no easy performance; that continued watchfulness and self-restraint are requisite, and that after all, the best and wisest parents fall far short of a perfect example: still the principle must ever be before us;." Thou therefore that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself?"*

That all religious education is a difficult task, and requires much patience and exertion, is implied in the next clause of the text; 'THOU SHALT

TEACH THEM DILIGENTLY UNTO THY CHILDREN.

This observation is equally applicable to the rudiments of merely human knowledge. Languages are not to be attained, nor sciences fathomed, without patient study, much toil, and persevering effort. And yet in these we possess every advantage. The faculties of the mind are by nature adapted to the acquisition of general knowledge; and often there is in young persons a facility of attainment, and natural thirst for information. But in spiritual science it is quite otherwise; here every disadvantage is to be encountered. Every faculty of the natural man is enlisted against the acquirement of divine knowledge. The child is in itself a fallen and sinful creature, the teacher or parent partakes of the same nature; the heart of the youngest infant is predisposed to reject the truth, and the teachers are too often inclined, rather to relax, than to increase their efforts. Shall we not then have need of diligence? As

*Rom. ii. 21.

the prophet saith, "For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little and there a little."* Again and again must the same truths be enforced; repeatedly must the same precepts be inculcated, and this diligently, patiently, with unwearied forbearance and perseverance. Religion as a science is a wide and comprehensive branch of education; the holy Scriptures as a volume afford abundant matter for deep research and investigation; and to make our children well acquainted with the entire word of God is a paramount duty, as it is the foundation of all sacred learning. A divine energy and blessing is attached to this study; the piety of Timothy is attributed by St. Paul chiefly to maternal care, and to his early acquaintance with the holy Scripture. "I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt FIRST in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also." Here was an instance of hereditary faith descending by God's blessing on parental instruction and prayer through three generations. And in what was Timothy taught? The apostle reminds him, in the same Epistle, "that from a child," or from infancy, as the original implies, "he had known the holy Scriptures, which were able to make him wise unto salvation, through faith which is in † 2 Tim. i.5.

* Isa. xxviii. 10.

Christ Jesus."*

This "bread-corn, cast upon the

waters," even upon the unpropitious soil of the human heart, "shall be found after many days." The word of God is precious seed; and sown in faith, watered with parental tears and prayers, it shall not be lost, it shall spring up and bear fruit, perhaps when the hand that sowed it, is withered in the grave, and the lips which imparted knowledge are silent and cold! Let this thought cheer the heart of every pious parent, and stimulate to greater diligence, and more patient waiting upon God for his blessing and grace upon the souls of the beloved objects of so many anxious cares.

But there is a particular mode of imparting knowledge further recommended in the text which deserves our attentive consideration. Children are soon weary of direct, stated religious instruction; their attention flags, and their youthful hearts, naturally indisposed to grave and spiritual subjects, wander upon childish trifles. Hence the importance of an indirect, occasional, and attractive method of conveying information to their minds. And How can this be accomplished? "Thou shalt TALK of these things when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up!" That is, in addition to diligent, stated instruction in those truths which make for

* 2 Tim. iii. 15.

their everlasting peace, we should endeavour in our familiar intercourse with our children, to render such topics attractive to them. Religion must not be confined to the sabbath day, nor to the family devotions, nor to the Scripture lessons, but it must be diffused through our ordinary pursuits and daily occupations; and the judicious parent will soon acquire a facility in gathering subjects of interesting information not only from natural objects, and from works of art, but even from the most common domestic occurrences. It must not however be supposed that the indolent and careless parent will find this an easy task ; to recommend religious and moral truth by means of sensible objects, requires much spirituality of mind, much forethought, and great discretion; for while an occasional and well-timed reference to these topics will be highly beneficial, a continued effort to force them upon the youthful mind will infallibly tend to weary the child, and to increase its natural distaste for religion. In a word, let parents by their own personal piety place religion in an attractive form before their children; let them diligently and conscientiously teach them the word of God; and let their daily conversation have a spiritual tendency and they may then confidently commit the souls of their beloved offspring into the hands of God, resting upon his promise, "Train up a child in the way

he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it."*

That the system of education adopted in the families of many nominal christians, and in many public seminaries of learning, differs widely from that which we have now considered, cannot be denied. The mere cultivation of the intellectual powers, in the acquirement of human learning, appears in many cases to have altogether superseded religious instruction. While the children of the lower orders are, in the present day, to a great extent receiving an excellent religious education, and are from their infancy made familiar with the sacred Scriptures and with the admirable writings of our church, the children of many of the higher orders know little more than what they can glean from the public services of the sabbath, or an occasional repetition of the church catechism! For six days. in the week their attention is exclusively directed to the acquirement of languages or of the sciences, and their minds are often corrupted by the perusal of heathen writers, and by a familiar acquaintance with the licentiousness of ancient mythology. Of the evidences, doctrines, or precepts of their own religion they are lamentably ignorant: and what other result can be expected than that which has in too many instances occurred, viz. that young persons, so educated, fall an easy prey to scepti

* Prov. xxii. 6.