sacred turned into ridicule, and made a laughingstock for a mocking crowd. But, putting aside this exception, I say to all those who are now frequenters of any "Place of Worship" (as it is termed) on the Sunday, I beg you to continue going somewhere on that day at least, where God is acknowledged. I would, of course, wish you to believe what I believe to be the nearest to the truth; I wish, of course, you would choose our old Church of England for your Place of Worship, but still, rather than go nowhere, let me hear of you as a member of some Church or Chapel, where God is at least reverenced, and acknowledged with godly fear. 'Tis below the dignity of a man; 'tis below the dignity of his being; 'tis unworthy in one who lives on the good things God gives him, to spend a life unhallowed by a Sanctuary, unblest by a prayer, without a public example for men to take knowledge of, that God is acknowledged in all the man's ways. Let me, in the last place, say a word of solemn warning on this matter of example to the man who seldom, if ever, attends the worship of God's House.

There is nothing that wields so mighty a force in the world as the power of example. And there is nothing around which hangs a graver, a more serious, nay let me add, a more terrible responsibility, than this thing which we call example. I take the case of parents who never frequent a Place of Public Worship. But their little children go. The parents say, "Though they don't go themselves, they have no objection to their children going." And the little children keep to Church as little children, despite the example set them by their parents. But the little children will not always be little children. They will grow, as flowers, and trees, and birds grow. What do we find to be the general rule in such cases as these? And facts are such stubborn things, that no words can upset them. The general rule is this: that in homes where the parents are non-frequenters of the House of God, the children, when they get to a certain age, are actuated by the same bad example set them by their parents, and they too, by little and little, give up going to Church, and take their place amongst the unhappy

crowd that lives a life forgetful of God. I do not mean that they will leave Church all at once. They will leave it by degrees. First, perhaps, they will give up coming in the week; then they will give up being communicants; then they will give up coming on Sunday mornings; then the end will come; and the sheep, or the lamb, that once was in the fold, carried in the tender Shepherd's arms, leaves the fold altogether, a wanderer, with death before it, on the lone mountains of sin! But, as I asked last Sunday with reference to another class, upon whom will the sin at last be chiefly visited, upon the parents or upon the children ? I will not entirely exonerate the children from blame; but I solemnly say this, that the weight of the sin will fall upon the parents for the bad example they set; and they will have to answer not only for themselves, but also for their children. Of such parents as these, when reproving words are used for the bad example they are setting those whom God has committed to their care, friends will sometimes turn round to

us and say," It is quite true they never go to any Place of Worship, and do not profess to be in any sense of the word 'religious' people, but see how kind they are to their children." Did I hear you use the word "kind?" Did you say they were "kind" to their children? If there is no Hereafter, no eternity to come; if religion. be a myth, and the existence of God but a beautiful dream, then, of course, you are "kind" to your children, if you treat them gently, educate them so as to enable them to

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get their living," and do what you can to make them prosperous in their earthly trade or calling. This is all sufficient to show perfect "kindness" towards your children if the religion of the Bible be but a beautiful dream! But if God be true, if eternity be a fact, if the Bible be true, and if there is before us what we call, for want of a better name, Eternity, then real kindness towards the children is to fit them and prepare them first of all to meet their God, and to be ready for a happy eternity after the day they have to die, and to stand before God. That is true

kindness; and I cannot call that man kind who, by his example, has taught his children to forget God, to risk the extent of their eternal happiness, for the sake of a life that is but "threescore years and ten," and dependent upon that Giver they have been taught in their life and actions to ignore.

God help us all to lay these truths to heart; to forsake sin, and to lead lives worthy of our being, and of our destiny; and in those lives to act out the words of my text to-night, "In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths;" as the Bible elsewhere says, "Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another; and so much the more as ye see the day approaching."