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THE MEANS TO IT UNIVERSALLY GRANTED.

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given himself a ransom for all, or merely for a few; whether his light be given to every man that cometh into the world, or only to some of them; whether the purpose of God be universal or partial; and, if it must be admitted to be universal: whether God, at the same time that he included all men in his purpose, have excluded most men, or any one man, from the possession of the means, by which alone this purpose can be attained? The question is, whether the Omnipresent be omnipresent in space only, and not in spirit; and, if his omnipresence in spirit, his presence in the heart of every creature, cannot be denied: whether his presence be effectual or ineffectual, whether it be felt or not felt by the creature, by the obedient as a power of love, and faith and life everlasting,-by the disobedient as a power of wrath, of reproof, and of condemnation. Whether it be of the flesh or of the spirit, of letter or of life, of the name or of the power, that the Lord spoke, when he said: "He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not, is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” Or what meaneth the baptist, when he testifieth," He that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." Let these questions be satisfactorily answered; let not this primitive power of seeing the truth, and of obeying it, this standard of right, without which the heathen could never have been "a law to themselves," this soul-stirring, reproving, correcting, enlightening and strengthening influence, be confounded with those higher gifts of grace the new birth of the soul, whereby Christ, being received by us, becometh in us the hope of glory, and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit-let these things, as they are spiritual, be spiritually discerned; but let not the blasphemous notion be entertained, that God, the

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RULE OF EDUCATION, LAID DOWN BY CHRIST.

giver of every good and perfect gift, who has declared that 66 every one that asketh receiveth ;" that "he that seeketh, findeth;" has withheld from any man that, without which no man could have an idea, or a motive, the will or the power, of asking or of seeking. Let not God's gracious promise, that he will give more abundantly to those that ask him, be turned into a sinful disregard and forgetfulness, of what he has given to all, before any could ask. Let not the weak be offended, and the proud ensnared, by a vain and perplexing doctrine, which either consigns man to the indolent inactivity of predestinarianism, impresses him with the profane and dangerous notion, that he is to make, as it were, the first advances for reconciliation with his God. But "hear the righteousness which is of faith, on what wise it speaketh: Say not in thine heart: 'Who shall ascend into heaven?' (that is, to bring down Christ from above) or, Who shall descend into the deep?" (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? THE WORD IS NIGH THEE, EVEN IN THY MOUTH, AND IN THY HEART."

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It is in this faith only, that we can ever enter into the spirit of that memorable declaration of our Saviour, which is the golden rule of all education: "WHOSO SHALL

RECEIVE ONE SUCH LITTLE CHILD IN MY NAME, RECEIVETH ME!" And here, again, I would wish, that our great leaders of doctrine, our scribes and lawyers, with whom the letter availeth so much, would for once keep to the letter. Hear their interpretation: "Whoso shall receive one such little child in my name," i. e., whoso shall, from motives of Christian charity, provide for the instruction of such a little child, in a school conducted upon one of "the most approved systems," (where, in addition to other knowledge, calculated to fit him for some trade, he will be made to spell over the letter of the Gospel, and to learn, by rote, the catechism of the party to which his benefactor belongs, so as to give him a chance of becoming a professor of the same party,

WHAT IT IS TO RECEIVE A CHILD IN HIS NAME. 71

if he retain the knowledge so acquired, and a Christian, if, in spite of this instruction, grace should be added from above;) whoso does this "receiveth me," i. e. shall be rewarded as if Christ had been. in such a helpless condition, and the same service had been rendered to him. Is this the life and spiritis it even the letter of the declaration of our Lord ?Why, then, is it not taken literally: "Whoso shall receive one such little child in my name, receiveth me;" i. e. whoso having undertaken the rearing of one such little child, shall humbly acknowledge, that he himself can do nothing for it, but that there is one mightier than himself, even the everlasting Word, who hath both the will and the power of influencing the heart and mind of the little child-whoso, in this faith, shall make it his whole and sole object, to become an instrument in the hand of that holy power, for the purpose of aiding to bring the child into a state, in which he will be ready to listen to the instructions, and to submit to the dictates, of that inward teacher and ruler, he, says our Lord, in truth and in reality receiveth me. Born from above, and one with me, his soul holds intercourse, in holiness, truth, and love, not with the selfish feelings, or the corrupt tendencies, which arise from the fallen and sinful nature of the child, but with my own pure and undefiled nature, which I have deposited in the child's heart, as a spark, ready to burst forth into a sacred flame, as soon as it is kindled by the congenial flame of my spirit, manifested through one of my faithful and single-hearted servants. And he who doeth so, looketh for no reward, for he hath his reward.

Here is the basis on which our education must be founded, to be a Christian education, in the true sense of the word; an education by the means, and to the ends of Christ; far different from those lifeless systems, which prevail so largely among us, and which have, some of them at least, a form of godliness, viz., Scripture reading and catechisation, but deny the power thereof, viz., the direct

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EDUCATION A SERVICE OF CHRIST.

operation and agency of a divine life upon the feelings and convictions of the child. It is inconceivable, how any but infidels, half Christians, or mock Christians, can, with any degree of consistency, object to the principle, of building education wholly and solely upon the faith in the indwelling, and the internal operation of that divine principle, which, if it be gradually received into the child's soul, as the stream of a new life, and brought to full consciousness and clearness in him, is, what is termed in Scripture, "Christ formed in us," and makes us "new creatures in Christ." No Christian can think himself justified in educating in the child the carnal mind, which is enmity against God; all that a Christian can wish to do, is, to become subservient in his influence upon the child, to the gradual formation and ultimate birth of a spiritual mind, of the new man, in the child. But if this be avowedly our object, and we be Christians in truth and in spirit, we must know that it is impossible for us to educate the new man into the child; but that we can only, by the outward manifestation of that same spirit of Christ, and by judicious. treatment, as regards both instruction and discipline, lead the child more clearly to perceive, and more readily to obey, this internal ruler; and we must know, likewise, that the existence of such a ruler, and our faith in him, is the indispensable condition of our so doing; for the new man is not born" of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."*

* The following testimony of personal experience, extracted from "The "Journal of JOB SCOTT, an American Minister," is so direct to the point, that I cannot forbear inserting it here :-"Almost as early as I can remember any thing, I can well remember the Lord's secret workings in my heart, by ❝his Grace or Holy Spirit, very sensibly bringing me under condemnation for "my evil thoughts and actions, as rudeness and bad words, though I was not "frequent in the use of the latter; for disobedience to parents; for inwardly "wishing, in moments of anger, some evil to such as offended me; and such "like childish and corrupt dispositions and practices, which, over and beyond "all outward instruction, I was made sensible were evil, and sprang from a "real root of evil in me. And I am in a full belief that, in every quarter of the "globe, children at an early age have good and evil set before them in the

CONSEQUENCES OF THIS PRINCIPLE.

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Taking this view of the subject, there cannot be much "shining of the light of Christ in their hearts, with clearness and evidence "sufficient to discover to them their duty, if they honestly attend to it. And "though I am deeply sensible of the necessity and utility of much careful "guardianship, cultivation, and instruction, in order to guard children against "the corrupting influence of example, invitation, and perverse inclination, "which abundantly and prevalently surround them; yet, I fear a great part "of the tuition, which too many children receive, tends rather to blunt the "true sense and evidence of divine truths upon the mind, and to substitute "notions and systems instead thereof, than to encourage an honest attention "to the teachings which lead into all truth. I am satisfied, if the teachings

"of men were never to thwart the teachings of the Holy Spirit, many

"things would fix on the mind of children to be evils, which they are now in"structed and persuaded are innocent and commendable. Indeed, it is "mournful to observe how many of them are bolstered up in pride, vanity, "and revenge; taught to plume themselves upon their supposed superiority "of parts and attainments, nursed up in the ideas of grandeur and worldly honour, yea, inspired with exalted notions of the merit of valour, heroism, "and human slaughter. Many there are who put light for darkness, and "darkness for light; bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. They call the "divine light, which lighteneth every man that cometh into the world,' a "natural light, an ignis fatuus, or by some other ignominious epithet; though "the Scriptures declare it to be the very LIFE of the holy WORD, that was IN 66 THE BEGINNING WITH GOD, and truly WAS GOD. There are many,

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"who, under a notion of advocating the true cause and doctrine of Christ, "strike violently against the very life of it, and will not allow that 'the

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manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal,' though "the Scriptures expressly assert it, and experience confirms it to those who "rightly profit by the measure received. Many who have, from tradition and "education, for a season believed, the Holy Spirit, graciously vouchsafed them, "was some very inferior thing to the true Spirit of the everlasting and most "Holy God, have, at length, by yielding to its dictates, and taking it for their "leader, grown wiser than their teachers, and been indubitably instructed and "assured, that it was indeed THE ETERNAL SPIRIT, which from their "infantile days strove with them, for their reconciliation with God, the eternal 66 source of it, as it did with the old world, for their recovery from their corrupted, "alienated state. In regard to my own early acquaintance with the Holy "Spirit's operation, though I then knew not what it was, I have now no more "doubt about it, than I have about the existence and omnipresence of God. "It is sealed upon my heart with as much clearness and certainty, that it is "the Spirit of the living God, and that it visits, wooes, invites, and strives "with all, at least for a season, as it is that God is no respecter of persons; " and I as fully believe no man can have any clear knowledge of God, or of his

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own religious duty, without the Holy Spirit's influence, as I believe, the "wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, and that the world by wisdom "knows him not."

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