unprepared'. Doubtless, they would then fain have entered into the ark of safety: their cruel mockings would then be changed into lamentations, their scorn into entreaty, their unbelief into despair. But the door was shut. The righteous believer and his family alone were saved. So when the waters of death shall begin to overflow, and those terrors come, the thought of which so many heed not now-happy, thrice happy they, who, admitted into the ark of God's Church, ride there high above the waters in safety and in peace: their patient faith rewarded, their willing obedience recompensed, their undying hope triumphant 3.

Further to encourage our faith in this sacrament,

1 This is most plainly declared by our Divine Teacher himself Luke xvii. 26, 27. "And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.”

2 So, in the striking parable of the ten virgins, we are in most forcible and startling terms admonished not to put off repentance : for the day of grace may close upon lingering sinners, ere they make their peace with heaven; and the day of judgment overtake them unrepenting. This too, not because God's grace fails, or his mercy closes; but because death overtakes them in their sin. And though, like Dives, each sufferer would fain escape his torments, to such the awful answer of the Lord of life is as clear as the warning inference which He draws is salutary. "Lord, Lord, open to us"-was the agonized cry of the excluded. "But he answered and said, Verily I said unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of man cometh." Matt. xxv. 11. 3 This blessed truth is not weakened, because, of those who thus were saved in the ark, all were not afterwards equally righteous. The continuance of God's favour, though the favour itself is of his free grace, is yet conditional as to our reception of it. So the grace of baptism, however some after baptism may for a time, or even finally, fall from their stedfastness, loseth not its benefits to those who faithfully fulfil the conditions of it.

we are reminded that even in saving his people Israel from the armies of Egypt, by giving them a safe passage through the raging waters of the sea, the Almighty did "figure his holy baptism." Not only was this way of safety one which neither human wisdom had in its utmost stretch of hope ventured to point out, nor human courage had dared to enter on; but it was that very way, which appeared opening for their destruction. Behind them were the armies of Egypt; fierce against any enemy; more fierce against their liberated captives: before them were the agitated waves; ready, as it seemed, to overwhelm them: yet those very waves, which appeared to be gathering for their destruction, became the means of their preservation. Idly chafing in their fury, and powerless to harm, they became a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left. They were salvation. Now these outward means, so efficacious because ordained of God, were exactly those which, if proposed by human reason, would have been held a mockery. So through the waters of baptism, because it is the way appointed thereto of God, we enter into covenant with Him; are set free from our spiritual foes-the world, the flesh, and the devil; and walk in a lively hope of reaching that peaceful shore, where the land of promise will welcome us as the people and children of God.

Still more to animate us in thus bringing our children to this holy ordinance, the Church reminds us, that the blessed Jesus himself submitted to it; and the record is left a perpetual encouragement to those who wish to obey: for it was on being "baptized with water and the Holy Ghost," that a voice from heaven declared of Him-"this is my beloved

Son, in whom I am well pleased." Thus taught, thus encouraged, thus animated, surely the faith of the weakest may strengthen, and the hope of the dullest brighten.

Well then may you trust humbly, but firmly, that God will mercifully look upon you in bringing your children to baptism; that He will graciously give not only pardon for that share of original sin which attaches to every human being; but, vouchsafing deliverance from his wrath, receive them into the Church of Christ, and prepare them for their inheritance in heaven. In stating your view of the benefits of baptism, you are so far from presumptuously supposing that your child is thereby irreversibly received into the favor of God, or cannot fall therefrom, that you distinctly refer his future stedfastness in faith, his joy in hope, his life of Christian charity, to a continuance of the grace for which you pray; whilst your retrospect of God's dealings with his covenanted people have convinced you that his mercies are infinite. By these mercies you implore of God the gift of the Holy Ghost, to renew and sanctify those now brought to his baptism.

Perhaps youth may yet be yours, and you may know little of life beyond its calm and even flow to the prosperous; and as you bend over your smiling infant, may feel as if your happiness were unbounded. Think it not however beside the occasion, that the Church thus reminds you of the changing nature of human happiness-warns you that the waters of life, now so still, and calm, and bright, may soon be turbid, dark, and furious; while "the waves thereof rage and swell, and the mountains shake at the tempest of the same."

The page of experience is in too sad proof, that no state is so elevated, but that sorrows can reach it; no condition so illustrious, but that care can dim its splendour; no course so peaceful, but disquiet shall cross it; no virtue so retired, but detraction may reach it. Some sorrows, too, there are, deep and silent: sorrows unknown to the world, and which if known would meet with little sympathy. What secret anguish springs from kindness ill-requited, exertions ill-appreciated, actions maligned, motives ill-understood! To these, in their varied modifications of sadness, we are all equally liable in that world, upon which, as upon a stormy ocean, your infant has now entered. But faith conquers fear! True! as the words strike your ear, your mind, by that power which is all its own of darting into futurity, and agitated by the power of your maternal fears, anticipates with dread the share of these ills which may be the lot of your child; till you remember HIм, to whose care you are about to consign so helpless a charge. He is the same, ever! And as with his disciple, so with each one of us in covenant with Him; his power is at hand so to bid the waters and the winds be still; so to calm the angry passions of the soul, regulating the affections, and controlling the will, that "stedfast in faith, joyful through hope, and rooted in charity," you hope firmly that your child may finally may finally come to the land of everlasting life, and there reign with God, world without end, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

To sustain you in this view of the blessings of the baptismal covenant to your child in its future trials, you should call to mind how wondrously you have been preserved in your own trials, and delivered "what

time as the storm fell upon you."

"When the sorrows

of death compassed you," faith did bear up your courage, hope spake comfort, and charity was left in your heart so full, that peace and good will reigned there. You had drawn nigh to God; for you were in covenant with Him. Say, then, is not the same covenanted mercy pledged in baptism to your child, in his hour of need?

CHAPTER X.

SECOND PRAYER.

Almighty and immortal God . . preserved by Christ our Lord.

In the invocation of this second prayer there is a striking union of deep humility on your part, as a supplicant, with a nobly expanded view of the majesty of Him to whom your supplication is offered. Casting off all dependence upon yourself, you strengthen your faith in God, by contemplating Him in the immensity of his power, and the infinity of his love-" Almighty and immortal; the aid of all that need, the helper of all that flee to Him for succour, the life of them that believe, and the resurrection of the dead." Whether rich or poor, great or lowly, you feel equally the need of that aid which God alone can give, the necessity for that help without which the strongest are but weak, the want of that spiritual life without which we are but dead before Him, and the hope of that eternal life which springs only from faith in Him who is himself the resurrection of the dead. Under these solemn feelings you call upon God for your infant. O! how