has this invaluable advantage-it accommodates itself to the mind in that period when it is most susceptible of impression. As the roots of the oak strike deeper with age, and every fibre becomes firmer and more inflexible; so continuance in ignorance and vice darkens more fully the intellect, and increasingly hardens the heart; and there is consequently produced in the soul a sterner inveteracy of evil, which will be subdued with proportionally greater difficulty at each successive period of life. It is, therefore, of vast consequence to plant in the mind, as early as possible, the seeds of truth, the elements of virtue, the principles of pure religion. These alone can overturn and effectually destroy the dominion of error.

And, hence, you see the importance and utility of the excellent in. stitution for which we plead, as affording a favorable opportunity for the early development and cultivation of mind, and exerting a salutary influence on the intellectual improvement of pupils. Sunday school instruction is pre-eminently religious instruction; and numerous instances might be adduced, in which children with this alone have advanced much more rapidly, in all the departments of useful know. ledge, than others, who, with an equal share of native intellect, have enjoyed the advantage of a daily school. In a word, the influence of sabbath schools, in expanding and strengthening the mental apparatus of the young, and refining and elevating every faculty of their souls, has been extensively realized on both sides of the Atlantic; and facts have fully demonstrated that the real greatness and permanent pros perity of a nation depend far less upon the excellence of her civil code, (abstractly considered,) and the amount of literature laid up in her libraries, and mouldering in her museums, than on the number of minds brought under the purifying and ennobling influence of divine revelation.

Now, under a free government, such as ours, a sound discriminating mind, as well as a considerable fund of information, must be, to every individual, a thing of primary importance. A community is to be governed either by knowledge or by power. Government by power is despotism, and leaves no room for the exercise of private judgment. The people of these United States neither acknowledge the dominion of the sword, nor bow to the arbitrary enactments of royalty. All are permitted, all are required, to think and to judge for themselves. Therefore, the quantum of intelligence possessed by our population, and the strength of intellect they are capable of putting forth, are matters of incalculable consequence. For, since each individual constitutes a part of the great whole, he who elevates his own character elevates the community around him; and by giving a right direction to public opinion contributes largely to the general weal.

Moreover, in this age of improvement and innovation, the mind of a great people will not be content to remain stationary. The march of American intellect is onward. There is a general demand for free discussion, for rational investigation. First principles are preferred before established institutions. Every man is inquiring, not what exists, nor what is most ancient, but what is right and expedient, and likely to promote the good of society. Hence, those who are giving our youth a sound judgment, and rules for its proper exercise, are conferring a public benefit upon their country. By dealing with its

present boyhood, they are forming its future manhood to a giant strength. They are rearing the slender shoots of infancy to become pillars of the republic, when their fathers shall have mingled with the dust. The most tattered lad that runs your streets may be made more valuable to another generation than the gorgeous inhabitant of a palace; and by training that lad in wisdom's ways, you present the community with that which, in wisdom's estimation, is infinitely more precious than millions of gold and silver.

But the cause of Christianity among us, no less than the interests of civil government, pleads eloquently for the importance of improving the youthful intellect by the communication of Scriptural knowledge. This is an age of unrivalled activity. Zealous efforts are on foot for the extension of the kingdom of Christ; and the difficulties and dangers associated with the enterprise require the action of minds well disciplined and mighty. In some instances, the ancient land-marks are lost, and the confessions and folios of olden times no longer exert their former influence; and our children ought, manifestly, to be taught to discriminate closely, and reason acutely, and judge correctly, in matters of religion. And it must be confessed, that there is much of the enthusiastic and the visionary in most of the benevolent and religious proceedings of the present day, and it is supported by various learning and eloquence; and the rising generation should be thoroughly trained in those truths and principles which are well calculated, by their influence upon the intellect, to counteract the evil. Finally, infidelity is boldly assailing our most venerable and most valuable institutions, and threatening the temporal and eternal ruin of unguarded thousands of the young; and if you would effectually check its de solating progress, and save your children from the destroyer, you must furnish them with that adamantine panoply which alone can protect them in the day of battle. Divine truth is a shield invulnerable to sophistry. A few smooth stones from the brook of inspiration will make the shepherd boy a conqueror, triumphing on the neck of the fallen Philistine. A lecturer having attempted, without success, the propagation of Deism in Manchester, declared to his friend, that he "could do nothing there on account of those accursed Sunday schools." While other useful institutions aim their blows at the branches, the sabbath school lays the axe at the root of this execrable upas. Let this excellent institution be sustained; and Paine, and Voltaire, with their modern allies, Taylor, Owen, Kneeland, and Wright, may conspire in vain to crush our holy religion. As well might they attempt to extinguish the stars. This is the trump of retribution to the entire fraternity, which shall soon fade away before the thunder of its power!

These are among the many ways in which religious instruction given to the young, by enlarging the sphere of their knowledge, and improv. ing their intellectual capacities, benefits both the individual and the community. Connected with this subject, we may mention one encouraging principle: Knowledge is communicative. The enlightened mind is a lamp on a conspicuous place; "a city set upon a hill," which "cannot be hid." Through the means employed for the mental and moral illumination of the young, there is a vast mass of intelligence in our own country, and in other portions of the Christian world; and

error and superstition are disappearing, like morning mists before the rising sun; and we have good grounds for hoping that the light will continue to increase and spread, till it “shall fill the earth as the waters cover the sea."

Thus far we have considered the importance and utility of sabbatk schools in reference only to the intellectual benefits which they confer. It remains for us to contemplate their moral and religious advantages.

In our present fallen state there is not only a disorder of the human mind, there is also a depravity of the human heart; and that depravity is not a mere accident of our nature, but an innate and universal evil. Every child is born into the world an alien from God; and as he advances in years, we see the increasing development of his alienation. His powers are entirely averted from good, and determined to evil; and the animal nature predominates over the intellectual and the moral. Instead of finding his native element in spiritual employments and the communion of his God, he lies groveling beneath the dominion of passion, and weltering in sensuality and sin. He feels no holy affections; he indulges no heavenward aspirations. "The poison of asps is under his lips, and his mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." "There is no fear of God before his eyes." He "hath pleasure in unrighteousness." Sin is his element. He presses the viper to his bosom, practically exclaiming,

“Evil, be thou my good!"

We do not wish for it is unnecessary to assume that every principle of evil actually appears in the conduct and habits of each individual; yet we must maintain, that, however calm, and placid, and beautiful the exterior in the case of children, and however cheerful and engaging the politeness and courtesy of maturer years, there lies unfolded in the heart the seed of every sin, which, if not stifled by divine Providence, or eradicated by divine grace, will sooner or later shoot up into a fearful harvest of iniquity. We will not admit the favorite theory of some modern writers, that human nature is raised, in many instances, to a great elevation of virtue, independently of the interposition of Heaven. The Scriptures sufficiently warrant the assertion, that man, in his natural estate, viewed abstractly from the blessings of the gospel, and the illuminations of the Holy Spirit, is entirely fallen; and that he owes all his mental dignity and moral excellence to the controlling and correcting hand of God. Each individual is the world in miniature; and the germ of all the evils which afflict the dwellers on this planet lies hidden in every human heart; and could you reduce the world's teeming population to a single man, and were that man permitted to repeople the earth from his own nature as at the first, he would impress his dark image of deformity upon each separate unit of his numerous progeny, and a moral corruption would again overspread the face of the globe, coextensive with the diffusion of the race.

There

Nor is the depravity of the human heart, as some have supposed, a mere negative evil, a mere loss of the divine resemblance. exists within, an active, powerful propensity to sin, which cannot be controlled by mere tuition or resolution. It swells the youth with passion, and propels him to the practice of various immoralities; VOL. XI.-April, 1840.

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swaying its iron sceptre in the soul, in spite of all the advice of friends, and all his own good purposes and promises. It requires for its cor. rection the application of divine truth by the Holy Ghost; and by this alone can it be met and mastered. And this power of evil is the more inveterate because it is within. Were it some external enemy, some foreign influence, we might guard ourselves against it; but the "strong man armed" holds his residence in the human breast, and keeps possession of his palace till "there cometh a mightier than he."

And hence, again, we discover the great value of early religious instruction. "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." This alone can eject the indwelling foe. This alone can check the sinner's eccentric career of error, and folly, and crime. This alone can remove the briers and thorns of vicious principle, and plant the " rose of Sharon" in their stead. Impress upon the youthful mind the spirit. uality and extent of the law of God; the divinity, the excellence, and the obligations of Christianity; the endless duration and inconceivable preciousness of the soul; and it is at least probable that the im pression will arrest the growth of vice, and disarm temptation of its power. Faithfully and affectionately urge upon the attention of your children the fundamental doctrines and precepts of the gospel; teach them the lapsed condition of humanity; show them the importance of pardon and purification; point them to the "all atoning blood," and the agency of its application; convince them of the necessity of "re. pentance toward God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ ;" and it is reasonably to be hoped that these lessons, divinely enforced, will make them wise unto salvation. And why should not their attention be directed to religion as soon as they are capable of reflection? And why should they not be conducted to the throne of grace as soon as they are capable of prayer? Is there any good reason why the work of religious instruction should be deferred? We know of no reason whatever and if you would thoroughly meet the exigences of the case, and satisfy the moral wants of society, you must descend to the cradle; and you must take the tender mind in its earliest develop. ments of thought; and you must lead it, while the obstacles are not yet insurmountable, to the fountain of wisdom and of grace.

We have already remarked, that, in fallen humanity, the sensual feelings generally predominate over the intellectual and the moral; and if this is true, (and who will doubt its truth?) it must be of great importance to curb and correct the headlong course of passion, and elevate man as a thinking and immortal being. The evil of which we now speak is obvious to all. Man is far more a creature of feeling than of reflection; commonly follows the promptings of passion, rather than the deductions of reason; and in every age has left impressed upon the world countless marks of his folly and wickedness, but few of his wisdom and goodness. Those who subsist chiefly by pandering to the taste of society are aware of this fact; and they know how to turn it to their advantage; by genius and industry, in their respective employments and professions, striving to accomodate themselves to the frailties and follies of their fellow creatures. This preponderance of the animal nature over the intellectual and the moral is one of the greatest weaknesses of our fallen species, and one of the most prolific sources of misfortune and of misery. Just so far as men

are agitated, and influenced, and impelled by the power of passion just so far as sinful appetites carry it over reason and conscience, and become the law of society; just in that proportion the dignity of society is prostrated, and the interests of society are periled. It matters not what the phrensy may be; it may be a passion for wealth, or a passion for grandeur, or a passion for luxury, or a passion for vain amusements, or a passion for light and trifling reading; the consequences are the same; the moral sense becomes entirely blunted, holy affections are stifled in the germ, and the heart is rendered proof against the power of the gospel of Christ. Yet your children are born into such a state of society. Men are mostly governed by their feelings, and these are sadly depraved. "Their eyes are blinded by the god of this world." "A deceived heart hath turned them aside." "Darkness is put for light, and light for darkness; evil is called good and good evil." Yes, your children are born into such a state of society, and it belongs to you to give them the corrective. It belongs to you to place a Book in their hands, to communicate truths and principles to their minds, which shall effectually repress the ebullitions of unhallowed passion, and bring their fractious rebel nature under salutary discipline. In this important work, Sunday schools afford an excellent auxiliary. They aid the labors of pious parents in impress ing religious truth upon their children; and enforce, with great power and success, the lessons taught at home. We do not mean that they supersede parental instruction and parental solicitude. This is by no means the case. On the contrary, they increase the obligations of Christians to watch over the spiritual interests of their children. But they at the same time afford assistance and co-operation. They give the father's fireside teachings a greater weight of influence, and remove many of the most formidable obstacles to his success. They fill the soul with salutary ideas of divine things: and furnish it with spiritual employments, and spiritual pleasures, before it is preoccupied and hardened by the depravities of the world.

In confirmation of these assertions must I appeal to facts? With corroborative facts you are all familiar. Some of you need not go beyond the circle of your own families to find them. Without the benefits of this excellent institution, how many of your children-your efforts to the contrary notwithstanding-would be treading the paths of profligacy! But now, instead of profaning a divine institution, they are learning to "remember the sabbath day to keep it holy." Now, instead of wandering idly about wherever inclination might lead them, they are sitting at wisdom's doors, listening to truths "whereby they may be saved." Now, instead of mingling with the sensualist and the blasphemer, and shocking your ears with words of obscenity and execration, every sabbath morning finds them with the "children in the temple, singing hosannahs to the Son of David." The recorder of the city of London stated lately in a public meeting, that, of two thousand children educated in Sunday schools, only seven, who had been in them more than fourteen days, were ever brought before him for crime; and that too among a class of people peculiarly degraded. On examination, it has been ascertained, that the great mass of the criminals in our prisons and penitentiaries were never intimately ac quainted with the Holy Scriptures, and a vast majority had no reli