and careless now; if you are mad enough to
laugh, jest, and scoff your poor moment now on earth, which, is short
enough to prepare for eternity in, without your making it shorter by
wasting your youth in sin. Could you but see who it is that suggests
to you all your lighter thoughts, which you put instead of Divine
communion, the shock would make you serious, even if it did not make
you religious. Could you see, what God sees, those snares and pitfalls
which the devil is placing about your path; could you see that all your
idle thoughts which you cherish, which seem so bright and pleasant, so
much pleasanter than religious thoughts, are inspired by that Ancient
Seducer of Mankind, the Author of Evil, who stands at your side while
you deride religion, serious indeed himself while he makes you laugh,
not able to laugh at his own jests, while he carries you dancing
forward to perdition,--doubtless you would tremble, even as he does
while he tempts you. But this you cannot possibly see, you cannot
break your delusion, except by first taking God's word in this matter
on trust. You cannot see the unseen world at once. They who ever
speak with God in their hearts, are in turn taught by Him in all
knowledge; but they who refuse to act upon the light, which God gave
them by nature, at length come to lose it altogether, and are given up
to a reprobate mind.

May God save us all from such wilful sin, old as well as young, and
enlighten us one and all in His saving knowledge, and give us the will
and the power to serve Him!

[1] 1 Cor. x. 31.

[2] Eph. ii. 5, 6.

[3] Col. iii. 3.

[4] Gal. ii. 20.

[5] Eph. vi. 18. Phil. iv. 6.

[6] Col. iv. 2. Rom. xii. 12.

[7] 2 Tim. i. 12.

SERMON XVI.

Infant Baptism.

"_Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into
the Kingdom of God._"--John iii. 5.

None can be saved, unless the blood of Christ, the Immaculate Lamb of
God, be imputed to him; and it is His gracious will that it should be
imputed to as, one by one, by means of outward and visible signs, or
what are called Sacraments. These visible rites represent to us the
heavenly truth, and convey what they represent. The baptismal washing
betokens the cleansing of the soul from sin; the elements of bread and
wine are figures of what is present but not seen, "the body and blood
of Christ, which are verily and indeed taken and received by the
faithful in the Lord's Supper." So