liable to fall into gross and fatal errors, or to become the prey of every artful and novel teacher. We see this verified in fact, both by those numerous swarms of sectaries, which are every day starting forth from the prolific soil of enthusiasm, and by those strange notions, which the greater part of mankind, if they think at all about the matter, entertain concerning religion: some placing the whole of it in a careless and formal belief of its doctrines; some, in forsaking a few notorious sins; others in observing the stated times of public worship; others in doing wrong to nobody; and others, again, in having a warm and enthusiastic faith and pious inclinations, but without the necessary concomitants of obedience and a holy and virtuous life.

But, alas! these are fatal mistakes of the nature and temper of Christianity. For, to be Christians indeed, we must not only profess with our mouths, and believe in our hearts, the sublime doctrines of our divine Teacher, but we must also endeavour to live, as he lived; that is, an holy, blameless, and unspotted life; we must have the same mind and spirit in us that was in him; we must act upon the same great principle which he inculcated, of obtaining an unseen, everlasting glory; and we must neglect all things rather than the salvation of our immortal

souls

souls. This, in brief, is the sum and substance of Christianity, which it is the duty of every Christian at all times clearly both to understand and to practise. But the best time for instilling right notions of these great duties, is that of early youth. We therefore find the office of training up children in the way they should go, not only to be venerable for its antiquity, but also expressly of divine appointment. For thus says God himself by the mouth of Moses, in the Old Testament:-"These words, which I com"mand thee, shall be in thy 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.

I know not whether it may be of much consequence to observe, that the word, which is here translated to teach," signifies also "to whet "or sharpen;" importing, as some think, that parents should endeavour to make the commandments of God pierce the very hearts of their children; or, as others imagine, so to teach them with accuracy and care, that their minds

So in the margin of the Bible; or "to beat," as on an anvil,

may

may be rendered thereby inore acute and perspicacious. However, in either sense it clearly imports the diligence parents should use to instil good principles into the minds of their children, and to work in them a reverential fear and love of the divine majesty of God; never ceasing their most earnest endeavours to persuade them to remember their Creator in the days of their youth, and to serve him with all their heart, and with all their mind, and with all their strength *.

But farther this duty of instructing young children was not confined within the narrow bounds of the old law only; though that alone were sufficient warrant to continue the practice; but our Saviour, the Founder of the New Testament, has likewise commanded Peter, and through him all succeeding pastors, to feed his lambs, that is, the infant flock of Christ committed to their charge. And in like manner St. Paul enjoins the Ephesian parents to "

+

bring

up," or educate "their children in the nur"ture and admonition of the Lord."

And if we turn our eyes from precept to practice, we shall find that the Jews were so careful

* Vide Patrick in locum.

of

in this respect, that they not only had amongst them public seminaries of education, called the Schools of the Prophets, supposed to be first instituted by Samuel, where the will of God was first made known, where future events were predicted, and where the sublimer mysteries of religion were taught, but also had in every village a person called the Instructor of Babes, whose business it was to teach children the law, till they were ten years age. And at the age of thirteen they were brought to the house of God, in order to be publicly examined; and being then approved and recommended to the favour of God, with devout prayer and solemn benedictions, were declared to be the Children of the Precept; that is, they were obliged to keep the law, and from thenceforth were considered as answerable for their own sins. All which, as it nearly resembles, so it may justly seem to have ministered some ground to the christian rite of Confirmation *.

And with no less zeal did the primitive Christians build up their children for Christ, and with unwearied care and diligence instruct them in the fundamentals of their religion. And for this purpose they had in every church a peculiar

* Vide Hammonnd. Acts xv. 32.

officer,

officer, called a Catechist, whose business it was to instruct the catechumens, that is, those who were candidates for baptism, in some places for two whole years together, besides the more solemn catechizing of them during the forty days of Lent, preparatory to their baptism at Easter. And after the performance of that sacred rite, it was usual for the baptized persons to remain several days in the houses of the pious bishops of those uncorrupted times, that they might be the more fully instructed in all things pertaining to eternal life; or, as my text expresses it, "trained 66 up in the way they should go.

I need not perhaps observe, that the word "train" is a military term, signifying to teach the discipline or exercise of war. In the margin

of our Bibles it is rendered "catechize a child." Either of these translations is clear and intelligible enough. So in the following words *, "in the way he should go," the original will admit of two interpretations, yet both consistent enough with each other, and with the wise man's general design of recommending, that the young

* The Hebrew is," in the mouth of his way;" i. e. say some, in the entrance or beginning of life; early. Mercer says, the Hebrew signifies "the measure of his way ;" i. e. according to the measure of a child's capacity.

and