Iferente is just, that whilst the latter is of force f Imited amber of persons, those who have reached t

my, the former embraces citizens of all ages, even thas of one day. So we hold that, if the benefit of th hami: Covenant extended itself through all stages of li infant of eight days old, whereas the grace of Christ's samon touches only those who have arrived at the age susness, the latter is not an advance, but a retrogres moves not in a broader, but a narrower channel.

Furthermore, with regard to the suggestion, that the requiring children to be circumcised on the eighth day o longed to a Covenant which was to pass away, we are inst to believe that no part of that first dispensation was away, in the sense of being abolished. That was nev term which the Saviour used with reference to it. "N Sot or tittle of the law shall pass away until all be fulfilled "I am not come to destroy the law and the proj but to fulfill them." Such language can only mean, th the essential features of the Abrahamic Covenant were ca ever into, and conserved in, the new dispensation which H tablished. For example: The bloody sacrifices for sin in Old Testament economy were not simply abrogated; the w idea underlying them was taken up into the atoning sacrifi the Lamb of God, and remains there in perpetual force for faith. Likewise with all the elements of the ancient econo the Passover merging into the Supper of the Lord; the Sabb passing into the Christian Sunday, or Lord's Day; and w more natural, than to expect that so central and significant an stitution of the first dispensation as circumcision was not inten to be without a correspondence in the new order of grace?

But, one step further. The branch of the Church to whi we belong adheres closely to what is known as the "Christ centric" type of faith, according to which we are taught th our Christian calling does not consist primarily in laying ho of the work of Christ, in an abstract way, for our salvatiou, b in getting into living union with His person; taking His pers

al life as the Alpha and Omega, the Pattern in all respects, or the life of every individual that is to be saved by Him, in he exhaustive sense of the term. Now we know that Jesus' ife did not begin with maturity, or self-consciousness, but with elpless infancy, developing stage by stage toward the perfecion of His character as our Redeemer, under the sanctifying ordinances of the economy already established. At the age of ight days he was subjected to the rite of circumcision. As soon as the days of His mother's purification were fulfilled, which in this case were forty, or about six weeks, His parents Drought Him to the Temple, to present Him to the Lord. But what could this presentation of the Child Jesus to God amount to? we might ask. At this time He was just as irresponsiole as any other child ever was at the same age; He possessed no more self-consciousness; and, therefore, He knew no more about his offering to God in the Ordinance of the Temple than any other babe that was similarly treated.

If at this point we feel impelled to think that these instances do not necessarily imply that the infant Jesus, Himself, received any real benefit from them in His unconscious state, that they only refer themselves to a pious desire of His parents to do for Him according to the established law of their nation, we need only remember, that the established law itself was not a mere Jewish tradition, or a meaningless human institution, but was ordained by God Himself as a grace-bearing medium for all children who were brought under its power; for it was not said that a failure to comply with the regulation would only bring censure upon the parents for disregard of God's command, but produce disadvantage for the children themselves. Considering, then, that God has proclaimed Himself to be the same "yesterday, to-day and forever," would it not be exceedingly strange to regard Him as having made such provision for children four thousand years ago, and omitting to do anything of the kind for our children now, in this the time of His highest revelation of His goodness to humanity?

But, we may have to contend with the inward int that still something more than what has been adv necessary to sanction the belief that a child can partic any real way, in the benefits of Christ's saving life a before it is capable of performing the fully consciou penitent faith, because the argument so far has mai drawn from the old order of things. If so, then let to the authority of Jesus, Himself, at a time when he only proclaimed, but proven Himself to be an infallible T of truth. On one occasion, we are informed by the in Evangelists, a number of mothers followed the Savion siring Him to bless their children. His disciples, wi best intentions, of course, chided these mothers for n such a request. Exactly what the disciples said to them time is not recorded for us; but it was, in all proba something like this: "Our Master is engaged in the momentous task of providing salvation for a lost and r race; illuminating the world with divine truth; and prep men for the establishment of His great and glorious ] dom. But your children are too young to participate act in this great work; they cannot understand anything abo fundamental principles, and, therefore, it is impossible them to be brought into any such personal relation to Hi that which you seek; let this be sufficient to silence appeals." Then the Saviour, hearing the disciples' deliver upon the subject, turned to them with a gentle rebuke attempting to stand betwen Him and the little children. showed them that, so far from its being true that the benefi a personal, saving contact with Him is accessible only to th who can consciously lay hold of it, His Kingdom is to be ma up of just such subjects as were then before Him; th instead of the children's having to get up to maturity knowledge and judgment before they could have anything do with Him, they who are mature have to come down to t children's basis before they can enter into saving fellowsh with Him. Then, he did not simply say 'to the mothers: "

our way; your children are blessed without the necessity of ny formal act to indicate it; they will go along with my Kingdom by a kind of force of inertia, until they are capable of accepting me for themselves;" but He took them up in His irms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them, although hey had no more power to appreciate the blessing, or to unlerstand the obligation which it involved, than children of the ame age who may now be brought under the benediction of His appointments; nor can we imagine, for a moment, that the blessing itself which He then bestowed was any less weighty and Ear-reaching in its power upon the soul than that which is intended to be conveyed now by the administration of any Sacrament which he has appointed in His Church.

But yet another perplexity, of a more practical character, may urge itself upon our attention relative to this subject. How shall we dispose of the fact, that so many persons who have been consecrated to God in infancy never come to realize the grace which is predicated of the transaction, but fall away into gross impiety when they arrive at maturity, whilst, it is intimated, comparatively few of those who, by their own conscious act, come into the Church ever lapse from their profession? Well, it requires care to avoid a serious fallacy to which that question may give rise. In the first place, if we take the whole number of those whose lives develop from the basis of consecration to God in childhood, and set them opposite to the number of those who find their way into the Church purely from the point of rational awakening to a sense of their need of Christ without any religious influence being early brought to bear upon them then compare the number who fall on both sides, our observation would differ very materially from what the common conception is. In the next place, the failure in which infant consecration issues in some instances is not inevitably to be attributed to a falsity or defect in the doctrine itself, else the transaction would have to end in failure in every case; and that is not found to be the fact, for the main stream of Christianity to-day consists of persons whose saving connection with Christ began with early childhood.

But with that well understood, it is necessary for u der the phase of this subject which has just come u notice. It is a striking thing that so many children to God fall away into impiety later on; but, unques the bulk of responsibility for the sad occurrence rests who are God's conscious agents for the care of the y is due chiefly to the meager instruction and training v give them with regard to their real relation to Christ many good, earnest conversations do we have with our about what their Baptism means, what it is intended t them, upon what ground they have been introduced in connection? And is it any strange thing, then, that wh come to think for themselves, they have no adequate con of where they stand, or how they are to proceed relig

Suppose that a man with large possessions of property son. From his very infancy that boy is possessor of so of his father's estate as will fall to him when he becomes though, as Saint Paul says, for the period of his minority under tutors and governors. But during this period, w say, he receives no manner of instruction concerning his mony; is not made to understand one thing about how he to have such a claim; what the intrinsic value of his inheri is; how it is to be used when he gets full possession of order that it may be of real account to him; what will boy be likely to do when his estate passes into his ha There are enough of actual instances to warrant us in thir that, ten to one, he will simply squander the whole thing. is not in a position to put a judicious valuation upon his in tance; he does not know where to begin to make the thing own in any right sense; and the most natural thing for hi do is, to let it slip away from him, or else handle it in a which is an occasion of annoyance to any one of correct busi principles who may observe it.

Many of our baptized children are in just that situat spiritually when they come to the age of consciousness. T have had little or no correct, definite instruction upon the tru