delusions and the absurdity of their views. Had we been denied
revelation, we should probably have been ignorant of our fallen state
and need of a Savior, and might have "perished for lack of vision."

How far God might have pitied our necessary ignorance, we know not;
but we can now discern no way of salvation, except by faith in Christ,
with repentance from dead works. Now, the knowledge of these, and the
necessity of holiness of heart and life, we have received, not by
immediate revelation, but from our fellow men. And most of those who
receive them, to saving effect, receive the first impressions in early
life; receive them from those with whom they are conversant in
their tender years. The forming mankind to virtue, and rendering them
_a godly seed_, depends much on the means _then_ used with them, and
the bias then given to the mind.

3. Restraint is _also necessary in the morning of life_. BY nature man
is inclined to evil. This disposition originated in the apostasy and
descends to the whole race, rendering them untractable and
unreachable--easily susceptible of bad impressions and indisposed to
good ones. It appears and operates at a very early period of life.
"The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as
they are born speaking lies. Their poison is like the poison of a
serpent; they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear."--

Such declarations are not indeed to be understood literally. None are
equal transgressors, before they are capable of moral action, which is
the state of the new born infant. He cannot speak lies who hath not
yet attained the power of speech. The poison of human depravity may,
however be compared to that of the serpent, which begins in its
formation, and discovers itself when first capable of action. We see
the effects of depravity in the child, while reason is yet weak and
only budding forth. It is one of the first appearances in the progress
of a human being from infancy to manhood. When these are discovered,
restraint should begin. Parents who seek _a godly seed_, should no
longer delay to counteract the corrupt disposition, and endeavor to
give the young creature, committed to their care, another and a better
bias.

But, alas! Parental affection too often degenerates into weakness, and
giving way to natural perverseness, suffers it to take its course; the
consequences of which are often fatal to peace and honor in after
life; perhaps in that also whic