(13) Page 86.] There are two reasons, for our grateful admiration of God's servants: first, that they rested the hope of their own salvation, on the sacredness of prayer; and secondly, that they preserved, in writing, those hymns, and services, which, with mingled joy and fear, they offered unto God; thus transmitting to us their treasure; that they might attract all after-ages, to an emulation of their pious zeal.' St. Chrysostom, vol. ii. p. 778. Ed. Bened.

(14) Page 87.] See, especially, the general confession, and absolution, in the daily morning and evening prayer; the prayer for tribulation of heart, and that for sanctifying our troubles, in the Litany; the collect, for Ash-Wednesday; the third collect, for Good-Friday; the confession, absolution, and comfortable words of Scripture, in the Communion Service; and the exhortation, and two concluding prayers, in the Commination.

(15) Page 94.] Qui seroit assez heureux pour joindre des sensations agréables aux premières instructions que l'on donne des choses utiles, pour les mœurs, ou pour la conduite de la vie, en un mot, de joindre le bien véritable avec le plaisir, auroit trouvé le secret de la meilleure éducation. Je voudrois donc, que la première Eglise où l'on porte un enfant, fût la plus belle, la plus claire, la plus magnifique.' FLEURY. Traité des Etudes, ch. xvi.

May I be allowed, here, to make a short extract from the communication of a judicious friend: which, very happily expresses the opinion, maintained in this Discourse. I regretted, that our stay in Dublin could not be extended to the time, when the Orphan-House Chapel was to be religiously opened. It is an edifice, that causes us to feel we are in a house dedicated to God: and, as I cannot deny, that, even in religious matters, outward circumstances influence my inward feelings; and that it is a difference with me, whether I am praying in a barn, or in a building, which, as far as man

can effect it, is a fit habitation for the HoLY ONE, I do sincerely rejoice, that, for such as have feelings to be influenced in like manner with my own, this consideration has been attended to; and that a temple calculated to assist devotion, has been erected in a place where children are the chief worshippers; with whom first impressions have such a powerful effect.'

(16) Page 94.] Bishop Butler: Charge to the Clergy of Durham, in 1751; an exhortation by no means less deserving of notice in the present day, than when it was originally

pronounced.

(17) Page 94.] The observation in the Text, the author took the liberty of citing in a former work. Sacred Literature,' p. 8. To the whole of that note, pp. 6-9., he now begs leave to request the reader's particular attention.

102

DISCOURSE III.

Preached in Saint Peter's Church, Dublin, on Sunday, May 5, 1822, when a collection was made, in behalf of the Female Orphan-House.

PROVERBS Xxii. 6.

TRAIN UP A CHILD IN THE WAY HE SHOULD GO :

AND WHEN HE IS OLD, HE WILL NOT DEPART FROM IT.

IT often happens, that the most difficult passages of Scripture are the most precisely understood. Where the text is confessedly obscure, attention is kept on the alert; the powers of reason, the aids of learning, the principles of just interpretation, are called into action; and the teacher and his congregation find themselves competently acquainted with the meaning of the sacred writer. Not so in the case of those plain and practical instructions, which scarcely seem to need any exposition: here, each individual is commonly his own interpreter; while few bring with them the least thoughtfulness to the task of interpretation; and the very familiarity of the

words, is but too apt to veil the profundity of the sense. In this way it is, that vague and superficial notions are imbibed, of many most important truths; and such notions are too frequently substituted, for the divine reality of Scripture a substitution most injurious to the revealed Word of God, even where it is no more than speculative; but which, when reduced to practice, and operative in the daily walks of life, is fraught with mischiefs that surpass all ordinary calculation.

The passage which I have chosen for my text, is, unquestionably, neither difficult nor obscure. "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Language cannot, in itself, be simpler, or more easy; and, for this very reason, it is not commonly understood. Interpreters have said little upon it, because little appeared to be said; and the generality of readers, unconscious of its depth, have been content with a superficial meaning. The current notion is, (and unhappily it has superseded the actual precept of the text,) that, if children be simply taught, or instructed, the great work is done: and the authority of Scripture is relied upon, that, if children be so taught, or instructed, provision is amply made for their conduct in future life. The misfortune is,

that, in matter of fact, the mere communication of knowledge, comprising, of course, instruction in the truths and duties of religion, is by no means found to be invariably, or even predominantly, efficacious. The children even of upright, of conscientious, of religious parents, honestly taught, and sedulously guarded, are, in after life, too frequently seen to decline from the way in which they should go, and to rush forward in the way in which they should not go; and while, so far as it respects themselves, their families, and society at large, the failure is deplorable, the blame is too often imputed, not to those who have misunderstood, misinterpreted, and misapplied the language of Scripture, but to the language of sacred Scripture itself, as deceiving by false lights, and disappointing by fruitless expectations.

But every well-ordered mind is perfectly aware, that holy Scripture can neither deceive nor disappoint; that all its precepts are wise, and all its promises are true. If, therefore, in any given instance, the precept of the text be rightly understood, and properly fulfilled, we may entertain a moral certainty, that the promise of the text will, in that instance, be abundantly realized. It is our part, therefore, to examine what the precept means, in order that we may,