The Lord does
not ask the Christian parent, as he did Abraham, to build an altar upon the
summit of some lofty cliff, and there to thrust a sacrificial knife to the
heart of his child, and offer his quivering flesh and bleeding body a burnt
offering to him; but he commands him to bring his child to the altar of
baptism in his church, and there dedicate his life, his talents, his all,
as a living sacrifice "holy and acceptable unto God," vowing before
witnessing angels and men that, as the steward of God and the
representative of the child, he will hold it sacred, as the property of the
Lord, given to him only in trust; that he will consult and faithfully
execute the will of the Lord concerning the child, and that in all his
relations to it, he will seek to make it subserve his purposes and reflect
his glory.
This is the most precious and acceptable oblation of the parent's heart and
home,--more precious than gold or pearls, than rivers of blood, or streams
of oil; and where there is a corresponding dedication of all that belongs
to home, it promotes and preserves the highest privileges and the greatest
well-being of the child. With the deep and sublime feelings of faith we
should, therefore, take our little ones, in infancy, before the Lord, as
the free-will offering of the Christian home; and in all subsequent
periods of their life under the parental roof, we should eagerly watch, in
each expanding faculty, in each growing inclination, in the bent of each
tender thought, in the warm glow of each feeling and desire, for some
indications of the will of God concerning their mission in this life.
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