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Now, it is almost too obvious to need remark, infants are suitable objects of sovereign benevolence, -may receive the gifts of divine liberality,—may be born to the heavenly inheritance as well as to an earthly patrimony, and may be indebted to Jesus Christ for a salvation which is wholly of grace. Deceased infants, in short, appear as much capable of receiving and enjoying the fulness of eternal life, as they appear incapable of suffering from an accusing conscience, the bitterness of everlasting death.

CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS.

General conclusion.-Application of the subject-to pious parents;to irreligious parents ;-to theological systems;-to the extent of redemption.

THUS, in whatever direction the discoveries of revelation are contemplated, we are led to the same conclusion. Such concurrent tendency in the leading doctrines of the Scriptures, and in important facts considered in their insulated form, adds considerable weight to the reasoning from any one of them separately taken. The aggregate forms a mass of evidence, sufficient to render highly probable, even if it be still thought too much to say morally certain, the opinion announced in the Introduction, that all children dying in infancy are "saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation."

Pious friends, bereft of their beloved little ones, may therefore console themselves with the hope which David indulged, "I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.*"

That penitent servant of Jehovah, possessing far less advantages than Christians for discovering the glorious extent of divine mercy through the

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Redeemer, and under circumstances which, if any thing could, might dissipate his hopes for the happiness of his departed child, caught such a glance into the everlasting state, as proved a sovereign balm to his deeply wounded heart. That child was the fruit of most fearful and aggravated crimes, of crimes which extorted indications of Jehovah's displeasure against not only himself but his family. It had been removed by death, expressly as a token of that displeasure, and before it could receive the sign of God's covenant regard for the offspring of his chosen people. Yet does David declare his full conviction, which has been promulgated through all succeeding generations by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that he should hereafter meet his lamented child in peace.

On occasion of its death, no agonies wrung his bosom, such as he afterwards felt when Absalom was cut off in his own iniquities; no burst of paternal anguish issued from his lips, "O my son, my son, would God I had died for thee;" but on the contrary, he threw off his mourning attire, he went into the house of God, and worshipped. His affections lingered not about the sepulchre where his infant's remains were entombed; for that could yield but a poor and very inadequate consolation. He did not merely anticipate his own departure to the world of spirits; for there a great gulf is fixed, as certainly prohibitive of intercourse

between the saved and the lost, as that which lies between the living and the dead. and the dead. But on the wings of faith, that evidence of things unseen, he ascended to the world of glory, contemplating there re-union with his departed child, amidst the splendours in which his greater Son and Lord "shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever."

Such an example ought christian parents to emulate; and it perhaps is not presumptuous to hope, that the preceding discussion will animate their heart, and invigorate their upward flight. Let them with David cherish the expectation of a triumphant meeting with the dear lamented objects of their affection, in regions of unmingled and uninterrupted joy.

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Far, very far, from such persons, be the petulant and most indecorous complaint, why have we brought forth for the tomb? why was not that sweet pledge of connubial love rather withheld than thus prematurely removed?" Let them rather bow in meek submission, listening to their heavenly Father's voice, Be still, and know that I am God.-May I not do what I will with mine own? Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Or if so querulous and unworthy an enquiry must be answered, let them consider, that however short the stay their infants in this portal of existence, entránce here was necessary that they might proceed into the august interior of the temple. They have

not brought forth a mere prey for the tomb, but "a seed which is counted to the Lord, for a generation." Over the dust of their departed infants, as over the precious purchase of his sufferings, the great Redeemer watches till he shall have fashioned it "like unto his glorious body;" and meanwhile, their happy spirits find with him sweeter repose, than was ever enjoyed within a father's embrace, or even on a mother's genial bosom.

He who wept at the grave of Lazarus, will graciously allow for the infirmities of our nature; "for he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust." And he has himself set us an example of indulging the amiable sympathies of humanity. But let us not, under providential bereavements, cherish a morbid sensibility, which precludes consolation, even when it might proceed from a conviction that our lamented babes are happy. This conviction would tranquillize our hearts, were they as disinterested as they profess to be, and as really influenced by affection to our departed children, as we endeavour to persuade ourselves they are.

Happy voyagers who so soon have reached the haven! Happy indeed are they, to have escaped so easily the rocks, and quicksands, and storms of life; and with so rapid a course, to have reached the shores of undisturbed repose, and " peace that passeth all understanding." Shall Rachel, then, continue to " weep for her children, and refuse to

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