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they part, they swear they will meet again. of these influences some other connexion. husband drinks abroad, the wife thinks she may take a similar liberty at home. The son asks, " What harm is there in doing as my parents do?" Thus the disease spreads among neighbours and relatives; and who can say where it will stop? Let him who spreads it, remember that he is responsible for all its consequences. "Although the waste of time and money (as Dr. Paley observes) may be of small importance to you, it may be of the utmost to some one or other, whom your society corrupts. Repeated or long-continued excesses, which hurt not your health, may be fatal to your companion. Although you have neither wife, nor child, nor parent, to lament your absence from home, or expect your return to it with terror, other families, whose husbands and fathers have been invited to share your drunkenness, or encouraged to imitate it, may possibly lay their misery or ruin at your door."

EXCESSIVE DRINKING, PERSISTED IN, RUINS THE SOUL FOR EVER. "Neither fornicators, nor drunkards (it is written) shall inherit the kingdom of God." Is it any wonder that God has published such a threatening? What would a drunkard do in heaven? The spirits of the just are there, an innumerable company of angels, and God himself, a Being "glorious in holiness." It is all a scene of purity, a scene the reverse of all that the intemperate can love or enjoy. When the heirs of heaven are described, we hear of "adding to knowledge temperance," of "keeping under the body," of "crucifying the flesh with its affections and lusts," of " being made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light." The drunkard heeds not this, but despises those who do. It will not be so when he shall witness their confidence and joy at the appearing of Jesus Christ; not so, when in Hell he shall lift up his eyes, and in vain

To the Parents of Young People.

53

solicit one drop of water to cool his tormented tongue!*

(To be continued.)

TO THE FATHERS AND MOTHERS OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE WHO ARE ABOUT TO BE CONFIRMED.

MY DEAR FRIENDS,

WHETHER your children will walk in that good path on which they are about to enter, depends much, very much upon you. What they hear and see at home will have a very powerful influence in deciding their course of life. If, for instance, they see nothing in your families but an entire neglect of religion; if you are living without any concern for your future welfare, as if there was no God, no Saviour, no eternal world; if you never go to the house of God on the Lord's day, but on the contrary spend your Sabbaths in indolence, or in sinful pleasures; if they witness in your conduct acts of gross and open wickedness, as drunkenness, profane swearing, dishonesty, and such like: such an example may be attended by the most fatal consequences to your children, and may lead to their utter ruin both in this world and in the next.

How

enormous is the present guilt, how aggravated will be the future condemnation of those parents who throw a stumbling-block in the way of their children by their own evil example! On the contrary, if you are living in a godly and religious manner; if it be evident, from all that you do and say, that you love and fear God; if you are careful to avoid sin yourselves, and to check it when perceived in others; if you conscientiously keep the Sabbath, and regularly attend the house and ordinances of God: such an

From a religious Tract.

example is a real blessing to all that behold it; and we may reasonably hope, that, encouraged by what they daily hear and see in you, your children will "walk by the same rule," and be also "followers of that which is good." What a happy thing it is for a family, when parents can point to their own example, and say to their children as St. Paul said to the Corinthians, "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ." I cannot therefore let the Confirmation pass, without making an earnest call upon you for co-operation and assistance. I would say to every father and mother, who have a child about to be confirmed, be ye workers together with us in this most important concern. Render your children what help you can in keeping their vow. Help them by your advice; help them by your example; help them by your prayers *.

I have, however, another reason for addressing you at the present time. You are yourselves deeply concerned in this matter. You lie under the same obligations as those which your children are now taking upon themselves. You were baptized in infancy, and when you came to years of discretion you publicly renewed your baptismal vows in Confirmation. Allow me then, to inquire, how have you kept your vows? During the twenty, or thirty, or forty years that have past since, how have you

A very awful instance of the influence and fatal consequence of bad example in a parent, has lately occurred. A father and two sons were executed on the same gallows at Lancaster, on Saturday, September 29th, 1827. The sons were very young men; the older about twenty-three, the younger not more than eighteen years of age. These youths had been corrupted and led away by the bad example and bad advice of their father; they listened to his solicitations; they became partners of his had practices, and all the three terminated their lives, at one time, by an ignominious death, for house-breaking.

The name of these men was Heyworth; they were inhabitants of the Forest of Rossendale;-and it is mentioned as a leading feature of their character, that nobody ever saw them in a place of worship!

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To the Parents of Young People.

55

been living? Have you really been renouncing the world, the flesh, and the devil? Have you been exercising faith in Jesus Christ? Have you been keeping "God's holy will and commandments?" Alas! alas! how many live in an entire neglect of these things! If any of you, my dear friends, feel sensible of neglect in this respect, oh! humble yourselves before God; implore his pardon for the past, and, for your own sakes as well as for your children's sakes, resolve to enter upon a new course for the future! God give you grace to do so!

I have to mention one other reason for troubling you with this address. I have been grieved to observe some of your children much more ignorant than I could have expected. I have found that some are scarcely able to read at all, and that others, who can read well, can hardly repeat any part of the Church Catechism. The consequence has been, that some have absented themselves altogether, from the Instructions which I wished to deliver, and others have attended with less pleasure and less profit than they would otherwise have had. With opportunities of obtaining learning such as were unknown to our forefathers; with daily and Sunday Schools, where the only demand made is that children may be sent regularly to them; I do think it certainly argues great neglect and indifference in parents, if they now suffer their children to grow up in ignorance. You have perhaps younger children, who, at some future time, will be candidates for confirmation. Look, then, to their education. Avail yourselves of the advantages so freely held out to you. Send your children to some school, where they may be taught to read, and, at the same time, receive religious instruction. Let them "learn those things which a Christian ought to know and believe to his soul's health," and, when the season of their being confirmed arrives, they will be found well prepared for receiving the rite,

and we shall have real satisfaction in presenting them to the Bishop for that purpose.

These topics are enforced upon your notice by all the regard which you have for your own salvation, and by all the affection which you feel for your children. May God give you grace to attend to them, as you will most assuredly one day wish that you had! "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God is," that both you and your children "may be saved," and, if this address be made conducive to that end, I shall be more than repaid for the trouble of writing it.

Commending you and your's to the Blessing and Grace of God,

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Let not thy child rebellious prove,

When prostrate, Lord, before thy throne,
But asking blessings from above,

Still may he add-" Thy will be done."

ST**RT.

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