66 Christians. It is remarkable that all the promises of God to his people are formally and avowedly extended to their children as well as to themselves. This was a fundamental idea in his covenant with Abraham: I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee and thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God. This is my covenant between me and you, and thy seed after thee. Every manchild among you shall be circumcised." A foresight of Abraham's faithfulness and success in training up his children religiously was the ground of God's especial confidence in him: "Shall I hide from Abraham the thing which I do? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do judgment and justice.” The religion of the children, let it be observed, is not a mere nominal, national piety, but the "keeping of the way of the Lord, and doing judgment and justice," not the mere act of circumcision, as is often alleged, but the result of parental authority and religious education: "He will command his children after him." The same principle reappears in the Mosaic dispensation; and so entire was God's reliance upon the children to fill up the ranks of the Jewish Church, that, while proselytes from the heathen were not rejected, no provision was made for replenishing it from any foreign source. The prophetic promises guarantee the same high privilege to the children of pious parents under the Christian dispensation: "The promise is unto you and your children." "I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh," and "your sons and your daughters shall prophesy." Indignant that any should pretend to doubt or limit the plentitude of his grace towards those who were yet unstained by transgression, Christ rebuked the narrow faith of his disciples, and bade them "suffer little children to come unto him," because "of such is the kingdom of heaven." Whoever might reject them, as incapable or unworthy of the Christian dignity, He whose own childhood "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man," had resolved to perfect praise "out of the mouths of babes and sucklings." To children, the Apostles, now better taught than before in the mysteries of their Master's large compassions, freely extended the right of baptism, the sign and the seal of the acceptance and sanctification to which they conceded to them a recognized title, as part and parcel of those believing "households," which so early became the nucleus and model of the churches of the living God. The children of Christian parents were thus openly and explicitly recognized as members of the Apostolic Church. Even when but one of the parents was a believer, the children were esteemed holy; or, in other words, they were consecrated to God, and legitimate members of the "household of faith." As members of the Church, they are recognized in the Apostolic epistles. Paul addresses himself, generally, to the "saints" of Ephesus and Collosse; and, in his more specific instructions, gives his advice to the several classes of Christians composing those churches, to husbands and wives, masters and servants, parents and children, recognizing the last, no less than their parents, as part of Christ's flock, of which he had the oversight. These were Christians, "saints," and "faithful in Christ Jesus," in the estimation of the Apostles. They belonged to the kingdom of heaven. They were those upon whom Christ had "laid his hands," whom he had taken "in his arms and blessed," and openly acknowledged and formally claimed as his own. By this most significant act and solemn declaration of his will, the great Head of the Church announced the fundamental law of his kingdom. Children are the heritage of the Lord. It is the Father's good pleasure to give them the kingdom. They are, therefore, to be "brought to Christ" - to be trained for God—to be "brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." To this end he intends the Christian family to be a school of Christ to live in a holy atmosphere, in which the children shall be bathed and baptized, and nurtured as in a divine, genial element. He would have them put on the Lord Jesus Christ with the first garments of their childhood, and drink in Christian sentiments from the mother's loving, beaming eyes, as they hang upon the breast. He intends them to learn religion, as they learn a thousand other things, from the spirit and tone of the family-from its vocal thanksgivings and songs of praise from its quiet, joyous Sabbaths-from the penitent tear, the humble carriage, the tender accents, the reverent look and attitude of the father, when, as a priest, he offers the morning and the evening sacrifice. The new immortal that has fallen down into the midst of the Christian family is to be taken into the soul of its piety, to be sanctified by its prayer and faith, and to form a part of that reasonable and acceptable offering in which, morning and evening, the godly parents lay all that they are and all that they have on the altar of sacrifice. This, with faithful, diligent instructions, and restraints adapted to the different periods and exigencies of childhood and youth, is the nurture of the Lord the right training which, under our gracious economy, ensures the early piety of the children of really Christian families. They grow up Christians. They are sanctified from the womb. Even their childish prattle savors of divine things; and they pass on to the attainments and functions of mature piety by gradation so easy and imperceptible, that it may not be possible to fix the day of their espousals to the Saviour. SHALL WE KNOW OUR FRIENDS IN HEAVEN. BY MRS. L. A. CHAPMAN. SHALL we not know above, Those whom we love below, Who share with us life's mingled cup, Of rapture and of woe? Will the bright spirits there forget, Those who in death have loved them yet? When at the trumpet's sound Each mouldering sleeper shall come forth, With youth and beauty crowned? |