet feel thmselves to be such for their weakness and helplessness! It is with reference to them also, he says, "It is not the will of your Father which is in Heaven, that one of these little ones should perish." Or do you say, you have no learning? but you hear your Saviour saying, "I thank thee Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes," Or is it your feeling, what can such a weak, helpless, insignificant creature as I am, do? Of what use am I in the world? But has he not chosen "the weak things of this world, and the things that are despised in the world," to be the very props and pillars of his kingdom in it? For "to those who have no might he encreaseth strength." Nay, is a person deficient in intellect-half-witted? But the foolish things of this world God has chosen to confound the wise. In the way to heaven which grace has opened for us, "the wayfaring men, though fools shall not err."

The only question is but it is one upon which your state for eternity is depending-have you received the kingdom of God, as a little child? that is, as it has been explained—have you, in a deep sense of your own nothingness, and worse than But live in what times we may, as soon nothingness, cast yourself upon the mercy as the soul shall go ont of the body, and of God in Christ Jesus? And is your when may not that be? will it feel no whole soul, at this moment, hanging upon want of shelter then? Oh! unless while Christ, as the child hangs upon its mother? you are in the body, you are in Christ, You are then of the number of those of you will then feel the want-of a drop of whom the Saviour says, "Of such is the water to cool your tongue. Yet I feel kingdom of God." Or, in other words as though He in whose name I am speak- it is not whether you have great gifts we ing to you, dear young friends, would are to ask you, or anything which has the not himself have said this last to you-glare of greatness upon it, as this world Oh! no-He would not have you to be pelted with stones to him-I was going to say; bnt he would have you to be drawn with the cords of love to him. As he would have every one of us to be drawn to him, dear brethren.

accounts of greatness; but whether you have the greatness-whether in the course and habits of your life, whether in your contentment with your lot in life, in the absence of all pretension, in every thing about you in your dress, in your house,

at your table, in your conversation, in | pressing it: that we may be, in a manyour behaviour to those inferior to you, ner not to be mistaken, ourselves of the in teachableness under instruction, in number of the little children, of the nummeekness under reproof or provocation, ber of those, of whom the Saviour says, whether in these and like particulars, that" Of such is the kingdom of heaven!" disposition appears and expresses itself in Then it is such views will then be you which constitutes the greatness of the given us of the glory of his kingdom, of kingdom of heaven, according to what we the extent of his love, of the unsearchable hear from him whose kingdom it is, riches of his grace, of the fulness of joy in "Whosoever shall humble himself as this his presence, and the pleasures for everlittle child, the same is the greatest in the more at his right hand—for he reveals kingdom of heaven." these things to his babes-then it is we shall be desirous, as earnestly desirous to bring our little ones also to him, if were possible, as He is himself to have them-it will be no longer a place in th world we shall be seeking for them, bu a place in His arms, in His kingdom.

Oh! that we may be becoming every day greater and greater thus, dear brethren, that we may have more and more of this the greatness of the kingdom of heaven about us. Oh! yes; that we may be " clothed with humility"-every thing about us ex.

EDUCATION AFTER BAPTISM.

SERMON II.

BY THE REV. WILLIAM CLEAVER, A.M.

DEUTERONOMY, vi. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,

"Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates."

In our last discourse, we spoke of the encouragements which we have, my brethren, thus to bring our children to the Saviour. For that in bringing them to be baptized, it is to the Saviour himself, we are bringing them, that we bring them, in the language of our service, to be "embraced in the arms of his mercy, to receive from him the blessing of eternal life, and to be made partakers of his everlasting kingdom."

In this passage you hear, Christian parents, what you are to do with your children, when you have received them back after baptism. It is as though the charge which you have now heard, were given to each of you with your baptized child-" These words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently to that child, and talk of them, when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up;" for it is thus the promises of baptism are made good. As at the first, when it had been promised to Abraham," I will be a God to thee and to thy seed," it was added, "For I know him, that he will bring up his children after him, and they will keep the way of the Lord." The promises to Abraham's seed were to be accomplished through Abraham's care in bringing them up in the way of the Lord.

Just as when Hannah received her

[ocr errors]

child from the Lord, she lent him, or as it is in the margin, "returned him to the Lord, from whom by petition, she had obtained him" It is for the Christian mother in like manner, when she receives her child "born again,” to look upon that child as not her own, but as though she heard Christ saying to her, like what Pharaoh's daughter said to the mother of Moses,

"Take that child, and nurse it for me."

What a charge does there not then lie upon you, parents, when you receive your children back after baptism!

If you can suppose some princess to drive up to a cottage door, and to leave a royal infant at it, to be brought up for her, you can picture to yourself, how the child would be received out of her hands, and what care there would be taken that it should form no habits, learn no words or manners, that it should keep no company which would afterwards bring disgrace upon those who brought it up, and unbecoming the station of life to which it was born.

What then, when the King of kings gives a child into your hands, to be brought up for him-to be brought up for the kingdom of heaven! Need I say, what pains it is for you to take, to bring him up suitably to his high destination, and to keep him "unspotted from the world"?

That parents may acquit themselves of

the great responsibility, and execute the high trust which is thus reposed in them, "the words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart," the Lord says to each of them.

As in baptism, we cannot bring our children to the Saviour, without having first come to him ourselves; so neither can we, after baptism, bring them up for the Saviour, without having first received his words into our own hearts.

Oh! but what has He not done to put his words into our hearts, my brethren! Observe only, how this charge is introduced : "6 Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God-it is the God of Israel, He who has shown himself as He has done, as Israel's God, who thus addresses thee ; as it is afterwards, "When thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, what mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord our God hath commanded you; then thou shalt say unto thy son, we were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and the Lord shewed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharoah, and upon all his household, before our eyes, and He brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land, which he sware unto our fathers."

It is as though He had said, It is the same God who had pity on thee in the bondage of Egypt, who opened a passage through the sea for thee-who led thee, and fed thee, and kept thee, and taught thee, and bore with thee-who did such things for thee in the wilderness, and is bringing thee to a land flowing with milk and honey-He it is, who says to thee, My son, give me thy heart."

66

To make the application to ourselves Christian parents, it is the God, who, in the riches of his grace, brought you out of darkness into his marvellous lightwho burst the bonds in which another master held you-who has forborne to cut you off in your provocations- It is the God who withheld not his own Son

rom you, and with him, would give you all things; whose mercy and loving kindness have followed you through life; and who is bringing you, and would bring your children with you, to a land where there will be no need of the sun to shine upon it, to a land flowing-with streams, at which, whosoever drinketh shall never thirst-It is this God who asks of thee, and is it without reason then he asks it— that the words which he commands thee, should be in thine heart ?”

Then it is, you will be qualified, and not till then, to be the nursing-fathers and the nursing-mothers of the heirs of Heaven.

For then-to put a like case in familiar life-think of one in the extremity of affliction, a widowed mother suppose, with her fatherless children around her, whose little all is about to be sold, to pay her deceased husband's debts; when one of the creditors, touched by her situation, not only withdraws his own demand, but makes himself answerable for every other, and leaves nothing undone, that can make a widows's heart to sing-with what feelings would those children be brought up towards such a benefactor? would they be in the habit of hearing his name fall coldly from their mother's lips? but would he ever enter their door, and not see countenances lighted up, as at the approach of one whose goodness was familiar to them? It is when the kindness and love of God our Saviour has been impressed upon the parents themselves, that the directions which are here given for bringing up their children for God, will appear no impracticable directions. As it was when Peter could answer as he did, to the question; "Lovest thou me ?" that the charge was given him, as one which he would then be able, as well as willing to execute: "Feed my lambs."

Let us consider, briefly, what these directions are.

"The words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy childreu.

There are parents, who, while they

« PreviousContinue »