demption. Thousands it entices through paths of sinful indulgence to a death-bed of despair and an eternity of wo. They will not enter the door which Christ has opened, because they hope to climb over some other way.

2. Thoughtlessness is another most formidable and most ruinous obstacle. There are thousands in Christian lands, and with intelligent minds, who will never allow themselves time for serious reflection, They enter the church upon the Sabbath, that the sound of the gospel may fall upon the ear, but make no mental effort that its truths may be conveyed to their hearts. They hear the funeral bell, but will not think that they must die. They look upon the cold corps, but will not by reflection make the case their own. They hear of eternity, but will not send the mind in serious thoughto explore its limitless duration, its overwhelming scenes. Most studiously, and most wickedly do they exclude reflect tion, and are borne as bubbles on the deceitful surface of life's gliding stream. O how strange it is that any mind can refrain from reflection, when placed in the scenes which now surround us. Death is certain. The grave is the termination of all our earthly hopes. The trump of the Archangel will soon burst upon the ear. The resurrection morn will soon gleam upon the eye. The eternal glories of heaven will soon fill the heart with rapture, or the glooms of hell, pervade it with undying despair. And yet men will not think! How strange! How incomprehensible! They will not think, and therefore by thousands they are perishing to be eternal outcasts from heaven.

3. A wrong view of the mercy of God is another source of ruin not uncommon in the world. It is not very unusual for persons to think that God is so merciful that he will not be strict in his requirements. But can God receive to heaven those who will not repent of sin, and who will acquire no taste for heaven's purity and heaven's joy. Can those who here never will bow the knee to Jesus; never will speak his praise, be admitted to those blest abodes where he reigns supreme, where every knee bows at the mention of his name and every heart thrills at the remembrance of his love. "I cast myself upon the mercy of God for salvation," said a hardened and impenitent and dying sinner. Oh what infatuation. The goodness of God should lead to repentance; if it does not, it never can be manifested in our salvation. The only way to be saved is the way which God has pointed out.

4. Another obstacle far from uncommon is a desire to obtain a new heart in a different way from that in which alone the Bible assures us a new heart can be obtained. Such persons will wish they were Christians. They will try to feel interested in serious things. They will attend church; go

to funerals, and place themselves under the influence of all the means of grace. They will read the Bible, and occasionally try the efficacy of prayer. And thus they are hoping that they shall eventually obtain a new heart. They will do anything but just that very thing which God tells them to do-" cease to do evil; learn to do well." They will do any thing but repent of sin, seek forgiveness in the name of Jesus, and at once commence a life of prayer and of active effort. Thousands thus go on through life. While in this state of mind they know it is sinful, and conscience reproaches them every day. This is not a state of innocent ignorance. They know that the path to heaven is plain and strait; that we are to make no compromise with sin; that at once we must enter upon all the duties of the Christian life, with prayer for strength to persevere to the end.

5. The unwillingness to give up a worldly spirit is another obstacle which ruins thousands. Every man's common sense teaches him, that supreme attachment to anything of an earthly nature is inconsistent with the requirements of the gospel. Every man in heart knows that if he would be a Christian, he must make it the one great object of life to pre pare for heaven and to reclaim a guilty world to God. And in almost every bosom there is a struggle, arduous, though it be hidden, between the claims of religion and the allurements of the world. How often will the ambitious, and the worldly, and the gay, confess the emptiness of their pursuits, and express regret that they are not walking in the Christian's path. Ah, this is the confession, which conscience, that faithful monitor, will at times extort from the tortured bosom. And yet will the infatuated votary of the world glide along, through empty and heartless joys, till the lamenta tions is upon his lips, "the harvest is past, the summer is ended, and I am not saved."

6. Pride, or an unwillingness to confess being in the wrong, is another obstacle which ruins thousands. Nothing is harder for the unsubdued heart, than the sincere open confession of having lived in sin, and of needing forgiveness. The attitude which the sinner assumes practically and really is, that God must confess that he has been wrong in his requirements, and yield to the stubborness of the sinner's heart. But few have the hardihood to say this in words, while thousands have the effrontery to exhibit it in their lives. Every man who does not cry for mercy is exhibiting this feeling to God. It is impossible to deceive our own hearts by denying this, for we must either admit that we have done wrong, or accuse God of injustice in requiring contrition and confession. This pride of heart must be subdued, even to the lowly spirit of a little child, or there can be no admission to God's court above.

Such are some of the principal obstacles which stand in the way of the conversion of the sinner. The path to wo is downward, and its passage rapid. No effort is necessary to hasten along its crowded ways. The current bears you onward, and you need but float upon its surface, and you will soon enter those gloomy depths whence there is no return. The obstacles in the way of conversion are powerful. They are not to be overcome by the transient feeling of a moment; they are not to be removed by waiting in indolence. They demand great effort to overcome them. If there be anything in nature which calls for strenuous exertions, and which holds out sufficient motives to encourage such exertions, it is the salvation of your soul. Oh, do you never think of that eternity which is before you, of those realms of boundless space, where in a short time must be your endless home? Do you ever think of the wonders of a Saviour's love, of the sympathy of celestial bands, of the glittering mansion, of the heavenly robe, of the everlasting song. Can you think of such things, and not have your heart burn within you, and not be impelled by desires which never can be extinguished, to reach forward by every possible exertion, to the attainment of that world ?" Ask and ye shall receive; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you."

NATIONAL PREACHER.

No. 6. VOL. XIX.]

JUNE, 1845.

SERMON CCCC.

[WHOLE NO. 222.

THE NECESSITY AND BENEFITS OF EARLY RELIGIOUS TRAINING A SERMON,

PREACHED AT THE REQUEST OF THE

AMERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION,

AT PHILADELPHIA,

MAY 18, 1845.

BY RICHARD S. STORRS, D. D.

BRAINTREE, MASS.

"Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little."-Isaiah xxviii. 9, 10.

COMMENTATORS do not harmonize perfectly in their construction of this passage; but whether we regard it as the language or the drunkards of Ephraim, deriding the Lord's messengers for the plainness and urgency of their unwelcome instructions, or as the language of the prophet himself affirming interrogatively the spiritual ignorance and imbecility of the people, with their prophets and priests, it can hardly be questioned that the Holy Spirit clearly indicates the important truth that the knowledge of our relations to God and eternity is to be earnestly inculcated on the rising generation. There may be little hope that the uncircumcised ear of age will hearken to instruction, or that the habitual transgressor will listen to the warning voice of the Lord; but there is hope of the young, that precept upon precept and line upon line, drawn from the oracles of God, even though uttered by stammering lips, will not be unavailing. The reported remark of one

of England's noble sons, that "were we deprived of what we learn during the three first years of our lives, we should be the most ignorant beings on the face of the globe," is less extravagant in point of fact than in sound; and there had been no tinge of extravagance nor less of shrewdness in the remark, if, instead of three, he had specified the first seven or ten years of life. In those years, beyond question, are laid the foundations of the social and religious character which every man carries to the grave; and the firmness and fair proportions of the structure reared upon them, will correspond with their solidity and breadth. And when in varied language God commands the father to make known the truth unto his children-to teach the words that he commands diligently unto them-to talk of them when sitting in the house, and walking by the way, lying down and rising up, and to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, he surely imposes on every man the express obligation to pour divine instruction, in every variety of form and without sparing, into the minds of his infant offspring. And then, admitting the principle involved in the second great law of the universe-the equal worth of all human souls-we cannot, without absurdity, object to the claims of any portion of the rising generation within the reach of our benevolence, upon our practical regards to their instruction in the

revealed will of God.

If we are to be delivered from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood; if our sons are to be as plants grown up in their youth, and our daughters as corner stones polished after the similitude of a palace, then must they be taught that fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom, and their responsibility to Him for all their doings, and the extent and spirituality of the law which binds them to the cultivation of purity and love in all their relations to universal being. And if they are to be themselves saved from the dominion of lust, and the power of the second death, they must be taught by "precept upon precept, and line upon line," that they are shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin; that they are estranged from God, from their first entrance into life; that the blood of Christ alone cleanseth from sin; and that his intercessions only secure them forgiveness and eternal life. And they must be taught that no man, except he be born again, can see the kingdom of heaven; that the Holy Spirit alone convinceth of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; that repentance, faith, and new obedience, are essential to acceptance with God; that rewards of surpassing glory are laid up for the righteous, and woes of unutterable intensity are reserved for the wicked. Of these truths, so fundamental in the Christian system, none can be overlooked in the instruction of the young more than the old, without putting in jeopardy their welfare for time and eternity; and these alone explained