132 Attention to Religion in the common Schools.

The following passages of the Report show that the religious improvement of the children, as far as the observance of the Sabbath is concerned, not only comports with the views, but is made a subject of attention and concern on the part of those who conduct the affairs of the British and Foreign School Society.

Your Committee cannot deny themselves the gratification of expressing, in this place, the satisfaction they have derived from observing, that in many instances an increased attention has been paid to the proper observance of the Sabbath; that the admonitions addressed to the parents, to insist upon their children attending such places of worship as they may prefer, have generally been very successful; and that the beneficial effects of this measure upon the behaviour of the children have been very evident. It is impossible to contemplate without pleasure the result of the inquiries on that important subject, regularly made in the Borough Road School for a long time past; from which it appears, that the instances of a total neglect of attendance at a place of worship on the Sunday, are not only very few, but progressively decreasing. An extract from the Reports made to the Committee, at each of its meetings, will undoubtedly be highly satisfactory to the public. It shows that, in the week ending the 10th of November, of 358 children only two were absent from public worship, and of these 221 attended Sunday Schools.*

Thus the accusation that no attention is paid in the Schools of the British and Foreign School Society to the religious improvement of the children, is refuted by plain and simple facts, and proved to rest on an incorrect notion of its operations: very many of the children who attend the schools on the British System during the week, belong also to some Sunday School; and your Committee cannot forbear expressing, that they consider themselves as indebted to the patrons and conductors of the various Sunday Schools, who charge themselves with so large a proportion of the children on the Sabbath day, and conduct them regularly to their respective places of public worship. And they would here most distinctly state, not only their full approbation of such a measure, but their sincere wish, that in every place where schools are conducted on the liberal plan of the ritish and Foreign School Society, such valuable attention might be extended to the children, will best secure, without any restraint on the religious principles of the parents, the proper application of that sacred day and certainly nothing can so effectually secure that object, as the establishment of well conducted Sunday Schools.

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*The attendance of children at their respective places of worship has been regularly enforced by various Committees with the greatest success, and with very little trouble to the Committees. See Appendix,--Camberwell, Charlbury, Whitby, Carlisle, Birmingham, &c.

Sunday Schools in Scilly and the off Islands. 133

The late European publications contain a number of highly satisfactory accounts of the progress of Sunday Schools in several places. The following letter, recently communicated to us by our correspondent in Liverpool, furnishes one among the many evidences of the benefits which our sinful world is daily deriving from these invaluable institutions. [Ed. Chr. Herald.]

SIR,

Tresco, Scilly, March 3d, 1816.

I shall attempt an accurate description of the deplorable state of the off islands of Scilly, previously to the period that you commenced the benevolent exertions for the inhabitants. You are aware of the trust which the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge accepted from the Rev. Mr. Hartshorne, in 1752; who, commiserating the spiritual wants of the people in the off islands, made an offer of £200 towards sending a Missionary to Tresco, and £50 to be expended in a library for his use. Nothing, however, was done in the business until 1765, when small weekly schools were established in each of the off islands. Since that period two ministers have been appointed for Tresco and St. Agness. As no reflection is intended to be cast on the labours of that invaluable Institution, I shall confine my observations to such wants as the directors of that Society have not relieved. I had no acquaintance with their situation until June, 1814, and even then my labours in the islands were confined to a few days. At that time there was no school in Tresco and Sampson which was supported by the Society for promoting Christian knowledge. In November I visited them again, but an extract of my letter to the Rev. Mr. Smith, who was at that time in London, being published in the Baptist Magazine for January 7, 1815, will be accepted as an apology for not repeating my observations in this place. In March Mr. Smith communicated to me your pious intentions respecting the islands, and proposed my spending three months with the inhabitants. Havs ing procured lodgings, and received £10 from the Baptist Itinerant Society towards the expenses of the Mission, I settled at Tresco in April, 1815. At that time there was not a Sabbath School in Scilly, and but very few of the children attended the weekly schools. The Teachers were women of families; of course the children under their care received very little information, as their necessary work obliged them to be absent from the school several hours in a day. In general the morals of the children were quite neglected, and in understanding they were but little superior to the brute creation. Accustomed to the most violent domestic disorders, the little creatures were hardened in iniquity. The profits of the week were generally divided among the boat's crew on the Sabbath afternoon, and no business of that kind could be finished before a bottle of spirits was introduced. The Lord's Day being thus profaned with drunkenness and fighting in presence of the children, their young minds were influenced by the pernicious examples; of course, they were likely to equal, or if it were possi

134

Sunday Schools in Scilly, &c.

ble, exceed their parents in abominations. For a long series of years the principal support of the inhabitants of Scilly has arisen from piloting, smuggling, and shipwrecks; and a very small acquaintance with the nature of those occupations is sufficient to prove their destructive tendency. Perhaps, Sir, if all things respecting their situation and practices were considered, it would fully appear that but few places have been more polluted by the iniquities of the inhabitants than the off islands of Scilly. And, in addition to the evils that I have witnessed, and the remarks of the few serious people perhaps in all the off islands, who have been trained up in the islands; the observations of some pious masters of trading vessels, who have experienced some of their cruelties, are strong evidences to the truth of what I have written. Their mouths were full of cursing and bitterness; there was no fear of God before their eyes. The Lord was graciously pleased to stir up a great spirit of hearing and inquiry among those people on my arrival at Scilly, and for some months I experienced but little interruption, except the want of money and books. A Sabbath School was formed at Brechar in the course of a few weeks after I had settled at Tresco. Two steady women, who have since been brought by the power of God to a saving acquaintance with the Lord Jesus, assisted by 5 or 6 girls, undertook the education of 45 adults and children. The School has been continued in the most regular manner to the present time, and the effects produced on that island are lively tokens of the good will of him who dwelt in the bush. Several people in the islands appear to be truly converted to God; the Sabbath is esteemed a sacred day, and the great attention to the preaching of the Word, seems to indicate much greater things than we have yet experienced on the island. I have within these few months opened a writing school, two afternoons in the week, and 17 have learned to make the letters on paper tolerably well. But the people on that island are very poor, and some of them not daring to pursue their former plundering life, are now greatly exercised with poverty. If some of the invaluable institutions in London would assist the School with a few suitable books, and a small parcel of common writing paper, they would be accepted with the utmost gratitude. Through the kindness of a few gentlemen we have been supplied with some books, and particularly the £5 from the School Society, by yourself, assisted the exertions very much. If any ways consistent, the want we experience in the several schools would induce me to solicit a continuance of the favours of that institution. Schools, perhaps more interesting than the present, have been formed in all the off islands, of which, by your permission, I will state particulars in another letter.

I am, Sir, very respectfully

Your humble servant,

JOHN. J. JEFFERY.

Correspondence of the Br. & Foreign Bible Society, 135,

Address of the Archbishop of Upsala, to the Clergy of his Diocese. Reverend Brethren, Upsala, September 2, 1816. It is but a few years ago that some zealous friends of Christianity in England united together for the purpose of promoting the dispersion of the Holy Scriptures, as well among Christians, as among those of other religions.

The time past, so pregnant with great and extraordinary events, has been a time of searching visitation on the part of God; a time when mankind, more than at any former period, have been taught how vain are all their undertakings and endeavours, when in the blindness of their pride they revolt from eternal wisdom, and pretend to accomplish any thing without God :—but it has also been a time, when the Gospel of Christ, that word of life and comfort, in defiance of the machinations of infidelity and wicked. ness, in defiance of the attempts of false wisdom to reduce it' within the sphere of the natural man's conceptions; and, finally, in defiance of the indifference, the lukewarmness, the prejudice against godliness, which have taken possession of men's mindshas shown itself as "the power of God unto salvation."

The

The whole world will soon have to acknowledge, "The word of God dwells richly among us.' "The holy writers speak now in almost all the languages of the world. "Their voice is gone forth in every land, and their words to the end of the earth." The Bible is in the course of translation, and printing, in dialects which have hitherto escaped the researches of the learned. followers of Mahomed, Confucius, and Bramah, read it. They see the Star of Jesus in the East, and go to adore him. Within the dominions of Christendom, numerous Bible Societies have been established upon the model of the British and Foreign Bible Society, by whose munificence they have profited greatly. Bibles are re-printing in all the languages of Christendom. This treasure of the immortal soul, which is of more value than all the riches of the earth, may be obtained at a very low price, and frequently gratis. The Gospel makes itself known, in its original purity, to the poor; and from the palaces of the great down to the cottages of the lowest, one common voice begins to resound, "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

If, however, this great work is to be brought to perfection; if every pious father of a family, anxiously desiring to possess a Bible for the edification of himself, and those belonging to him, is to obtain his wishes, it is necessary that such as have better means, should unite more closely together, for the purpose of distributing the word of God among the children of poverty. In our dear native country, there are already five great Bible Societies established; namely, at Stockholm, Lund, Gothenburg, Westeras, and Wisby. The Archbishoprick is hitherto without

one.

I have, however, the satisfaction of announcing, that a Bible Society, for the same object, and upon similar grounds, under the consolatory hope of the Almighty's assistance, is about to be estaBlished at Upsala. A considerable benefaction, in aid thereof,

136

Speech of the Rev. Joseph Julian,

has been promised by the justly venerated Bible Society in London. This information will, no doubt, be received with delight by the clergy of the diocese, of whose zealous co-operation and assistance I make myself assured.

The door is opened, my brethren, to promote the increase of Christ's kingdom; and who ought to have this more at heart than ourselves, who are called to spread the saving knowledge of God, and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent ?

Let us then, brethren, while we have yet time, do good, and not grow weary; remembering, that if the opportunities which a wise Providence hath prepared for the advancement of what is good, be neglected, the fault will lie with those whose duty it is to forward it. The time is hastening on, when we shall be no longer labourers in the Lord's vineyard, but shall be called before him to receive our reward. Yet a little while, and the favourable circumstances which now offer, and encourage us to labour while, it is day, will have vanished. We all recollect the time when it' was but too common to be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, and a pretended wisdom of reason threatened the expulsion of the word of everlasting life."-Another era is come, with more gladdening signs. Let us profit by the more encouraging disposition that begins to prevail, and. "our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord."

For these, and other weighty reasons, I have hereby not only to desire the reverend Clergy of the Archbishoprick to participate in this establishment for glorifying the name of Jesus, but also as a friend to entreat, that they will, each within his own sphere, in a judicious and zealous manner, animate their hearers, particularly the more wealthy part, of whatever rank and sex they may be, to contribute, according to their means and opportunities, towards this important object.

Grace and peace be with you all, from God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

(Signed)

JAC. AX. LINDBLOM, Archbishop of Upsala.

SPEECH OF THE REV. JOSEPH JULIAN, at a late meeting of the Auldborough Bible Society, (England.)

"Ladies and Gentlemen,-From the name and nature of the Bible Society, which we this day meet to advocate, I scarcely need say that its object is the most extensive promulgation of the Holy Scriptures. To a plan at once so glorious and so sublime, one might suppose that the voice of opposition would be unheard but, Mr. Chairman, objections have been raised, even to this excellent Society, a few of which I shall mention, and, at the same. time, endeavour to prove them groundless. First then, it has been stated, by the enemies of this Society, that it is a mere political engine. I am no politician myself; it is sufficient for me to know that the Lord God omnipotent reigneth; that he doeth according to his will in the army of Heaven; and, amongst the inhabitants of