is but a moment's pleasure, and it is endless damnation! O maiden called of God! let not that spark which has been kindled be put out by the unruly wind or the scowling storm. Listen to your mother's God that calls you. O father! O mother! let your children have some one to guide them through the dark way in this world. O friends and neighbors! take hold of hands, and part from Satan, and from all his wiles. And lift up your eyes. Your salvation draweth nigh. It lingereth not. It shall come. And God shall save you with an everlasting salvation.

PRAYER BEFORE THE SERMON.

Vouchsafe to us, our Heavenly Father. the Divine illumination. Grant to us more light. Grant us thine influence. Breathe upon us, that we may have power both to conceive all things that are right and noble, and to do the same. For in thee we live and move and have our being. Though we cannot discern thee; though we may not have such commerce with thee as we have with one another; though thou art a Spirit, and we are in the body; though we cannot with these dull instruments of the flesh discern spiritual things knowingly; yet thou art, and thou makest thy presence felt, and thou dost fill the hearts of those that believe on and trust thee with great joy. And in the communications of thy grace there are hours of blessed certainty and hours of revelation. Thou dost lift up thy people upon the mountain-top. Then thou art changed, and becomest radiant; and against the sky thou art brighter than any star that is in it.

O Lord! we thank thee for even these hours of transfiguration; and if in them we forget the duties of life, and fain would make tabernacles to abide in sweet experiences, below us are all the miseries of mankind, and we come down again, better, stronger, truer, more faithful, and pursue afterward, in the lower ways of life, our duties with more alacrity, for the high and blessed privileges which we have enjoyed.

Grant unto every one of thy children, as thou seest that they need, these intimations and revelations of thyself. If there be those who do not know how to trust thee, if there be those whose faith is very weak, if there be those that believe, and yet cry out, "Help my unbelief," Lord be very gracious unto such. And if they cannot walk alone, bear them in thine arms, thou Shepherd that dost carry the lambs. According to their weakness and their want let thy mercies abound unto them. Be gracious to all who would draw near thee with humble confession. We know their weakness. We know the strength of their wickedness. We know how defective they are in things that are right. We know how powerful in them are tendencies to evil. O Lord! we pray that thou wilt hear the cry of such souls. They do not desire captivity. They do not desire to be led astray by the strength of their passions. And though at times all their passions are as the mountains full of the Philistines, and their better resolutions are as thy people beaten small in the valleys, yet they ory unto thee, and thou dost overthrow their adversaries. If to-night they ask for Divine help against their own pride and worldliness, Lord, turn not away thine ear from their petition. If there are those who wish to make their way toward virtue, or to progress in anything pertaining to the true life of Christ, we beseech of thee that thou wilt reveal thyself to

them. If there is but a spark, thou art He that will not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax, until thou dost bring forth judgment unto victory. Be with those that need thee by reason of the greatness of their sin and their wickedness. And we beseech of thee that thou wilt draw near to all those that are cast down through despondency or remorse; to all those that wish they were dead, and yet dare not die; to all those that go forth into life seeing no glory in it.

How many there are who have been swept away and snared! How many there are who find their way in life so steep that they cannot climb it. Oh Lord! save them from discouragement; and grant that they may not slip backward toward perdition. May they hear the voice of hope crying unto them-the voice of God-saying, "Come up hither." May there be many to-night that shall lift their weary hands, that shall gird up their loins and enter upon the battle of life contesting evil, running from the mistakes of their past life, showing their sincerity in repentance of sin by a better walk, by forsaking that which is wrong, and by endeavoring to strengthen others in the respects in which thou dost strengthen them. We pray that thou wilt teach us to be more gentle and merciful. May we take our lessons, not from one another, but from Him in whom alone we hope for redemption. Grant that the sense of life's shortness may throw itself upon us, not to daunt us nor discourage us, but to put away untimely levity, and give us more earnestness, and make us do what our hands find to do, remembering that the night cometh fast in which we can do no more work.

Wilt thou grant thy blessing to rest upon all that are in thy presence as they severally need. And we pray that thou wilt grant thy blessing to all thy churches; to thy ministering servants; to all that preach the Gospel. Wilt thou comfort and strengthen them, and grant that they may see as the result of their labor a great harvest. Fulfill thy promises to all the earth. Cause wars to cease. Cause injustice and those oppressions which breed war to cease. May ignorance which tempts oppressors, itself be enlightened. May superstition, and all the mischiefs of depravity cease in all the earth. And may that blessed day of prediction come, when Christ shall reign a thousand

years.

And to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, shall be praises everlasting. Amen.

PRAYER AFTER THE SERMON.

Our Father, we beseech of thee that thou wilt bless the word of truth which we have spoken. Grant that it may be blessed to many souls. Awaken thoughtfulness; awaken desire; awaken conscience; awaken fear. May all our feelings strive with us. For how great is the darkness around us! How great is the current, and how strong the pressure toward things selfish, and carnal, and worldly! Without thy spirit we can do nothing. We need its light; we need its warmth; we need its encouragement. We need, O Lord God! that thou shouldst work in us to will and to do of thine own good pleasure. Thou art working. Blessed be God, thou dost not measure thy mercies by our desert. But how many art thou calling who do not deserve such mercies as thou art desirous of bestowing upon them! How many that are in thy presence have thrown away thy bounties in times past, and sinned against light and knowledge! And yet thou art come again. Before how many hearts dost thou stand to-night, knocking? To how many art thou saying, Open, and let me come in. My locks are wet with the dews of the night. O God of pious

mothers and sainted fathers! look upon the children that are left behind them, and have mercy upon them. O Lord God! join again in more blessed wedlock those who stand severed, loving each other with earthly love, but having no common hope in heaven above. O Lord God! look upon the young, and see how they are spoiled, how they are as sheep for the shambles, in this devouring city. Oh! have mercy upon them. And grant that to-night, by thy grace, many of them may be called, and that they may heed the call of God, and come to newness of life. Let thy work be revived. Pour out thy Spirit mightily in the hearts of thy people. And in all thy churches may we hear of multitudes awakened, and multitudes converted.

And to the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit, shall be praises evermore. Amen.

THE TRAINING OF CHILDREN.

"And ye, fathers, provoke not your children to wrath; but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."-EPH. VI., 4.

The Sunday for the baptism of children is a fit occasion for the instruction of parents who are bringing up children. It is true that no one can give such directions as shall insure success in the rearing of our children, or in relieving the parent from finding out his own way. When the most has been said, and the best modes have been given, each parent must, after all, make his own experience. There is much that must be left to discretion; much that will scarcely be the same to any two; but some general considerations may greatly help and comfort parents in their work. Some principles may be laid down which, being observed, will help, not only in the government of children, but in governing ourselves, and in governing, or rather, in managing, as the phrase is, those with whom we are obliged to transact the affairs of life.

That is a joyful hour in a household when a child is born to the young parents. They must be very worldly, and devoid of sensibility, who do not feel some awe over the new cradle. The mystery of human life comes very near, and never seems more wonderful than at the beginning of life. Perhaps not the little coffin itself is more affecting to one of deep and inward thought than is the cradle. While the child is yet a babe, the parents may have more care, but not so much anxiety, as when it is growing up, and begins to need training. At that time not a few, conscientious and earnest, feel themselves utterly helpless. And if they be cast far away from their parents, as often in this changing land they are, they reach out feeble hands of imploration, and long for some one to give them the clue, or lay down for them some principle, which embracing, they may apply from time to time in the rearing of their households.

I leave to physicians the questions of physical culture; not because they are unimportant in a moral point of view, but because only a section of this great subject can be discussed in any one discourse.

SUNDAY MORNING, Nov. 13, 1870. LESSON: MATTHEW XVIII., 1-10. HYMNS (Plymouth Collection): Nos. 286, 925, 927.

1. It is the more needful to give instruction, because the theory and the practice of family government have very much changed within a generation. The old English rigor of parental authority-that almost despotic government which parents still exercise in Germany-has not been known among us, even from an early day. I think the family opened toward liberty more in America than in the old land, where the Roman spirit and tradition prevailed. But even the strictness of New England has been greatly relaxed-and I think not to the damage of the household. It may be that the government which prevails in one period of time has such relations to public sentiment, and to manners and to customs, that it is better for that period than any later government would be; but I think that the milder type of family government which is prevailing now is certainly better for us than that more rigorous type which prevailed in New England. The prevalent sense of personal liberty, which has increased in the community at large, has penetrated the family and ameliorated its government. Children are freer. They earlier assume their own rights. They are not less loving, but they are certainly less reverential. Reverence, I may remark, has found a very poor soil and climate in America. It grows most scrubby. Children are, I think, taking the whole community together, better reared than they used to be. It will not do to select single instances in making a judgment of what is wisest and best. We must average the community. And if you take high and low, I think there is a greater number of families advanced higher in the care and development and training of their children, than at any former period, although the methods are very different. The schools, the social customs, the political ideas, the public sentiment at large, above all, the religious temper and genius of any age, will largely influence the family life. But the whole routine being broken up, many are perplexed as to what is the wisest course to take. There is so much written, there are so many new-fangled social theories, that a good many persons are sorely disturbed. And I hope to help such.

2. The question is, To whom do the children belong, that come into our households? In ancient days there would have been no hesitation on this point. They belonged to the parents. This was the case in the early periods of the Hebrew history. Nowhere, however, was it the case so emphatically, and in such a heathenish form, as in Rome, where the father owned, not simply his wife, but his children, in precisely the same sense that merchandise is owned; where he had not only the power of absolute government, but the power of life and death-limited, to be sure, in later days, in the Roman economy, but lying at the root of it nevertheless. And in Rome, the patria potestas, as it was called technically—the father's authority-did not termi