filled with multitudes of these wretches, who, released on that day from their employment, spend their time in noise and riot, playing at chuck, and cursing and swearing in a manner so horrid, as to convey to any serious mind the idea of hell, rather than any other place." "We have," continued the woman, a worthy clergyman, minister of our parish, who has put some of them to school, but upon the sabbath-day they are all given up to follow their inclinations without restraint, as their parents, totally abandoned themselves, have no idea of instilling into the minds of their children principles to which they themselves are strangers." So deplorable a profanation of the sabbath, in a land possessing all the material for the inculcation of religious truth, pressed into existence the happy expedient of placing these little immortals under religious culture. Female teachers were employed at his expense, and after three years continuance, Mr. Raikes writes to a friend as follows;-"I wish you were here to make inquiry into the effect. A woman who lives in a lane where I had fixed a school, told me some time ago that the place was quite a heaven on Sundays, compared to what it used to be. The number who have learned to read and say their catechism are so great that I am astonished at it. Upon the Sunday afternoon the mistresses take their scholars to church, a place into which neither they nor their ancestors ever entered, with a view to the glory of GoD. But, what is yet more extraordinary, this month, these little ragamuffins have, in great numbers, taken it into their heads to frequent the early morning prayers, which are held every morning at the cathedral at seven o'clock. I believe there were near fifty there this morning. They assemble at the house of one of the mistresses, and walk before her to church, two and two, in as much order as a company of soldiers. I am generally at church, and after service they all come round me to make their bow, and, if any animosities have arisen, to make their complaint. The great principle I inculcate is, to be kind and good-natured to each other, not to provoke one another, to be dutiful to their parents, not to offend GoD by cursing and swearing, and such little plain precepts as all may understand."

I have been thus copious in my quotations from Mr. Raikes' narrative, because I think, the very fact that the children were so degraded, and yet by a providence, so ominous of God's goodness, and by means so simple, were, in so successful a manner, transformed into amiable and exemplary youth, will more strikingly illustrate the importance, and we should hope, elicit more profound attention to the subject of juvenile instruction, than any elaborate argument in favor of Sabbath Schools. The commencement of this benevolent design became a new era in the history of the Christian Church, and has ever since been followed by continued demonstrations of the Divine approbation and blessing. Since its first institution, the practice has been adopted in rapid succession by almost all Christian societies. Indeed it has become almost an anomaly to find a Christian society without a Sabbath School. Its progress has resembled the streaks of the morning dawn— onward, until one zone of light encircles the globe. The sun, that bright image of our risen Saviour, is on the sabbath morn welcomed by the voices of ten thousand times ten thousand children, of all color and all clime, beginning their Hosannas to the throne of GoD. O, yes! the weeping Church may now put on her wedding garments, and rejoice; for, as if incensed at the supineness of the strong, the LORD is showing us, in overwhelming demonstration, that "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings he can ordain strength, because of his enemies, that he might still the enemy and the avenger ?” Teachers and scholars have, in astonishing numbers, been converted to God; a large proportion have entered the Christian ministry, and many have become embassadors of the cross to heathen lands. The revolution which Sunday Schools have effected in the moral aspect of the rising generation, is worthy the attention of the statesman, no less than the Christian divine.

Who that has seen the corrupt passions of youth, acting under no restraint from either education or good example, can be insensible to the value of Sabbath School instruction? What indifferent to an institution, the express object of which is to tame the ferocity of their unsubdued passions, to repress

the excessive rudeness of their manners, to chasten the sometimes disgusting and demoralizing obscenity of their language, to subdue the stubborn rebellion of their will; in a word, to bring them in adoring awe and reverence to the footstool of GOD, and thus render them honest, obedient, courteous, amiable, industrious, submissive, and orderly. Surely none can withhold their countenance of an institution so admirably calculated to assist the parent in training up his child "in the way he should go." Is not the sacred obligation binding upon all professing Christians, especially to instruct their children in "whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report ?"

Surely the providence of GoD, as if intending to reprove our negligence of the baptismal covenant, suggested this plan of mercy to Raikes, an Episcopalian, that Episcopalians at least should be among the firmest patrons, and most strenuous supporters of this benevolent institution! Among us then, if among no other denomination, might be expected an harmonious co-operation in this labor for the lambs of the flock. It does seem to me, that the doings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries impart an emphasis to the commission "Feed my lambs," which neither Peter, to whom it was addressed, nor any of his successors, ever realized. Perhaps the blessed Saviour who said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not," was contemplating the triumph of the cross among these little immortals in the last days. It is pleasing to cherish such a conviction, because it imboldens us to hope that by these juvenile nurseries CHRIST will finally subdue all things to himself, and at length convert all the kingdoms of the earth to his heavenly doctrines. This consideration naturally refers us,

II. To the SUPREME SENSE in which, as Christians, we should view the work of Sunday School instruction.

For delightful as it is to lodge in the breast a taste for reading, and a habit of thinking, delightful as it is to bring these young immortals into communion with the world of reason, and help them, by the joys of intellect, to soften the rigor of

corporeal evil; delightful as it is to teach them to respect themselves, and secure the respect of others by industrious, frugal, and peaceable habits ;—yet they may be all this,—they may be industrious, orderly, moral, and useful in their habits, and still be destitute of that faith and holiness, "without which no man shall see the LORD." Morality, merely, is no passport to the heavenly world. Love to GOD, "and faith in our Lord JESUS CHRIST," must be the governing principle of their hearts, as well as ours, before they can be said to be in a condition of salvation. Beside the direct moral influence then of these blessed institutions, in subduing vice and conducting to an amiableness and uprightness of manners, those gracious principles are also instilled, which lead the inconsiderate youth to a detection of sin and a speedy reconciliation with his offended GOD. The children that flock to our school come with various claims upon our fidelity, as it respects their prospect of salvation. The character and habits of their parents, their own habits of thinking and speaking, and the degree of tenacity with which vice maintains its hold on their affections, may respectively be of a nature to present innumerable difficulties abating the probability of their essential benefit, unless their instructers come to the work alive to the strong sympathies to which they are entitled, and with an experimental sense of the deplorable condition from which they are to be rescued.

By nature, they, as well as ourselves, lie under the curse of a broken law are alike exposed to everlasting misery — faith, repentance, and holiness-or, in other words, a renewed heart, which possesses the elements of these Christian graces, is as indispensable in their case as in ours. In no sense are they less estranged from GoD, or less amenable to his justice! Are we sinners? so are they! Are we by nature children of wrath? so are they! But incomparably more perilous is their situation than ours. Insensible to the wiles and corruptions that are in the world, they embrace sin as if they might do so with impunity. Ignorant of the dark designs of the great enemy of their souls, and incapable, from not being taught its importance, of realizing the awful consequences of transgres

sion, they rush into it like the unthinking horse "rusheth to the battle." O, our beloved youth! They are the sport of all evil. Like a ship without helm, they lie at the mercy of every crossing billow, and are actually-"aye, and before our own eyes"-within the influence of that terrific maelstroom that must soon ingulf them for ever! Yet, in the midst of their peril, they utter no cry of alarm, they cannot see beneath the smooth surface the sunken rocks, of perceive how swiftly they are whirled toward the awful vortex! O! where are a parent's yearnings? Where those unutterable kindlings that pressed into the lips of Abram, "O! that Ishmael may live before thee !" One should suppose that amid the surrounding darkness and danger, parents, mothers especially, would see the ark just launched-the blessed Sunday School--and run to the Noahs that stand on the rescue. Yes; methinks they would run with the offspring of their affection, and cry out in the bitterness of maternal solicitude, O, save my child!! But, alas! how few parents see their danger, and feel that perils do surround them. We appeal to Christian fathers and Christian mothers: professedly you have passed from death unto life. The consequences of transgression have been spread out before the eye of your faith in colors, to add to which would but weaken the impressions already, we trust, made in your hearts; you know, and are assured, you cannot be insensible to the moral ruin that awaits ignorant and irreligious children. You must see and feel too that in their recklessness and folly there are the appalling presages of future wo: that in that deathly indifference. with which they heedlessly go into the paths of the destroyer, there is a voice-a melting voice, coming up from their enthralled souls, resembling in its importunity the Macedonian cry, or the cry of Peter, "Save, or we perish !"-"Come and help us."

*

Beloved Teachers, we appeal to you. To you the work officially belongs to guide their feet into the way of peace. O,

* The teachers and scholars were assembled in front of the pulpit when the sermon was preached.