sinners like myself.-Ah! what need have I of your commendation, which, perhaps, might damn me, without saving you!!" This seems to us more like feeling and acting under the authority of God than the above apology. We could not but regret that Mr. S. should enter on the duties of his high office of showing the people their sins, with an apology for his We do not censure this plainness, which was his most solemn duty.

apologizing spirit in Mr. S. only the ministers of Jesus Christ generally are too much in the habit of thus tampering with the pride of man. Our earnest desire is, that the spirit of Bridaine, and more especially the spirit of Jesus Christ, may be the spirit that shall rule within them more than it now does.

The sins above specified, Mr S. has ably exposed, and warned the people against them, and we would wish to add our warning voice against them, that the people of this great metropolis may hear, turn from their sins unto the living God, and thus avert a more fatal evil than the pestilence, from falling on the head of its mighty population. "Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him ;-for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.”

.

It is not our province, neither is it our design, to take the reviewer's chair, Mr. Editor, but there is one sentiment in this sermon which we wonder should have escaped the lash of your critiqué, since you were not slow to find fault. As it is, however, we must beg your indulgence for a single remark. He says, "I have no objection that persons of wealth and rank in the community should distinguish themselves from others by their equipage, their table, and their dress."* Since all the restraints of morality and religion are insufficient to keep men of worldly distinction from esteeming themselves better than others, we were very sorry to find Mr. S. while in the very attitude of rebuking this sin, giving those who indulge in it the very license they want. It is, we apprehend, quite in vain for him to administer reproof to them after this; for, in their own opinions, they have not gone beyond their rank in their distinctions, and in justification they can quote Mr. Strong. We cannot but ask the question, was the author of this sermon authorised to say to the rich, God has distinguished you in wealth that you should distinguish yourselves in your equipage, your table, and your dress, from your fellow-men.'- Would not an A postle rather have told them not to be high-minded; not to trust in riches, but in the living God: would he not have told them to be rich in good works; to be ready to distribute to the poor and needy, and willing to communicate, and thus lay up a store for themselves and prepare for eternity? Would he not have warned them against outward adorning, and wearing costly apparel for that purpose; and at the same time exhorted them to be ornamented with a meek and quiet spirit, which would best accord with the practice of "old-fashioned saints," as well as with the maxims of the "old-fashioned Gospel." We were sorry to see the above sentence in this discourse, especially when the author was reproving the sin of "the love of pleasure," and we fear his reproof will have little influence, prefaced with such a license.

(To be concluded in our next.)

* Sermon, p. 17.

REVIEW.

SERMONS FOR CHILDREN; designed to promote their immédiate piety. By SAMUEL NOTT, Jun. New-York: James Eastburn, E. Bliss & E. White, John P. Haven, D. H. Wickham, and J. Montgomery. 1823. 18mo. pp. 160.

THE title of this little volume is of itself sufficient to demand a notice from us: the object is one of such high importance to the welfare of society at large, and at the same time so deeply interesting to every individual, that were the execution of the design the most imperfect, we should have felt ourselves bound to express our approbation of the purpose, and to have done every thing which would have tended to promote a more efficient and perfect accomplishment of it. This design, which we cannot so well explain to our readers as in the words of the author, is thus opened by him in a very valuable and sensible "Introduction" addressed to parents.

"The object of this little volume is to promote the immediate piety of children. It has been prepared and issued under the full conviction, that Christianity is sent to them, as to all, with a claim to their immediate reception, as a rule for their daily living, and as an abundant, merciful provision for their present and eternal wants. It is, therefore, no other than the old, common lesson of Christianity adapted to the temptations, faults, circumstances, and capacities of children. It aims to come to children with no other Gospel, than that which is received and accepted by adult believers. The following sermons are sent forth as a specimen of what will, if the public patronage warrant, occupy two or three similar volumes, which it is hoped, will furnish a much needed application of vital and practical Christianity to the season of childhood.

"By this work, the author hopes, under the divine blessing, to assist parents in training up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. He aims only to assist: by no means to do the work for those, to whom God has already given it in charge He hopes rather, that he has made work for parents. For while he believes that he has not altogether missed his aim, in endeavouring to be both intelligible and interesting to children, he hopes he is not so uninstructive, as not to excite inquiry and require explanation; as to occupy their time, without securing their reflection, and increasing their knowledge. These sermons will not fulfil their author's intention, if they are left to work their own way into the understanding and affections of a child, but only when the father and the mother invite their attention, solve their difficulties, and encourage them in their progress.

"We have no wish at all to relieve parents of their awful charge; we rather wish that they may feel loaded with a burden which, as long as they live, they cannot lay upon another; the weight of which they will feel when they are sitting in the house, and when they are walking by the way; when they are lying down, and when they are rising up; a burden, nevertheless, like all others, borne in obedience to the Saviour, and in reliance upon his gracious aid, easy and light. "The medium age which the author has had in view, is nine or ten years. With due parental explanation, he believes these sermons may be made useful and interesting to those much younger; and that they also meet the case of those who are some years older. They have grown out of his habit of familiarly lecturing to his own children when reading the Scriptures with them; and out of lectures familiar and unpremeditated, at the quarterly meetings of The NewYork Maternal Society;" at which meetings the mothers have gathered their children with them for instruction and prayer. The one first delivered on this occasion, was shortly after written, and published under the title of A Lecture on the first Psalm, and now with some alterations, forms the 7th of the following series."-pp. 9—11.

We do not know a work more suitable to the character and pursuits of a retired missionary, than to attempt to awaken the feelings and excite the attention of the Christian public, to the case of childhood; and if we can judge from the tenor of the present volume no labour is more congenial to the spirit of its author. That in childhood, according to the prevailing expectations of men, religion is so little expected as hardly to be hoped for and rarely to be thought necessary, is a truth of which very slight observation will convince us: men of all ages find it to require such a conquest of every inclination of the natural heart, such a mastery over every thought, word, and action, that they almost of course omit to look for it in children. They see the immensity of the scheme of the Divine conduct, and find, indeed, all the considerations of the religion of Christ so vast, so overwhelming in importance, in grandeur, and in momentous interest, that in their opinion, childhood is too weak to bear the vision of faith, and incapable of realizing its concern with the Divine government.

At the same time the apparent innocency of childhood, its attractive charms, and our tenderness to its wants, fill us with an affection for it which hopes all things, while it lulls to sleep those exertions from which our best hopes would derive the best prognostics of a certain and early fulfilment.

From a variety of considerations, of which the above are part, the prevailing feeling of society respecting childhood piety is, as is stated by the author," that the conversion and piety of children, except in very extraordinary cases was not to be expected, until they arrived at years of discretion" i. e. not in their childhood at all!

The state of facts does in some measure correspond with this opinion: but we confess that we are ready to believe with our author, that this rather springs from the prevalence of the opinion in question, than that the opinion springs from the truth.

We know it is true, that children cannot know so much, cannot do so much (to the eye of man indeed) as men: nor are they as much exposed to temptations, nor, probably, are they as deep in sin as adults. But these facts do not prove, either that piety is not to be expected, or that faith in a Redeemer is not needed. We do not know that the capacity of knowledge is a very correct test of the capability of vital religion: we do believe, indeed, that knowledge must precede faith, in as much as the former is necessary to supply objects for the exercise of the latter; yet the truths of religion which are necessary to be known to enable the sou! to fix its affections on God, are so simple, so evident, and so impressive, that we cannot deem them above the capacity of childhood: and there is on the contrary a less perverted state of the feelings to obstruct the acquirement of this necessary elementary knowledge in childhood than in maturer years.

That childhood cannot do much is, in one sense certainly true. Children cannot become expounders of the doctrines of Christianity, they cannot with propriety reprove or exhort men, and in all designs of action, children are limited by circumstances from doing, apparently, great things. Yet we are sure it is not often considered how powerful the influence of childhood is, nor to how great an extent robust, adult iniquity is affected

by it. There is in innocence something awful-in the innocence (we speak not of sinlessness in the eye of God, but of the purity which men attribute tochildhood,) of a child, a restraint more powerful upon open sin, than almost any other which comes in direct contact with it. How hardened is he thought, who is capable of expressing before a little child a lewd, or profane thought, or of willingly suffering a child to be led into vice by his own bad example. Who, though himself destitute of the grace of God, and without repentance, that has heard of the requirements of the Gospel, has not desired for his children its holiness and its blessings? and how often has the sabbathbreaking, profane, drunken, (no, for drunkenness quenches even this first natural affection) parent been withheld from his intended sin by the thought, that his little children would see and imitate that which, with bolder guilt, he is daily practising.-Were childhood endued with the graces of Christian repentance and holiness, in addition to the attributed purity which is properly its own, how much more powerful would its influence become, and how effectual would be the inobtrusive and tender reproofs which the silent example and endearing simplicity of childhood would afford.

Children too are not sinful to the extent of men. Yet, are they not born in sin? Who can tell when he first sinned, or when he was other than a sinner?—We would not here pry into things obscurely revealed, or discuss subjects warmly disputed, and we are too well satisfied of the goodness of God to fear to trust the case of our children to him; yet we know that they are not, in the Scripture, expressly excepted from any of the duties to which mankind are all subjected, nor is any age fixed in the Scriptures when piety shall first become a duty, or before attaining which its want is excusable. But there are instances in the word of God, of piety at a very early age, and there are precepts to children, referring to Christian principle, and there are commands to parents, the obedience to which would result in the endeavour to promote their early piety.

Besides, we cannot but see that children at the earliest age, when they are capable of any instruction, do immediately go astray, into known disobedience of what they themselves believe to be their duty. If they are not to become subjects of punishment what is to be their atonement, their redemption, except that which is common to mankind at large. It is true the redemption of Christ may be applied in a manner wholly unknown to us, to the case of early childhood, yet, is there a clear development of any different plan with respect to them than in relation to men at large? Indeed, we cannot touch a subject more important, more deeply interesting to our best feelings.

There is, too, another reason (many others indeed which we cannot notice) why we should not yield to the common error as to the supposed inapplicability of vital religion to childhood, we mean the susceptibility of childhood. When our thoughts and feelings are settled into habits, and our objects of worldly pursuit have become more dearly prized from having been longer cherished, we feel a repugnance to turn our minds off to the consideration of our spiritual interests: our sense of guilt is dulled, and our devotion to the world more earnest ; childhood, on the contrary, presents a page much nearer to a blank, on which the lines of truth may be more easily written; it possesses feelings which do not need to be called

so often, before they respond to the reproaches of conscience and the calls of duty and we do firmly believe, that the Christian public would be astonished at the extent to which conversions would take place were children drawn, with the same assiduity of purpose, to a consideration of the truths of the Gospel, as they are to the pursuits of the world. We do also believe, and this little volume before us convinces us the more of it, that parents would find this duty one of the most pleasing to which they are called, and far less disagreeable to their children, if pursued with mildness and cheerfulness, than they have ever ventured to believe.

We could not dismiss this subject with less than we have written, and we regret that we cannot insert at large the introduction to parents prefixed to this volume, considering it one of the most sensible and valuable papers on the subject, and, what is far less praise, one of the most elegant, which the religious literature of modern days possesses.

The next subject on which we are led to remark, by this volume, is the mode in which the drawing of childhood to Christianity is to be made. It will not be denied that in general it should possess all the mildpess, tenderness and cheerfulness of parental affection: that the intellectual faculties of the mind should be drawn into exercise as much as possible in connexion with the feelings of the heart. The curiosity and the sympathy of children have been the parts of the mind by which it has, to a very considerable extent, been attempted to draw them to a contemplation of the truths of the Gospel; and the pigmy tomes of religious narrative, many of them possessing great excellence, have almost vied in numbers with the trash of our toy shop libraries. We do not think that this method deserves the almost exclusive use which it enjoys, and we think that the mind and imagination are exposed to nearly the same undue excitement and inefficacious feeling which form so strong an objection to novel reading. On this subject our author well remarks:

"The sober name of sermons will not, it is hoped, doom the volume to neglect. It need not be thought impassible or even difficult to interest children in sermons, if they are suited to their case, and their capacity; if they are brought home to their business and bosoms. There is no need of supposing that children require the interest of continued and eventful narrative, more than adults. Their minds are equally susceptible of pleasure and benefit from suitable direct communications; they have all the faculties of the human soul, and it is but fair to suppose, that they, like others of their kind, will be most interested in the just and proportionate use of them all. They are not monsters, to whose deformity we must minister by purveying to a predominant and overgrown faculty; but each of them, men in miniature, whose complete and perfect growth we are to promote, by a judicious ministry to every part.

"Children may indeed be more readily interested in narrative than iu such direct instructions as are here offered them; and hence we see them often rapidly hurrying over story after story, and refusing as dry and insipid whatever invites their minds to regular and continued reflection. But such children have already had their curiosity fed, until it has overgrown every other faculty; and the natu ral result will be that they will either eventually become cloyed with a provision so unfitted to their whole nature, and thus be no readers at all; or which is little better, continue unthinking story readers to the end of their lives It is the office of the parent to prevent or recover his child from a disease so fatal to his improvement as a rational being, and betimes, to train him up in his mental habits, in the way he should go. This is peculiarly important in regard to the subjecs of religion, which demands daily and sober reflection and self-examination.