As there is no religious duty of greater consequence, or more conducive to our happiness both here and hereafter, than to receive worthily the blessed Eucharist; so there can be no greater favour conferred on a Christian, than to communicate early in life, and afterwards frequently. Hence it becomes the indispensable duty of such as have the education of children committed to their care, not only to impress on their tender minds a lively and active sense of the excellency of this sacrament, but also to enforce the necessity of frequently receiving it. "He that eateth this bread shall live for ever."--_John_, vi. The obligation of communicating at Easter is binding on every member of the church who has arrived at the age of discretion; i.e. when reason and reflection, guided by the gift of divine faith, arrive at such a state of maturity, as may enable them to distinguish the flesh of Jesus Christ, under the exterior appearance of bread and wine, from the ordinary food of the body. It is further to be observed, that as purity of heart is the most proper disposition to receive worthily; so, of consequence, the less advanced the age of a Christian, the more untainted, in general, is his baptismal innocence. But, on the other hand, it is to be remarked, that the longer a Christian defers his first communion, the greater is the danger that either domestic affairs, or the violence of those passions to which young persons in general are more or less subject, should cause him to put it off to a more advanced age, or perhaps to the very hour of death!--_a fatal delusion_, which has betrayed numbers of Christians into the abyss of eternal perdition. {104} Let parents, therefore, and others concerned in the education of children, attend to the advice of the great St. Charles Borromeus on this subject: "When children," says he, "of both sexes, arrive at the age of ten years, provided they are capable of being easily prepared for communion, suffer them not, under pretence of ignorance, (as it is often the case,) to defer it any longer; but rather let them be prepared in good time, to participate of a sacrament which abounds with such precious and inestimable advantages."