less frequent this last year than heretofore? Are we growing better in this respect, or worse? How shall we better withstand temptation for the future? or what course shall we take to avoid it? Do we feel more or less frequently, fits of anger, rage, and passion? Have we striven against them? Have we striven to any purpose? In what degree have we conquered or corrected them? or how shall we set about to do it? Are peevishness, envy, discontent, strife, malice, hatred, covetousness, more or less rife and strong in our hearts of late than they used to be? What evil actions, what evil speakings have they of late put us upon? What quarrels, what contentions have they drawn us into? Have we endeavoured to get the better of these evil passions? Have our endeavours been successful? Have they been sincere and continued? Do we feel peace, and quietness and humility, and good nature, and good will? Have any impressive and lively lessons been spreading and gaining ground on our hearts? In a word, has the past year been distinguished by any virtuous acts and virtuous endeavours, any bad habits broken and got the better of, any good rule of living begun ?

I trust, and I believe, that many of us will find in the review of the past, enough to comfort and encourage us. Many no doubt will find much to mortify, much to abase, much to humble them; but we shall all find enough to be done for the future.

Let us then awake out of sleep. Let us set about the reformation of our lives immediately. Let a new year begin a new course. Let us reflect that a year more is now gone; that the time is far spent; that now is our salvation drawing nearer; that a single year brings us nearer to the awful trial when our destiny will be fixed; nearer, not by a small and inconsiderable degree, but by a very serious and substantial portion of the whole term which we, any of us, reasonably expect to live.

XLIX.

SUNDAY SCHOOLS.

2 CHRONICLES XX. 13.

And all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.

In a great and solemn act of national devotion, which was held during the pious reign of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, upon the occasion of a public danger which then threatened their country, we read that Judah gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord; even out of all the cities of Judah, they came to seek the Lord.

Had we read no more than that Judah was gathered together, we should have been led perhaps to conclude that the assembly was made up of the king, the magistrates, and the priesthood; the heads of tribes, the masters of families, the principal persons, the aged, or at the lowest, the adult, inhabitants of the country. But the words of the text, which have been read to you, convey a more circumstantial, and, I think, very observable account of this great religious concourse. By them we are distinctly told, that not only those whom we have before enumerated formed the congregation which stood before the Lord, but that, together with the great body of the Jewish nation, were present also their little ones, their wives, and their children. This is a direct and decisive example for the proof of the following points; namely, the propriety and the duty of bringing children to the public worship of God, as an act of piety and devotion on the part of those who bring them. It is an example also of very high authority, and of an authority which is strengthened by every circumstance in the history. The assembly appears to have been held in pursuance of the prayer of Solomon, many ages before, that when any distress should overtake the nation, they should find their refuge in the protection of their God, when they sought it in his Temple. This prayer was accepted; and it was particularly remembered upon the occasion of which we are now discoursing. If, when evil cometh upon us,' say they, as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house and thy presence, for thy name is in this house, and cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help.'

Afterwards it is related, as we have remarked, who they were that stood before that house and in God's presence; ' even all Judah, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.' Now the little ones and the children were there, not probably for any knowledge they could be supposed to have of the nature or extremity of the public danger, nor consequently for any part they could immediately and personally take in the subject or the devotion of the meeting, but as a proof and expression, an act and testimony of the public piety, and of the particular piety of those who brought them thither.

The service was accepted by that Being to whom it was addressed. The manner of it therefore, was such as he approved. 'Thou wilt hear,' they said, 'and help.' God did hear and help them most effectually; their enemies were smitten and overthrown; the very people who had thus assembled in terror and supplication, returned soon after to Jerusalem to bless the Lord who had delivered them

Whether, therefore, we regard the solemnity or the effect of this religious act, we see in it a pattern for our imitation, because we see in it that which, it is evident from the consequence, was favorably received by the God of Israel, who is our God, as he is of the whole human race. And indeed, what act of piety can be more natural or more becoming, than to draw out in the presence of God, and to bring forward in his service, the youth of the country, whom his providence has given and committed to our care? It is an act, as hath already been observed, which doth not simply respect them, but us; it is our piety, rather than theirs. It is but little that the best can do towards testifying their gratitude to the supreme Benefactor, their love, their zeal, their reverence. I mean, that it is very little when compared with the immensity of the obligation, the dignity of his nature, the sense of our dependence. What therefore we can, we ought. What, however imperfect, he has been pleased to approve; what, however unworthy of him, he has condescended to accept, we surely should be willing to imitate, we should rejoice to pay. When their parents brought young children to Christ that he should touch them, the action was very graciously received by him. He showed manifestly, as well by his behaviour as by his discourse upon the occasion, that he approved of what was done; but it was not the children's piety. They were ignorant and unconscious of what was passing; yet did not this hinder our Lord from being pleased with the service. It was the service, thought, and piety of those who brought the children, and not the children's

own, to which he had respect; it was their motive, their affection, which he viewed. Even the bringing of children to baptism, beside the nature of the ordinance as an instituted rite for the initiation of the infants themselves, is an act of worship, an expression of homage and devotion on the part of the parents. This, I take it, is a just and scriptural way of considering the subject, and we hope it will be so accepted. Upon the same principle, the bringing of children to church, beside the use of it to themselves, is an office of piety in those who do it. It is an office which springs from piety as its motive; which hath God, his pleasure, his worship, his honor in view. There neither is, nor ever was, a parent touched with the love of God, or with any serious apprehensions upon religious subjects, who was content with attending public worship himself, without endeavouring to bring along with him his household and his children. No doubt, it is primarily and properly the duty of parents to undertake this charge; but so it is, that many parents want the attention, the thought, the care, the inclination necessary to this work; want, perhaps, a sense and knowledge of its importance, and of their own duty with relation to it; want sobriety, seriousness, and regularity of behaviour too much themselves, to inculcate these qualities, or any thing which belongs to these qualities, into the minds of their children; and some, we are ready to allow, want opportunities. To make provision for these cases, and that children under such circumstances may stand before the Lord, as the language of the Old Testament so often and well expresses it, the benevolence of others must be exerted; and in whatever degree it is the duty of the parents, when they have in all respects the power and the opportunity to bring their children to church, in the same degree it is an act of rational and acceptable piety to supply the power and the opportunity where they are not, as well as to furnish inducement and encouragement where there is want of will.

I contend therefore, and I conceive that I am authorized by scripture to contend, that the bringing of children to the public worship of God is an act of public worship in us, and such a one as we have good reason to believe will be well pleasing to him. This is a distinct and original reason for the beneficence we now solicit; but no doubt, one great consideration upon the subject is the advantage to the children themselves.

Were man a purely rational creature, that is, was he directed in all things by unprejudiced reason alone, or could any plan or system of management make him so, it might be argued very forcibly, that in religious and moral subjects he ought to be left

to the free and unbiassed opinion which he might form when he came of sufficient age; and that no influence whatever should be exerted upon the tender and unripe understandings of youth. But neither this proposal, nor any proposal which proceeds upon the supposition of mankind being guided solely by their reason, accords with the actual condition of human life. Man is made up of habits and prejudices; it is the constitution of his nature; and being so, the only choice which is left us is, whether we will have good prejudices or bad ones; salutary habits, or habits which are pernicious; for the one or the other will infallibly gain possession of the character.

To which must be added another powerful consideration; that the tendency, not of human nature, but of human nature placed in the midst of vicious and corrupt examples, is almost always to the worse. Instances are but too numerous, where well educated children as they grow up fall off, decline as they come into the world from their early principles, grievously disappoint the hopes that have been entertained of them; but the cases are very rare in which the man or woman turns out good where the child was bad; where uncurbed, neglected, impious youth ends in any thing better than profligate life. Therefore, to give to men even the chance of becoming virtuous, and by being virtuous happy, all endeavours are requisite to impress good habits, as the only possible means of excluding bad ones.

To apply these general considerations to the particular subject of Sunday Schools; without entering into any question which is by no means necessary here, concerning the degree of strictness with which the sabbath ought to be kept, it is confessed by all who bear or wish to bear the name of Christians, that it ought to be a day of rest, yet of quietness, order, and sobriety; of some exercise, at least, of religious worship, and at least of some attention to religious concerns. How will it be believed, or can it be expected, that youth, who spend their Sundays in a total contempt of these things, and in the company of those who contemn them; in rude play, in stupid sloth, in riotous and barbarous sports; in noisy and profane society, hearers, though they themselves do not share in them, of almost every species of bad discourse; is it, I say, likely that children who have been accustomed to spend their Sundays in this manner, when they become men, will spend them as they ought to do? And perhaps there are few situations to which these remarks are more applicable than those of frequented seaports. In the tranquillity of a country village, children who are not at church may be harmlessly engaged; but where dangerous ex