But such men and Providence are always at war with each other. God has other methods, and he has placed in the human bosom impulses which act with a certainty as great as that of the physical elements of nature. Freedom of thought, with ample room for expansion, is the law of nature, and whenever this is trammelled by the interposition of human authority, the elements of the spiritual world produce a storm, and clear the atmosphere. The history of the world is full of lessons on this subject, and he is but an indifferent student of its recorded wisdom who needs to have this point substantiated by evidence.

ON SUNDAY-SCHOOL INSTRUCTION.

AN ADDRESS DELIVERED ON THE EVENING OF WEDNESDAY, MAY 7TH, 1845, IN THE NEW CHAPEL, BOOTLE, NEAR LIVERPOOL.

We know not how it may be with higher orders of intelligence, but in this world we are bound together by our very infirmities; society is formed into one complete whole by the mutual dependence of the several parts. The various classes of society were made, not for themselves, but for each other; and no member of this great community can suffer severely or long, but other members must also suffer with it. All men confess that the humbler classes are dependent on the higher; but the higher are no less dependent on the lower. What were their riches and honours, and where were their pleasures, if there were none to minister unto them? As society is thus constituted, it is evident we fail to answer the end of our being, if, in the spheres in which Providence has placed us, we do not faithfully labour to promote the well-being of our fellow-creatures. While the poor serve the rich, the rich should sustain the poor, not so much by ostentatious charities, as by giving them suitable recompense for their daily toils. The powerful should protect the weak; the enlightened should instruct the ignorant; the pious should reclaim the wandering, and reform the wicked; well-taught Christians should be without ostentation, "the guides of the blind, the lights of them that sit in darkness, the instructors of the foolish, the teachers of babes." We were made for each other; and religion teaches us, that "no man liveth to himself, and that no man dieth to himself."

Amongst the many institutions which constitute the brightest ornaments of our country, and the chief blessings of society, we cannot but regard our Sunday schools. It is impossible accurately to calculate either the amount of evil which they have prevented in this country, especially during the last few years, or the amount of real good which they have secured; and sure am I, that the capabilities of these institutions are as yet but very partially developed. When, in addition to a sound secular education on the week-day, truly religious instruction, adapted to their capacities and suited to their circumstances, shall be imparted on the Sabbath, to all classes of the rising generation, our

Sunday schools will be found the most efficient auxiliaries of the ministry, and the most effective nurseries of the church of God.

On this account the Sunday school shall be an object of deep and affectionate solicitude to the Christian pastor. In the present day especially, as he is really alive to the interests of his flock, and wisely concerned for the success of the gospel, the Sunday school will engage his best attention. Not only will he devote to it some portion of his own time and energies, as his strength and various other engagements will allow; but he will endeavour to bring the best energies and the most enlightened piety of the church, to bear directly on its prosperity.

I must admit an apprehension that some serious mistakes have been committed in relation to Sunday schools. It has often been supposed that it is best where the classes are filled from the lowest orders of society. It appears to me, on the other hand, that we should endeavour by all means to raise the character of our schools; not that we should exclude the poorest of the poor, the lowest of the low, but should rather bid them welcome, nay, earnestly invite them to come; but, deeply impressed with the fact, that all classes need systematic religious instruction, we feel that wise and untiring efforts should be made to bring the rising generation generally into connexion with our Sunday schools; and that our schools shall supply them with the instruction which they require. The members of our churches, whatever may be their rank in life, should set an example in sending their children regularly to the Sunday school. The practice might thus become general through our congregations, and might be expected to tell extensively on "those that are without."

We have erred also, I apprehend, not unfrequently, in the selection of our teachers. Young persons of education have thought the Sunday school too humble a sphere for their exertion; and the labour has devolved on persons of very limited education, and of little aptitude to teach, whose chief qualification for the work has been their willingness to do their best. These humble labourers are not to be despised, but highly respected. All honour to them, especially when they assume the office because none else are found willing to do so. Would that all had their spirit! This would soon be a strangely altered world! But God always requires our best-our best services, our best energies, our best agents. That which would be received under some circumstances as a highly acceptable offering, would be rejected, under others, as an insult. It appears to me of importance, therefore, that the services of the most pious and intelligent of the congregation should be enlisted for the Sunday school. Let none think it beneath them; let none imagine that their talents would be thrown away there. I said, the most pious of the congregation. Not, however, that we shall require decided piety as an indispensable pre-requisite. There must needs be some amount of moral thoughtfulness in the young person who is willing to engage in such a service; this should be encouraged, and the atmosphere of a well-conducted Sunday school is peculiarly favourable to the formation of the best principles, to the growth of enlightened, active piety.

From the preceding errors has arisen a third-that anything will do

men.

for children, especially for children in the Sunday school. As the best qualified in the congregation have not been selected for teachers, neither have the teachers who have been chosen given their best energies to the work. It is not an uncommon, but a very mistaken idea, that persons of extremely limited information and talent are the best qualified to instruct the utterly ignorant; that, in proportion to the amount of your intelligence and the elevation of your mind, is your unfitness for the humble task of imparting instruction to the young and the uneducated. It is true, indeed, that the man who has spent all his days in a cloister, who has communed with the dead rather than with the living, who has confined his studies to books, and has paid no attention to men and things, will be but ill qualified to interest and instruct children; but, neither will he be “ apt to teach" any class of his fellowBut it may undoubtedly be laid down as a rule, that, other things being equal, the more extensive and accurate your knowledge, the greater your adaptation to teach even the youngest and the most illiterate. Dr Watts's "Divine Songs" are not a whit less adapted to instruct, delight, and impress the youthful mind, nor the less favourites in our nurseries and schools, because he was one of the ablest and bestinformed men of his day. It is of great importance that all Sunday school teachers should make a business, an earnest work, of their chosen engagements. The lesson of the coming Sabbath should engage their best attention and their fervent prayers during the week. Let them think how they can make it most intelligible-how most interestinghow most impressive to the children. It is thus, alone, that the teachers can ascertain their own powers, that their own minds can become truly interested in their work, that they can find real satisfaction in it, or that they can hope to witness the beneficial results which they cannot fail to desire. I would have the teacher interested, not only in his work, but also in his class. He should regard the children as the objects of his especial care. He ought to feel himself the minister of God's truth and mercy to them, and a chosen intercessor with God for them. They should have a home, therefore, in his heart, as being very dear to him; and he should aim at nothing less than to introduce them into the way of life, and at last to present them perfect before God.

Another error has, I conceive, been committed in some instances, in limiting our scholars to a certain age. I can see no serious objection to the admission of children of a very tender age to our Sunday schools; but, instead of putting a very young person first to teach them the alphabet, I would commit them to the care of a truly intelligent ladyone of the gentlest manners and the kindest spirit, the best adapted amongst us to interest and instruct babes; and would have religious knowledge imparted to them by pictures, by parables, by anecdotes, by all means calculated to arrest the attention and to engage the affec

tions of the very young. But it is of still greater importance that we should interest those who are growing out of boyhood and girlhood, who have become, or are fast becoming, young men and young women. Frequently they leave our schools at the most interesting and important period of their history, when they are most capable of benefiting by wholesome instruction, and when their characters are assuming a permanent form. It is of immense importance that those who have

been brought up in our Sunday schools should be detained there when they attain to this age, and that others, who had before been neglected, should be brought in. But, in order to meet these views, it is evident there must be considerable variety in the classes: there should be classes for young men and for young women; for apprentices; for servants; for intelligent youth; and for those whose advantages have been very limited.

It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the instruction imparted in our Sunday schools should be in its nature decidedly scriptural. The great design of education is, to fit man for the situation which he may occupy in future life; but the education which a Christian would impart, contemplates man's eternal destiny no less than his present circumstances; it is intended, therefore, to fit him as well for eternal life hereafter, as for respectability and usefulness here; and the great design of a Sunday school most assuredly is, to produce impressions, to implant principles, and to form habits in unison with the sanctity of the day. The sacred hours are devoted to a work of mercy, when those are taught the veriest rudiments of learning, who have not acquired them, and especially if they have no other opportunity of doing so. It is to be regretted, however, when this constitutes a large portion of the labour of the Sunday school; and it is much to be desired, that the exercises of the school should be assimilated in character and spirit to those of the sanctuary; that is to say, that the delightful work of the teacher should be, to explain the sacred Scriptures, and to enforce their great truths in a manner adapted to the capacities of his youthful charge. Then will our children know from their youth those Scriptures which are given by inspiration of God, and are able to make them wise to salvation, through faith, which is in Christ Jesus; then will the connexion between the teachers and their children be that of tender, religious solicitude on the one hand, and of grateful respect on the other; then will our Sunday schools prove nurseries to our churches, and eminent blessings to all the families of our land; for how much of the peace, and even of the prosperity and piety, of a family, depends on the intelligence and integrity, the kindness and conscientiousness of its younger and humbler members. Then may we reasonably anticipate the coming of that happy day, when all shall know the Lord, from the least even to the greatest.

But I wish, this evening, particularly to direct your attention to THE METHOD OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION which is recommended for adoption in all our classes in which the New Testament is read.

to

The plan which I am about to recommend, is not an untried one. Many years ago it was successfully adopted by Mr Gall; and, by the aid of his "Helps" to the Gospels and the Acts, and his "Keys various catechisms, it has been successfully pursued by others. I may be allowed to add also, that it is the plan which I adopted many years ago, in the first Bible class which I ever had the pleasure of forming; and as those exercises afforded to the class, including the teacher as well as his young friends, both pleasure and advantage, so I have reason to believe they are still remembered by some with considerable interest. The plan is this: that the lesson for one Sunday be announced to the class on the preceding Lord's day, when the passage

should be read over carefully, and the children encouraged to mention any difficulties which occur to them in it, and explanations given by the teacher. The children should then be urged carefully to study the passage during the week, and be prepared, as far as possible, to answer any question which may be proposed to them on it at the next meeting of the class; they should also be urged to commit the passage, or some portion of it, to memory, for repetition on the following Sunday. I scarcely need remark, that there should be but one lesson for all the classes in which the Scriptures are read; and, on the plan now proposed, those classes will be truly Bible classes-classes, in the highest and best sense of the words, for scriptural instruction.

I suppose, then, that we adopt the plan now proposed, and that we at once enter upon it. We commence with the trial and martyrdom of Stephen; and the latter part of Acts vi., beginning with verse 9, will constitute the first lesson. We begin here, because from this period of the history we meet with more that is calculated to arrest the attention, and interest the minds of the young. This having been stated to the classes one Sunday, I suppose the children and their teachers to be assembled on the following Lord's day. The preliminary arrangements having been made, and the introductory exercises having been gone through,

The first thing will be, to hear the passage READ CAREFULLY by the class. And here I would earnestly recommend the teachers to endeavour to rescue the children from the habits of bad reading, which are so very common, and to cultivate amongst them the habit of a correct, distinct, natural, and reverent method of reading the sacred text. Such a habit can scarcely be formed, except in youth; but, having been formed then, it may prove of incalculable advantage in after life.

The passage having been read with care and correctness, the next exercise is the CATECHETICAL AND EXPLANATORY. There is the widest difference between catechising and learning a catechism: few methods of instruction are more useless than the latter, or more profitable than the former. In the catechetical exercise, the object of the teacher should be, to get the children to search out for themselves the meaning of the passage, by finding, amongst the words which they have read, answers to the questions which he proposes to them.

But when a child understands what is meant by the passage generally, he may not know accurately the meaning of every word which occurs in it. Explanation should, therefore, be connected with, or it should immediately follow, the catechetical exercise. Sometimes it may with advantage follow it; sometimes it should be connected with it. Every difficult word, every word which he suspects the children do not understand, should be noticed by the teacher, and, either by the direct or the indirect method of catechising, he should endeavour to get the meaning from the child himself. If, by a variety of questions, he can get the child to discover the meaning of the word, he will be more likely to recollect it afterwards, and to use it aright, than if he were to tell him the meaning of it for twenty Sundays in succession.

But, if the child cannot find out the meaning of the word, the teacher must explain it to him; and then request several of the children in the class to repeat his explanation. Here I may remark, as an