lect. But the habit of the neglect of public worship is not merely a consequence of past neglect, but, when formed, it becomes a powerfully increasing and perpetuating cause of future neglect.

A question, then, of solemn and fearful import is here suggested-how was this guilty habit first formed? Parents, can you answer the question, and acquit yourselves of blame respecting your children? Have you availed yourselves of the ease and pliancy of youth, to mould and form their character to strict attendance upon the duties of the sanctuary? Have you endeavoured early to impress their minds with reverence for its ordinances, and to direct their youthful steps to God's holy temple? Oh! how melancholy and heart-rending is the fact, that parents should not only neglect to bring or send their children to the house of God, but should, moreover, by their example, and by, perhaps, their unguardedly expressed opinions in their hearing, practically train them in the path they have themselves chosen and thus the seeds of neglect, which have been sown in youth by the example and opinion of the parent, become strengthened and confirmed in manhood, by the example and opinion of others; while the habit of slighting public worship, which originated in the guilt of the parent, involves the child in fresh guilt, and will, in all human probability, plunge both parent and child in utter and irremediable ruin. And if scripture lead us to infer, that the

last look forward with fearful anticipations to their friends and relatives entering the abodes of misery, with what dreadful forebodings must the lost parent look forward to the fate of that child whom he failed to train up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and whom his example and opinions first led to the neglect of public worship. Oh! what mind can conceive, or words express, how the reproaches of the child must sound in the ear, and rankle in the breast, of the parent, to whose guilty neglect, and fatal example, he ascribes his eternal misery.

And when we reflect upon the vast multitudes who are guilty of such conduct, unless the Allwise Disposer of events had devised means to prevent the formation, or break the fatal spell of such guilty habits, and to counteract the contagion of evil example and opinion, no Christian mind could look forward without alarm to what must be the result of the combined influence of the example and opinion of parents upon the rising generation.

Thank God, means have been devised, and called into active operation, which are admirably adapted to accomplish these ends. Such are the effects of our Sunday schools; and had they no other claim upon our regard, than that of bringing our children to the house of God, it would be sufficient to commend them to our judgment, and to endear them to our hearts; and no class of the community more justly deserve the warmest

thanks of their country, than the Sunday school teachers of our land.

It may here occur to the minds of some anxious parents, that they have known children who have been brought up in strict attendance upon the services of the sanctuary, and whom both the example and precept of their parents should have rendered regular attenders upon its ordinances, who have, notwithstanding, become habitual neglecters of public worship. That there are many such melancholy cases cannot be denied ; but that such is neither the natural or general result of such treatment will appear, if we enquire who are, for the most part, the attendants on, and who are the neglecters of, public worship. Experience confirms the truth of the promise, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." And while we act under the simple but firm impression, that “duties are ours, and events are God's," we shall find abundant encouragement to persevere in training youth in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and in attendance upon his ordinances. At the same time, we shall find sufficient to convince us of the frailty of human nature, and lead us earnestly to implore the renewing and preserving grace of Him, "without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy," and to render us watchful over our own conduct with respect to Divine service; remembering, "that children receive impressions from their parents, which, in a great measure, form

their character, and abide with them through life."

Before I dismiss the consideration of this subject, I would wish to impress upon your minds the urgent necessity, both with respect to yourselves and your children, of strict watchfulness against the first causes of neglecting the public service of God; as every act of neglect will weaken the power of habit in this respect, and tend to counteract the influence of our general example and opinions. We say, the first causes of neglect, for it will almost invariably be found, that where individuals have become neglecters of public worship, who had been regular attendants, they became so without any wilful determination of forsaking the house of God, and that it was occasioned by some comparatively trivial circumstance in the first instance.

This is a subject of vast importance and demands a more particular consideration.

IV. We shall therefore assign, as a FOURTH CAUSE OF THE NEGLECT OF PUBLIC WORSHIP, SOME COMPARATIVELY TRIVIAL CIRCUMSTANCES, LEADING TO OCCASIONAL OMISSION, AND ENDING

IN HABITUAL NEGLECT. Our enquiry now is How those who were once regular attendants have become habitual neglecters of divine ordinances.

Few, very few, of those who have been accustomed to attend the house of God, have at once openly turned their back upon its ordinances. Gradually and imperceptibly has the habit been broken through, until, from being numbered

among regular public worshippers, they have degenerated into carelessness, and have at length been ranked among those who openly slight the sanctuary. And we venture to affirm, in the majority of such cases, not only that there was no intention of adopting such a course, but that the final result was never anticipated, and that this melancholy change might be traced to some trivial occurrence. Some small temptation to neglect public worship presented itself, and was yielded to some domestic arrangement, occasional visitor, or slight obstacle, was allowed, in the first instance, to detain them; a chain of circumstances followed from this single act of compliance, which eventually caused what was only an occasional omission to become a confirmed practice. I shall not stop to trace the various steps of this downward course, but would simply observe, that persons become neglecters of divine ordinances from such trivial causes, without any intention or remote expectation of the final issue, because every temptation that is yielded to, renders us less able and less inclined to resist, and gives birth to other temptations, to which we should never have been exposed, had we not yielded to the first. For the truth of these observations, we might confidently appeal to the experience of those who have been led to the complete omission of the public means of grace, and we should find an awful confirmation in the testimony of their consciences. And could we learn the causes which have seduced them from the