templation the whole human race, both as it exists now, and as it has existed during a long succession of ages from the foundation of the world: let us view not only the more civilized parts of Europe, where tenderness is inculcated as a duty, and honoured as a virtue, but let us consider also the most savage tracts of the earth, and the most barbarous states of society. Every living creature therein produced has been preserved and supported to maturity by the operation of this passion. I would put out of our thoughts, for the present, the lower orders of the creation, for fear of distracting the attention, and for another cause which I shall assign hereafter it is with man chiefly that we have to do. For the continuance of the human race, then, the exercise of parental affection has been as necessary as the annual growth of the fruits of the earth; and has also been as incessant and unfailing. Sceptical philosophy may pretend to account for the reproduction of man from physical causes, operating in endless succession, but where does it place the seat of this affection, equally essential to his existence? How : are its secret chords disposed, that answer so true to the touch, and vibrate so sweetly? Is the passion itself the result of organic structure, or of mental intelligence? or in truth what rational account can be given of it, but that it is the work of a beneficent Being, acting invisibly for the preservation of his visible creation? Such a passion as parental affection was essential to the existence of man, and therefore it was ordained by him who made man. "Thou 66 art my hope, O Lord God," saith the Psalmist, thou art my trust from my youth. By thee have I been holden up from the " womb "." 66 2. Other passions or affections also, it may be observed, at least those that are to be of any permanent duration, are also long in taking root, and are of slow progress. Their first impulses are weak, and they are confirmed by habit, and intimacy with the object of them. But in the case of parental affection, that being upon which it is to be exercised is no sooner seen than it is be b Psalm lxxi. 5, 6. loved. Its helpless situation demands the tenderest care, and a benevolent provision has been already made that it shall not be disappointed. It must perish but for the speedy relief of wants and the application of comforts which it cannot describe or express, and for which it can make no immediate return. Return, indeed, is not what the parents look for, in the earliest effusion of their tenderness: they act under the irresistible impulse of a passion of which that Providence, by which it was implanted, has decreed that the indulgence should be as grateful to those who feel as it is useful to those towards whom it is exercised. So sweet are the emotions of parental tenderness that it may be said, like virtue, "to be its own reward." 66 3. Further, in one of the verses preceding the text it is said, that when the mother of Moses "saw him that he was a goodly child, 66 she hid him three months." But parental affection is not confined to comely or to intelligent infants: it is perhaps seldom, or but little, increased by those accidental circumstances: nay, it has been remarked, that a mother's love is frequently most ardent towards those of her offspring who are in body or mind weaker than the rest, as if Providence had laid up in our nature more ample stores of tenderness for those who should have most need to draw upon them : or, at least, it may be averred, that the passion extends with equal and indiscriminate warmth towards all those whom nature points out as the peculiar objects of it. And can the arrow always reach or fall near the mark without the directing eye and arm? The parents can neither create nor divest themselves of the desire of tending on and supporting their infant offspring: they are passive in the process and operation of parental love. Where, then, is the intelligence to be found which both implants the passion at its proper season, and wings its motion to its proper object? Where, but in the invisible and omnipresent Being whose care extends over the least of his works, and whose peculiar regard for the infant race of man he has not left us to infer from reasoning only, however conclusive, himself having charged us, along with various other pre cepts respecting them, that we despise not one of these little ones; for, says our blessed Saviour, who gives the injunction, "I say "unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which " is in heaven". 66 99 4. Another observation which I shall make under this head of the discourse relates to the duration of the passion: and here it is that a visible and important distinction, to which I before alluded, exists between the human race and the lower orders of the creation. With the latter parental regard soon ceases, and when once broken by accidental causes, even at a more early period than that assigned by nature, is never afterwards resumed. With man the love of his offspring commences at the birth of the infant, and is terminated only by the death of the parent: for man needs more than the mere support of the animal frame: his understanding requires culture; his will demands restraint, direction, and excitement to good objects; the seeds of virtue, piety, c St. Matt. xviii. 10. |