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evil, and, to a certain degree, familiar with the practice of it, leaves it, at the expiration of the time of his confinement, ten times more corrupted, and eager to put into practice the additional knowledge which he has gained. His situation is, at the same time, as devoid of all honest resources as ever; it is not only hopeless, but desperate.

His inevitable fate is a renewed course of immorality, in which he will be interrupted again and again by the arm of human justice; and to what end?—to save him from destruction? No, but to avenge more and more cruelly upon him the consequences of that state of destitution and degradation, of which, culpable as he may be, by far the greater guilt rests on society itself. Thus he is driven on in the career of delinquency from step to step, till he is at length ripe for that last act of barbarity, which the community perpetrates upon its abandoned members, to whom it has never stretched out a hand of love. Is this the education, which a Christian society owes to its destitute children? Is this the discharge of that sacred trust, which renders the community responsible for the temporal and eternal welfare of every one of its members? Whence does society derive the right of taking bloody vengeance upon those unfortunate beings, whose chief crime is, to have too well answered, by their conduct, the means adopted, either with the silent consent, or by direct interposition of society, for the formation of their character? If it is a bloody deed for an individual, to take away the life of his fellow-creature, is the deed less bloody, because society perpetrates it, because it is not an act of rashness, but of premeditation—an act systematically resolved upon, systematically executed, systematically repeated? Or is it less bloody because society has, by its neglect on one hand, and by its oppression on the other, previously murdered the souls of those, whom it thus prematurely hurries into eternity, to stand before the judgment seat of God? Does not society apprehend, that whilst its victims will have to account for their own transgressions, the very history of their sins

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will be a loud accusation against those, who had the power, but not the will, to become instrumental in their rescue, and who used the authority, given them from on high, not to save, but to ruin souls? Do they consider, that the subtle forms of the law will leave no subterfuge in the eye of Him, whose holiness will lay bare the iniquity of human justice-that "murder" will be written in flaming characters upon every such deed, which is now sealed with the seal of lawful authority? Does society think it a sufficient compensation for the neglect of that education, to which every individual has a claim, that the victims of its selfish indifference are, by the convulsive fears of death, harassed into a feeling of repentance, the sincerity of which it must be impossible, for an entire novice in religious knowledge, under such circumstances, to ascertain ? Or is it deemed a satisfactory atonement for the most criminal violation of God's law, and for the blasphemous abuse, made of his name, for the purposes of iniquity, that a chaplain is appointed to read the burial service on those mournful occasions ?

It would be foreign to my present purpose to enter more deeply into the question of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of capital punishment, and the general consistency or inconsistency of the existing criminal laws with the Christian covenant. But as the subject has inevitably been introduced, I may, before concluding, be allowed to add a few remarks, respecting the chief sources of that alarming want of faith and love, which society displays in its present conduct towards transgressing brethren. The advocates of the present system appeal to the authority of the Old Testament, in which capital punishment is enacted. I will not now ask, whether we are in the same position, in which the Jews were, as an elect people, separated unto the Lord, and destined to preserve the purity of his worship in the midst of idolatrous nations;-or why it is, that, whilst we reject for our own practice all the rest of the Mosaic legislation, which had that strict separation for its

HUMANITY OF THE JEWISH LAW.

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object, we adhere so scrupulously to that part, which furnishes us with a pretext for sanguinary enactments? Nor will I urge the important distinction between the covenant of fear and bondage, and that of freedom and of love. I will content myself with contrasting our laws with the laws of Moses; I will not raise our standard so high, as to look among us for Christian laws. I repeat it, I shall be satisfied, if we be found to have enacted none, that are unjewish.

Against what transgressions does the Jewish law enact capital punishment? Against none but those that profane the temple of the Lord and his holy things, and those that defile the individual or the community. To preserve purity is the only purpose of capital punishment, as enacted by divine authority. How does this matter stand with us? What do our laws enact concerning the man who profaneth the Lord's sanctuary, or breaketh his sabbath, or defileth his neighbour's wife? Are these deemed worthy of death among us? I do not wish that they should be so punished; but I cannot see why of those offences, which are considered most culpable in the divine code, we should make lightest; why those transgressions, which could not, in the institutions established by God, be blotted out unless by the blood of the offender, should be atoned for, among us, with money, the great idol and scape-goat of our institutions; whilst for that very money's sake we do not scruple, to take away man's life, which God has never, either ordained or permitted, to be taken away for any earthly thing? If the divine legislation for the elect nation be our pattern, why do we not abide by those clear and humane enactments, which the Jewish law contains, respecting offences against property? Will any one dare to say, that those laws are not applicable to our state of things? Very likely, indeed! But what does that prove, but that a state of society, for which the laws of God are too humane, is an ungodly state, one which ought on no account to be endured without reproof, and, by those to

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whom power is given, without improvement. Here is the source of the severity of our criminal laws; our love to Mammon causes us to forget the love, we owe to our fellow-creatures; our attachment to our earthly treasures makes us unmindful of those heavenly treasures, of which, in so many thousands of children, we are appointed the guardians. Our anxiety to preserve every shilling in every man's pocket, is the great obstacle to our preserving Christ in every soul, and every soul in Christ.

This leads me to the great principle, on which the duty of giving every child a christian education, rests, and by which, therefore, we must be regulated in the choice and application of our means. But as this point is chiefly involved in the consideration of the second question, I reserve the subject for my next lecture.

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LECTURE III.

TO WHAT SORT AND DEGREE OF EDUCATION CAN EVERY HUMAN INDIVIDUAL, AS SUCH, LAY CLAIM, INDEPENDENTLY OF RANK, FORTUNE, OR ANY OTHER DISTINCTION?

In the two preceding lectures I have endeavoured to demonstrate the respective duties of the family and of society at large, respecting the education of children belonging to them; and I have urged the fulfilment of the much neglected duty of society in this respect, especially on the ground, that the whole of human life, with all that belongs to it or arises out of it, has, or at least ought to have, according to the divine sanction, no other purpose than that of leading man to the knowledge of a merciful Father, and a redeeming Saviour, and to bring him, as far as human agency can do, under the influence of the restoring and sanctifying spirit of God. I have called your attention to the awful consequences, arising out of a state of society, in which that important fact is lost sight of; and I have, at the close of my last lecture, pointed out one of the chief causes of the neglect and indifference, of which, as a body, we are guilty. But I am aware, that the mercantile spirit of our institutions, is not the only impediment to the general discharge of the duty, which devolves upon us, as