with fond regard, and to which many around me, as well as myself, have been indebted for peculiar advantages, suspended, and at length finally dissolved. Some of you, who had been for several years the most cordial and active supporters of that Seminary, laboured with the most zealous assiduity to revive it. You still indulged the hope that it might rise again from its present depression with increased splendour; nor did you at last abandon it till, every hope being at length cut off, you were obliged to turn your thoughts to another situation.

You asked, "Shall, then, the Institution which we have fostered so long, and to which we have looked forward as the nursery of our youth in future generations, be for ever given up? Shall we have no similar establishment in the northern parts of England? Shall we have no Ministers educated amongst ourselves, of whose characters, abilities, and sentiments we can form the most certain knowledge? Shall our youth, destined for other professions, or for civil life, have no advantages within the reach of more than a hundred miles for the attainment of superior science?"

The answer was obvious. Feeling within yourselves resources for this difficulty; animated to attempt, and accustomed to accomplish, whatever the sacred cause of liberty and virtue demand, you began. With pleasure, you saw your scheme approved, and your endeavours seconded, by others of congenial spirits, till, in a short time, the patronage became so large, so liberal, and so respectable, as far to exceed your most sanguine expectations. Hence, you have been emboldened to extend your original plan, and, in addition to those public buildings which alone it was your intention to

erect, you are now preparing accommodation for a number of students, which will, it is hoped, be free from the inconveniences necessarily attending their residence in the house of their Tutor, and yet so immediately under his eye, as to enjoy all the advantages of constant inspection and effectual government.

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With respect to the situation of MANCHESTER, I will not here repeat, that Seminaries have flourished in large towns with the greatest reputation, nor will I urge that Masters, both in the principal and the auxiliary departments of science, may be there procured in greater variety, and with greater ease, than in other situations. The argument seems to turn upon this point. Are those young men more likely to be hereafter safe against the temptations of the world who have been, through the course of their education, entirely secluded from it, in privacy and solitude, far from the scenes which corrupt and the allurements which endanger their virtue, than those who, having been accustomed to behold those scenes, and to resist those temptations, are only called when they enter into more public life, to go on in the path which they have pursued so long, and in which new exertions will not be necessary, but only the continuation of that spirit in which they have been already established? Is it not probable, and will not experience warrant the conclusion, that an education, not entirely withdrawn from the view of those scenes, in the midst of which they must hereafter be engaged, is more likely to confirm their principles and to mature their resolutions than one in which they can only know by cold report the

insinuations of the artful, the impudence of the wanton, and the raillery of the profane?

As for you, the generous founders, patrons, and friends of this Academy, your views are patriotic and noble. Whatever be its fate, you have acted from the worthiest and purest motives. It is not for you to command success. But let us be thankful that success is not necessary to the reward of well-doing. The righteous Judge of men looks to the heart alone; and he will approve, and he will reward the good intention, even though it fail of accomplishing its purpose. his hand are all events. From his favour alone cometh success. Duty is ours; events belong to God; and let us indulge the sanguine hope, that views so liberal, and objects so important to the great interests of mankind will be honoured with his approbation and blessing.

In

You are erecting a Temple, on the front of which you will inscribe no name of any distinguished human leader, either in science or theology. You will dedicate it "to TRUTH! to LIBERTY! to RELIGION!" When When you turn your eyes towards it, you will breathe forth the dying Patriot's fervent aspiration.* You will that it may pray flourish with increasing honour to many future generations. Nor will you confine your good wishes to this Seminary; you will also pray that the sacred cause to which it is devoted may extend its influence abroad with glorious success; and that the holy light of truth, of reason, and of righteousness, may shine over all the nations of the earth with growing lustre, even to meridian day.

*ESTO PERPETUA !

II. The Respect due to Christian Liberty in

Religious Education.

BY JOHN KENRICK, M.A.*

"SO THEN, BRETHREN, WE ARE NOT CHILDREN OF THE BONDWOMAN, BUT OF THE FREE. STAND FAST, THEREFORE, IN THE LIBERTY WHEREWITH CHRIST HATH MADE US FREE."-Galatians IV. 31 vi.

WHEN

EN the Presbyterian Dissenters of England, above a century ago, refused to bear a part in the imposition of a creed framed in human language, declaring thereby that the recognition of the divine authority of Scripture ought to be the sole bond of communion, then first, as it appears to me, was the true principle of Christian liberty professed among us. Stop short of this, and you will find yourself involved in some inconsistency; you must recognise somewhere or other an authority, which in these things limits, if it do not supersede, the authority of God and Christ. Go beyond this, and the name of Christian ceases to have a meaning. I may, without presumption, assume this latitude of religious liberty as the characteristic of our part of the Nonconformist body, since it is the very ground on which we are reproached by the rest. As

Parts of a Sermon preached in Cross Street Chapel, Manchester, by the Rev. John Kenrick, M.A., January 24th, 1836, in commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Foundation of Manchester College.

Presbyterian Dissenters, then, we may reasonably boast, that "we are children not of the bondwoman, but of the free."

In choosing this subject on which to address you to-day, my Christian friends, it has been my intention to show the application of the principles which we profess in regard to religious liberty, to education, and especially to academical education. You have agreed to devote the present service to the commemoration of an institution which, deriving its name from this place, and owing its foundation to the zeal of the Dissenters of this country, has reached the fiftieth year of its existence. My own connexion with it forbids me to speak of its administration, and if you have not yourselves had proofs of its efficacy, who so long have listened to the instruction of those whom it has trained, neither my words nor those of a less interested person could produce conviction. Its principle, however, may be discussed without reference to its administration or its plans; and I need not tell you that its principle ever has been, that no declaration of belief, on points controverted among Christians, should be made directly or indirectly a preliminary of admission, and no means be employed to influence in these respects the opinions of those who are brought up in it.

All that belongs to the moral habits, to the religious affections, cannot be the subject of too early care and watchfulness; all that relates to disputable opinions should be left to the time when the judgment is mature enough to deal with them. And here we see the benevolent provision made by the Author of our intellectual