whole scene of piety; the distinct showing of your parents' resolution to serve the Lord, their morning and their evening prayer, and that burning and shining light which shone brighter and brighter till the perfect day.

Ah, the children of pious parents will remember the scene of family piety. Those who follow the steps of their parents will remember it with gratitude and prayer. And even those who have neglected their birthright privilege will remember it, and the remembrance will rouse the conscience, and incline the heart to seek the Lord; and after parents have long been dead, having mourned and prayed over their neglectful or vicious children when their praying lips and anxious hearts have long been cold in the grave, that scene has rushed back upon the memory, and awakened and converted the soul.

Nay, the children of pious parents will remember for ever the scene of family piety. In heaven they will remember it as the first faint picture of their eternal home their eyes. ever saw; or in hell, with horrible remorse, and with deeper suffering, because they will recal how early they first saw a glimpse of

that heaven from which they are cast out for ever.

Oh, if there be nothing to awaken you in the lessons of your daily experience, in the trouble of sinning which you daily feel, in the disappointment of your worldly desires, in the lessons of God's word that now lie before you; or in the public teachings of the sabbath, or the scenes of religion which are still spread out before you; call up the scenery and let your mind dwell upon the vision of your childhood home, the house of obedience, and faith, and prayer-the house of God, and the gate of heaven: learn back the lessons, and view again the scenery of those blessed days when you were the care of pious parents; and think nothing blessed in your lot, until you begin to cherish their piety, and to spread out the scenes of your inheritance before their children's children.

BAPTISM.

MATTHEW, xxviii. 19.

Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

BEHOLD in the baptism of water another scene by which God makes known his grace to every rising generation, "that they may set their hope in God."

The Lord Jesus himself spreads out this scene before you. When the pains of the cross were all over, and the bands of death were loosed, and he had risen a conqueror from the grave; when he was just ready to ascend and sit on his heavenly throne, and to bring in for our sakes an everlasting righteousness, and to be our perfect advocate before the Father, and to shed down the all-subduing Spirit-when he was ready to be taken from

the sight of his disciples, gazing from this footstool, and in sight of holy angels, welcoming his return from his finished work; when the sound was just ready to be heard in heaven, "Lift up your heads, Oh ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in:" Then the Lord Jesus spake unto his disciples and said, "All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth; Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."

See in baptism the showing forth of all the blessings which the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost provide and offer to mankind. Behold the Father, ready to forgive and save the sinner. Behold the Son, in all the merits of his death, in all the glory of his triumph, opening the door of mercy. Behold the Spirit, bending towards the earth, to bring back the wanderers to their Father's house.

Oh, it is even so in heaven, as is now signified on earth. The Holy Spirit is shedding down from his fulness a power which renews

and sanctifies the soul. The Son, the glori fied Redeemer, pleads his righteousness in the sinner's behalf; and the Father is waiting to be gracious. On his throne he sits ready to receive the sinner, washed from the defilement of innumerable sins. All this does Jesus signify by the ordinance of Baptism, which he left behind him on the earth when he ascended to heaven-a memorial and a sign of the work of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in man's behalf; especially of that Spirit for whose pouring out the disciples were even then commanded to 'tarry at Jerusalem, and which would be poured out upon all flesh.

That memorial and sign is now to be seen Behold the believer coming forward to profess his faith in Jesus, and so receiving the water of baptism in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

Oh, it is his laying hold of redeeming mercy-it is his visible coming to his offended Father for his sins' forgiveness-his cleaving unto the Son Jesus Christ as his all-sufficient Saviour, and the opening of his soul to receive the washing of the Holy Ghost-the