PRAYER BEFORE THE SERMON.*

Lord Jesus, again lay thy hands upon the heads of little children, and bless them. Again rebuke those among us who do not believe that God takes care of children, and who leave them to be swayed hither and thither by the impulses of their nature, until they have grown to man's estate, and think that then only are they able to ripen into piety. Teach us all to rear our children in the nurture and in the admonition of the Lord, so that their first thoughts shall be instructed toward God, and their first feeling taught to follow in the way of Christ and Christian love. May we have faith to believe that thy grace can reach to the very cradle. May we have faith to believe that thy holy spirit can change infant hearts. If when rugged temptations and violent sins, and all the passions of life have gnarled and distorted the disposition, thou canst change men, and make them gentle, and pure, and true, how much easier canst thou change the young before perversion has been followed by settled habits! May we look more and more to the sanctuary of home, and to the gospel of mothers' lips, and to the early instruction of our children, and to that life which shall begin with its roots in sacred love. And grant that thy church may be nourished by men who shall grow up, from the very beginning, in true holiness, that in the nurture and admonition of the Lord whole generations may be brought up.

We pray that thou wilt grant thy blessing to rest upon all those parents who are seeking to rear their children aright. Let not their faith fail. And if they seem, in later years, to swerve and go aside from the right way, may they have faith to bring them back again-a faith that will not let them go; a faith that trusts in the word of the Lord, that they shall not depart utterly from the way of their instruction.

We beseech of thee that thou wilt bless all the labors of those who seek to rear the young to a nobler life; to manliness, in honor and in Christian piety.

Grant, we pray thee, that thy kingdom may be established in the hearts of all those who are gathered into our Sabbath-schools and Bible-classes; and in the hearts of all the young that are in our households; and in the hearts of all the young that are not at home, and that have no friends, and that are strangers among strangers, and are subject to all the mischiefs of temptation, and all the troubles and trials of sin.

We beseech of thee, O Lord! that thy truth may be mighty upon the hearts of all. May the hearts of the parents be turned to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents. Grant that there may be in Christ Jesus more holy love, more pervasive purity, more earnest faith, more truth-speaking, and more fidelity, in all the relations of life.

We pray, O Lord! that thou wilt bless us this morning as we are gathered together, so many from so many ways, with such different histories, and with experiences that to each one are more than all the world. Who can tell his own life? What word can interpret the inward life? But we are all open before thee; and that which is even to ourselves intricate and mysterious in our own nature and experience is perfectly plain to thee.

Bless us according to thy sight, and according to thy mercy, and not according to the wisdom of our asking. Grant, we pray thee, that every one in thy presence may feel that God is near to him for good. Open to thy people, by faith, the sense of thy nearness and of thy blessedness, in mercy. Grant that, they may be able, this morning, to take hold of thy promises with renewed faith; that they may look up to thee with renewed confidence, and feel, indeed, that they are brought into the very banqueting hall of the king. May they touch, not the hem of thy garment alone: may they, with * Immediately following the baptisma of children.

the disciple of old, be able to lay their head in thy bosom. We pray that thou wilt also speak comfortable things to those who have heard what is the greatness of thy power and glory, but wist not what to think. Grant that there may be some consolation to such to-day. Grant that unconverted souls may be touched with divine fervor, and brought into seriousness and earnest consideration of their way.

We beseech of thee that thou wilt look upon all who have wandered. Lord, most merciful, and long-suffering! how long dost thou bear with those who sin against thee! How wonderful is that mercy by which thou dost call them back again, and make all promises to them if they will but cling to thee! If there be any in thy presence, to-day, who are soiled and stained with sin, and who have wandered far away from God, oh! let them hear the voice of invitation, the pleadings of mercy, and the promises of hope and of success. And by the Holy Ghost may there be kindled in such hearts a light that will burn brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.

And we pray that thou wilt bless those who labor for the outcast, and for the forsaken, and for the neglected, and for the ignorant. Lord, love them, and fill their souls with love, that they may go to their work, from day-today, with fresh unction, with new power from on high. We thank thee that within the hearts of thy servants thy words have not died, but that thou art raising up many in our midst who are laboring for Christ, and professing his name, and preaching him to those around about them; and that thy spirit follows their labor; and that there are many awakened and converted; and that the voice of those who rejoice is heard in many a family. Thou art reconstructing desolate places. Thou art bringing back wanderers. Thou art restoring wicked men to righteousness. Thou art fulfilling the prayers of parents, long dead, toward their recreant and sinning children. Thou art glorifying thyself in many a place. And in the day of final glory and final exhibition, thou wilt show forth what thou art doing for the hearts of men.

We thank thee, O Lord our God, for that arm of power, unshriveled, unwithered, stretched out yet; and for that great fountain-heart of mercy which bears thoughts more numerous than the drops of morning dew, upon all that are perishing in need. And we pray that thou wilt still speed thy work. Still may thy people rejoice in the Lord, and rejoice in the labors of the Lord. And may they go forth sowing precious seed. Though they sow and wet the seed with tears, may they remember that they shall come again ere long with their bosoms filled with sheaves.

And grant, we pray thee, that thy truth may everywhere prevail over error. May men learn truth through love. May they learn to bear with one another, and to forbear. May thy different churches no longer vex each other. May each, according to its light, labor for the welfare of men, and for the glory of God. And grant, we pray thee, that all of them may be drawn more and more into the blessed spirit of unity, of common faith, and common hope.

Let thy kingdom come in all the world, and fill the whole earth with thy glory.

We ask it for Christ's sake. Amen.

DESIRING AND CHOOSING.

"Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season."-HEB. XI. 25.

This is a part of that discourse of faith which was illustrated by all the historical instances which were then within the reach of the apostle, and in which were passed in review the greatest names of Hebrew antiquity, the element of faith in each being brought out. And in that whole group of noble souls, though living in the dusk of the earliest day, there was none greater than Moses, of whom this was spoken. Great, he was, by the native stature of his mind—one of the few preeminently great minds; one of the four or five men of the world's history, as a leader, as an organizer, as a legislator, as a hero.

His circumstances, you will recollect, were peculiar. Born of a despised race, that then were in captivity in Egypt; doomed to destruction; saved by the shrewdness and love of his mother; adopted, by a most romantic incident, into the family of the reigning house; reared as a prince; educated to the last degree of knowledge that then was attainable; with a mind peculiarly fitted to take on education, he stood apparently upon the threshold of all the things that men most desire in this world. There was nothing that wealth could give that the child of Pharaoh's daughter could not have. There was nothing in position, and nothing in honor, and nothing in government, that was not open to his hand. There was nothing in pleasure that was not accessible to him. Or, if he chose, he could turn aside to "the mysteries," as science and knowledge were then called. Though knowledge was the prerogative of the few-namely, the highest class-yet he belonged to it, and knowledge was his.

Now, under such circumstances, the sense of righteousness, the sense of justice and equity, and the prospect of the future, were more to him than all the treasures of Egypt. And although he would have, if he chose his own people, to ally himself with all that was despicable in slaves; although he would have to bear, at their hands, the utmost indignities; although he was to be a vagabond, driven out; although when the pressure of the government came upon him it would be enough to destroy a score of men; and although he was to wear out

SUNDAY EVENING, March 20, 1870. LESSON: PSA. XLVIII. HYMNS (Plymouth Collection): Nos. 907, 1185, 1163.

eighty most laborious years (and being a prophet all this rose up before him) yet he chose it. That is to say, he desired it, he sought it, and he had it. And so illustrious an instance of choosing you scarcely can select anywhere else, now that we see the whole of it in perspec

tive.

"Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ [showing that Christ was the Jehovah of the Old Testament, and that he was worshipped in the Old Testament dispensation just as we worship him now, though under the national designation of God] greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he hath respect unto the recompense of the reward."

Afar off he beheld the ends and final issues, and chose them; and all the circumstances intermediate he accepted as the condition on which he was to receive the fruition of the final reward.

I propose to discourse, to-night, on the Difference between Desiring and Choosing; because there are a great many who are snared at that point, and because if we can separate the real nature of choice from all its incidents and accidents, there are some applications that can be made which will be of very great value to those who are honest, and who mean to follow their best light.

Of all the things that have been made in this world, there is nothing so susceptible as man. We are more accustomed to speak of man as a creature of power, producing effects, than in any other way; but if one will narrowly study himself and his fellows, I think he will be still more surprised at their susceptibility to receive impressions.

When we hold a mirror up before any object, it takes instantly both the form and the hue of that object; but it is without any power to change. It is the same mirror, and is unsusceptible to anything but the reflection of the objects that are presented to it.

There are some thirty or forty separate mirrors in the human mind -for every faculty is, as it were, a mirror held up to some side of nature, no one of them taking in everything, but each one of them being adapted to some corresponding element in the great round of creation. There is all that cluster of faculties which we call the reason, or the understanding, made up of severalties, each particular element of which represents, or stands over against, a line of truth, and is susceptible to it. And all the reason is susceptible to all the kinds of truth which exist in the earth, whether physical, or social, or moral.

Then there are the moral sentiments, of their several kinds, each one of which, as a separate interpreting mirror, throwing away every thing else, selects to itself some particular sphere of truth-the con

sciene, moral truth; hope, its particular kinds of truth; love, its sorts of truth; beneficence, its varieties of truth.

So, through the whole line, each one of the different faculties— the susceptibilities, as they are sometimes called-stands, as it were, over against a province of influences or truths. And it is not for man to determine whether he will be influenced by them or not. He cannot help himself. It is not for me, opening my eye upon color, to say, "I will not perceive color." I cannot help perceiving color. It is not for me, in the presence of sweet music, to say, "I will not be affected by sweet music." It takes care of itself. It affects me without my will. You are so susceptible, and I am so susceptible, that, certain influences being set in motion upon us, there is a side of us on which they strike. And this susceptibility, when it is carried up a certain way, is called desire. It culminates in a state in which you begin to want that which comes pleasantly or favorably upon the mind.

Here is an agent created with wondrous subtlety, and put together in a manner extraordinary, as to itself-the body, the mechanism of the physical organization, in all the animated creation. For, although single animals have specialties which surpass man, there is not in the animal kingdom any organization which, in its sum total, is to be compared with man. We cannot fly as the eagle can; but the eagle cannot manipulate as we can. We cannot strike as the lion can; but the lion cannot carve and draw as we can. We are feebler in some things in order to be stronger in others; but the average is transcendently greater in man than in the animal creation. The physical organization is as inferior to the mind, as a casket is to the jewels which it carries. It is the mind, after all, that, being studied, is the most subtle, the richest and the most extraordinary, of all the things which a man can contemplate in this world.

It is no small thing to carry this mind in the midst of God's outward creation-in the glory of the heavens, and the glory of the earth; in fullness of the summers; in the endless variety of things that address themselves to each of the senses, and, through observation or reflection, to the taste and desire. It is a marvellous pilgrimage that a man makes, with such a susceptible mind as his, through the natural kingdom. But in society, all the combinations which men make among themselves, into neighborhoods, or into parties, or into schools, or into philosophies, or into social circles, or into bodies formed for the carrying out of ambitious designs-these things acting upon a sentient human mind, tend to create in it susceptibility and desire past all enumeration. It is no small thing to carry our minds, so sensitive, in the midst of all things that are desirable in life-its praises, its joys, its loves, its tastes, in endless profusion.