ble at perjury? Give to your children a pious education, and thus fulfil your oath.

4. Let me urge you to this duty, from a regard. to the temporal and eternal welfare of your children. The temporal happiness of your offspring, depends in a great degree upon their pious education. Except their minds are fortified by holy instructions, and their hearts impressed with religious sentiments, they will run heedlessly on in the paths of folly and vice, strangers to those high joys which flow from an approving conscience, from communion with God, and from a foretaste of heaven.. And besides all this, there is great danger that they indulge those gross and abominable crimes, which will bring down upon them, not only the vengeance of God, but also the execration of their fellow-men. Unrestrained by sentiments of piety, uncontrolled by a conscience which has never been enlightened;: what is to prevent them from being plunged into infamy by their unbridled passions? Examine the registers of guilt, read the lives of those men whọ by a public execution have expiated for their viola-. tion of the laws; do you not find numbers of them cursing their parents for bringing them to this state, by neglecting to give them a pious education? And with respect to the other sex; who are the females whose polluted courses have covered their families with ignominy, and themselves with contempt? Are they not those who were not taught

in youth to reverence the God of purity? And even if your children should all be saved, (as we fervently desire and pray that they all may be saved) from these dreadful excesses, yet still they may, by the habitual indulgence of other sins less odious in themselves, procure for themselves misery and shame. I beseech you to look around you in the world; attend to the lives of those persons who are most loaded with the contempt and the disdain of society. Are they not most generally those who have been sent into the world by their parents unprotected by pious habits and religious precepts ? Ye fathers, whose love for your children is warm and disinterested; ye mothers, whose felicity is intimately connected with their happiness, can you be so blind and so cruel to them, as to expose your beloved offspring to so deplorable a state.

But supposing that none of these fears should ever be realized; supposing that your children who are thus neglected by you, should live caressed and applauded by men, the favourites of the world; yet still death will by and bye, approach to them; death, for which you never taught them to prepare; death, which spares not the favorites of earth; which is the entrance into eternal torments for all that are not interested in Jesus Christ. Come then, careless and neglectful parents, who are indulging in your children a thoughtlessness and inattention to the concerns of their souls; come and

let us view your children contending with death; let us see what happiness you have secured for them. Behold them weighed down by infirmi. ties of body, harrassed by anxieties of mind, lashed by the stings of conscience. They look back upon the past with confusion; they tremble to remember" that they glorified not God, in whom their breath was, and whose are all their ways:" (Dan. v, 23.) They cast their eyes towards the future, and see nothing but images of horror. Whilst shuddering and affrighted at beholding the depth of the gulph into which they are about to plunge, they cast looks of reproach and anguish upon you. "Of what avail," they cry to you, "of what avail are now all the riches, the honours, and pleasures of the world, which you were anxious to procure for me; why did you not tell me that a single Christ was better than all earthly friends? Why did you not tell me of the importance of eternal things I now see all their consequence; but I see it too late. Fool that I was, to be blinded and rendered careless by you: but my self-reproaches are now unavailing; the earth vanishes the frowning Judge appears; hell opens to receive

me."

Thus they die in horror, and driven forever from the presence of God, "lift up their eyes, being in torments." Parents, can any of you be so inhu man, so barbarous, so monstrous, as to neglect your children and prepare for them this fearful doom?

Let me hope better things of you; let me hope that you will strive to lead them early to God; be faithful, and God has promised to bless your exertions. Then your children cannot fail to be happy; they will have the Lord as their friend, their guard, and protector; and Jesus Christ as their high-piest, their advocate, and redeemer. They will have those true riches which endure for ever; those durable honours which eternity will not impair; those ravishing pleasures which flow at God's right hand. In life, they will be honoured and respected by the wise and good: In death, they will be tranquil and serene; for they will be supported by those sentiments of religion which were early felt by them, and upheld by that Saviour to whom you early directed their thoughts, and their desires. And beyond the grave they shall be ever with the Lord; ever undefiled by sin, and unassailed by grief. Do you then love your children? "Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord;" and thus you will secure for them a happy life, a joyous death, and a triumphant eternity.

5. Finally, do you love yourselves? Do you wish to obtain the highest pleasures, and avoid the severest pains? Give your children a pious education. If the blessing of God on your tender care, render your offspring virtuous and holy, what pure delights will you experience. Their amiable and devout conduct will be a cordial to your soul,

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amidst the pains and decripitude of years; the applause bestowed upon them, will afford joy to you; they will never slight, disregard, nor dishonour you; but will strive by every grateful and delicate attention, by every expression of filial love, ennobled by religion, to gild the evening of your days. "Happy parent! your years shall be prolonged, not, as it often happens, to see your comforts fall from you one by one, and to become at once old and destitute; but to taste a new pleasure, not to be found among the pleasures of youth, reserved for your age; to reap the harvest of your labours, in the duty, affection, and felicity of your dear children." (Ogden.)

But if on the contrary, you refuse to bring up your children in the fear of the Lord, is there not cause to apprehend that they who are suffered to slight and neglect God, should also slight and neglect you? Is there not cause to apprehend that their passions may lead them into misery and guilt, which will embitter all your pleasures and poison all your enjoyments? Is there not cause to apprehend, that the time may come, when, like unhappy David, you will in vain seek for joy from the pomps and honours of the world, but must sorrowfully retire to your chamber, weeping for the irregularities of your child, and exclaiming in the bitterness of your soul, Oh! Absalom my son, my son?