proper relation between parent and child be most fully and speedily restored? And he who can point out the way of doing this, will have conferred the greatest benefit upon his age and country, will have opened the way to every other improvement of any value. I speak of restoring the relation between parent and child, because, especially among those in humbler life, it is, generally speaking, lost. In nine families out of ten, the obligation of parent to child, and still more of child to parent, is unknown. Where is the reverence and obedience enjoined by the Fifth Commandment? How few parents feel their accountability to Almighty God for the way in which they bring up the children which He has given them. They are anxious about many things for their children; but they forget their souls. They indulge or thwart them just as suits their own humour and convenience at the moment; but they do not think of the effect which everything they do has in forming the character of their children, whether for good or evil; and how the character thus formed will tell to all eternity. Nothing, assuredly, is more distressing, more disheartening, to those who wish well for their country, above all, to the ministers of Christ's Church, than to see how common, how all but universal, it is, for parents contentedly to give up their authority, and for children, wilfully and entirely, to cast off their submission. It remains that we notice, shortly, the reason which is given in the text, why we should not be weary in well-doing. In due time we shall reap if we faint not. We shall reap: This is an assurance that cannot be given in any other case whatever. Yes, we shall reap in comfort and strength here. We shall reap the reward of perseverance in welldoing in that peace of mind which the world can neither give nor take away. The pleasures of sin are but for a season. They pass away, and leave those who have pursued them with no harvest before them. What fruit have they in those things whereof they are now ashamed? Nay, even though you stop short of sin, in the best laid schemes of worldly business, you cannot look to reaping with certainty at all approaching that conveyed in the text. : Only observe: it is in due time that you are to reap; not to-morrow, not next week, not next year, not at any time of your own choosing and fixing: but in due time. When this is we do not know we must leave it altogether to God, in whose name the Holy Apostle made the promise. He knows what is best for us; and our part is to submit to His holy will and pleasure in all things. Reap we shall, certainly, though it may be very late before we are allowed to put in our sickles. We shall reap in finding our own faith confirmed, and our own measure of grace increased. We shall reap in seeing that some are the better for our efforts to do them good. Or, even if it should please God to call us out of this world before we have felt much comfort from improvement in ourselves, or witnessed it in others, still we shall reap in rest and glory hereafter; for to whom is it that we read eternal life will be given? to those who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory, and honour, and immortality." But, if we will reap, we must not faint. This is the simple condition. If you do faint, you lose all: you may look for no harvest here or hereafter. Look to yourselves, says St. John, that ye lose not those things which ye have wrought, but that ye receive a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God." If you need the encouragement of example, think of the holy Angels, who are never weary of praising God, who never faint in ministering to the heirs of salvation. Think of your Blessed Redeemer, who went about doing good, and never was weary, and who has left, for your warning, that declaration, No man having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, n Rom. ii. 7. • 2 St. John 9. is fit for the kingdom of God, and for your encouragement, the assurance, He that endureth unto the end, the same shall be saved. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.* P St. Luke ix. 62. a St. Matt. xxiv. 13. t 1 Cor. xv. 58. SERMON XII. PREACHED ON THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN Advent, 1839. ISAIAH V. 12. The harp and the viol, the tabret and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts; but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of His hands. THE book of Isaiah, to which the order of the Church service calls our attention at this season of the year, is of very mixed and various matter. No one of the holy men of old was moved by the Holy Ghost to speak so fully and plainly of the blessings and glories of Christ's kingdom; insomuch that it has been common to distinguish him among the rest as the evangelical prophet. Nowhere are there more gracious and cheering declarations to be found, wherewith to sustain and comfort the people of God in seasons of trouble and alarm. And yet, with all this, the character of that people is often drawn by this same Prophet in the very darkest and saddest |