body, to the attainment of which example and external circumstances were so favourable, shall the short period of Sabbath school instruction be held adequate for instilling and confirming the exercise of those holy principles and dispositions, to the culture of which every thing around us is so hostile? If it required a preparation so strict, and protracted to so mature an age, to qualify men for being good citizens of an earthly country, what a fatal delusion to suppose, that by a partial and imperfect course of infantine tuition, we may fit men for being fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God. We conceive, therefore, that the main point we contend for will be granted, that the present system of Sabbath school teaching is defective from the short period of its appli. cation, and that it will never tell with effect on the morals of the rising generation, till it embraces a provision for the instruction not only of children but of adults; a provision by which the salutary impressions made in tender years may be cherished and brought into action in those of maturity, and the religious interests secured, of such as by their advanced age, are excluded from the operation of the system in its present form. But the necessity and expediency of the proposed improvement being admitted, the next question, and which to many may appear a formidable one, is, how will we establish its practicability? Now, in order the more effectually to arrive at a decision, whether or not the scheme can be accomplished, let us consider what is necessary for its accomplishment. It is evident, therefore, that little more can be requisite for establishing a system or institution for the instruction of adults than one for the education of children, inasmuch as teachers, VOL. XXIII. NO. IX. funds, and places of accommodation, the principal means for the forma tion of such an institution, may be furnished by the patriotic zeal of Christians for the one object as well as for the other. The only material difference between the two institutions, is a difference of years in those who are taught, and if there exists any barrier to the establishment of the new system, which does not stand in the way of the old, it is evident, we think, that it must lie in this, that is, in the difficulty of bringing under the discipline of tuition, ignorant or irreligious persons of advanced years. Now, we willingly admit that this difficulty, at first setting out, might be considerable, without the operation of some species of constraint. But there are obvious means for the exercise of such an influence over young men as well as over boys. As, at the latter age, we obtain their attendance at Sabbath schools by the control of their parents, so, at the more advanced period, might they not easily be brought under religious subordination by that of their masters or employers, who would naturally be willing enough to give their countenance to any institution, the tendency of which would be to render those under their authority more faithful and zealous in their service, not to add, that some from inclination, and others from necessity, would be guided by the advice and direction of their parents? In cases where a great number were under one employer, as in public works or factories, the whole, or a considerable proportion of them, might be attached to the institution, through the influence of one individual. The system of religious instruction might be rendered in a considerable degree attractive, by the mode of conducting it. It should be entirely free from every 4 H arrangement of a compulsory nature, such as the allotment of tasks, which besides adding to the natural reluctance to attend, would be unsuitable to the advanced years of the attendants. We do not presume to exhibit the details of any particular plan for the economy or management of such an institution, our principal design is to show the importance and necessity of adopt ing some one; but we may observe, that what appears to us the most natural method for the instruction of adults, and the one most likely to be attended with success, is that of delivering to them lectures or discourses in the plainest and most impressive manner, on the principal facts and doctrines of Christianity, diversified occasionally by the reading of the Bible, and other pious books of a simple and interesting nature. Ardour for improvement might perhaps be excited, by occasional examination upon the subjects treated of in the discourses, and such of the attendants as could write, might be induced to compose small and easy essays on various topics of religion, while, as an encouragement to the exercise, prizes might be awarded to such as excelled. Happily in this city, and other populous towns, a successful experiment has already been made on the disposition of youth of the lower orders, for the attainment of liberal knowledge. We need only allude to the School of Arts here, and to a similar institution in a neighbouring city, as proofs at once of the zeal for intellectual improvement which may be roused in them by proper incitements, and of the possibility of bringing them under the influence of an effective system of instruction. Could a somewhat similar interest in a course of religious tuition be roused among the more ignorant and vicious of our youthful mechanics, to that which exists among the more moral and enlightened of them, for improvement in the useful arts and sciences, how much good might be effected, and with how little labour ! We may add, that not only has something been done for advancing adults of the lower classes in secular knowledge, but exertions have also been made by various philan thropic individuals, for affording them that religious instruction on the necessity of which we have been insisting. Some teachers of Sabbath schools have occasionally collected together the parents of the children attending them, and delivered to them pious exhortations. It has for a considerable time been the practice of several clergymen of this city to meet occasionally in places of suitable accommodation with the poorer people of their parish, to whom it might be more inconvenient or less profitable to attend church. While in a certain factory in town, an example which still more exactly falls in with the system we have been recommending, is furnished by the establishment of a plan for affording religious knowledge to the youth who attend it, the beneficial effects of which have been visible in promoting their diligence and fidelity. The existence and success of such efforts in this field of usefulness, sufficiently show what is practicable. We are utterly at a loss to conceive, in short, what requisite is wanting but Christian zeal for the establishment of an efficient and completely organized institution, for the religious tuition of the morally destitute part of our adult population; and were such an institution in existence, how happy would be its results. The teachers of Sabbath schools would then be encouraged amid their labours, with the pleasing thought, that the seeds of piety they were sowing in child hood would be fostered in youth, instead of being sent to wither in an atmosphere as unfit to rear as to produce them, and that the rudiments of Christian knowledge they were imparting, instead of being effaced from the memory by a succeeding course of vicious habits and pursuits, would be followed up by the practical religious instructions suited to maturer years. Were such a system put into strenuous and persevering operation, we might soon expect to see in society the commencement and speedy progress of a moral revolution, and the foul mass of guilt and wretchedness which spreads throughout it such a baneful taint and corruption, gradually purged away by the healthful infusion of a spirit of Christianity. If we inquire what it was which impressed such an illustrious character on the nations of antiquity, where the most celebrated institutions prevailed for the education of youth, we will find it arose from those very institutions, which, converting as it were, the states in which they were established into great schools for the perpetuation of national virtues, counteracted that powerful tendency to corruption and declension of manners, so fatal to the prosperity and glory of empires; and can we witness such a mighty result towards the promotion of moral improvement, by a system of heathen instruction, without cherishing the most sanguine expectations of success from a corresponding institution among Christians? Let not the scheme be hastily styled visionary. Any suggestion for the amelioration of mankind deserves at least a calm and candid examination; nor does the present state of society stand so little in need of improvement, that any measure proposed for advancing this end deserves to suffer neglect. If visionary at all, it is only so far as regards its practicability. Its necessity and beneficial tendency are manifest alike from the plain deductions of reason, and from incon trovertible facts furnished by experience, nor can we possibly conceive any thing to render it impracticable, but the apathy and indolence of Christians. It is melancholy to think of the thousands of precious souls, who, in this city, amid a profusion of gospel light, are wrapt in the dark shades of heathen ignorance, and consigned over, so to speak, by circumstances beyond their control, to almost certain misery and ruin. Shall such a mass of population be abandoned to the unresisted dominion of sin and Satan, and shall no guilt be incurred somewhere for such neglect? Shall we hold it monstrous to look with indifference on our fellow creatures perishing by the ravages of famine or disease, and shall we think nothing of witness ing unmoved, ignorance and vice producing such a wide-spread and unceasing devastation among human souls? If it is asked who we conceive to be responsible for this incalculable amount of spiritual misery and destitution, we answer every Christian who has it in his power in any measure to remedy it; but above all, the clergy, to whose province the application of such a remedy peculiarly belongs. We are too conscious of our own inactivity in promoting the best interests of our fellow men, to reproach others for a similar deficiency of zeal; but we may at least be pardoned in saying that the heathenish ignorance and immorality which pervade so vast a proportion of our population, amid an abundance of all human means for Christianizing them, ought seriously to arrest the attention of every minister of the Gospel, and make each for himself anxiously enquire how much of this guilt and wretchedness sends up its cry towards heaven from that district which God has intrusted to his pastoral superintendence, and whether or not he is prepared to submit his efforts in reclaiming it, to the test of that dread tribunal which shall try every man's work of what sort it be. We confess we hope but little from the zeal of Christians, so long as it exists in its present lukewarm state. That it has produced, and is producing its happy effects, defective as it is, cannot be denied, but on the contrary is a subject of joy and thankfulness; but it appears, notwithstanding, quite inadequate to the demand made upon it, by the spiritual wants of men. It is only to an increase of this zeal, under the guidance and blessing of the Almighty, that we found our hopes, that the light of the Gospel will ever be made to penetrate those mists of spiritual darkness, which shut it out from so many of our land, or that an effectual antidote will ever be furnished to that virulent contagion of loose and ungodly principles, the rapid progress of which must appal every sincere Christian, and lover of his country. To what are we to impute the deadly influence of this moral infection among the lower classes, but to that ignorance and utter want of religious principle, which have resulted from a neglected education, and which leave the mind absolutely unfurnished with any sacred prepossession to repel the contact of such contamination? Furnish their understandings with divine knowledge, infuse into their hearts religious impressions, and you pre-occupy that place which would be otherwise left vacant for the unresisted intrusion of the evil spirit of irreligion; you raise around their religious principles a formidable barrier to its pestilential inroads. Visible indeed every where, are the restless workings of a dark and desperate spirit of infidelity, threatening the speedy introduction, and rapid spread of moral disorder, and demanding a mighty counteracting influence of some kind, to prevent the utter extinction of pure and genuine Christianity. This influence we have no reason to expect, either from the promises or spiritual dispensations of God, will be supernatural; but, simply, that which in every period of the church has been the great instrument of its preservation and prosperity, the zeal of its members. But ere this zeal be a sufficiently powerful instrument, not only of checking in its desolating course an inundation of vice and profanity, but of covering the earth with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea; it must, we think, be inspired by a new spirit. Instead of being marked by that tame indifference, which is so strong a feature of our religion in the present day, it will require to be kindled into something of apostolic ardour, giving birth, not as at present, to comparatively languid and heartless efforts, but to a strenuous, devoted, and preserving course of operation. When a zeal like this is called forth, (and it is high time it were so throughout the Christian world,) we are firmly persuaded that some philanthropic system, resembling the one we have proposed in spirit and design, will be applied to the relief of the spiritual exigencies of our youthful population. 17th June, 1824. PHILONEOTES. N. B.-The above remarks are supplementary to the Letter of S. B. which appeared in your Number for January last, on the necessity of instituting a society for the spiri tual instruction of apprentice boys; and which those who take an interest in the above scheme would do well to read. ritanical writings have been called for." Says Mr. Brown, late of Haddington, in his general history. "Never, perhaps, since the Apostolic age, was the Christian scheme better understood than by the British divines under Cromwell. T. Goodwin, Marshals, Strang, Reynolds, Clarkson, Caryl, Calamy, FOR THE CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTOR. Charnock, and a multitude of others, MR. EDITOR, I HAVE observed of late, with pleasure, a more than ordinary number of the large and small works of the long lost Nonconformists. After perusing many of them, and intimately knowing their character, I apprehend what Messrs. Hervey, Whitefield, and Brown of Haddington say of them, is perfectly just. Says the first, "I esteem the puritans as some of the most zealous Christians that ever appeared in our land-To settle faith on its proper basis, the meritorious righteousness of Christ, to deduce obedience from its true origin, the love of God shed abroad in the heart, to search the conscience and convince the judgment, to awaken the lethargic and comfort the afflicted soul, and all from a thorough knowledge, joined to a masterly application of the divine word, these are real excellencies; these, if we may credit history, entered into the preaching, these if we examine impartially are to be found in the writings, of the puritans." Mr. Whitefield bears the same testimony. "The puritans of the last century, burning and shining lights, wrote and preach ed after they were cast out of the church, as men having authority. A peculiar unction attends their writings to this day; and for these thirty years I have remarked, that the more true and vital religion hath revived, either at home or abroad, the more the good old pu deserve our distinguished regard. The English puritans published vast multitudes of practical treatises, and in their life exemplified what they taught; we rejoice to see ministers editing the works of Horn, Owen, Charnock, Baxter, &c. and also others prefacing the smaller but excellent works of T. Watson, Allan, Corbet, &c. These last are in danger of being lost altogether, unless speedily renewed. For a few pounds, a great number of their works might be sought out and purchased, by one or a few that know them. With a short account of their lives from Palmer, and a recommenda tion of some evangelical ministers, this precious treasure might be retrieved, and be of incalculable use to the souls of many. Among the many good designs of the present day I hope this will succeed. Having long been familiar with the writings of the Nonconformists, I send you a list of the best of their writings. Alleine, Joseph,-his Alarm, or sure Guide to Reason, and various other pieces; Letters; Sacramental Speeches; his Life. Richard-Various Practical Excellent Pieces. "The puri- lent Pieces. Ashwood-Spiritual Trader; Unsearchable Riches of Christ. Ashwood, (his son)-Sermons, small 12mo. Arrowsmith Chain of Principles. GodwinDiscourses on the first eighteen verses of the 12th chapter of John's Gospel. Bunyan-Pilgrim's Progress; Holy War; Love and Gospel; and several others. BaxterCall to the Unconverted; Direc |