rd's Supper, it being there professedly owned, according to 1
Cor. 7:14, that the children of the church are holy unto the Lord, as
well as their parents.'"

Mr. R. stood up, and, with an animated look and manner, but with a very
pleasant voice, said:

"What, now, my good brother, did these good ministers do, with this
youth, more or less than we all do for the children of our pastoral
charge?

"Of what practical use was his so-called infant 'church-membership,' in
addition to his being, as we all hold, a child of the covenant?"

They made no reply for a little while, till at last Mr. A. said:

"Well, Br. R., what names would you substitute for _members_ and
_membership_?"

_Mr. R._ "THE CHILDREN OF THE CHURCH;" for you have it in the last
sentence of the extract which you read from Morton;--the true, the most
appropriate, and, in every respect, the best name for those who are so
ambiguously called _members_.

_Mr. B._ There is great beauty and sweetness in that name, I
confess,--"the children of the church," "the church's children."

_Mr. R._ A father never, except for concealment, says, "a member of my
family," when "a child" is meant. The term _members_, besides being
equivocal, and requiring explanation, is not so good as "children of the
church," an expression which includes and covers all that any would
claim for "infant church-members."

_Mr. C._ I confess, I like Br. R.'s views and proposition. If, by
calling the offspring of believers, "the children of the church," we, by
implication, abridged any of their privileges, or if, by calling them
church-members, we believed that they acquired rights and privileges not
otherwise appertaining to them, we ought to prefer the words member and
membership; but it is not so. No one of the writers cited,--and the
proofs we all know could be extended by quoting from other
authors,--claims the right of a child to full communion, except upon
evidence, in his "trial and examination," that he is regenerate. Indeed,
the only use to which the terms member and membership seem to be
applied, is, in furnishing some ground for urging the discipline and
excommunication of the child. This, though urged by some, is urged in
vain.

_Mr. R._ Other terms, in connection with members and membership, have
been proposed, such as members in minority, members in suspension,
future members; but all in vain. The children of believers are certainly
the children of the church, and such I