e, for his sake. Though they become openly wicked it is not
beyond the province of the church to rebuke them for their sins, warn
them of their danger, and by all the moral means in her power to seek
for their reformation. And these considerations are fraught with
benefit. It was the lament of one of old, a lament that may be taken up
by numbers in our day--"No man careth for my soul." But the church does
care for the souls of her baptized children. She recognizes them as
within her pale, provides in her standards for their nurture, and though
not faultless in her treatment of them, she does seek their improvement,
through the influence of her ministers, and by urging upon parents their
responsibility.--There is in these facts, moreover, a tendency to draw
them to the church, to bring them within hearing of the Gospel and
within the scope of its ordinances. They will be attracted to the
sanctuary of their fathers and attached to the faith and worship of
those among whom they have been solemnly dedicated to God. How often in
after years do we in fact see them coming themselves and esteeming it a
privilege to bring their own children to receive, as they have received,
the seal of the covenant!--The baptized are, further, candidates for all
the immunities of Christ's house. They may come to the Lord's table as
soon as they have attained to the requisite knowledge and piety. It is a
distinguished honor, and exalted privilege, to be a guest at Christ's
table, to partake of that feast which is a type of the marriage supper
of the Lamb, and to this they are invited whenever they are ready
publicly to avow their faith and love as his professed disciples. They
are for the present excluded, as children in their minority are
forbidden to exercise the rights of citizens; or rather in virtue of
their power to discipline, as well as instruct, the officers of the
church may exclude them, like other unworthy members, from the
communion. But it is the aim and desire of the church that they may
speedily acquire the knowledge, faith and godliness that shall qualify
them for this delightful service.--Now, all this is happy in its
tendency and beneficial in its effects. It is a high honor to sustain a
covenant relation to God, and to be favored with the peculiar regard of
his people. It is a privilege to stand in a different relation to the
church of Christ from that of a mere heathen, and to share in the kind
offices and be objects of the pr