THE HOLINESS OF BAPTIZED INFANTS.

THE majority of our readers have, we doubt not, noticed the Bishop of Exeter's recommendation of a sermon with the above title, by the Venerable the Archdeacon Bartholomew. This mention of a discourse, which is as touching as it is beautiful, renders any remarks of our own unnecessary. During its perusal, we have been enabled to call to mind the forcible and persuasive style of delivery which is so peculiarly characteristic of the venerable preacher. A copy has been forwarded to every house in the parish of Brampford Speke; we wish there was one in every house in England. The following extract will show beyond question that few sermons are likely to exercise greater influence upon the minds of the people.

"But the baptism of John in every other instance was with water only; and from the day that he baptized JESUS, his power and influence decreased, and passed to Him Who baptized with water and the HOLY GHOST: and He hath taught us what to believe; He sent forth His disciples to do what we do, that is, to preach, to teach, and to baptize and when He was no more upon the earth, His holy servant Peter baptized in one day three thousand persons; and he called them to that holy rite, saying, the promise is to you and to your children.' And S. Paul after him gave his testimony, and said, as many of you as have been baptized into CHRIST, have put on CHRIST;' and from that time until now, it has been the custom and faith of the Church—a custom growing out of the faith-to baptize all children: and again I repeat, those parents who have a baptized infant in their houses, have a holy thing perpetually before them, a mortal body, but a living soul, a body into which sin hath not entered through the evil will; in which the stain of Adam's sin has been washed away; and their only cause of sorrow is the thought that, if permitted to live, it will not, by reason of the corrupt nature which remains even in the regenerate, be always thus holy; and this thought will work in them the anxious care, that they should use all diligence to keep it as long as possible unpolluted by sin, and so to bring it up in the faith and fear of GOD, as that it shall fear to offend, and repent when it has offended, and pray for grace to withstand temptation, and, in the power of the Spirit, to bring forth fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

"This must be the wish, the desire, the prayer of Christian parents as they sit by the cradle of their infants, and bless GoD silently in their hearts. Nature-that law of GOD, which, without special revelation, commands that the parent shall love the child to which it gives birth-nature makes us desire that, though it will not always remain sinless, the infant may yet be permitted to live; we hope the sin may not be great, may not be without repentance, may not be without pardon, and that grace may be given,-grace increaaed,-and

the child be renewed by the SPIRIT, and the grown-up man or woman be a true and faithful follower of the LORD JESUS. But our wishes and prayers are not always answered. If we could see into the future -if we could know the secret things of GOD, we should see His mercy and pitying love: we should know, perhaps, that where any special child is taken away in its infancy, the object is to save it from sorrow, or from sin, or from pain, such as would rend a parent's heart asunder only to think of. So the innocent, and the pure, and the holy, which are part of ourselves, as it were, (and remember, the holiest part,) are sometimes taken from us. GOD wills not that they should be stained and polluted with sin. CHRIST will have His own admitted to see Him face to face; the natural body is not a sufficiently rich case for such precious gem, and He wills that it should return to the dust from whence it came, and that the living soul, whose life is derived from Himself, should rise, as He rose, with a glorified body, to be above the things of the earth, and among the things which are above, where He sitteth at the right hand of GoD. A great blow this to the law of nature, to the love commanded and implanted by GOD in the hearts of parents, towards those who are part and parcel of themselves; but let those parents (if indeed they believe as Christian parents should believe) look on the dying or dead infant in the faith that CHRIST, by baptism, has washed it clean from sin, has imparted the HOLY SPIRIT, has made it a child of GOD, a part of Himself, a work of grace. Who has the greatest part in that child? The first parents-they which out of flesh begat flesh? or He, Who by His SPIRIT gave it a new birth, and made it Spirit? And if they, who by baptism are born again, and made children of GoD by adoption, are called shortly and speedily to the inheritance which is their birthright, shall the parents grieve because their children are thought worthy of such blessedness? Must they not rather fling themselves upon their faith, and say, 'The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be His holy Name.' Shall they not, as they sit in silence and mourn for the loss, acknowledge that CHRIST speaks at the death of the child the very words they heard at his baptismal birth, and says, 'Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.' I say, CHRIST speaks thus to believing parents, and the short natural sorrow will soon be turned into joy; the heaviness may endure for the night, their joy will come in the morning. It was a miracle of mercy, such as CHRIST works, such as John Baptist was not permitted to work, when our children were made by baptism children of GoD; when the unclean by nature were made clean by grace, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the HOLY GHOST. If any parents have such treasure taken from them, let them think, with tears of joy, that in the race that is set before them, their child has received the prize sooner than themselves; let them think that it is a very blessed privilege to walk the earth as the living and mortal parents of a living and for ever blessed and immortal soul; that there is another link binding them to heaven and its King, another motive for living unto CHRIST, another warning to turn away from worldliness and wickedness, another source of joy and thankfulness, as they lie waking in

the stillness of night; and, as time goes on, wonder that they did not sooner rejoice, that they did not sooner wipe away their natural tears, did not sooner open their eyes to the selfishness of human sorrow. How could they ever have wished, even for a moment, will be then their thought, to stay the LORD's hand, or to retain, in this miserable and sinful world the infant whom GOD was willing to receive into the glory and happiness of His Presence.

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My brethren, there are none of you who, being parents, are not more or less interested in what GOD has permitted me to say to you this day.

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Keep the Faith as taught by the Church-ONE BAPTISM FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS '-believe not those who, leaving the Church, deny the Faith. Think that your children are by baptism made holy; watch over them, watch over yourselves, lest the corrupt nature in them should rebel early through your neglect or bad example, and innocence and holiness be exchanged, sooner than you imagine possible, for sin and guilt. But if your children shall have been, or shall be taken from you, before yet their innocence shall have been exchanged for sin, bear yourselves as those who have given birth in your own bodies to children of GOD; and whilst you believe that they were made His children in baptism, and that He has taken them to be where He is, pray that you may be so penitent for your sins, so sustained by His grace, so strengthened by increased and increasing faith, as that you may look forward with assured hope to being written among the spirits of just men made perfect, through JESUS the Mediator, the Redeemer, the First and the Last, Who liveth and was dead, and behold He is alive for evermore.

Amen."

MY AUNT NELLY'S PORTFOLIO.

(Concluded from p. 168.)

- a

I AM rather surprised that, while commenting on opposing "points of view," it had not occurred to Aunt Nelly to remark on the very different aspects which sickness presents to different tempers that whilst by some it is viewed merely as a provoking accident an unlucky impediment to animal enjoyment plenary dispensation to be cross and troublesome; to others (if I may wrap my meaning in metaphor) it appears as a kind of covered way; dark, indeed, and strait, and rugged, where the sight may fail, and the feet, without great caution, will stumble; but towards the termination of which beams a light

"Celestial, rosy red-love's proper hue."

What makes me think of this just now, is, that, turning over the portfolio, (in the greater hurry, I must say, on account of

the gentle chiding our Editor gives his laggard correspondents,) I lighted on two very apposite pages, severally entitled, “The Fretful Temper," and "The Happy Temper." The former, as all the world knows, is from the pen of Cowper; and it was, probably, what his biographer says about that which suggested to Aunt Nelly the-shall I call it antagonist ?-portrait.

Hayley closes the sum of his friend's poetical merits with these words:" He is not only great in passages of pathos and sublimity, but he is equally admirable in wit and humour. After descanting most copiously on sacred subjects, with the animation of a prophet and the simplicity of an apostle, he paints the ludicrous character of common life with the comic force of a Moliere, particularly in his poem on Conversation, and his exquisite portrait of a fretful temper."

It may be well, for the benefit of young ladies who keep albums, to mention here that these pendants are appropriately framed. The first with a border of deadly nightshade, and other lugubrious plants, among whose leaves gnats are seen to flutter, and adders to glide. It is, moreover, represented as being suspended in the beak of a most vicious-looking bird of the vulture kind.

THE FRETFUL TEMPER.

Some fretful tempers wince at every touch,
You always do too little, or too much;
You speak with life, in hopes to entertain,
Your elevated voice goes through the brain;
You fall at once into a lower key,

That's worse-the drone-pipe of an humble bee!
The southern sash admits too strong a light;
You rise and drop the curtain-now 'tis night.
He shakes with cold; you stir the fire and strive
To make a blaze: that's roasting him alive.
Serve him with ven'son, and he chooses fish;
With sole-that's just the sort he would not wish :
He takes what he at first professed to loathe,
And in due time feeds heartily on both.
Yet, still o'erclouded with a constant frown,
He does not swallow, but he gulps it down.
Your hopes to please him vain on every plan,
Himself should work that wonder if he can.
Alas! his efforts double his distress,

He likes yours little, and his own still less;
Thus always teasing others, always teas'd,
His only pleasure is—to be displeased.

THE HAPPY TEMPER.

(The frame of this is made bright with all that gilding and flowers can impart, and jointly sustained in the united bills of two snow-white doves.)

Some tempers set us perfectly at ease,

Do what we will, we always seem to please;
You'd think we turn'd to gold each thing we touch,
Whate'er we do is best-the least, too much;
Ever successful in our wish t' amuse,

He wonders where "we pick up all the news."
A trifle of the shutter if we close,

"'Tis painful on such kindness to impose;
But the full glare, (though 'tis a shame for one
To shut out such a blessed, glorious sun,
That, like its gracious Master, still is near,
The well to gladden, and the sick to cheer.")
The dish we bring is sure to be "a treat;"
He seems to relish what he scarce can eat:
Nay, takes with thanks the nauseous draught and pill,
Tinctured by love, and gilded by good will.
Through human nature's most appalling part-
Protracted hope, that sickness of the heart;
Absence of rest, unmitigated pain,

The sinking spirit, and the throbbing brain ;-
The sufferer seeks our anguish to beguile,
And, while convulsed by pain, assays a smile.
Souls thus attemper'd nought can discompose,
Sweetened by suffering, purified by woes;
Themselves still blest in the desire to bless,
They raise an Eden in the wilderness.

One would suppose Aunt Nelly had been drawing her own portrait, such a thankful, patient, much-enduring sufferer as she was, under the severest form of bodily anguish with which it is God's good pleasure to try His children. Her own beautiful doctrine, which she was ever striving to teach us, she had herself got perfectly by heart-the most implicit, "little child"-like reliance on our Heavenly FATHER.

I suppose, my readers, you are all of you familiar with the story of the "Three Silver Trouts;" if not, I strongly advise you to lose no time in making the acquaintance. You will find it a gem, among a deal of rubbish, in Brooks' "Fool of Quality." Meanwhile, as it is especially applicable to the subject in hand, perhaps you will kindly accept my humble paraphrase.