Hot consider whigion as at least a good sevenfionary thing as an object which ought always to copy a Ir de icmote come of his map of life; they of which, though it is always to be postponed, is howET404 to be Gually rejected; which, though it cannot souveniently come into his prefent fcheme of life, it is aded some how or other to take up before death this awful deception, this defect in the intellectual vilion, andes party from the bulk which the objects of time and teine acquire in our eyes by their nearmean, while the invitible realities of eternity are but Randy duceamed by a feeble faith, through a dim and det ant mediums te arifes alfo partly from a totally tile idea of the nature of Chriftianíty, from a fatal R-46520 We Can repent at any future period, and that 4x amendment is a thing which will always be in our wwa power it will be time enough to think of reformpig ona bic, when we thould think only of clofing it. "Hwi depend upon it, that a heart long hardened, I do not mean by givis vices merely, but by a fondness tou the world, by an habitual and exceffive indulgence oa the pcamaça or tente, will by no means be in a favourably face to admit the light of divine truth, or to ween the mipretions of divine grace. God indeed founammox thows us by an act of his fovereignty, that Chust wonderiut change, the converfion of a finner's bout may be produced without the intervention of huA cg to thow that the work is His. this is not the way in which the Almighty ufually deals with his creatures, it would be nearly as prepofterous for mon to act on this prefumption, and fin on in hopes of a miraculous conversion, as it would be to take no means for the prefervation of their lives, becaufe Jefus Chrit railed Lazarus from the dead. CHAP. XII. But as On the Manner of Instructing Young Perfons in Religion. T "OULD now with great deference address those : characters who are really concerned about the beft interefts of their children; those to whom Chriftianity is indeed an important confideration, but whofe habits of life have hitherto hindered them from giving it its due degree in the fcale of education. Begin then with confidering that religion is a part, and the most prominent part, in your fyftem of inftruction. Do not communicate its principles in a random defultory way; nor fcantily ftint this bufinefs to only fuch fcraps and remnants of time as may be cafually picked up from the gleanings of other acquirements. "Will you bring to God for a facrifice "that which cofts you nothing?" Let the best part of the day, which with most people is the earlieft part, be fteadily and invariably dedicated to this work by your children, before they are tired with other ftudies, while the intellect is clear, the spirits light, and the attention fharp and unfatigued. Confine not your inftructions to mere verbal rituals and dry fyftems; but communicate them in a way which thall intereft their feelings, by lively images, and by a warm practical application of what they read to their own hearts and circumftances. If you do not ftudy the great but too much flighted art of fixing, of commanding, of chaining the attention, you may throw away much time and labour, with little other effect than that of disgusting your pupil and wearying yourfelf. There feems to be no good reafon that while every other thing is to be made amufing, religion alone must be dry and uninviting. Do not fancy that a thing is good merely because it is dull. Why fhould not the moft entertaining powers of the human mind be fupremely confecrated to that fubject which is moft worthy of their full exercife? The misfortune is, that religious learning is too often rather confidered as an act of the memory than of the heart and affections; as a dry duty, rather than a lively pleasure. The manner in which it is taught differs as much from their other learning as punishment from recreation. Children are turned over to the dull work of getting by rote as a task that which they fhould get from example, from animated converfation, from lively difcuffion, in which the pupil fhould learn to bear a part, instead of M being merely a paffive hearer. Teach them rather, as their Bleffed Saviour taught, by interesting parables, which while they corrected the heart, left fome exercife for the ingenuity in the folution, and for the feelings in their application. Teach, as He taught, by feizing on furrounding objects, paffing events, local circumitances, peculiar characters, apt allufions, juft analogy, appropriate illuftration. Call in all creation, animate and inanimate, to your aid; and accuftom your young audience to Find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Even when the nature of your fubject makes it necef- "the doctrines of the Bible," as the profound and enlightened Bacon obferves," are not propofed to us "in a naked, logical form, but arrayed in the most beau"tiful and ftriking colours which creation affords." By thofe affecting illuftrations used by Him "who new what was in man," and therefore best knew addrefs him, it was, that the unlettered audi ences of Chrift and his Apoftles were enabled both to comprehend and relifh doctrines, which would not readily have made their way to their understandings, had they not first touched their hearts; and which would have found accefs to neither the one nor the other, had they been delivered in dry fcholaftic difquifitions. Now, thofe audiences not being learned, may be fuppofed to have been nearly in the ftate of children, as to their receptive faculties, and to have required nearly the fame fort of instruction; that is,. they were more capable of being moved with what. was fimple, and touching, and lively, than what was elaborate, abftrufe, and unaffecting. Heaven and earth were made to furnish their contributions, when man was to be taught that science which was to make him wife unto falvation. Something which might en-force or illuftrate was borrowed from every element.. The appearances of the fky, the storms of the ocean, the birds of the air, the beafts of the field, the fruits of the earth, the feed and the harveft, the labours of the hufbandmen, the traffic of the merchant, the feafons of the year! all were laid hold of in turn. And the most important moral instruction, or religious truth, was deduced from fome recent occurrence, fome natural appearance, fome ordinary fact. If that be the pureft eloquence which moft per-fuades, and which comes home to the heart with the fulleft evidence and the most irrefiftible force, then no eloquence is fo powerful as that of Scripture and an intelligent Chriftian teacher will be admonished by the mode of Scripture itself, how to communicate its truths with life and fpirit; "while he is mufing, the fire "burns" that fire which will preferve him from an infipid and freezing mode of inftruction. He will moreover, as was faid above, always carefully keep upa quick fenfe of the perfonal intereft the pupil has in every religious inftruction which is impreffed upon him. He will teach as Paul prayed," with the fpirit,. "and with the understanding alfo ;" and in imitating this great model, he will neceffarily avoid the oppofite faults of two different forts of inftructors; for while fome of our divines of the higher clafs have been to Fancy not that the Bible is too difficult and intricate The zeal and diligence with which the Bishop of London's weekly |