children are declared to be "holy," and as such, have been admitted to the privilege of baptism, should feel that he is thereby encouraged to regard them as fit and capable subjects of the Spirit's grace, and as having such an interest in all the privileges and promises of that covenant as affords ample warrant for the exercise of faith, and hope, and prayer; and the children, as they grow up, should be frequently reminded that they were dedicated to God,—that they were baptized into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and that they received baptism as a privilege for which they must give in an account. And when, at any time, in after-life, they have any doubt as to their interest in the covenant, they may look back to the personal application of the seal of the covenant to themselves individually, while as yet they were unconscious infants, and draw from it a precious assurance of the perfect freeness of the Gospel. To believing parents, again, who have lost their children in infancy, the truths which have been illustrated are fitted to impart a consolation such as the world can neither give nor take away.* We have purposely reserved the case of infants for distinct consideration. To some it may appear, that it would have been a more natural course to consider the effect of baptism in the first instance, and thereafter to develope the course of the Spirit's operation, when children grow up to a capacity for knowing and believing the truth. But as the work of the Spirit is * Dr Russell on the "Salvation of Children Dying in Infancy." spoken of in Scripture chiefly with reference to adult persons, and as in their case only can we trace it in its visible manifestations and actual fruits, we have drawn our illustrations from their experience. And it deserves to be remarked, that even those who hold the highest views of baptismal regeneration, should not, on that account, object to a detailed illustration of His subsequent operations on the mind and heart, since they admit, that whatever grace may be imparted at baptism, there must be an internal and spiritual change of mind and heart—a change wrought by the agency of the Spirit, and the instrumentality of the truth in riper years, before any man can enter the kingdom of God. CHAPTER I. THE PHILIPPIAN GAOLER. Acts xvi. 19-34. THE nature of a sinner's conversion to God is illustrated in Scripture in various ways. Sometimes in the way of doctrinal statement, as when it is represented in general terms as a change of mind and heart, wrought by the Spirit of God applying the truths of his Word, whereby the sinner is led to turn from sin unto God;-sometimes by the use of figurative or metaphorical expressions, descriptive of the various aspects in which it may be viewed,-as when it is denominated a resurrection, a new birth, an enlightening, a transformation, a renewing, a cleansing, a cure, an awakening of the soul;-sometimes by the help of parables, or stories derived from ordinary life, and employed to illustrate spiritual truth, as when the apostasy, and ruin, and wretchedness of the natural man, and the commencement, progress, and consummation of his conversion, are represented in the history of the Prodigal Son;—and, lastly, by the account of many instances of genuine conversion which the Spirit of God has recorded in the Word, and which |