such requisition is made by our blessed Master of those who mean to enter themselves in the number of his scholars. In other respects, learned or unlearned, wise or unwise, noble or ignoble, great or small, young or old, come who will, and he shall be instructed in all things necessary for him to learn, in order to his salvation; in a day, in an hour, he shall know more than the sages of antiquity were able to discover, from the dispersion of the nations at Babel to the coming of Christ, or would have discovered, from thence to the consummation of all things. This is a very wonderful consideration; and we must dwell a little upon it, for the honor and praise of revelation, and of that Being who vouchsafed it to man.

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." A child easily repeats and understands these few words of Moses. But the child who does so is at once in possession of a truth, which heathen philosophy, for ages and generations, sought in vain; none could then with any degree of certainty determine by whom the world was made; whether it were made at all; wheth

God it is otherwise. Means unlikely and improbable are chosen, persons weak and naturally unable selected, that the power may appear to be not in them, but in him. In this way he delights to show forth his glory through the whole creation. At the beginning, light shone out of darkness, order out of confusion, and all the beauty and fulness of the world which we behold arose from a chaos "without form, and void." By a silent, unseen, mysterious process, the fairest flower of the garden springs from a small insignificant seed, the majestic oak of the forest from an acorn, the strongest and wisest man from a wretched, helpless, and senseless infant; the holy and exalted saint from a miserable sinner. A prophet, with great justness and propriety, styles this, "the hiding of the divine power." And thus, upon the same plan, when the Gospel was to be preached, and the world saved, not a company of philosophers, or an army of heroes, but a few illiterate Jewish fishermen were sent forth to accomplish the mighty work. Hear with what force and energy St. Paul treats this point: "The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.er there were many Gods, or one. For you see your calling, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many gracious God, whence came so much evil mighty, not many noble, are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world, to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are." Then follows the reason; "that no flesh shall glory in his presence." The case of the children in the temple confounding by their hosannas the pride and malignity of the enemies of Christ, was, therefore, by no means single. It was upon the general scheme of the divine proceedings, as the power and skill of the artist are always proportionably manifested by the meanness and weakness of the instruments employed to effect his purpose.

If the world were made by a good and

as we all see and know to be in it? Here the wisdom of paganism was for ever at a stand. Bewildered and lost in its reasonings and guesses upon the subject, it soon came to question whether God were indeed good and gracious, or whether there could be any God who governed such a world. Let these men listen to a child nurtured in the Christian Scriptures. "By one man's disobedience sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." What plainer or farther information can be desired ?

Mankind have always found themselves tempted and carried on by their lusts and passions to offend God, by transgressing that law (whatever it might be) under which they lived. But who among them But, secondly, God is still farther honored could tell the means by which they were when children are taught to confess and to be reconciled to the offended Deity? proclaim his truths, because hereby it is Not one. Infinite were the devices and shown that his truths are such as children fancies of superstition to effect such reconmay confess and proclaim. All may re-ciliation; but all in vain. It must have ceive the saving doctrines of our religion, been dropped, and "let alone for ever," by and learn its wholesome precepts. Over them; whereas, every child with us knows, the door of the school of the celebrated that "Christ has appeared to put away sin Plato, we are told, was written a sentence, by the sacrifice of himself, and is become importing, that no one must presume to the author of salvation to all who believe enter there who had not first studied and in him, and walk according to that berendered himself master of geometry No No lief."

At a certain time we die. Our bodies | brought young children to Christ, that he are laid in the earth, and moulder to dust. should touch them. His disciples rebuked And what is to befall them afterwards? those that brought them. But when Jesus Where is the wise man of the world that saw it, he was much displeased, and said can give us instruction and assurance on unto them, Suffer little children to come this point? "Son of man can these dry unto me, and forbid then not, for of such bones live?"-is a question not to be an- is the kingdom of heaven. Verily I say swered out of the Christian school. In that unto you, if any man shall not receive the school any child can answer it. "Now is kingdom of God as a little child, he shall Christ risen from the dead, and become the not enter therein. And he took them up in first fruits of them that sleep. For as by man his arms, put his hands upon them, and came death, by man came also the resurrec- blessed them." Children, then, are capation of the dead. For as in Adam all die, ble of benefit by Christ; they are capable even so in Christ shall all be made alive. of his blessing on earth, and his presence in The hour is coming in which all that are heaven; subjects of his kingdom under in their graves shall hear his voice, and grace, and heirs of his kingdom in glory. shall come forth; they that have done The best office, therefore, we can perform good, to the resurrection of life; and they for them, is to be the means of bringing that have done evil, to the resurrection of them to the knowledge of him, that they condemnation."-"Had Jesus Christ deliv- may be partakers of these benefits, and so ered no other declaration than this last," glorify their Father which is in heaven. says an excellent writer, "he had pro- He is pleased when we are thus employed. nounced a message of inestimable import- Nay, he sets these children before us, as ance, and well worthy of that splendid ap- little patterns and models of what, in heart paratus of prophecy and miracles with and mind, we ourselves ought to be. Men, which his mission was introduced and at- if they think of entering into his kingdom, tested a message in which the wisest of must be converted, and become as little mankind would rejoice to find an answer to children, without pride, without wrath, their doubts, and rest to their inquiries." without lust, without avarice, without amThe observation is just and noble. And yet, bition, without prejudice, without guile, such a message one of the heathen sages, open and teachable, all innocence, simpliwere he now living, might receive by the city, sincerity. These tempers of little first child he met in the street. children constitute the ornaments of reliIn this manner, to silence false philoso-gion; and charming it is to behold them phy and pretended wisdom, has God "or- displayed in the life of a child of God! dained strength out of the mouth of babes "The wisdom that is from above," says St. and sucklings," while by them are acknow- James, as if this very subject had been in ledged and proclaimed the most concerning his eye, "is first pure, then peaceable, gentruths, which none of the philosophers of tle, and easy to be entreated, full o mercy Greece and Rome could discover; the and good fruits, without partiality, and creation and redemption of the world; the without hypocrisy." View the furious Saul, origin and abolition of evil; the resurrec- breathing out threatenings and slaughters, tion of the dead; and the final judgment. exceedingly mad against the disciples of These were the points in which mankind Jesus, and persecuting them even to strange long wanted and wished to be informed. cities; till suddenly humbled to the dust Yet many have been the scoffs and sneers by a light and a voice from heaven, you thrown out by unbelievers against the Gos- hear him, with all the meekness of an inpel, as being the religion of women and fant, exclaiming, "Lord, what wouldest children. Never surely was wit worse em- thou have me to do?" Many are the ployed. For if the religion be in itself true changes of this kind that have been wrought, and excellent, it can receive no prejudice and many in every age will be wrought, from the circumstance of being embraced through the power of the Gospel. By it, and cultivated by women and children. in various ways, men are conformed to its Just the contrary; since, if God ever vouchsafed a religion to the world, it must be adapted to either sex, and to every age. Christianity is that religion, and glories in being so.

Thirdly, there is in the temper and disposition of children something peculiarly acceptable to God our Saviour. "They

temper and spirit; for a due and proper notion of that temper and spirit, Christ refers us to the state of childhood; a state through which, to sanctify it for all, himself did not disdain to pass; and in that, as in every other state, glorified the Father who sent him. Why, therefore, should it be thought a thing incredible, that "out of the mouth of babes

and sucklings God should ordain strength, | children in it speaking and acting like heaand perfect praise?" thens; or, perhaps, in a manner that would disgrace heathens?

Lastly, God is honored, wherever children are taught to confess and to praise his holy name, because it appears, that his religion is there known and propagated. The circumstance is a proof that the country where it has taken place is a Christian country, and a pledge that it will continue to be such.

Under all the divine dispensations from the beginning, no duty is set higher, or more insisted on, than that of instructing children in the knowledge of religion. "Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him." What more, or greater, can be said of any mere man? Attend to the reason which immediately follows: "For I know him, that he will command his children after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.”*

But suppose no such precepts or examples had been recorded. Religion is not only truth; it is truth the most interesting, the most dear and valuable. It is that on which a man depends for his comfort and joy; for his safe conduct through this life, and his eternal happiness in the next. Would he deprive his children of this comfort, this joy, this safe conduct, this eternal happiness? Would he suffer them to live and die in error and vice, if it were in his power to prevent it? Can he bear the thought of seeing them at the last great day, standing, with the reprobates of all ages, at the left hand, and departing into never-ending misery? The wretched, ignorant idolater, who, in old time, made his children pass through the fire to Moloch, is less to be blamed than such a parent as this.

Should there, however, be a Christian country found in which the children are as above described, of one thing we may be abundantly certain, that such a country can not long continue Christian. They who are now children will, in a few years, become

Thus, again, under the law: "These words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart' For what purpose, or for whose sake? Of themselves alone? By no means:-"And thou shalt teach men and women; they will soon compose the them diligently to 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." Children, on their part, are supposed to be often asking questions upon these subjects, and so to put their parents, teachers, or friends, upon conversation of this kind. "And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean you by this service? that you shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses."

Respecting Christian parents, they are most expressly enjoined to "bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord;" and to the praise of young Timothy, as well as of those relations who had been his instructors, it is said, "that from a child he had known the holy Scriptures, able to make him wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Je

sus."

great body of the public. Of what kind will that public be? and how much more depraved still will be the descendants of that public? In such a nation, matters must go on from bad to worse, till the wrath of God break forth, and there be no remedy. The inhabitants will either fall by the sword of the enemy, or be led away into captivity, or consumed by civil dissensions, biting and devouring one another. For wise and most important reasons therefore it was, that when "God established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, he commanded the fathers that they should make them known to their children; that the generation to come should know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children; that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments."*

Had this divine injunction been obeyed, religious knowledge would have been regularly transmitted by parents to their children, from generation to generation. But that knowledge once lost (as from various causes it has been lost) by parents, ignorance must thenceforward be transmitted in the place of it. In the present state of

* Psal. lxxviii. 5.

things among us, many are the parents who | sion, were overheard to exclaim, at one of can neither teach their children, nor afford these solemnities-"This is life indeedto pay for their being taught. How melan- We never lived before !"-"Out of the choly, and in the end how fatal, to society mouth of babes and sucklings was praise must be the consequences, unless the cause thus perfected!" be taken up by the charitable and well- Children clothed and instructed in other disposed!-Blessed be God, it has been parts of the kingdom, cannot meet in this taken up by Britons, in a manner unknown world; but all, if they make a proper use to any other age or nation. At the yearly of what they learn, will meet in the next, meeting in the cathedral of the metropolis, to give thanks to God, and acknowledge the 6000 poor children, neatly clothed in the kindness of their benefactors. A more powuniform of their respective schools, are erful consideration cannot be urged (and seen arranged in rising circles, and heard therefore no other needeth to be urged) to sounding forth together the praises of God. encourage all parties concerned in these Struck with what they saw and heard (and charities, to perform their respective duties I suppose the like never was seen or heard,)—those who have ability, to give liberally; two noblemen of the kingdom of Portugal, those who teach, to do it with fidelity; and consequently of the Romish persua-those who learn, with diligence.

DISCOURSE XXX.

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE SEA.

PSALM, XCV. 5.

The sea is his, and he made it.

WHEN man was first formed, creation | his life in sifting the disputes between the was his book, and God his preceptor. The catholics and protestants, composed, towards elements were so many letters, by means of which, when rightly understood and put together, the wisdom, power, and goodness of the great Creator became legible to him.

The proficiency made by Adam under his heavenly Teacher, appears from the circumstance of his imposing upon the creatures, when they were brought to him for that purpose, names expressive of their natures; a task which he could never have performed, unless, by the assistance of his divine Guide, he had first been introduced to an intimate acquaintance with those natures.

Happy the times when all knowledge thus lay in one volume; when the pursuit of wisdom was attended by pleasure, and followed by devotion! For who doth not find delight in contemplating the works of the Lord? Who, when he hath duly contemplated the works, can forbear to praise the Workmaster ?

The great and learned champion of the Roman church, who spent the best part of

the close of his days, a small treatise upon the ascent of the soul to God by meditation on the creatures, which, from thenceforth, he made his constant companion, and was wont to say, it was more satisfaction to him to have been the author of that, than of all his large volumes of controversy.

The raptures with which the penmen of the holy Scriptures expatiate upon the perfections of God, as displayed in the creation, are well known. And could we bring our minds habitually into the same train of thinking, every walk we take would begin with admiration and end with praise. We should always, upon such occasions, think what the Psalmist has so finely expressed, after a survey of the heavens above and the earth beneath-" O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches!" And who, that looks around him from the delightful place where we now are,* can forbear to add, "So is this great and wide sea also!" For of

This discourse was composed at Brighthelmstone.

this truth let us never be unmindful, that wonderful as the sea is in itself, and beneficial as it is to the sons of men, all its wonders and all its benefits reflect glory and honor on him who formed and poured it abroad-Let us remember, that "The sea is his, and he made it."

Such an object, continually before our eyes, invites and demands our attention; and religion calls upon us to search out the riches of divine power and goodness contained in it. When we place ourselves upon the shore, and from thence behold that immense body of waters, stretching away on all sides, far as the eye can reach; and when we consider how large a portion of the globe is covered in like manner, what a noble idea are we hereby enabled to form of the immensity of that Being, who, in the emphatical language of Scripture, is said not only to "weigh the mountains in a balance," but to "take up the sea in the hollow of his hand!" in whose sight the hills are but as dust, the ocean is no more than a drop. The immeasurable breadth of the sea may remind us of God's boundless mercy; its unfathomable depth holds forth an image of his unsearchable judgments.

praise him with your voices, as we constantly do with ours, while we thus intelligibly proclaim aloud the might of his power, and the glory of his majesty!

Pleasing is the variety of prospects which the sea, at different times, affords us. For, one while, like the conscience of a good man, calm and unruffled, it reflects a bright and beautiful image of the light which shineth upon it from above; at another, like the heart of the wicked, it is dark and cloudy, stormy and tempestuous, agitated from the very bottom, and its "restless waters cast up mire and dirt." Reflect, for a moment, on on these two pictures of virtue and vice, and then doubt, if you can, to which of the originals your choice ought to be directed.

To behold the ebbing and flowing of the tide, is an amusement ever new. By this contrivance of infinite wisdom (whatever second causes are employed to produce the effect) the whole mass of sea water is kept in continual motion, which, together with the salt contained in it, preserves it from corrupting (as it would do if stagnant) and poisoning the world. At one part of the day, therefore, the ocean seems to be leaving us, and going When we see a mass of water rising up by to other more favored coasts; but at the a gradual ascent, till the sky seems, as it were, stated period, as if it had only paused to reto descend and close upon it, a thought im- cover itself, it returns again, by gradual admediately strikes us-What is it which pre-vances, till it be arrived to its former height. vents these waters from breaking in upon, and overflowing the land, as they appear in heaps so much above it? Let us adore that unseen power, which, by a perpetual decree, keeps them in their proper place, nor suffers them to intrude themselves into one which is not theirs. It is God's will that it should be so when he gives the word, "Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further," plain sand proves a sufficient barrier. The obedient waves bow themselves and retire. They continue this day according to thine ordinance, O Lord, "for all things serve thee," but rebellious man, whom nothing can restrain from passing the bounds set him by thy commandments!

Hear attentively the noise of the seaHow grand and awful the sound! even as the voice of the Almighty God when he speaketh! St. John, in the Revelation, to give us some notion of the praises of God as uttered by men and angels, or the choirs of heaven and earth united before the throne, has chosen this similitude, joining two others with it; the creation does not afford a fourth "I heard, as it were, the voice of much people in heaven, and the voice of many waters, and the voice of mighty thunderings, saying Hallelujah ! " And is not this what the waves always say," Praise the Lord"

There is an ebb and a flow in all human affairs; and a turn of events may render him happy who is now miserable: the vessel which is stranded may yet be borne up on the waters, may put out again to sea, and be blessed with a prosperous voyage.

Nor is the sea more wonderful in itself, than it is beneficial to mankind.

From its surface vapors are continually arising, drawn upwards by the heat of the sun, which, by degrees formed into clouds, drop fatness on our fields and gardens, causing even the wilderness to smile, and the valleys, covered over with corn, to laugh and sing. Thus the prayers of the faithful servants of God, daily ascending from all parts of the earth, return in large effusions of grace and blessing from heaven.

But we are indebted to the ocean not only for the vapors sent up from its surface, but likewise for many springs, which have their origin from the great deep beneath, with which the sea communicates. These, arising in vapor through the lower parts of the earth, break forth, and issue in streams, many of which, joined, form rivers, and so go back again to the place from whence they came; as the blood in the human body flows in streams from the heart, through the arteries and returns to it again in rivers by the veins