dren before the Redeemer that He might bless them, what otherwise was His reception of them worth, yea, what did it mean, when "He was much displeased " with his disciples, "and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God," and then, "took them up in His arms, puts His hands upon them, and blessed them?" If any of these children had presently died— and there can be little doubt that some of them did die in childhood-how vain it had been for them to be blessed by the Redeemer, if there be no heavenly inheritance for those who die in early years?

It is most injurious, however, to the cause of infants, to plead it on ground so low as this. Instead of merely vindicating their admission, and some consideration for them, I regard them as being generally the best welcomed spirits which pass into the eternal world. The whole of our Lord's treatment of them is calculated to produce this impression. Besides, contemplating the subject in the light of reason— Is not the intellectual and moral structure, I ask, of an infant's spirit the same as that of a full-grown man? And who shall dispute, that some of the brightest geniuses and most amiable hearts of our race may have been withdrawn-in the love and valuation of them withdrawn-after a short time's breathing of the pestilential air of this earth, yea, before a breath of it was inhaled, to be secured and nursed in the Paradise of God? As I think of it, I become the more persuaded, that this securing of many

of the best by early death, may be a principle of the divine administration. It is true, they passed away without having acquired any of this world's learning; but irrespectively of God's standard of measurement being a moral one, how insignificant, I appeal, will not even Newton's science appear in yonder Temple of Light! Will the infant spirit have any sense of inferiority from the want of it? Will it appear disrespectable for the want of it in the estimation of the Eternal One?-It is true, again, that they passed away without any prayers in which their infant knees had bowed; and without any psalms of praise which their infant lips had sung; but what, brethren, I, a second time, appeal, is the chief characteristic of a religious life in this world? Is it not to have our hearts brought back to their infant state? To have them cleansed of these pollutions, and divested of these perverse habits which we have contracted since we were like these children, who were early withdrawn from the corrupting influences to which we have been exposed? Accordingly, Christ's great lesson for us is, Learn to be like a child.-And, a third time, if there are a few deeds of charity, of the performance of which we can speak for ourselves, O, is it not all more than counterbalanced when these infants can plead in reply, that they were guilty of no envious thoughts, no bitter or slanderous speeches, no impure imaginations or devices, no fretfulness against the Providence of God-of nothing at all which can be charged against them as either a dereliction or trans

gression of duty! Who of us shall presume to compare himself with an infant, or forbid that its spirit go to the Saviour of its pious father, or the Saviour of its pious mother?

In the Second place, with regard to those children dying in infancy who are the offspring of ungodly parents-equally of such do I believe, that they shall all be saved; though not with a salvation so glorious as that of the offspring of the saints. It is not by any means for the relief of the anxiety of those wicked parents that I express myself thus confidently about the salvation of their children; but for magnifying the grace of God, and rejoicing the hearts of the saints on the subject of the magnificence of the Redeemer's kingdom, and the splendour of His reward..

We claim them for the kingdom. When the Son of God was incarnated, He became these infants' Brother; and when they have not rejected Him, will He disown them ?*

REV. DR. JAMES MORISON, GLASGOW.

INFINITE wisdom has determined that trouble, of one description or another, shall constitute part of the discipline to which every human being must be subjected. In the present provisional state of things, afflictive dispensations "must needs be."

*Discourse by the Rev. Wm. Anderson, LL.D., on the "ReUnion of Christian Friends in the Heavenly Kingdom." Pnhlished 1844

We do not at present inquire why it is that this element of suffering interpenetrates to so large an extent the fabric of human society. We take our position upon the undisputed and indisputable factthat trouble, in one form or another, is universal; and withdrawing our attention from all other developments of this ubiquitous ingredient in human life, we fix it upon one of the most painful forms in which it is found, and over the bier of the departed infant we would ask, "Is it well with the child?"

Tender as are the ties that bind the parental heart to those little undeveloped but ever-developing Living Objects which enable parents to realise that they are parents, these very ties are destined to be often agonizingly ruptured. Comparatively few are the households in which there have not been "mourning and bitterness" for some child that was, and is not. Many are the Rachels who have been bowed down under bereaving affliction, and have wept, and "refused to be comforted," because their sons or their daughters (6 are not." The "places that once knew" multitudes of dear little Miniatures of fathers and mothers, now "know them no more." And fathers and mothers go about the streets mourning; or, refusing consolation, they languish in retirement.

But is there no balm for the wound of bereaved parents? Is there no physician to heal their broken spirit? There is a physician, all-skilful to cure. He has a balm which is the very essence and elixir of consolation:-"It is well with the child." The child is

not lost, but gone before. Its "death is gain." Though it is "absent from the body," it is "present with the Lord," which is "far better." It is in "Abraham's bosom." And what is grander still, it is in the bosom of Infinite Love. Its voice to its parents, if that voice could be heard by earthly ears, would be, "Weep not for me." Such is our deliberate opinion concerning departed little ones.

There is a positive foundation on which the doctrine of the everlasting bliss of all who die in infancy may be securely built up.

It

(1) It may be proved from the fact that, in consequence of the interposition of the work of Christ, there is to be a universal resurrection of the bodies of men. will be admitted that there was no provision made for the resurrection of the bodies of men except in the restorative dispensation of mercy through Christ. As it is "in Adam" that all die, so is it "in Christ" alone that all shall be made alive again. It is the "second Adam" who is the Cause, or Occasion, of the universal resurrection.

But in the resurrection of the body and its re-union to the soul, there will be to the glorified a vast addition to their means of bliss; and there will be to the lost a vast addition to their woe. The bodily organism must, according to the condition in which it is placed, minister largely to the happiness or to the misery of the soul. Can we suppose, then, that any of those who die in infancy, and who have never had the opportunity of rejecting the propitiation of Christ, will be subjected,

B