ture and science from the sacred, as far as the society is concerned, though acknowledging its paramount authority over individuals. It is not sufficient "to leave the inculcation of religious principle, and the enforcement of religious conduct to the public teachers of the gospel, the instructions of the family, and the secluded study and devotion of the closet," when the same can be safely advanced in connection with the public lessons and demonstrations of philosophy and letters, with which the young are fascinated and the old revived. If we allow that without religious guidance those studies cannot be beneficial, and without religious deductions they cannot be safe or complete, shall we neither invoke that guidance nor provide that those results be drawn from our investigations? Shall we leave it to the precarious disposition of men's private minds, fancies, and opportunities, amidst the multitudinous cares of business and families, whether they will draw honey or poison from the flowers we expand to view? We have made a collection of curious plants, but we leave other men to extract from them their medicinal virtues; we know even that it is possible to make such an use of them as may be destructive of the soul; shall we make no provision for the direction that is necessary to render them salubrious? It is vain to hope to promote human virtue or happiness by the spread of knowledge, unless it go hand in hand with the "inculcation of religious truth," not only by distinct and exterior provisions, but in the same operations as their constant accompaniment, as the salt to preserve, as the honey to sweeten, and the spirit to animate the whole. In order to secure this result it is not, moreover, sufficient to trust to a providential succession of good men, who by their character and influence may prove a check to the rise of any moral evils, while we leave the constitution of the society without the protection of open recognitions of Christian principles. For, first, it is not morally or politically right. For it was once remarked by an eminent statesman, that "what is morally wrong can never be politically right." If therefore God has commanded us, in his holy Word, to do all things with a view to His glory, to confess Him before men; in all our ways to acknowledge Him; and "to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus;" and if with this conduct, and this only, He has connected all his blessings and all his promises; it cannot but be morally wrong, and by inference, politically wrong and inexpedient also, to enter on any public or private undertaking, that does not present itself to our consciences as likely to promote the cause of true religion, and which does not acknowledge such an object. If it be likely to retard, displace, or discredit religion, we need not waste a moment in showing that it is sinful. We have rather to do with those who profess at worst to seek a neutral ground," though at the expense of consistency, instead of a common ground of Christian charity. And if they will find such a neutral ground spoken of with approbation in any part of the Bible, we will surrender the argument. But it is against such Laodicean indecision that some of its most awful and awakening denunciations are levelled; because plans of that character are more covert and therefore more perilous snares to the amiable and unsuspecting, favouring the designs of Satan to draw men from the right way, with the plea of neutrality rather than opposition; and it may be with more fatal success, since the conscience does not so loudly utter its protests. But neutrality is treason in the cause of God, for "he that gathereth not with me scattereth." We know of no promise of privilege which is not dependent on the performance of duty; for God has always marked his rejection of those communities that have not owned him, and honoured those who have confessed him in an evil generation. And wherever there is a shrinking from a confession of Christ, do not his friends mourn and his foes triumph? Does not the religion of such persons rather resemble the timidity of Nicodemus, than the boldness of Paul? And are not even now the enemies of true religion drawing arguments in favour of their secularising systems of education from the fact of societies existing, under the patronage of good men, in whose professed provisions religion is entirely omitted. They will be well satisfied to surrender, with sceming reverence, religion to the care of persons unconnected with their institutions, well knowing that the many whom they desire to form after their models, will never or rarely trouble themselves to seek for external aids in religion-a subject to which they are naturally averse. "For the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Cor. ii. 14. And will not ideas of indifference, if not unbelief, be growing up among the junior members, at least, of such societies, in proportion as religion is really absent from their rules and proceedings? May not indifference to sacred things be imperceptibly increasing already, in the absence of the salutary and ever-present correction and guidance of religious truth?— an indifference that may grow into hostility, covertly perchance, as long as existing managers of religious character retain the helm, but most manifestly in another generation. The Bible and other religious books are purposely banished from some Mechanics' Libraries and Institutes; and where they are admitted, and the paramount claims of revelation allowed to be urged, there can be no security, without fundamental laws, against a set of men arising and obtaining the preponderance, who would remove those sacred volumes, and silence the voice of appeal to the divine oracles. This is not chimerical. There are societies in which it is unlawful to quote or allude to Scripture. With such societies a Christian minister, at least, cannot consistently mingle; because whilst he must, by his engagements to God and the church, be ready, in season and out of season, to bear testimony to his Lord, he would be bound, by his engagements to men of science and literature, to hold his peace. There are many lay, as well as clerical, friends of divine aud human knowledge, who fear for the future effects of these societies on the rising generation; while there are others who think that the cause of religion is hindered, by our abstaining from countenancing plans in which religion is not recognised. There can be no doubt that such institutions are calculated to be mighty engines of usefulness or injury, according as they shall be directed. Like the elephant in battle, they may be mighty against the foe, or, in the midst of the conflict, may turn round and trample down the army of the faithful. Most devoutly, therefore, do we desire that their doors may be so inscribed, that good men might not be ashamed to enter with the badge of THE CROSS on their foreheads, and yet made so wide as to exclude none who are willing to hear the lessons of wisdom in meekness and reverence! C. A. H. 183 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS. (Written to be learned and sung in a National School.) A BRIGHT PAGE IN THE HISTORY OF A SUNDAY SCHOOL. Ir is a question much mooted now-a-days, whether Sunday schools have not in the main been productive of much harm. Into the arguments pro and con it is not my intention at present to enter; but as I conceive that accusations are made against an institution, which should be more properly made against the mode in which the contemplated objects are carried out; and as I am convinced that Sunday schools under proper regulations, are productive of inestimable blessings, I purpose in a future paper to give an outline of a system which I have seen acted upon for fourteen years, with most 184 A BRIGHT PAGE IN THE HISTORY OF A SUNDAY-SCHOOL. cheering results. For the present, suffice it to give a plain and simple account of an interesting fact, and one which must tell Sunday school teachers that even here they have their reward. Some years ago I was connected with a Sunday school, situated in a densely populated part of a large manufacturing town. This, with a small meetinghouse, was all the accommodation there was for the neglected people, who now, however, owing to unceasing exertions of the laborious vicar, are placed in a far different position. The children who attended the school in question bore sad evidences of the destruction, both moral and physical, which was the consequence of the injurious system to which they were subjected. Physically, they seemed to wear upon their pale faces the marks of heavy labour; their limbs were feeble, and the vivacity of youth was wanting; they were, in fact, completely faded out by their continuous labours in heated rooms; and I doubt not many of them thought it a hard thing, that they should be shut up in doors all Sunday long, and not be able to catch a breath of fresh air, and rove over the beautiful green fields, and listen to the singing of the blithe and merry birds. Poor things! how my heart felt for them! how I pitied their lamentable condition, and wished that with the bitter cup of poverty had been mingled now and then the cup of pleasure, and they had not been denied those blessings, the enjoyment of which should be open to all. But their moral state was by far worse. They knew literally nothing of those things that make for their eternal welfare. Dark as heathens were they; and if they had any knowledge, it was but of vice and wickedness, the end of which thing is death. And when Sundays are the only days on which religious knowledge can be communicated to many perishing children, it is of vital importance, to render the institutions open on those days, avilabale to the utmost extent for the purpose intended. Among the scholars, however, there was one who differed much from her fellows. The others, generally speaking, were sad and melancholy; she was healthy and gay; the rest were tractable; she bore discipline but ill, and seemed reckless of the consequences of her conduct. More than once she was upon the point of being expelled the school, but still there seemed a winning truthfulness about her that pleaded with her teachers, and she was allowed to remain in the school under certain restrictions. About this time notice of confirmation was given, and she with the rest of those of her age, was to be prepared for presentation to the Bishop. Just before this, a favourite sister had died; and as she was a girl of no little sensibility, this pressed home to her heart. Confirmations are to clergymen periods capable of producing the utmost good. At that time many who never thought before begin to think; and many are brought from the error of their ways to know Him, whom to know is life eternal. Much attention was paid to Mary at this time. The nature of her baptismal vow was fully explained to her. She was taught the heinousness of sin, and the necessity of reconciliation to God. The truths of the Gospel were brought home, by God's blessing, to her heart; and never was there a more humble penitent presented before the altar for confirmation; and the subsequent Sunday she received the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ. For two years she continued a consistent and faithful member of the Church, and an indefatigable teacher in the school, where she had been brought to a knowledge of the truth; and then it pleased God to afflict her with an affliction unto death. She was, however, ripe as a shock for the garner. During her illness she gave way to no vain murmurings or regret; and in her last hour she was tranquil and calm, exclaiming, as her spirit left the frail body of clay: "Come Lord! Jesus, come quickly." A fact like this is worth a thousand arguments; and without any remarks I leave it, hoping it will cheer many on in their work of faith and labour of love, resting upon the well-grounded conviction that, "their labour is not in vain in the Lord." LE CIEL. Salut à toi, salut, voûte resplendissante, O vaste océan d'air, que l'infini décore! Mais dans l'ombre surtout, à cette heure chérie Ce mot qui fond le ciel et nous éblouit..... DIEU !!! Rêveur alors je dis : O régions sublimes! "Sans doute un vaste cercle enferme vos abîmes; "Quel maître vous a dit: Vous suivrez cette route?- "Pourtant, quelqu'un laissa ces augustes vestiges?" New Forest, Avril 1843. LE CHEVALIER DE CHATELAIN. BB |