To these things should always be added, also, humble, fervent prayer for the blessing of GOD on the instructions, which are actually given. Without this blessing, all human efforts will be to no purpose. "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain, that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh in vain." It will be in vain " to rise up early and sit up late, and eat the bread of sorrows," with the hope of training up children for God, without his blessing to render the exertions which are made for this end efficacious. But this blessing will not be given, unless we ask for it. In this case, only, will our children be truly an heritage from the Lord.

Wherever these things are neglected, either partially or wholly, children are so far badly educated and parents, in this case, will be obliged to remember with extreme regret, when they see their children "forget the GoD that made them, and lightly esteem the Rock of their salvation," that their own misconduct, their own unfaithfulness, has been, extensively, the cause of their children's ruin.

I have observed above, that, susceptible as the mind is of strong impressions in childhood, those, that are of a religious nature cannot be made without great care, and pains. Good seed can be sown with success, only by means of laborious cultivation. With weeds the case is far otherwise. They spring up without any culture, and become more vigorous, the more the soil is neglected. The enemy, that sowed tares in the field, accomplished this business, while men slept. When parents sleep over their task, Satan always performs his. Neglected children always receive evil impressions of every kind, without number, and with a power which it is not easy to limit. Such impressions their own propensities prepare them strongly to receive. Such impressions, every thing around them, every thing with which they correspond, will continually make. Their commerce with the world, will fill them with evil thoughts, and desires; will form them to evil habits; and will conduct them to evil practices. Neglected children grow up to sin, of course; just as uncultivated ground is covered with thorns and briers.

But neglect is not the only mode of bad education. Children are sometimes directly taught to sin both by precept and example. By the example, even of parents themselves, they are often taught to be profane; and that in many forms; to jest with things of a sacred nature; to ridicule them, and, universally, to treat them with contempt; to violate the sabbath; to forget the sanc tuary; to be lewd; to become sots; to lie; to cheat; and to steal. All these evils, and many others, are at times, so promi nent in the conversation and conduct of parents, so continually exhibited, and so gross in their appearance; that a child, without a miracle, can hardly fail of contamination. I need not tell you how far such children must be from remembering their Creator.

There are, however, other modes, in which children are directly educated to sin, with respect to which a greater number of parents are guilty, and from which far greater numbers of children are in danger. These, being much less gross, and much less obvious to the eye, and particularly having been long and very extensively pursued by persons of reputation; have acquired a kind of sanction from custom, and a kind of ratification from the common agreement of decent society. All these may be involved in one short description, viz. an education for this world.

Under this broad character, however, are to be ranged many distinct and widely separated modes of procedure. Of these two or three, only, can be mentioned at the present time.

Parents often teach their children that the acquisition of wealth is the proper and commanding object of all their pursuits. This they do, never perhaps, in express terms; but in the general tenor of their conversation, and conduct. Whenever they talk seriously, they talk almost only about wealth, and the acquisition of wealth. They exult before them in the good bargains, which they have made, and lament the bad ones; disclose their schemes for making better; mourn over the bad state of markets; pride themselves in their property, particularly in the superiority of their circumstances to those of others; speak contemptuously of the poor; panegyrize the rich; and irresistibly as well as universally show, that in their view money, literally and absolutely, an

swereth all things. How can children, before whom all this is perpetually done, who see wealth thus idolized by their parents, and nothing else considered as of any importance, fail of imbibing from so venerable a source the same idolatry. When they are thus early, and thus efficaciously, taught to serve Mammon; how can they be expected to serve, or even to remember GOD.

All these instructions, also, are enhanced by the conduct of the parents. Often they expend their property with extreme reluctance, even for purposes plainly useful; give with a grudging hand, when they give at all, to the public, the stranger, and the poor; decry every liberal or charitable proposal; and sneer contemptuously, and predict speedy beggary and ruin, concerning every liberal and charitable man. On the other hand, they rise early, and sit up late, and eat the bread of toil and care, to increase their own possessions; and in the language of their practice cry, "give, give;" while neither their hearts, nor their tongues, ever say, " It is enough." How can the children of such parents feel, as if they had any concern with death or eternity, with heaven or hell? How can they remember GoD, when from the first commencement of their understanding they see him totally forgotten by those, whom they most reverence and love?

There are other parents, who in educating their children give the same place to the objects of ambition, which those, whom I have mentioned, allot to wealth. These destine their children to popularity, fame, place, and power. These children are taught perpetually, that their supreme good lies in outstripping others, and acquiring in this manner the wreath of reputation. Genius, talents, eloquence, are rung continually in their ears, as the great instruments of achieving the coveted prize, and as possessions, therefore, of inestimable value. The children, on the one hand, learn to idolize these objects; and under the influence of parental dotage are easily persuaded, on the other, that themselves are the very caskets, in which these jewels are treasured up by the hand of nature. Hence they become lamentably, and often insupportably, vain; like the fabled Narcissus, they sicken with the love of their own beauty; and, like the more sottish national VOL. II.

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assembly of France, dethrone JEHOVAH, and, making a Goddess of their own reason, worship it in his stead.

Should the children of the former class of parents become rich, beyond their most sanguine hopes; what part of their wealth would they carry with them into eternity; and what dif ference would there be in the grave between them, and the beg gar, who died under a hedge? Should the children of the latter class reach the pinnacle of fame, and the summit of power; of what use would their talents be, when they were summoned to their final account; and what sort of distinction would they procure them in the future world? Before the Judge of the quick and the dead, how melancholy must be the recital of talents wrapped in a napkin, and buried in the earth?

There are parents also, and, I am afraid, not less numerous than either of the classes mentioned, who educate their children to fashionable opinions, and practices. The supreme object of these parents, and the object which their children are taught to consider as supreme, is to have the children make an advantageous appearance in the world. For this end they are taught, with great care, and expense, what are called accomplishments: such as fashionable manners, dancing, dressing, drawing, music, and many other things of a similar nature. Their minds, in the mean time, are furnished with little useful knowledge, with few useful habits, and with no sound moral principles: for, unhappily, such principles have rarely been fashionable. Of God, and religion, indeed, they must have heard; but they have heard of them as subjects of antiquated tales; and never as objects of fashion, nor as means of enabling themselves to make a graceful and brilliant appearance. The conversation of both the parents, and the children, turns chiefly, or wholly, upon the newest fashion of dress, furniture, equipage, and manners, and upon the happy beings, who by these things have acquired peculiar distinction in the gay world upon the last, or the next, amusement or party. and the appearance, dresses, and accomplishments, of those who were, or will be, present; upon the last, or the next, play, the scenery, and the actors; and upon innumerable other trifles of

the same frivolous nature. The business of their life is to visit the theatre, the drawing-room, and the card-table; to dress; to dance; to ride; to frequent watering places; to see shows; and to fritter away time in conversation upon these insignificant objects. Infatuated parents! who thus train up those, whom they professedly love, to objects of absolute insignificance; who teach them to cull straws, and feathers, and never think of conducting them to any solid or enduring good. Unhappy children! converted by their own parents into intellectual butterflies; and taught to spend the summer of life in displaying their pinions to the sun, and sporting from one flower and sweet to another; till the melancholy day arrives, when they can sport no more. Happy would it be, could they know that there is a dismal winter approaching; a frost, which will terminate their sport and splendour forever.

How hopeless must children educated in this manner, be of performing or even thinking of the duty enjoined in the text! 'We may wish with any degree of ardency, but can never expect, that a mind, thus formed, should remember its Creator; or that GOD would take up his residence in a temple, consecrated to amusement and trifling, and filled with this senseless idolatry.

Children are to be educated to industry, and taught to make the most of their talents. When it is in our power, they should be educated to graceful manners, and pleasing accomplishments But, whatever else we do, we should "train them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." The evil of these modes of education lies supremely in the degree of importance, which we attach, and teach them to attach, to these objects: objects in an absolute sense of little value, and in a comparative sense of none. In this manner we educate them either to sordid avarice, and equally sordid ambition; or to a despicable, and sinful, frivolity of mind. In all these cases we harden their hearts against Religion, and against GOD. We teach and help them to provide, indeed, for a life, that is bounded by a day; for a character, which will expire in the grave; and for a body, soon to be devoured by worms: but we give up their souls to endless beggary, shame,