and morals in those days, I feel myself standing on firm
ground for urging upon the readers of your Magazine, the importance of
the instruction of the young in the doctrines and duties of the gospel.
The position taken in your Magazine, on that great and important
subject, Infant Baptism, is one which you will find approved and
sustained by all who fully appreciate the means for bringing the sons
and daughters of the Church to Christ. I hope that in its pages will
also be inculcated all those great and distinguishing doctrines and
commands of our holy religion, which, in the Bible, and in the minds of
all sound and faithful men, and all sound confessions of Christian
faith, stand inseparably associated with Infant Baptism.

Such instruction should be imparted by parents themselves; not left to
teachers in the Sabbath-school alone; as soon as the minds of children
begin to be capable of receiving instruction, of any kind, and of being
impressed, permanently, by such instruction. It should be imparted
frequently--or, rather, constantly,--as God directed his anointed
people: "And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine
heart; and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and thou
shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou
walkest by the way, and when thou liest down and when thou risest up."
It should be done with clearness and simplicity, adapted to the minds of
children and youth; with particularity; and with a fullness, as regards
"the whole word of God," which shall not leave them uninstructed in any
doctrine or command in the sacred word. These points in the manner of
instructing the young are suggested, with an eye to the fact, that since
the establishment of Sunday-schools, there is a temptation for parents
to leave to others this important work; that it is therefore delayed
till the age at which children have learned to read,--by which time,
some of the best opportunities for impressing truth have become
lost--because also there is infrequency and omission of duty; and
because there is not always the requisite pains taken to have children
understand what is taught; and indefinite ideas on the doctrines and
precepts of the gospel are the consequences; and because there is an
inclination, too often indicated, to pass over some doctrines and
precepts, under the notion that they are distasteful, and will repel the
young mind from religion. We set down as a principle