ever took possession of the heart, but that which is taught in the book of Christ? History and philosophy are, no doubt, valuable knowledge, where men have leisure to pursue them; but neither one nor the other ever converted a soul from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. We have it on the word of one whose personal exertions for the education of the poor were never yet exceeded-whose schools, it may be, have been the means of educating some who hear me now," History and philosophy, though they inform the understanding, and assist the judgment, cannot rectify the obliquities of the heart."* If they could, St. Paul would not have found the most learned city in the ancient world "wholly given to idolatry"+-sunk in the lowest vices, as well as the most brutal ignorance. If human learning could change men's hearts, Christ would never have sent his apostles to preach the Gospel, and confirm it with signs following. We say nothing, my bre thren, against human learning-it is a very noble and exalted occupation for those who have time for it--but all we would contend for is, to keep it in its place, and to do away the delusion that science and literature can convert souls. Besides, the children we are speaking of are such as are called in their earliest years to labour with their hands for their bread. Whatever the kind of labour may be, it must be undertaken early. This is particularly the case with agricultural labour. Every farmer knows that children who come to that labour late never learn it properly. What knowledge, then, can the labourer's child obtain of history or philosophy, things which it would cost the toil of lives to acquire in any extent, in the four or five years he may attend at a school? And, further, what profit will they be to him?-It would be no profit to a prince to teach him to hold the plough, which he will be never called upon to do, and make him neglect the study of government, which he will have to practise every day; and as unwise would it be to give the ploughman a sort of learning he can never use, while he neglects that which is useful and fit for him. No, my brethren, this sort of education would be useless, and worse than useless, for the children of the poor-it would be worse than usless, for it would be forbidding them to come to Christ. It would be occupying the time which could be spent in teaching them the truths of the Gospel, and training their steps in its principles. It would thus be incurring that displeasure of the Saviour which he expressed against those who would keep the little children from coming to him. Those who recommend such an education as this as a national education for the children of the poor, may be well-intentioned disciples truly, but surely the testimony of Scripture convicts them of being miserably mistaken ones. The disciples who rebuked those who brought the children to Christ might mean well, but they ought to have been better informed; and accordingly we find that Jesus was "much displeased with them." The reason these persons give for leaving out religion altogether shows how little they are acquainted with the Gospel of Christ, whatever they may profess. They say they teach no religion, because then one religion would be made to stand before all others. And was this, • Hannah More's Christian Morals, chap. xxvi. VOL. XX. NO. II. M + Acts xvii. 16. then, the reason that Christ, as at this time, left the glory that he had with his Father before the world was, that all religions should be alike? Was it for this that he took upon him our nature, our sorrows, and our sufferings, and far more than any of his servants have been called to, that every man might be free to follow his own imaginations ?-Was the great and solemn mystery of redemption transacted that one religion might not prevail over another? Or rather was not the purpose of the whole scheme that one religion might overthrow all the follies and superstitions of the world?-For what are we now rejoicing, if we rejoice not that "to us a child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder?"* Is not he promised for a light to the Gentiles, and for salvation to the ends of the earth ?-Is not his command, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature?" The preference of his religion above all others is his command-and they are at least very mistaken disciples who oppose it. If persons who recommend these schemes are well-meaning Christians, it will shock them to know the cause to which they are lending themselves. It may be proper they should know that schools without religion were the very device recommended by the greatest monsters in the form of men the world ever saw-the brutal murderers, cannibals, and atheists of the first revolution in France. It was to the National Convention of that country, just after the land had been defiled with the blood of innocents from the Channel to the Mediterranean, and when the streets of the capital swam with carnage in the names of civil and religious liberty, of reason, and of equality-it was to that same Convention, which denied its God, and pulled down his altars, and slew his ministers, it was even to that assembly of Pharaohs and Rabshakehs that these words were addressed, and their substance acted on: "no religion must be taught in schools that are to be national. To prescribe one would be to prefer it to all others."+ The British nation, let us trust, is, on the whole, too firmly grounded and settled in the truth of the Gospel, to be ready for such a scheme as this; and therefore it is that the promoters of it would propose another which they think would meet with less opposition-to have schools where the Scriptures, among other things, should be read, but where the Scriptures should not be the principal thing, and where they should be the only religious instruction-no catechism, no prayer-book, no attendance at church, no instruction in the meaning of what the children are reading. But let us not, my brethren, be deluded with any such substitutions. The reason they give for this plan is the same reason, or nearly, that they give for the other that no form of Christianity may be preferred. The reason is altogether itself unchristian. No enlightened Christian, whatever form he might profess, would bring up his children upon such a plan. If he has confidence in his principles, he I will have confidence to train his children in them as a most sacred and indispensable duty. And what every private Christian would do, is what christian nations and communities must do. But this merely making children read the Scriptures is not bringing them to Christ—it is ↑ Manuel's Letter to the National Convention, Jan. 26, 1793. only giving them some possible chance of coming. What would be thought of the parent who should send out his child on a long and perilous journey, with no other supply for it than a map of the country in his hand? The map might be true in the smallest particulars; but how many of such children would find their way? Would not every sensible and affectionate parent put his beloved offspring under experienced guides, who had studied the map, and knew the way, and could point out the dangers as they arose, and supply their tender charge with sustenance and support for the journey? And what is the difference in spiritual things?-The Bible, it is true, is the perfect and infallible map of our way to heaven; but let a child read it without explanation, without guidance, what will he make of it? One child here and there might by distant possibility find his way by the map-and one child here and there, with his Bible only, might find his way to heaven-but will any one pretend to believe that such would be the general result? Would any person acquainted with children, acquainted with education, venture on such an assertion? Christ has himself appointed a church-his own Bible itself tells us so why not intrust that church with the charge of his children? Beside, there is one thing of the utmost importance to the question, which is never taken into the account at all. If a child were journeying to a distant place with nothing but a map for his guide, he would certainly strive to understand his map, and certainly endeavour to follow its guidance with all his might-but it would be quite otherwise with the child and the Bible-by nature we do not endeavour to understand the word of God,—and by nature we are so far from endeavouring to follow it, that, even when we do understand it, our nature carries us directly the contrary way. But if human knowledge will not convert souls, and if the Bible thus read cannot be expected to bring forth fruit unto salvation, what will have the effect?-Bringing, my brethren, the children to Christ. How, then, shall we perform this great duty, the right education of the children of the poor-the suffering little children to come unto Christ, and forbidding them not?-By both showing them the way, and leading them in it at the same time. By putting the Holy Scriptures, part by part, and at last the whole volume of truth, into their hands. By showing them how to use it, and how to understand it. By opening to them its treasures, and giving them a practical and experimental knowledge of its infinite value. By training them in the practice of its precepts. By putting into their tender memories that glorious form of sound words, from which the maturest Christian need not be ashamed to learn, the Catechism of the Church of England. By accustoming them to hallow the Sabbath from their earliest years. By tuning, so to speak, their hearts to the spirit and meaning of Scripture, through exercising them in the pure comprehensive and instructive prayers of our Church. By fixing their attention on these things, if not totally, at least chiefly. In large towns, where the children of the poor cannot work so early, and where they have more leisure when they do work, other things may be usefully taught-in the country, where they work early, and have little leisure, other learning can be but sparingly admitted-but this great learning, this saving knowledge, this knowledge for the lack of which God's people are destroyed, this know ledge which is equally necessary to all distinctions of sex, station, trade and profession, this knowledge which must save the prince and the peasant, the rich and the poor,-this knowledge must be taught as the first and the last-and not only must the knowledge be taught, but they must be shown how to use it-they must be trained to practise what they know-remembering the words of him to whom they come " If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." Thus, indeed, are children brought to Christ-taught from their earliest years to put up their prayers in his name-brought to those ordinances which are his appointment, and trained in that course of obedience which is the test and the seal of their love. This is indeed the very kind of instruction which the Bible itself commands us to use. It calls the Church "the pillar and ground of the truth." The truth itself is the Scripture-the pillar is the Church upon which the truth is set up that all may see it and understand.-Why then cast it down from the pillar on which God has set it, and send the child to search it out and to pick it up? The Scripture calls the Church " the candlestick" and the Gospel the light. When the light is set upon the candlestick, it giveth light to all in the house. Why throw it down from the candlestick, and then tell the child to find it out as he may? If we have the blessing of an Established Church, why say the child shall be brought up to disregard it, and set him to find the truth as he would if he were living among savages or heathens? Now the National Society, my brethren, rejects all this at once, and seeks to bring children to Christ in Christ's own way. A century ago, when the education of poor children was little talked of or heeded by the world at large, the efforts of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, had founded upwards of 2000 schools for the religious education of the poor. But in the year 1811, when the population had greatly increased, and when Dr. Bell's improved system of tuition had been tried and found effective, a new Society arose, which is that for which your Sovereign, my brethren, is pleading by the voice of the Church; and for which the Church may well plead, as being calculated, under her divine Head, to bring the little children to him better than any institution his Spirit has put it into the hearts of Christians to devise. It is not a mere school establishment in London; it is a Society for giving the blessings of a sound Church-of-England education to the poor all over the country. It is now the means of educating no fewer than 516,000 children. It has caused an outlay of about three times the amount of its annual grants to be expended. About 100,000l. a year is calculated to be expended in national schools, and this is entirely the work of the Society, either by its own contributions or by the outlay it has caused. This parish has received grants from the Society at various times :-and not only do they furnish grants of money-but they train teachers and supply various information of the most useful kind to the schools with which they are in connexion; requiring no manner of control in the oversight of expenses, or any thing indeed but a pledge that the school is conducted on the Society's system, without which it could not in consistency be regarded as a school in their connexion. * John xviii. 7. 1 Tim. iii. 15. Rev. i. 20. By contributing to this Society according to your ability you will be having your part in the blessed work of bringing the little children to Christ a work always a duty and a privilege; but never a more appropriate duty than at this season of joy and grateful love. And let me tell you, my brethren, in all faithfulness, that by withholding what you can conscientiously spare, you will be disobeying the commandment of your Saviour in the text, "Suffer the little children to come unto me." An awful thought, indeed! Yet consider what it is that does withhold them there is nothing to prevent the children coming to Christ, but the want of funds to educate them except, indeed, the perversity of parents, for which you will not have to answer. A heavy account that will certainly be ! where parents with the means of instruction furnished by national and Sunday schools, neglect to employ them. Let me in one word suggest that if it be sin not to suffer the little ones to come to Christ, what an unnatural sin is it for parents to be the party!-But to all of you, my brethren, I would say, do not excuse yourselves by saying, "Others who are richer than I will contribute, and so all will be well." Do you think, my brethren, that you will be judged by what others do?-that if they bring children to Christ, you will escape his displeasure for not suffering them to come? He needs not the exertions of one of us-he could raise up shepherds of his lambs, teachers of his little ones, as he could raise up children to Abraham, from the stones. No, my brethren,-it is not because Christ needs us ---but because he, in mighty mercy and condescension, admits us to be partakers in his work-workers together with him—and because he, in infinite goodness, is pleased to reward our poor efforts with eternal blessing. Not to take part in this labour would be the excess of unthankfulness, and to rejoice in this season without embracing this opportunity of manifesting its spirit, would be ignorance and hypocrisy. Our Lord puts the question to every one of us individually, "Lovest thou me ?"*—If we can answer that as Peter did (and how shall we rejoice in his coming if we cannot ?)-" Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee!" remember, my brethren, his reply-" Feed my lambs :". and if ye love him, keep his commandment. MISCELLANEOUS. H. T. ON THE USE OF PSALMS AND HYMNS IN THE PUBLIC TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER. SIR,-In your Number for October last, p. 596, occurs a passage, on which I request your permission to offer your readers two or three observations, with the view of coming, if possible, to a satisfactory conclusion on a subject, deeply affecting, as I apprehend, the character • John xxi. 15. |