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SERMON XIV.

EDUCATION.

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PROVERBS Xxiii. 15.

'My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even

mine."

OUR moral constitution is such, that whilst there is any thing like a healthful play of our powers and sensibilities, we derive pain and pleasure from the pain and pleasure of others, so that to grieve a fellowcreature is to grieve ourselves, and to make him happy is to increase our own happiness. There may, indeed, be such a derangement of the moral constitution, that the very reverse shall take place: hatred and revengefulness may acquire such power, that something like gratification is derived from the misery of an enemy, and envy will undoubtedly look with dislike and distress on the prosperity of a rival.

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Preached at Liverpool, on behalf of the National Schools.

But these instances tell nothing against the truth of our being made to "rejoice with them that do rejoice, and to weep with them that weep;" they only prove that we are so constituted, as to be intimately acted on by the condition of others, but so disordered by sin that the springs work the wrong way, making the pleasure come from the pain, and the pain from the pleasure; though the precise reverse would be the case were the mechanism repaired, and its several wheels set to rights. And when the Psalmist delivered his general maxim, that in keeping God's commandments there is great reward, he may be thought to have had regard to love as the fulfilment of the law; for certainly if love fulfil the law, there is a present reward in keeping the law: we cannot love our neighbour without feeling him in some sense a part of ourselves; and then our own happiness is multiplied through the adding to it his. True indeed, if we thus make his happiness our own, we must also make his misery: but then sharing another's grief makes that grief lighter to the sufferer; and surely there is a satisfaction, yea, a pleasure in pain, if it help, in any way, to the soothing one whom we love.

Thus we may fairly give it, not only as one of the features in our moral constitution, but as one great motive to thankfulness to our Creator, that we are to be made happy through the happiness of others, as well as through the direct communication to ourselves of the material of happiness. And hence we

can be justly and powerfully urged to the doing or the forbearing certain things, on the principle that others will be thereby affected, whether for evil or for good. The man of the greatest selfishness may not shut himself up in himself, declaring that he cares not for an effect upon others, and that if you would move him you must speak simply of effects upon himself. The effect upon others will, in a greater or less degree, if not through direct impact yet through reflection, be an effect upon himself; and it may often be but an appeal to his selfishness, to entreat him to act as though he were divested of selfishness. The moral constitution, if obstinately thwarted, is continually avenging itself: he who strives to live for himself, and thus does violence to a great law of his nature, eats of the fruit of his own ways, and has disquietudes forced upon him by the disquietudes of others.

But to confine ourselves to a particular case, how powerful is or should be the motive to the doing or the forbearing certain things, which is derived from the effect that will be thereby produced on those with whom we have the most intimate association. You may think it, if you will, but an exaggerated expectation, that men may be influenced in their actions by the consequences of those actions on the unknown and remote, consequences which may, in some way or measure, return upon themselves. But take the case of parties bound together by the closest ties of relationship, surely there is nothing fanciful or

far-fetched in expecting that it will be a motive of great power with the one, that such or such an action will have great effect upon the other. Here, at all events, the reciprocity is so immediate and acknowledged-unless, indeed, the moral constitution have sustained far more than the ordinary derangement that we may safely take it as amounting to nearly the same thing, if we show a parent or a child, for example, that he will benefit himself, or that he will benefit that other who is but part of himself. And it would seem to be upon this principle that Solomon proceeds in delivering the words of our text. There can be no debate that he wishes to furnish his son with a motive to the doing right. But whence does he fetch this motive? Not from the immediate effect upon the son, but from the immediate effect upon himself. "My heart shall rejoice, even mine." He repeats it, you observe, that there might be no mistake: it is not, "thy heart shall rejoice," but "my heart, even mine." Yet we may not think that Solomon was here urging on his son the making a sacrifice of his own happiness in order to promote his. He was rather saying to him, Make me happy, and that will make yourself. If he left out all mention of the child's happiness, and spake only of his own, we may be sure that he proceeded on the acknowledged principle that such is the association between the parent and the child, that what was done to gladden the father would be most effectual in causing gladness to the son. And

we have, therefore, in our text a very peculiar, but a very touching appeal to children—an appeal that they strive to do right for the sake of the pleasure which their so doing will cause to their parents. But then the child might be disposed to meet this appeal with a sort of remonstrance, as though it were somewhat unreasonable to require him to act with a view to the happiness of another, rather than his own. We have taken pains, therefore, at the very outset, to remove this objection by fixing thought on the intimacy of the association between parent and child, showing you that it can only be where there is some monstrous disruption, some fearful want of natural affection, that the one can make the other happier, and not also make himself. Let this be borne in mind as we proceed with our discourse, and no child will say that he is not sufficiently left to consult his own interests, if we expect it to have great weight with him in deciding or regulating his conduct, that a father or a mother, as if requiring him to act without thought for himself, may address him, and urge him, in the language of Solomon, " My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine."

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But now let us proceed to the more distinct examination of the passage, and to the endeavour at extracting from it its several lessons, whether to parents or children. Our foregoing remarks have gone to the showing, that if a child do that which will make a parent happier, he does that which will

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