s history pending upon thy favor and blessing. In
all future time, in the critical moments and eventful steps of its life,
or in its early death, or in its orphanage, be thou a God to this
child." If God should to-night, Mrs. Ford, say to you, "I will be
Janette's God," would you not send her away with a light heart?

"He should have her for life, dear child!" said she; "and I do feel that
he is a God to her."

"He is," said I, "if you have really made a covenant with him about your
daughter."

"I have, sir," said Mrs. Ford.

_Pastor._ Did the covenant have any seal? Some good people, you know,
think it enough to covenant with God about their children, without using
any special act to mark and seal it. Now it is only in consecrating
children to God that they omit the seal from the covenant. We practise
adult baptism, joining the church, confirmation, and we partake of the
Lord's Supper, feeling the propriety and the use of acts and testimonies
in the form of an ordinance. What seal had your covenanting with God
about your child?

_Mrs. Ford._ I see it now clearer than ever. As we stood with this child
in our arms, we both said, afterwards, we made a public profession of
religion anew; and, when the minister said those sacred names over her,
I felt more than before that I was having transactions with God about
the child. But people used to say to me, "Why not wait and let Janette
be baptized when she is old enough to understand it?" How little they
knew about it! Just as though, I told them, if I had money to put into
the savings-bank for Janette, I would wait and let her put it in herself
(it is so pleasant to put it in when you know all about it!), instead of
laying it up for her in the funds, and let it count up while she is
growing.

_Pastor._ Those friends who advised you so, think, perhaps, too much of
the ceremony itself, and not so much of what it signifies. Now the
pleasure of being baptized is nothing compared with having God enter
into a covenant in your behalf when you knew nothing about it.

_Mrs. Ford._ They said to me, also, "What right have you to do it,
instead of letting her have the choice and privilege of doing it herself
hereafter?" I told them that, if we acted on that principle, in the
treatment of our children, there would be a long list of useful things,
which we do for them, to be postponed.

_Pastor._ We can benefit another without his consent. The question is,
whether it is a benefit