THE CHILD PREPARED TO MEET HIS GOD. Preached Oct. 29, 1843. 66 'Prepare to meet thy God."-Amos iv. 12. THIS was the warning addressed by God through His prophet Amos to the people of Israel, when they had forsaken Him, and given themselves up to the dominion of their own lusts. It is the warning which God has addressed to all through their conscience, through His Word, through His ministers, from the time that man first sinned, from the time that guilt first made him to tremble, and, because he was not prepared to meet Him, he endeavoured to "hide himself from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden." The same warning voice is still continually heard by all the sons of men, until the Spirit of God has ceased to strive with them, and they are given over to a reprobate mind. The taint and the curse of sin are still upon every soul brought into the world. And from the moment that the mind becomes capable of discerning between good and evil, the warning is addressed to the child; and until then, and until everything necessary to his salvation shall have been done for him, and he shall have been fully instructed in the things B belonging to his everlasting peace, the warning is addressed to parents and others on his account, "Prepare to meet thy God." On this latter point I shall speak more at large presently; only premising here, that when I say the warning is addressed in behalf of the child to parents and others, I do not mean merely sponsors, or relatives, or friends; I mean neighbours, and I use the term in its most extended sense, our Saviour's sense of it, namely, every person to whom God has granted the power and the privilege of being in any way instrumental in His hands to the saving a soul alive. When our first parents had brought on themselves, and their posterity, the sad inheritance of eternal death, God gave them in His mercy the covenant of grace, through which they might be delivered from it, and be re-established in His favour. In due time the Son of God was to be manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Faith in this promised Saviour was the condition of the covenant. Every believer before the coming of Christ was saved from everlasting death, through faith in Him who was to come. "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain." "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death." "By faith Noah, being warned of God, of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith." "By faith Abraham obeyed." "Through faith Moses kept the Passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them." And what shall I say more? for the time would fail me to tell of all the servants of God, in old times, who thus trusted and did His bidding. "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them." Only through the covenant of grace, the condition of which is faith in the promised Saviour of lost man, can any be prepared to meet their God. Into this covenant of grace God thought fit to admit faithful Abraham and his seed by the rite of Circumcision, which was thenceforth to be performed on every man-child within eight days from his birth. And this will explain what I was saying just now of the warning, "Prepare to meet thy God," being addressed to parents and others in behalf of the child. Without the help of these, the child could never have been brought into that covenant of grace through which he was to be saved. As the Jewish child was entitled to the covenanted mercies of God through Circumcision, so is the Christian child through Baptism. It was the last command of Jesus to His Apostles, Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.' Here again the warning, "Prepare to meet thy God," is addressed to parents and others in behalf of the child. Without the help of these he cannot be brought into the covenant of grace, essential to salvation. Parents and others have taken the first step towards preparing the child to meet 66 his God, when they have brought him to the font to be baptized. Their duty by the child, however, does not end here; it has been only the first step. "Go ye, and teach," were our blessed Lord's words to His disciples, not solely baptize. To prepare the baptized child to meet his God, parents and others must teach him the condition of the covenant into which he has been admitted. He must know what he is to believe, and what he is to do. He must be instructed in the several articles of the Christian Faith, contained in the Apostle's Creed; for without faith it is impossible for him to please God. He must have an enlightened understanding of the moral law, as laid down in the Ten Commandments; for without holiness no man shall see the Lord. It must be impressed upon. him that a true faith is practically proved by its fruits; and that, although no works of his own can of themselves obtain salvation as a reward, good works will as naturally flow from his faith as water from a fountain. For "as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead." And St. James again reasons, "Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect ?" Belief and works therefore hath God joined together; and together they constitute faith, as the soul and body together constitute the man. As an old writer observes, "Faith |