all the people ;-the parent himself thus also professing his own faith, and taking the vows of duty in a more public manner. When a parent is actuated by such motives, his conduct is highly praiseworthy, and he ought to be encouraged in his intentions. This also is the form authorized and enjoined by our church,—which has enacted, that the ceremony of baptism be administered in the face of the congregation, "that what is spoken and done may be heard and seen of all."

At the same time, it may be remarked, that the state of the country, and the prevailing feelings and habits of the people, are very different now from what they were when this recommendation or enactment was made ;-and it has always appeared to me, that the same wish for the best interests of the people which dictated this law, as applicable to the time when it was passed, would, at the present period, dispose Christian legislators to recommend, that the intercourse between the Pastors and people should be strengthened and made familiar, by an occasional performance of this and of similar duties in the houses of parishioners.

It also seems to me, that there is something in the baptism of a child which is péculiarly fit to be

C

performed in the house of which it has just become an inmate. The whole ceremony, indeed, has something in it that is exquisitely and most instructively domestic ;-parents, in fact, generally consider the performance of the ceremony in their own homes as giving a sort of consecration to their dearest domestic interests,—and the private habitation of even the poor man seems thus to him to be made, for the time, and during the performance of this solemnity, a Temple for the habitation of the Living God.

Influenced by this feeling of the peculiar suitableness of the ceremony to domestic scenes, I have never refused to perform it, in their own homes, for such of my parishioners as have requested me to do it in that manner. I commonly do it after public worship on Sabbath,-the people are then in their best state for receiving a visit from their Pastor, the neighbours, too, commonly attend,brotherly kindness is thus often displayed and cherished in a very interesting manner,—an opportunity is afforded of saying a few consolatory words to such aged persons as cannot attend the public services of the House of Prayer,—an occasional question may also be put to the young who are

present,―a better opportunity is, by all these means, afforded of becoming acquainted with the parishioners, than by means of a formal visitation,— the people are gratified by the presence and familiar conversation of their Minister,—and while I have never felt the time requisite for the discharge of this duty to be any assignable deduction from my ordinary avocations, there is scarcely any part of my official duties from which I have always come with a fuller impression of the excellence of our faith,- —or with a more heartfelt conviction of the good that may be done by the free and discreet intercourse of a conscientious man of God, in the discharge of his official and friendly duties, with the people of his charge.

The foregoing sentences having a reference to my personal experience among the individuals of my own flock, I hope they will take what I have now said as a public acknowledgment of the gratification which I have received from my intercourse with them; and that it will remain as a memorial of my affection for a people whom I have ever found most exemplary and respectful in every part of that interchange of duties which ought to subsist between a Minister and his Parishioners.

THE LORD'S SUPPER.

1 Cor. xi. 26. As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death.

THE observations now made respecting the ceremony of baptism are not irrelevant to the chief purpose of this treatise, which is an illustration of the nature of the Lord's Supper, because both of these are rites peculiar to the Christian faith ;-because the latter is intended to be a confirmation and more perfect renewal of our engagements in the former ;because they both typify the same spiritual blessings, and bind to the same course of conduct ;because they are seals of the same covenant between God and man;—and are portions of that kind discipline by which at different times of their lives, and at successive stages of their Christian

profession, their divine Instructer intended to prepare them for being finally partakers of the fulness of his favour.

INSTITUTION OF THE CEREMONY.

On the evening of the day which preceded his death, Christ met with his disciples in an upper hall in Jerusalem, that he might eat with them the Paschal Lamb. Having, with this view, given orders that all things should be made ready, and knowing that he himself, having now performed all things that were ordained for him by God, was on the ensuing day to complete his obedience, by suffering a public and ignominious death;— "when the even was come," says the Evangelist, -it being in the evening or at the time of supper that the Paschal ceremony was performed," he sat down with the twelve."

And surely never did there occur upon this earth any meeting so memorable, when all the circumstances attending it are taken into consideration.

For, in the first place, the person who presided at that meeting was no other than that long-looked