Christian lives, the indifference to the means of grace and privileges of Christian fellowship, the heartless carelessness about those small matters which, while they bear no comparison with the weightier points of duty, are the very soul of love-these things, I say, we cannot witness, without a sensation of dread lest the SAVIOUR'S awful question, "When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" be obtaining the beginning of its answer in these our days. The decencies of religion prevail among us, as I believe, more extensively than they did formerly; its life and power, I am very sure, are not proportionably extended.

my

Whose fault is this? I think, in some measure, ours,

brethren. I think that more plainness, earnestness, and industry in catechising the young, in preaching and lecturing, and in pastoral visiting, would have prevented the evil, at least in a degree. At any rate, the remedy is in our hands, and consists in faithfulness in those particulars.

We must do more than is now doing for the instruction of the young in their Christian privileges and obligations, for the training of their hearts and wills while tender and susceptible of permanent bent, in the mind of CHRIST,—if we would save them from the blight of infidelity. The generation now passing away has been a nominally religious generation. A reaction is going on, and greatly do I mistake, if the next half century witness not a more deadly conflict between the powers of this world and the Church of CHRIST, than has been known for ages. Wo to us, if the lambs of CHRIST's flock be

come the prey of the spoiler, because we have not fed them betimes with spiritual nourishment adapted to their wants!-I know, that in many parts of this Diocese peculiar difficulties lie in the way of the discharge of this part of pastoral duty. These are trials of faith and diligence. In surmounting them, and fulfilling his LORD'S command, to "feed His lambs," notwithstanding the hindrances interposed by sparseness of population, badness of roads, and want of opportunity for gathering the little ones together, the faithful pastor will show his trustworthiness and zeal. "A word in season, how good is it!" and who would think much of a wearisome ride to catechise a little family, who remembers that seed thus sown may bring forth fruit unto everlasting life, and that if he be not thus using diligence to sow the good seed of the blessed word, the enemy is most assuredly availing himself of the opportunity to sow tares? In our larger congregations, too, there needs an increase of diligence in public catechising. Sunday Schools, in villages, towns, and cities, are in many ways most valuable auxiliaries of the pastor; but they can no more supersede catechising than they can take the place of preaching. Rightly used, they would rather increase than diminish the pastor's personal attention to the young of his flock. Whenever, and in whatever degree, it is otherwise, they do, in so far, harm instead of good. The little ones must be gathered around him who is over them in the LORD, to receive at his mouth his Master's message, the assurance of their title to a heavenly inheritance, the explanation of that title, the statement of its obligations and

conditions, and the offer of the privileges and blessings attached to their membership in CHRIST. How sad is the significance to the pastor who neglects the young, of that solemn formula of judgment—"Inasmuch as ye did not unto the least of these, ye did it not unto Me!" Hungry and thirsty (for the youthful mind does ordinarily hunger and thirst for spiritual food) their souls are sent empty away, or supplied with food not "convenient for them." Naked and unprepared they are suffered to go out into life, unclothed with the spiritual armor which might have been put upon them by the blessing of the HOLY GHOST on the faithful ministrations of His commissioned servants, set apart for that very end. If they fall into the snare of the devil, and are taken captive by him at his will, shall not their blood lie at the door of the man of God who prevented them not, but left them to grow up willing servants of sin and Satan, from whom CHRIST had set them free?

In the catechising of the young, then, brethren, I earnestly exhort you to be yet more strenuous and unwearied than so many of you now are showing yourselves. It is a labor full of rich reward, bounden on us by the strongest obligations, and peculiarly called for by the aspect of the times.

In preaching, too, there is room and occasion for improvement. Very many of those who hear us, "have need to be taught the first principles of the oracles of GOD." Even the intelligent and refined, after a long course of steady attendance on public services, sometimes manifest, when sickness or calamity unlocks the

66

secrets of the soul, an astonishing ignorance of the very principles of the doctrine of CHRIST," even "the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward GOD, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment." Such cases, and I know that they occur not unfrequently, make it plain that we need to inculcate with great distinctness and directness the fundamentals of the Gospel, and to assure ourselves that none among those committed to our care, can by possibility, through fault of ours, remain ignorant of the things that concern their peace. It is not enough that we draw hearers, and be heard willingly. So Herod heard John the Baptist gladly, before he cut off his head; and the prophesying of Ezekiel was unto the children of his people as the very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument, when they had set up their idols in their hearts, and the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face. Popular preaching is by no means always profitable teaching; but rather the reverse. The multitude will be more often drawn by fluent discourse and eloquent though pointless harangues, than by edifying presentation of necessary truth, and earnest enforcement of neglected duty. Nevertheless, we are bound not to please men, but GOD; and in order to His approbation we must so frame our instructions that they may find their way to the hearts, and take fast hold upon the consciences of those who hear. With that end we must preach not only plainly and earnestly, but on topics suited to the wants of those whom we address.

The controversies of the day; the errors of our brethren; the corruptions and abuses of those around us; the dif ferences among those who adopt our common standards; the weak points of antagonistic systems of doctrine or discipline; are for the most part out of place in the pulpit. They may be treated of, as far as needful, in the freedom of pastoral instruction at parochial visits: the pulpit, in our times at least, demands themes of another kind. Positive teaching is the want of the day. Lay down, in terms not to be mistaken, the great truths of the Law of GOD. Present, in broad and strong relief, the facts of redemption as they apply to us, and affect our position in time and eternity. Convince the world of sin and unbelief, by home-urged appeals to facts of daily experience, and exhibition of things as they really are, around and among ourselves, in their relation, not to the doings and opinions of our fellow-men, but to GoD and eternity. Build up the spiritual house of GoD, by assiduous labor in hewing out and polishing its living stones -warning, counselling, exhorting, admonishing, and reproving your people with constant reference to their particular needs. Generally, this will require a strain of teaching least congenial to their peculiar tastes and predilections. A worldly, money-making people, does not need to be cautioned againt self-righteousness and asceticism. A multitude having itching ears, is in no danger from priestcraft. The population of a country in which liberty is running wild, needs few exhortations to stand fast in the liberty wherewith CHRIST hath made us free. A Sunday church-going congregation, content with a