The passage of Holy Scripture to which we are more immediately referring (St. Mark x, 13-16), has been selected by the Church as "the gospel" for the Baptismal service in the case of Infants. Upon the strength of this passage, as compared with the general tenor of the Old and New Testaments, she bids the congregation "not to doubt but earnestly believe, that Christ will favourably receive any child of believing parents brought in faith to the holy font; that He will embrace him with the arms of His mercy; that He will give unto him the blessing of eternal life, and make him partaker of His everlasting kingdom;" and after assuring the godfathers and godmothers that Christ on His part will most surely keep and perform His promise, calls upon the child to promise by them as his sureties (until he come of age to take it upon himself) that he will perform his part in the covenant, being the same promise that is made by those baptized in riper years.

The question then is, Whether of the two,-the child or the adult, is the more capable of, or the better disposed towards, the things then promised?

What are they?

Repentance or renouncing of all sin;

Faith, or believing God's Holy Word and promises; and
Obedience, or doing God's commands.

(1.) Renouncing of sin, viz., the Devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of the world, with all covetous desires of the same, and the sinful lusts of the flesh. The question is, Whether of the two has the greater fear of doing wrong? the greater sorrow at having done so? the more sensitiveness to sin? the simpler dread of the Devil and his works? Whether of the two is most a slave to the world-its vain pomp and glory? or most prone to the lusts of the flesh? Which is most under the power of carnal or worldly lusts?

(2.) Then as to Faith, or simple belief in God's word. Do the experience and associations of this world render man more or less disposed to believe in that which is spiritual and invisible? Whether of the two -the untaught child, or the untaught adult, would you rather take in hand to persuade, that holy angels are "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" Which is the age of confidence-childhood or manhood? Which can best say, "Our Father which art in heaven?" How shall a grown man ever learn the meaning of the word "faith," without being first brought down, or brought back to the humility, simplicity, docility, and confidingness of a child? And let no one be ready to say, "Yes: but there is a certain amount of knowledge required. What does it amount to, that a child cannot attain to it? What knowledge is necessary, but that of a few, simple, leading facts of revelation-the sort of information that very childhood thirsts after? Who says, that intercourse with the world, or continual handling of the things of time and sense, dispose a man towards the better reception of these truths?-truths, which a child of tender age will receive more easily, as well as more practically, upon a mother's simple statement, than a scholar of mature growth upon a Butler's elaborate argumentation. No: "out of the mouth of babes and sucklings God hath ordained strength, and perfected praise.”

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(3.) Then, again, as to Obedience; Whether of the two has the advantage bere? Which has the simpler, and therefore better notion of just doing as he is ridden without inquiring the reason of the command, or stopping to ask questions, or even thinking of the result? Which is the quicker at evading or explaining away a command, or the more calculating as to advantages and disadvantages, or the readier to balance between doing as much as he can, and as little as he dare? Whether of the two would better answer to St. Peter's appeal to the saints, "as obedient children?"

We have chosen these points-Repentance, Faith, and Obedience, as the very things promised by us on our admission into Christ's Church, whether as children or adults. The case will not be altered for the worse, if we regard religion as chiefly a matter of the affections-the faculties of earliest developement in a child; if, with our Saviour and his Apostles, we sum up the whole of practical Christianity in one word" love." For that is about the first lesson learned by an infant. Oh! if our love to God were but as simple, as earnest, as devoted, as whole-hearted, as that of a child to its mother!

There is something remarkable, too, in the circumstance, that our Saviour, (if we may draw such an inference from the repeated and fearful warnings dropped by Him in the ordinary course of His teaching), displays quite as much fear of parents and others checking, as anxiety about their advancing, the progress of religion in a child's mind. "Take heed, that ye despise not one of these little ones that believe in me." Whosoever shall offend [hinder, or obstruct] one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the rea." On the other hand, "Whosoever shall receive one such little one in my name, receiveth me."

Great as is the discrepancy between the doctrine of Christ and the prevalent impression even among Christians, it is satisfactory to observe how completely the Church in her authorized forms and symbols harmonizes with the former. She seems to make no account of mere age, except it be to hasten the time. "The Curates of every parish shall often admonish the people, that they defer not the Baptism of their Children longer than the First or Second Sunday next after their birth, or other Holyday falling between, unless upon a great and reasonable cause to be approved by the Curate." No sooner is baptism administered than the sponsors are admonished, that "it is their parts and duties to see that the infant be taught so soon as he shall be able to learn what a solemn vow, promise, and profession he has made by them;" and that they are to take care that the child be brought to the Bishop to be confirmed by him [and so admitted to full communion] so soon as he can say the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, and be further instructed in the Church Catechism set forth for that purpose." In all this the Church looks, not to age, but to the earliest period of suitable qualifications.

We call then upon all parents and sponsors to take to themselves the full comfort of this, and in humble faith to act accordingly. We wish to encourage them, not only to trust that their little ones may turn out

good Christians hereafter, but to look hopefully for the fruits of the Spirit even in their early years. They wrong their children, and, what is worse, their Saviour too as the great Head of the Church, in which He recognizes even infants as members, if they in any way treat their children as incapable of religion, or lead them to suppose that it is not so much expected of them as of older people; if they cherish or give way to the feeling, that they will be at some future time more susceptible than they are now. No: we repeat, that they are in a better state for receiving the kingdom of God now than they are ever likely to be again; that, so soon as they have mind enough for any intellectual exercise or moral discipline, they have mind enough for practical religion; that the tendency of advance in years is from God and not to God; that this world's associations will, rather, indispose them to faith; that a great proportion of its experience, as well as of the habits formed and principles imbibed, must be unlearned; that in a word-and our blessed Redeemer's word too-they must at any age (and the greater the age, the more difficult the task) become children again-re-acquire some of the very characteristics of childhood, in order to enter His kingdom. Great indeed, then, is the encouragement to parents and sponsors, and to the Clergy also, to bring up all baptized children from their earliest years, as members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of Heaven..

"Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant, and Israel whom I have chosen ; Thus saith the LORD that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob my servant, and thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring; and they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water-courses. One shall say, I am the LORD's; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the LORD, and surname himself by the name of Israel."-Isaiah xliv, 1—5.

ON CULTIVATING THE IMAGINATION OF POOR CHILDREN.-No. 2.

My dear Sir,—I said in my last letter, that my observations were intended for the Masters and Mistresses of National and Middle Schools. I spoke generally, to indicate that I was not addressing myself chiefly to the teachers of boys and girls in the upper classes. But I was very far indeed from believing, that the subject did not belong to the Nursery and the Infant School. In pursuing it, I conceive that I ought to direct my first attention to them; indeed the question, how we should cultivate the imagination of young children, will be quite sufficient for une letter.

There may be some who think, that there is no faculty in children answering to that which we call imagination in adults. If it be so, the question is settled; for I have certainly no wish that a power should

be imparted to any creature, old or young, brute or human, which God has not seen fit to impart. Where there are indications of His will, it is our business to shape our course in conformity with them; where there are none, we shall do better to be quiet.* But I do not think that any experienced and intelligent mother, however she may object to my principle, will rest her arguments against it upon this ground.

Such a mother would be likely to say-"I have not the least doubt that this faculty is to be discovered, and is active, in children at a very early age. I have seen various measures and manifestations of it in my own; some in every one of them. I never watched them for five minutes at play without finding that they were combining incidents, inventing plots, personating characters. And this is not less the case, though they have never heard about Arabian Princesses or European Fairies. The railroad train, the man who sells the tickets, the passengers, the stoker, with the reports of collisions and explosions, are ample materials for the fancy to work upon, and to produce marvellous combinations and catastrophes with chairs, tables, and rocking horses. In general, my girls are much more apt, ingenious, and consistent in these inventions. The boys have a sort of awkward truthfulness, mixed with something of scorn and incredulity, which leads them to confound the comic with the tragic, the actual with the ideal, to the great disturbance and mortification of their sisters. Still I have no doubt that the talent, such as it is, dwells in them also, perhaps even more strongly, though under a different form. And the only question is, ought we to treat it as our friend or our foe? I am not for taking violent measures to suppress it. I do not think the suggestion in Miss Hannah More's Cœlebs, about teaching geometry to romantic girls, is worth much in practice, however plausible it may look upon paper. But I do believe, that out of these youthful freaks grows up the habit of castle-building in after years; and that this habit is unfavourable to steady attention, to converse with a world of real sorrows, and what is more serious still, to humility. Did you ever know a castle-builder who was not the centre of his own creations? They may be very benevolent; he may distribute heaps of gold among poor relations, and may set the nations free which have been so fortunate as to fall under his government. But he is always the distributor and deliverer, and surely this cannot be healthful. I must think, therefore, in spite of your opinion, that it is my duty, by such simple and sober means as seem fitted for the particular character I am dealing with, to impose checks upon this imaginative tendency, and to call out others which will counteract it; certainly not to supply it with stimulants."

This is the kind of statement which I should look for from a person who had seen children, as well as thought about them. In general I agree with it heartily. I think that quick habit of imitation and com

Of course I do not mean, that the absence of any indication of particular gifts in a child, would be a reason for leaving that child uneducated. If we know what powers belong to ordinary children in a healthy state, we have sufficient guidance; nay, if we follow out especial tendencies, without reference to these, we shall in most cases do harm.

bination, that propensity for acting which has been described, very perilous. Such talents have been bestowed for an excellent use, and are capable of being turned to it; but I cannot doubt that they require some strong sustaining and counteracting influences to give them a right direction, and to make them harmless. But where are these influences to be sought? It is confessed, that in the most mercantile and prosaic condition of society, this faculty is still busy. And surely it is never more dangerous; for the more we connect our fantasies with passing sights and objects, the more impatient we become of the contrast between them and our actual experience. Queen Mab is more troublesome when she sets us dreaming about things which we see with our waking eyes, than when she transports us into a world of her own making. Can we then hope to rouse the reasoning faculties of a child, in order to correct these errors? The experiment has been made with much diligence, especially in America. I leave those to judge of its success who have read Mr. Gallaudet's Book of the Soul, or the article on that and similar productions in the last number of the Quarterly Review. The Reviewer remarks very truly, that these apparent appeals to the intellectual and self-reflecting powers of the child, are in fact appeals to its fancy, May we then trust to the development of the child's reasoning faculties at a future stage of its life? Surely every propensity which, if left to itself, is likely to become a habit, and an evil habit, requires that some discipline should be applied to it while it is growing; and such discipline is especially necessary in this case, if it be true, that the indulgence of these fancies destroys attention, and so prevents the formation of the intellect, which is looked to for its correction. Or, finally, is it possible so to occupy a child with the astonishing devices and feats of modern mechanism, that it shall not have need to seek for amusement in any excursions or inventions of its own? Those who are acquainted with Miss Edgeworth's Harry and Lucy, to say nothing of the more elaborate works in which the theory of herself and her father is explained, will know how ably and ingeniously this scheme of education has been applied. It is greatly to Miss Edgeworth's honour, that she does not (like the persons of whom I was speaking just now) overlook that which is actually in children, for the sake of producing something which seems desirable. She recognizes this most important, most characteristic fact in the young creature's life, that it WONDERS; and, as the achievements of the mechanical genius among us are very wonderful, she supposes that they offer the natural and reasonable satisfaction of the craving for wonder which she has observed. Has it proved so? The fact may be ascertained without much difficulty, for the number of persons in our day, who more or less strictly have been educated upon Miss Edgeworth's maxims, is very great indeed. I can only give the results of my own observation, which is extremely limited; but I think it will correspond with that of others, who have larger experience; and I have known cases in which the plan has been tried under the most favourable auspices. Judging from these, I should say, that the number of violent re-actions against it must be greater than against almost any system; that where they take place, the propensity for mere exercises of the fancy, and