parent society are wisely and firmly acted upon, none can know so well how to appreciate as the ordained minister of the Church, who has to examine and further prepare his young parishioners for Confirma

tion.

I wish I could speak experimentally of such happy results generally in our parishes, but it is well known that this is not the case. And the blame rests in part

on the community at large. Persons do not generally so much as acknowledge an obligation upon them to be instrumental in the Christian training of the young of our people. The number, comparatively few, who bear some small part of the pecuniary charges, take no further interest in the matter, and so cast nothing of their personal weight and influence into the scale. Parents are apt to oppose the exercise of all necessary correction and discipline towards their children, and the home example is most pernicious. The managers of the school have not sufficient energy and moral courage to redress the grievance, and to meet the spirit of misrule and insubordination, both within and without, with firmness and decision. Through carelessness, or prejudice, or scantiness of funds, an inefficient master or mistress is set over the establishment; or else, from causes before mentioned, an efficient one is left unsupported. To all which is to be added the baneful effects of the most ungodly conduct in every direction around. The consequence of these combined causes is, that the religious and moral character of the young of our parishes, generally, is so glaringly unchristian, that few indeed give evidence how Christians

ought to live. Where, generally, is the walk of faith among them? Where, tokens of the indwelling of the Spirit? Where, the mortifying of the lusts of the flesh? Where, the modest demeanour, gentleness of manner, soberness of conduct, reverence for the sanctity of the Sabbath, observance of the ordinances of religion? Any proof, in short, of their growing in grace and in the knowledge and love of their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? And are these the persons whom we, as ministers of the Church and ordained servants of God, are required to recommend to the bishop, as so endeavouring to fulfil their conditions of the Christian covenant, so discharging the vows and promises made for them at their baptism, so taking heed to their steps, so giving evidence to the grace which is in them, so sincere in the profession of their most holy religion, that they are fit subjects for the sacred rite of Confirmation, and are affording a good and happy hope that they are indeed "members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven ?"

These are most perilous times, and a variety of causes are all working together to confound the truth, to darken the minds of men, and weaken or dissever the bonds of moral and religious restraint. Everyone reads, and that which is for ill is readier at hand, and more generally to the taste, than that which is for good. Most persons take, if not their religion, yet at least their Church sentiments, from the newspaper which they happen to take in. They read no other writings on the subject, and consequently give access

to no other information; and commonly adopt and maintain, with far more zeal than they advocate any truths of revealed religion, whatever the editor may think good to tell them about the doctrines, discipline, and government of the Church. And what can be expected from such a source but blind ignorance or wilful error? Then the unhappy differences which distract the Church itself, are eagerly caught at, and most ignorantly canvassed. Men's minds are unsettled. Doubt as to what or where truth is, soon changes into carelessness and indifference about it; and these again fast drift into irreligion and infidelity. Under such circumstances, it is obvious to remark that the visible Church of Christ in this country offers no rallying point, no sure resting-place to superficial observers, such as the primitive Church did. She has gathered of every kind, and has no longer the power to separate the good from the bad, and to cast out from her pale those who mar her usefulness, and who give occasion to her adversaries to rejoice.

Nor are these remarks irrelevant to the subject on which I am speaking. Parochial schools, and in particular the national school, ought to have ever in view, with a consistent prominency, the solemn rite of Confirmation, as terminating the sedulous training which has been bestowed upon the child to prepare him to meet his God. Every other subject of instruction Ishould have immediate and close reference to this. But too frequently it is not so. Children too generally come to the minister of the parish to be examined for Confirmation, little prepared in soberness of spirit,

even if they possess the requisite scriptural knowledge to be admitted to this sacred ordinance of Christ's Church. This is a most painful fact. The consequence too often is, that the admission of candidates for Confirmation by the clergy is most injuriously promiscuous, and has tended very greatly indeed to confound in the minds of even well-disposed persons the distinction which ever ought to be kept up, as far as possible, between the world which "lieth in wickedness," and the Church which Christ "has chosen out of the world." Every one with a little, very little, of scriptural knowledge, and that confined to a vague indistinct notion of a few isolated historical facts and names, claims a right to a ticket for Confirmation, which he regards at most as a decent and formal ceremony to be gone through at a certain age, but to which he attaches no idea of increased Christian privileges, no desire of them, no intention of availing himself of them. Nor, I imagine, does it unfrequently happen, that a candidate of sincere purpose but sadly ignorant is rejected, and thus debarred additional means of grace; whilst such an one as I have just before mentioned, from his little larger modicum of head-knowledge, is received. I am not casting reflections on any of my brother clergymen, many of whom are greatly my superiors in everything. But it is very difficult for us to know how to act. Things have gone on ill for so great length of time, that wrong seems to have a prescriptive right, and, in the opinion of many, to be too deeply fixed to be uprooted. And so, whilst the understanding and the heart and the

conscience of the minister are fully convinced of the unfitness of the candidate, the hand reverses their judgment, and certifies to the bishop that he has been approved. These are the persons, the hundreds, the thousands, admitted every year through Confirmation into a closer communion with the Church, who in every way obstruct her usefulness, and who cause all the sacred truths she would teach, and the guidance she would give, to be evil spoken of and turned to her reproach. And at each revolution of this ordinance, I am persuaded there is such a flood of ungodliness and profaneness flowing up to the very steps of the altar, and thence returning in such polluted streams over the whole land, that I see not how we can expect any other result than a continued increase of moral evil, spiritual darkness, and the infliction of God's judgments on our Church and country. There is not a person who ought to be able to hear these sad truths unmoved, or to leave them unthought upon.

In conclusion, I would address a few words of advice and caution to the young who may be present.

My dear young friends. Others have done their part to prepare you to meet your God. You have been admitted by Baptism into His covenanted mercies. You have been instructed in the duties of the Christian profession. You have had the offer of the Holy Spirit to guide and to guard you. Now do your own part. Bear in mind, that at every moment of your life God is present with you; sees what you do, hears what you say, knows every thought of your heart. Keep away from the wicked. If one you love does not speak and