ing with ease. In seasons of dissipation, when the uninformed mind is gay and sportive, a sudden gloom will overcast his spirit, and when solitary and alone, he will be scared by the visions of the night. At such a crisis, the truths of religion, rising before him, will uncover the dark abyss, as the certain doom of his impenitence and folly. The piercing cry of the distracted Jailor, may proceed from his lips, "What must I do to be saved ?" and the instruction which you now impart, like the holy Apostle, will reply, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." Familiar with the plan of mercy, he will cast a wishful eye on the joys which it affords the repenting sinner, and venture to implore the grace which absolves from guilt, and imparts strength to resist the evil propensities of the heart.

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Such a course of instruction will prepare them for the labours of the pulpit. The minister has to contend only with the passions. When he thunders the terrors of the Almighty over their heads, or dwells with raptures on the wonders of redeeming love, they are under no temptation to suppose that his vehemence or his tears are the mere professional artifices of his order, but the ingenuous signs of a heart powerfully imbued

with that spirit of which they feel themselves destitute." Proceed, sir," said a person who had enjoyed the advantages of a religious education, (to a Minister well known to the Author,) "in your usual style of preaching-You may imagine from the air of indifference which we assume in public, that your Sermons produce no effect. It is a mistake, sir. They make us wretched. They bring before our imagination the scene of home, when our Parents taught us to revere the name of Jesus; they drive us to our wit's end; they make us dread futurity, and sometimes compel us to pray. You have, sir, our conscience on your side, and though we laugh when we ought to weep, yet we are conscious that we must ultimately yield either to grace or to vengeance."

LETTER IV.

The Encouragements which are given to Parents to give Religious Instruction.

MORAL causes, though they may not appear to operate with so much certainty as natural ones, usually produce an effect. If in some instances, religious instruction has failed in the formation of the character, yet in many it has succeeded. Is it not amongst persons who have enjoyed its advantages, that we are most successful in our professional labours? Sometimes an alien from the common-wealth of Israel is admitted into our communion, but in general the children of the pious become our fellowcitizens, who after they have made an open profession of religion usually remain permanently attached to their principles and privileges, while many of the mixed multitude apostatize and renounce them for ever. Hence we perceive that the operations of divine grace are in unison with

the uniform language of the Scripture, "I will be a God to thee and thy seed after thee." This promise, though originally addressed to Abraham, is not restricted to him. It is a piece of holy ground, on which you may stand, to plead with the Lord for your children, When the present dispensation of mercy was ushered in by the effusion of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, the children of believing Parents were noticed in a peculiar manner. "Now, when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter, and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and to your children." And have not the facts which have transpired under the agency of divine truth, confirmed these declarations? How many, with whom we have "taken sweet counsel and walked to the house of God in company," can utter the expressions of the devout Mrs. Rowe-"I bless thee with all my powers for the privilege of my descent from pious ancestors; that thou hast been their dwelling place from generation to

generation, and hast not taken thy loving kindness from their seed, nor suffered thy faithfulness to fail. Thou hast extended thy mercy to me, the least of all my father's house, unworthy to wipe the feet of the meanest of the servants of my Lord, and yet by an absolute act of goodness, I am brought into thy family and numbered with thy children. Even so it has seemed good in thy sight, who art gracious to whom thou wilt be gracious."

The character of the dispensation under which you live, and the signs which mark the present era of the church, are motives which could not have operated at any former period, but now their influence is powerful and encouraging. At no time from the first revelation of mercy, has the devout worshipper been left in a state of absolute ignorance of any of the peculiar doctrines of the gospel; yet it must be confessed that they have appeared in a more clear and impressive form since the descent of the Spirit. To the ancient Israelite the charge was, “Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou