wasted or mispent, but has been productive of a sensible improvement on our part, in some, at least, of those particulars which are most likely to contribute to our real happiness here, and cannot fail to prepare us for entering with greater advantage hereafter upon that higher and more permanent happiness to which, notwithstanding the painful consciousness of too many imperfections and transgressions, the mercy of God, in Christ Jesus, encourages us to look forward.

PRAYER.

Accept, heavenly Father, of our humble tribute of thanksgiving for the various means of religious improvement with which, in the course of thy providence, thou hast been pleased to favour us, and especially, at this time, for the opportunity we have now enjoyed of indulging the feelings of respect and affection towards him whom thou hast been pleased to make the director of our conduct and the communicator of thy most precious gifts to us, and of commemorating an event, with the truth of which our strongest motives to virtue, whilst in this life, as well as our best founded hopes of happiness in another, are so intimately connected.

We beseech thee, O Lord, to pardon whatever imperfections thy searching eye may have discerned in our manner of celebrating this ordinance, and to make it greatly conducive to our improvement. May it be the means of bringing home to our minds, in the strongest manner, the weight and solemnity of the obligations under which we are placed, as the professing disciples of Jesus, and of stimulating us to increased exertions in our efforts to fulfil them : And do thou, O Lord, we beseech thee, accompany our feeble efforts with thy blessing. Let thy strength be made perfect in our weakness. Cleanse us from secret faults. Keep back thy servants, also, from presumptuous transgressions, and let no iniquity have dominion over us. Grant this humble prayer, O God, for thine infinite mercy's sake, as we present it in the name and as disciples of thy beloved son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

BAPTISMAL SERVICE.

THE custom of baptising infants has, in all probability, prevailed in the Christian church from its first establishment as a distinct community. Indeed, it seems to have naturally grown out of that of receiving adult converts into the church by baptism, a method which is well known to have been employed by the first disciples of Christ, and which, though Jewish in its origin, had the sanction of their master's authority. It does not seem at all likely, especially when we take into consideration the notions which were then entertained respecting the relation between parents and children, the latter of whom were, for many years of their life, looked upon as altogether the property of the former, that any head of a family would himself submit to the rite of baptism, as a sign that he had taken upon himself the profession of Christianity, without imposing the same rite upon all the members of his household, whether children or domestics, whatever might happen to be their ages. Accordingly, the language of New Testament writers, in recording conver

sions seems to imply that the families of the first converts were baptized along with them. Thus we are told of the keeper of the prison at Philippi, that, after having washed the stripes of Paul and his companions, who had been scourged by the magistrates," he was baptized, he and all his," that is, all the members of his family, "straightway." The apostle Paul himself also informs the Corinthians, in his first epistle to them, that amongst the few that he had baptized of their church were the household of Stephanas, under which word we are naturally led to include all the inhabitants of his house, whether children or domestics. We can hardly suppose that one who had himself submitted to the rite of baptism, and imposed it upon the different members of his family, would neglect, upon the introduction, by birth, of an additional member into that family, to recognize its connection with the Christian church by the performance of the same external ceremony; and the custom of baptizing infants having originated in this way, would of course be handed down from generation to generation. This ceremony, indeed, like all others, has been exposed to misapprehension and abuse; but it seems to us, at the same time, not without a foundation in reason and nature. The admission of an additional member into the church

of Christ is an event which seems not unworthy of being made the subject of a particular religious service; and if any such is to be employed, are the abuses to which it may have been subjected in times of superstition to be thought a sufficient reason for relinquishing that service, which is venerable for its antiquity, interesting from the associations connected with it, and sanctioned by the adoption of our Lord himself, and his apostles, as well as by that of an immense majority of the Christian church in all ages? It is true, that, in the eye of enlightened reason, external forms are, comparatively speaking, unimportant; and it is our conviction of this that makes us not very solicitous about adhering strictly to the precise form in which the rite under consideration was

originally administered. We feel not a mo

ment's hesitation about varying it so far as difference of climate or customs, or any other circumstance of sufficient importance, may seem to require; but we acknowledge ourselves unable at present to perceive any sufficient reason for exchanging the simple and interesting ceremony which has been hitherto employed on occasions of this kind, for one which, though in some respects, perhaps, less liable to abuse, must be at the same time less interesting in itself, and less peculiarly Christian in its charac