Letters to a mother on the birth of a child, in which are set forth the feelings most proper on that occasion;--the private dedication--the public baptism--and future training of the child--With an appendix, in which the leading views of the baptismal service are considered ...

Preface

If it be asked, why these letters are addressed to a Mother rather than to a Father, or to both ; it is answered, because, in point of fact, and in a great measure of necessity, the early religious education of children devolves chiefly on the mother.

If it be asked, why the child is supposed to be a son rather than a daughter ; it is answered, because sons are necessarily exposed to much greater danger and temptation.

If it be asked, why a first-born is selected rather than any other ; it is answered, because the feelings of mothers are apt to be more holy and tender on the birth of a first-born, and it is hoped that by a reference to that occasion the same feelings will be reawakened in those who may read the following pages on the birth of any subsequent child.

LETTERS TO A MOTHER OX THE BIRTH OF A CHILD.

A few days since, and you became a mother — the joyful mother of your first born, over whom you are even now perhaps, hanging with such feelings as none but a mother's heart can know. God has fulfilled to you a most gracious promise made to poor woman, and saved you in the hour of great fear and need. Now, if ever, your heart is overwhelmed at the thought of your deliverance ; and ascribing it altogether to the divine goodness, you are ready to say in the language of thanksgiving which the Church in her service for this occasion has put into your lips, " I am well pleased that the Lord hath heard the voice of my prayer. What shall I render unto the Lord for all the benefits bestowed upon me ?" In such a frame of mind you will, lam sure, permit a friend who wishes to lead your thoughts towards the right improvement of so interesting an event, to take advantage of your pre- 1* sent feelings, and address you a few words of counsel.

At your side, or in your arms, there lies a poor helpless form, scarce alive, and which would soon perish but for a mother's care. Within that frail form however, there is a deathless soul, and the being on whom you now look so tenderly is destined to be one day and for ever, either an angel of Heaven or a lost spirit. Long indeed before it enters on the unchangeable state, it may be either a blessing or a curse to its parents, may itself rejoice in existence, as a great good, or else in bitterness exclaim, " Let the day perish wherein I was born."

Think me not unkind in suggesting the latter as a possibility. It is that such sorrow may never be yours or your child's, that I warn you of the danger. I am the more moved to this because I am told, that your first born is a son, and from much and painful observation I know too well the greater dangers to which sons are exposed in this evil world. Amongst the Jewish mothers it is true, the custom was to announce it with joy when a man-child was born into the world, even as now the birth of some royal heir is announced, for each one hoped that perchance she might be the mother of the promised Messiah. How many were disappointed, since one only could be the favoured mother; and many a Christian mother has been disappointed in the hope, that the child whom she has borne and nursed would be a son of God, though not of course that son for whom the Jewish mother looked. Alas ! how many have exclaimed with joy, as did the mother of our race at the birth of her first-born, " I have gotten a man from the Lord," who like that mother have lived only to behold him a wretched outcast. God forbid that this worst of evils should be your unhappy lot. Rather may the very opposite to it be your portion. Who knows but that in answer to faithful prayer, and by God's blessing on diligent endeavor, godly discipline, and pious instruction, your child may one day be not only a follower but a minister of Christ, a man of God, a preacher of the glorious gospel. Who knows but the blessing may be perpetuated, and that a long line of faithful and successful ministers of Christ, may descend through him to the end of the world, who shall have thousands and hundreds of thousands to present to the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls as their joy and crown of rejoicing. Cherish such high and holy thoughts, my dear friend, and let them animate you to zeal and perseverance in the use of all the means which

God has appointed to parents for training up their children in his service, and for his glory. In order to effect the object aimed at, I would endeavor to impress most deeply on your mind the conviction of the great agency which God has assigned to parents in this work. As to their bodies, it is well known that of all animals born into this world, there is none so weak and helpless at the first as little children, none which need so much and such long nursing care. Without it they would perish at the birth or soon after. Not less dependent are they on others for the culture of their immortal souls, which, though they cannot die, in the lesser sense of that word, may in its greater — may die that death which never dies. Left to themselves, what do children know of God and Heaven ? The same parents who minister to their frail bodies, are also appointed to minister to their never-dying souls. So hath God appointed, and it is meet it should be so. Seeing they receive their evil natures by birth, and inheritance from us, it is wise and good in God to make us in some measure the instruments of averting the dreadful effects thereof. Beside the promptings of natural affection urging us to desire and seek all good for our children, how strongly must we be moved thereto when seeing in them, almost from their birth, the exhibitions of those very sinful propensities which we feel in ourselves, and they received from us, and soon see in us, copying the same. "What must have been the bitterness and remorse of our first parents, at beholding in the fearful crime of their first born, one of the fruits of their own sin against God ; and what a motive must it have furnished for earnest prayer and faithful endeavour in behalf of the rest, that they might be as righteous Abel, and blessed Enoch, not as wretched Cain. It is most carefully to be observed, however, that parents are not the instruments of good to their children, in the same way that they are of evil. Holiness is not transmitted at birth as sin is. We must be born again of God, in order to avoid the evils of cur first birth. God has appointed means for this new birth of the soul, which means are chiefly in the hands of parents during the tender years of their children.

It ought to be a source of unspeakable joy to you to know, not only that in heaven there has been devised a merciful plan for the deliverance of your child from the evils of the fall, and that the same has been executed on earth in the death of Christ, but that you enjoy such peculiar advantages for making this great redemption available to your child. What a blessing must you regard it that your child is born in a christian land, and in one sense in the bosom of the christian Church, and not in a heathen country, and amidst the abominable idolatries thereof. How happy were Jewish parents at the thought of their children being the children of the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, the children of promise, that they were born in the promised land, where was the temple and the sabbaths and the oracles, the covenants and ordinances of the living God. But above all, what a subject of glorying it was to them, that the Messiah was to be born in their land, and of their nation, and the Holy Ghost to come down at his appearing in all His fulness upon their posterity. Nay more, it was a privilege to be born in or near that holy land, though not of Jewish parents, for they could thus hear much of the true God. The children of strangers might be entered into covenant with Jehovah, and often were, being taken by some good Samaritan and presented to the Lord, and then trained for his service. It was good to be about the city and temple of God, though only proselytes of the gate, and worshippers in the court of the Gentiles, the outer apartment of the house of God. Happy the people that were even in such a case as this. But now if there was such advantage to the Jew, if it might be said of his privileges

OX THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 11

by comparison with those of the Gentiles, " Much every way, chiefly because unto them were committed the oracles of God," though those oracles were yet imperfect, what should be your rejoicing that your child is born in a Christian land ; a land of bibles, of sabbaths, and temples, and preachers, and ordinances of Heaven's appointment, and of every assistance you can need in training him for glory. Especially thankful ought you to be that he is born of believing parents, and not of scoffing and infidel ones, as some children are, even in this land. St. Paul assures us, that if only one of the parents believe, the child is holy — that is, a child of the promise, privileged to be received among God's children, so far as to be entered into his visible church, and sealed with his seal, and brought up amongst his people ; but it is your happiness to have in the father of your child, one who sympathizes with you in all your feelings and views, and will co-operate with you according to his ability and opportunity. How different your lot and that of your child in this respect, from the lot of too many mothers and sons. If the child, who has one believing parent is holy, so as to be entered into the school of Christ, what blessing may not be expected by those who strive together with one heart, in prayers and efforts for their children's salvation. If for a moment you doubt God's tender love to your child, and its interest in the blessings of the Gospel, remember not only that the blessing to Abraham and his posterity was renewed on the day of Pentecost, when it was said, " The promise is to you and your children," but our Lord had before, in the most touching manner, declared his love to little children, by rebuking the unbelief of some, by taking them in his arms, blessing them, and saying, that " of such is the kingdom of Heaven." What an encouragement to all Christian parents to bring them to him for a blessing. He is not now present with us in body as once he was, but he is with us in spirit ; we can take our children to him in our prayers, and he will receive them into the arms of his love, and will bless them as he did those on earth. How, and when, that blessing is bestowed so as to be used, we may be unable to see and know ; neither did those parents know, whose children were received by him while on earth ; but that there was a blessing, however these very children may have frustrated its effect, who can doubt.

It is not for us to know, since we cannot look into the hearts of children, and God hath not told us, how soon the blessed Spirit may begin a gracious operation therein ; but it is ours to pray that

God would bless them with all the spiritual blessings of which they are capable, without undertaking to dictate the time or manner of its operation. We should be like parents, who as to the good things of this life, are seeking to lay up in store for their children long before the time when they can use them. The times and seasons are in God's hands, and we have need of patience for ourselves and children, after we have done the will of God, to inherit the blessing. Many prayers have doubtless been offered up by pious parents, and registered in Heaven, which have been answered in rich mercies on their children, long after the time of their ascent. Though I doubt not, my dear friend, that you have before and since its birth, been wrestling with God for a blessing on your child, let me entreat you to wait still upon him, praying as if each prayer might be your last ; praying that the Holy Spirit may even now begin its work, if such be God's method, and that it may hereafter be vouchsafed in such measure as shall be needed. Plead all the promises of God in his behalf, especially that the atoning blood of Christ may be applied to his soul. Say unto God that here is a creature whom he hath made, and beseech him to be merciful to the work of his own hands. Make an entire 2 surrender of him to Gcd, and resolve to regard him and train him henceforth as the property of God. In view of the evil world into which you have brought him, and trembling for his fate, say unto God, who is sufficient for this work, and pray for divine assistance with all earnestness. The God who hath given you this sacred deposit, — this rich talent, — will not withhold the needed aid for its improvement. If there be one prayer which we offer for others, one effort we make for others, more likely to secure the divine favour than any other, surely it must be the prayer of a pious parent for the rescue of a child from eternal misery. As to God's special care of a child thus dedicated to him, let me use the language of another, and say " However unconscious of God's regards, we know that in Christ, he regards the infant with the deepest solicitude. The intense interest and sacred delight with which the loving mother watches her first-born, catches the first gleam of its opening intelligence and moral sensibility, and seeks to nurse the young spirit up for sweet and blessed intercourse with herself, — these are but faint and feeble things compared with that still more intense interest, that still more sacred delight with which a God of love watches the infancy of every human being, sees its nature unfold, and seeks to draw its young affections to himself."*

And now, my friend, trusting that you are in the state of mind most suitable for prayer, I offer you the following as a guide and help, though it may be that an overflowing heart shall suggest to you more and better words.

Yours, truly, in the Lord.

PRATER.

Oh, my God, thou hast saved my life from destruction in the hour of danger and of need. Thou hast enabled me to give life to this immortal being ; thou hast kept it from perishing at its birth ; to whom shall I go with thanksgiving for this deliverance, and with vows and offerings, but to thee. Oh for grace to dedicate myself and child to thee and thy service, henceforth and for ever more. Lord we are thine, the work of thine hands ; thou madest us, not we ourselves. Thine we are by the redeeming blood of Christ also, and oh, may we be thine by the sanctifying influeuces of the Holy

* Dr. Stone.

Ghost. Oh God, what a fearful talent hast thou intrusted to my care in this precious infant. How I tremble to receive it. Is it to be my joy or my grief, an honour or a shame to its parents, its existence a curse or a blessing to itself ? When I remember that it is my own child, conceived in sin, such as I ever feel in my own sinful nature, and now born into a wicked world, I am seized with dread for its future condition. To thee I look for relief and help. Oh God, nothing is impossible to thee. Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou canst ordain praise. Thou canst write the name of my child in Heaven. Blessed Jesus, thou who didst take little children into thine arms and bless them, bless mine, even mine, now and for ever, washing his soul from sin in thy atoning blood. I ask not for any thing here below. I seek for it the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness, and believe that all other things which are needful will be added. The blessing I intreat, Oh God ! is the salvation of his immortal soul. Grant me this, Oh God ! and I am content. Never, while I live, may I otherwise feel than I now do. Oh God ! if my child is to live only to disappoint the hopes which I now cherish, then in mercy take him from the evil to come, now while I am per-

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mitted to hope that thou wilt receive him to thyself, among those little ones, of which is the kingdom of Heaven. I ask all for myself and child, in the name of Jesus Christ, through whom alone there is hope. Amen !

Letter II

In my first letter I addressed you when lying in that chamber where your child was born, where God had vouchsafed you a gracious deliverance. You were there on your bed, carrying on a solemn transaction with Heaven in behalf of your child, with your heart entering him into covenant with God, pleading the promises to the children of believers, invoking the blood of Jesus, and the influence of the Spirit. Thus did you address that God who is a Spirit, and must be worshipped in spirit and in truth, who bids us pray to him in secret, and promises to reward us openly. But is this all that duty requires ? God is not only the God of all the families of earth, blessing each house of the righteous, accepting the prayer that is offered up " secretly among the faithful," but he is the God of that great family the Church, which was purchased by the blood of his Son, and he calls on us to worship him " in the great congregation." He requires that we not merely believe on him with our hearts, but confess him with our mouths. And is it not his will that parents with their little ones should appear before him ? Is there no thanksgiving due to God before the congregation for this child, no public dedication of him required, no prayer of the faithful needed in his behalf, and in yours also, that you may perform your part well ?

God, we trust, has already received this child by the word of promise, and in answer to your earnest prayer. In his blessed revelation he has given you assurances of his tender love to little ones, and you have in private pleaded these, and put your child into the arms of his love. So doubtless did these Jewish mothers, who nevertheless afterwards carried .their children to Christ when upon earth, and begged him to take them into his very human arms and bless them again. And is there no way of doing this now, or making some near approach to it ? May we not take them into his temple, and to his minister and people, who are a part of his mys- ■ tical body, and beg them to receive him into their arms, and present him to Christ by faithful prayer ? And how proper is it that on such an occasion, parents should publicly renew the dedication made in private, and declare their determination before the Church to bring up the child for Gcd, and call on all present, not only to hear their vows, but to unite in the holy act and ceremony. Nor only this, but as the contracts or covenants between man and man, besides being uttered or written down in words which bind to the performance usually have hand-writing and seal put to them for greater assurance, so also does God not merely give us an instrument of writing, his blessed word, in which he solemnly and repeatedly swears, saying verily, verily, but also adds a seal to the same, that is, some expressive token by which to give us greater assurance.

That seal is put on our bodies, and by submitting to it we give this outward assent to the same, as by believing the words of the instrument we have previously assented with our hearts to it. Let us see what this seal is. Need I remind you of God's command to his servant Abraham, that a sign or seal should be put upon himself and household — that of circumcision. This was many years after Gcd had entered into covenant with him by many promises and favors, and he had entered into covenant with God by faith and obedience, and been accepted, being called the friend of Gcd. Nevertheless it pleased God to add another assurance of his protection and love, in a special mark by which Abraham and his posterity might be known of all men as God's covenant people, and hy the perpetual observance of which, they might show their allegiance to him, and secure his favour. I need not say how often this was enjoined, what punishments threatened to its neglect, and what blessings promised to its right use and improvement. It never was intermitted by any considerable numbers, except during the passage through the wilderness, when it was most difficult of performance, and not so necessary as a distinguishing mark of God's people, who were then literally pilgrims and sojourners, and distinguished in so many other ways. Nor does the neglect seem to have provoked God's displeasure, but only to have produced a special command for the renewal of the rite so soon as they entered the promised land. So important was it deemed in the regulations of God's Church, that our Lord himself submitted to it, in order to fulfil all righteousness, as he afterwards did to baptism, when he was publicly acknowledged to be the Son of God. The pious Jew hasted, according to the command, to have his child sealed as the child of God, and to make this public confession for him. It was considered by some to be the very first act performed for the child according to an

ON THE EIRTH OF A CHILD. 21

opinion held, that it was not a perfect child until the eighth day. At the very birth of the child then the Jewish parent made him to become a debtor in this public way, to do the whole law, and God made himself a debtor to fulfil all his blessed promises to the children of his people. And if Abraham not onl}- believed with his heart, but thus openly confessed Jehovah, and was required to do the same for his household, shall we for a moment suppose, when baptism was substituted for the Jewish rite, and was enjoined on parents, that their children were excluded, and when our Lord so emphatically said, « Suffer little children to come unto me, for of such is the Kingdom of God." It is then your privilege and duty to do something more than the private dedication of your child, and to have some other assurance of God's love to it, than even the blessed words on record. You may take it unto the house of God, and ask the people of God to bear it on their hearts to the throne of grace, and the minister of God to put God's own sign and seal upon it. Pious Christians have ever delighted and hasted to do this. Some mothers have not even waited for strength to bear the little infant, light as the burthen is, in their own arms to the house of God, but have sent it by other, while they have continued to wrestle with God at home for the blessing. They have not been satisfied merely to have their children born within the bounds of the visible Church, though that is a great privilege, and that they have believing parents who will train them up for Heaven, which is a still greater blessing, but according to God's will and gracious permission, they wish them to be formally received by and into the congregation of Christ's flock, thus grafting them into Christ's body — that is his Church — that they may grow up into Christ himself.

If such be God's will, then as an act of obedience it must be right, and a blessing belongs to it. What though the benefit of Christ's death, who died for all, may have been the child's before, by promise ; what though in answer to the prayer of faith, through the intercession of Christ, God may have blessed it before and granted the Holy Spirit for its use, as soon as it is capable of it ; has God but one blessing to bestow, but one grant of the Spirit to make, but one assurance of pardon to give ? Is this our God who supplies us day by day with food, renews his earthly blessings each hour, each moment, and has told us, that he is more willing to give us his Holy Spirit, whose office is to renew day by day, than earthly parents to give good things to their children. Our Lord himself, though he had the Spirit poured out upon him long before, yet received it again and most manifestly at his baptism. There may be a special blessing and measure of the Spirit assigned to this act, if rightly done, though not tied to the very moment of baptism. If fervent prayers be now offered up, who shall say they may not be the effectual prayers of the righteous, which avail to secure a blessing for the child, though at some future day, just as many a labour of man produces its fruit at some distant period.

"Can the child of so many tears perish," was the answer of a venerable bishop to a mother whose child had been baptized, and educated for Christ, but who was then an infidel, and the mother's heart ready to break. But that infidel became a faithful minister of Christ, none other than the great Augustine. It is thus that God may make this ordinance lvork together with attendant means for the spiritual good of one who for a long time has utterly neglected and dishonored it. If it be said that we make too much of a mere ceremony, only once observed, and administered to an unconscious infant, that there is no analogous case, nothing sustaining the claim put in for it in the word and dispensations of God ; we answer, that it is not a mere ceremony, that the use of water is only one part, and the far inferior part. Holy baptism is administered with faithful prayer, and the word, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Ail the waters of the ocean were useless without these. And though the outward form of water be used but once, the prayer and word are often to be renewed by the parent, and the child; thus improving the baptism, as the laying on of hands upon the confirmed, and the ordained is done but once, while the vows and prayers are often to be renewed, and the obligations always fulfilling. If it be asked, where is the difference as to religious advantages and God's favor between children thus baptized, and others unbaptized who live in the same society, have the same scriptures for their instruction, and the same sabbaths, temples, and ministers ; we answer, that though God may, and, doubtless, does dispense his Spirit when this ordinance is neglected, either through ignorance or the prejudice of education, yet there may be much difference in many cases between the two.

This neglect of their baptismal dedication, may only be the first of a series of neglects, each one leading to the next, whose combined effect may contribute much to the perdition of the child ; while the right performance of it may be the first of a series of pious acts, each facilitating and ensuring the next, which may contribute much to the salvation of the child. We have little doubt of the truth of what is affirmed by those who have made particular observation and inquiry, that it will be found as a general rule, that far more in proportion to the number, in any particular region, of those who have been baptized in infancy, have become pious in after life, than of those whose baptism has been neglected. It is most reasonable that it should be so. Has God established a Church on earth, and gathered his children into a fellowship, and placed them in a school, with laws and ordinances and officers, and has he appointed a public form of admission into it ; and shall we still say, that from association with God's people, and the use of their books, and temples, and sabbaths, we can -derive all the substantial benefit to ourselves, without being introduced regularly and fully into their body by a particular mode, even though that mode be of God's appointment ? Is not this tempting God ? Is not this too like the conduct of certain infidels and moralists, who boast of their just notions of God and of morals, and compare their outwan conduct with that of many Christians, without as> cribing as they ought, what is correct in their system and practice, to the influence of that very religion which they reject, and the lives of those very persons whom they regard as mistaken in their faith. Infidels and moralists should be carried beyond the bounds of Christianity, in order to test 3 their system, and see what would be the lives of its advocates ; and so those who make light of connection with God's Church, in the way of his ordaining, should just suppose that Church to be dissolved, its ordinances, its ministers, its discipline, all dispensed with, and each one left, even with the Bible in his hand, to work out his own salvation as seems best to himself.