to every earnest, humble soul. Come into the close and intimate communion with your Lord and Master.

If you are conscious of the sincere purpose to lead a Christian life, if your prevailing aim and desire be that you may be a faithful disciple of your Saviour, if the love of Christ be in your soul, faint indeed compared with the boundless gratitude which is his due, ye daily deepening and strengthening in the hidden fountains of your being, if you desire to cherish a living faith in him as the Saviour and Redeemer of the soul, then is it indeed said to you, "Come unto me; come gladly, cheerfully, trustingly, for him that cometh, I will in no wise cast out."

Give to His cause the whole weight of your influence and your example. Be closely united with Him who ever lives as the great Head of the Church. Dwell in intimate union with his spirit, and so walk with him from day to day, that those with whom you are associated shall indeed take knowledge of you, that you have been with Jesus. Then as you go to your duties on the Sabbath, you will speak with new earnestness and power, and the hearts of the young will be through you more deeply impressed with the beauty of holiness and the joy and peace of a reconciled heart.

If you feel that the service would be to you one of mere form; if you feel that you have no

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peculiar responsibilities to the Church of Christ, no individual relations to him as the Head of that Church; if his love has never glowed within your soul, nor his spirit quickened within you the aspiration for a higher life; if his words have never awakened the cry of a contrite spirit, nor the earnest longings for pardon and reconciliation; if you have never felt your need of a Mediator and Saviour, then pause, and solemnly answer to yourself the question, "Why am I holding the responsible position of a religious teacher and guide to others? By what right am I, in form at least, seeking to influence the minds of the young, to impart to them the truths of eternal life, unless I know from inward experience something of their power? Am I not thus acting a false part?"

To one side or the other, to world, do you stand committed.

God or to the
Your own self-

judgment must render the true verdict. Postpone not, then, the answer too long. As the solemn scenes of that day rise before you, when the eternal realities of a future being shall stand disclosed to view, when face to face you shall meet Him whose voice has so often pleaded with your inmost soul, resolve so to live, so to unite yourself with his Body, so to confess your Saviour in your daily life and before men, that he will acknowledge you as his before the Father and his angels.

CHAPTER XII.

THE RELATION OF THE CHILD TO THE CHURCH.

"Behold, the covenant is with you and your children."

THE relation of the teacher to the Church of Christ is closely and intimately connected with that of the child; but no one conversant with the present state of our schools can fail to be aware of the vague and indefinite feeling that exists among the young respecting this relation, and of the lack of any strong feeling of obligation to observe in a fitting way and season the two simple ordinances of our faith, Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Apart from other opposing influences, such as the absence of all home religious instruction, the low standard of character among many who call themselves members of the Body of Christ, the reaction against the use of all outward forms, as if they were necessarily inconsistent with spirituality of faith and practice, it is not to be

denied that much of the present state of coldness and utter indifference is to be ascribed to the defective influence and instruction of our Sunday schools.

Many teachers dismiss the whole subject at once, and consider it as one with which they have no possible connection; while others, faithful in their general teachings, seem to regard it as belonging only to those of mature heart and character, in which the child or youth has no part or interest. He is generally regarded as standing apart, as it were, by himself, outside the pale of the Church, and his ever coming into it is too often left as a wholly optional matter, dependent upon circumstances, taste, or even upon fashion alone.

The result of such training is only too clearly visible. The child grows into the youth, and the youth passes on to maturer years, without being surrounded by any constraining or controlling influence; and as he takes his part in the duties of active life, the Church becomes more and more to him as a mere name, a sort of foreign interest, with which he has not the remotest personal connection, except so far as custom or general opinion demands a half-day attendance on the services of public worship.

Is this state of things right or Christian? Has the child no part in the covenant promises of the Redeemer? Is he to be left by himself to wan

der in the far-off country, until weary and disheartened, filled with remorse and anguish, and heavily laden, he turns back to seek his Father's house? Has not the Church a sacred duty to perform in bringing the young from very infancy into its fold, and so guiding, guarding, and educating them that they shall never wander from its sacred inclosure?

Some may ask, "What is to be understood by the Church, a word so variously and often so vaguely used?" In the language of another, we reply, "It is that body of persons who believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and Saviour of men, crucified and risen; and so believe in Him as to be personally conscious of a supreme desire to live his spiritual life, to resemble him, and be his true redeemed disciples. Love to God as manifest in Christ, and love to man as God's child, must be the ruling affections in the soul,whether they have conformed the character perfectly to them or not. The Church is the aggregate of these consecrated souls, aiming and longing above all things, to live righteously; irrespective of names, of forms, of creeds, of age, of place, except so far as these affect this internal, central consecration to Christ. Its boundaries, as it is embodied in actual persons, may be indistinct to man's eye, but they are plain to God's ; and the definition is plain. The Church is that body of people, in whatever age or nation, of