mature vagabonds on the morning of the Lord's Day. During the following year, his plan had pronounced so well its own practical eulogy, that the public papers took up the subject, and laid it before the most intelligent men of the kingdom. So rapidly did it secure the confidence of com. munity-of statesmen, politicians, and the clergy of every Church-that a General Society, established in London in 1785, was computed the following year to have under its inspection, in the different counties, not less than two hundred and fifty thousand children, regularly instructed in the sacred Scriptures on the Sabbath. This parent institution, headed by a distinguished member of Parliament, and comprising the talents, enterprise, and wealth, of the most conspicuous gentlemen in Great Britain, moved forward with an activity equalled alone by the kindness which impelled its efforts. Not satisfied with founding schools in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, it crossed the Channel, and cheered and animated the Continent with the asylums of its Sabbatical philanthropy.

The same spirit has traversed the Atlantic, and visited our own country with its inspiration. Under the culture of female benevolence, Sunday Schools were commenced in New-York in 1815, and although the United States cannot claim the merit of originality in design, they have not been surpassed in promptness and harmony of execution. From Boston to New-Orleans, and in hundreds of interior towns, the subject has enlisted the most vigorous support from all sects of Christians, and all classes of men, and at this moment, not four years from the first conception of the project, an estimated number of one hundred thousand children, instructed by ten thousand male and female teachers, are evincing to the world the efficiency of American exertion. But why do I speak of Americanwhy of states or kingdoms, on a theme like this? Why do I assign locality to an institution which claims all Christians for its supporters and all Christendom for its home. Rather let me say, that wherever the Gospel has been preached, there have Sunday Schools been erected. In Europe and America, in Asia, that metropolis of idolatry, in Africa, the empire of degradation, from Canada to New-Holland, from Ceylon to the West Indies, from Nova Scotia to the Cape of Good Hope, they have multiplied their trophies. This very day, my brethren, they have led more than one million children to the great dispensary of eternal truth, and one hundred thousand teachers to distribute the gratuitous bounty. God has planted, and reared, and blessed them. They have reclaimed the Sabbath; - they have purified society; they have depopulated prisons and poor-houses; they have crowded the Church of Christ, and it is not enthusiastic to believe that they will be hailed by thousands through eternity as the instruments of their final salvation. But were they to accomplish none of these results, they will for ever retain one laurel which I had rather wear than all the stars, and crowns, and mitres, which ambition ever coveted or subjection bestowed. They originated that stupendous moral machinery which is renovating the world ;-I mean the British and Foreign Bible Society. This institution, it is well known, was first conceived by the Rev. Joseph Hughes, a Baptist clergyman. Previous to his forming the design, however, a number of Sunday Schools had been established in Wales, and, owing to a scarcity of Bibles, a Welshman, by the name of Charles, repaired to London to obtain a supply. It was while there, and in conversation with that gentleman on the subject, that Mr. Hughes framed the magnificent project of a society, which, like the sun, has visited all parts of the earth with its life and light, and warmth, and animation.

But, appealing, as we now do, to the liberality of the pub

lic for assistance, it may be inquired what objects we hope to attain by this institution. I answer, in the first place, that it sheds an aspect of stillness and serenity over the Sabbath. Its efficacy in this respect is literally astonishing. I remember the observation of a distinguished physician in New-York, whose profession led him to see much of that place, that such was the change produced by Sunday Schools, he could easily have distrusted the evidence of his senses. On this point, however, I can safely appeal for testimony to those of the audience who have recently resided in the Atlantic cities; and if the foreign gazettes may be credited, the same order and tranquillity are witnessed in the principal towns of Great Britain. Just in proportion also to the observance of the Sabbath, does this institution become a powerful engine for the prevention of vice. During the week, children are induced to husband their leisure moments for their lessons; and when Sunday arrives, they repair to the place of recitation, to receive the reward of their industry. This is at once relieving the parent from a duty which he seldom has time to discharge; and it also shields them from the examples of idle, heedless, or profane servants, and the company of improper associates-exposures which have probably debased and degraded more youthful minds than all other causes united. I only add, that of four thousand children educated on this plan by Mr. Raikes, in Gloucester, but one at the time of his death had been charged with a crime, although the whole of them had then attained the age of maturity. After all, the importance of Sunday Schools may be estimated chiefly by the blessings they convey to the pupils themselves. They develope the faculties of the mind, and especially they elicit and exercise the powers of the memory. With respect to poor children, also, who have few other advantages, they frequently detect, amidst the rubbish of ignorance and obscurity, the diamond of native talent. Besides this, they have an unequivocal tendency to create habits of respectability and virtue. Often, very often, have they rescued purity from exposure, misfortune from despondency, and innocence from temptation. Conversing recently with an intelligent merchant at the eastward, he told me with much feeling, that he could never cancel the debt he owed to Sunday Schools. On subsequent inquiry, I was informed that they had reclaimed him. from early debasement and laid the foundation of his present affluence and character. A similar instance lately occurred in New-York: A young man called at the British Consul's office, and made himself known as the pupil, several years ago, of a Sunday School in the north of Ireland. He was the child of shame, and no parents owned him for their son. But that Sunday School had been to him a father, and mother, and sister, and brother. With the principles which it instilled into his mind he had entered the world-become his own ancestor, and secured, by merit, a standing which family had not bestowed. He handed to the Consul one hundred dollars, his little earnings in a foreign land, and wished it remitted to his destitute mother-the forlorn daughter of sorrow, and guilt, and disgrace. But there is another triumph which has distinguished the march of Sunday Schools, and that is, the frequent instances in which they have led the docility of childhood to the Cross of Christ.

Could I present you, my hearers, with a register of those who are indebted to such institutions for the hope of immortality, I should think my object secured. In cases too numerous to be related, have children been ultimately imbued with the spirit of that Bible which they studied at first only under the incitement of curiosity or emulation. Multitudes are now living, of the most consistent Christian character, who ascribe to this origin their first religious impressions; and, as if to demonstrate the genuineness and divinity of the work, hundreds have been called to the world of spirits, and left their dying testimony to the power of the Gospel on their hearts. I might easily fill up the evening with examples. I might tell you of a child eleven years old, in Baltimore, not long since removed from life, who spent the last efforts of nature in singing an hymn she had learned at the Sunday School. I might remind you of a pupil of nine years, in Massachusetts, who called his parents to his bedside, told them of the love of Christ, kissed them a composed farewell, and died in their arms. I might repeat the story of a little child in Edinburgh, eight years only of age, who had found his Saviour in a Sunday School; who remained firm in the hour of dissolution; summoned the family around him; gave one hand to his father, and the other to his mother, and triumphantly expired. I might recite an impressive variety of cases in which juvenile faith has abandoned the pursuits of sin, enlisted in the ranks of religion, honored the Church and the world, disarmed death of its terrors, and irradiated eternity with the hopes of the Gospel. But I will not consume your time by recounting the items of this evidence. Rather let me add: Here are the objects of our ambition; here are the conquests we aspire to achieve; here are Sunday Schools in all the legitimacy of their influence, and all the majesty and magnificence of their results. Of the institution in this city, we can only say, it has risen, like the rest, from small beginnings. Receiving continual accessions, however, about seventy pupils are now the regular subjects of gratuitous instruction on the Sabbath. Upon you, my hearers, it depends whether we shall go on in the work we have begun. Lend us your patronage, and we will cheerfully submit to the labor, the toil, the difficulty of the undertaking. Replenish our funds, and send us your children, and we will rear in New-Orleans an institution of