was so wholly gratuitous and voluntary, that it was something like a Roman Catholic supererogation to attend to it. But when they found that they were, as Christian subjects, bound to this duty as strongly as any other missionary, or minister is to his charge, the trust was seen to be as serious as any that could be committed to them, and that they were held by their fidelity to their Redeemer, to bend themselves to this commission until their Master should designate some other service. Thus, at length, there has arisen a dawn of promise that the true fundamental principle of the Sunday School institution is about to be extensively understood, and made the object of direct aim in all its provisions.

It has resulted from the recognition of this character of the service, that the efforts of teachers to become more practical have been directed to simplify and adapt the system of instruction. According to the ancient mode of practice (we speak, of course, generally,) it seems to have been considered that the injunctions of the Gospel are not intelligible by children. The precepts of morality and the ceremony of prayer were strictly enjoined, but the duties of faith and repentance were, tacitly, postponed to a season of more intellectual maturity. Children were practically considered as placed by their minority under a religious disability. The mode of teaching, the phraseology in which they were alluded to, the absence of direct endeavour to bring them to God, all showed that their training was prospective. It is true, the Church and pious parentage provided for their religious instruction, but it was after a manner which insured in many cases a lasting repugnance to the obligations of religion.

To how few of the present generation are the religious reminiscences of their childhood delightful! How many of us now recur, with no agreeable associations to the Sunday penance of reading the Bible and reciting the catechism, with the impression still vivid in the memory that the tedious intervals of the Sabbath services were to be killed by a course of reading which it was not expected we should understand! And yet all this waste of time and application was unnecessary, and these remembrances of the Sabbath days of childhood might be universally, as, in many instances, they are, cherished with unmingled feelings of happiness, had parents been alive to the fact that no book is more easily made entertaining than the Bible, or more intelligible, by familiar ex

planation, than most doctrinal catechisms. But the secret lies in a short line-the conversion of children was not expected and laboured for as a direct object. With a selfishness, like that of the apostles who would have restricted the announcement of the Gospel to the lineage of Abraham, the Church has comparatively disregarded, not only the claims of Paganism, but of its own children (as a class) on its guardianship. And God seems to have chosen, by a dispensation more evident and striking than even Peter's vision, to awaken Christians, as he did the Jews, to the conviction that they have taken a narrow view of his benevolence. There is credible evidence for the belief, that during the year ending in May last, the Holy Spirit has been "poured out also" upon five thousand Sunday School pupils. The announcement has created as much astonishment as did the calling of the Gentiles; but the mere statement of such an unequalled accession to the visible Church from the ranks of youth demands the attention of that Church, and an inquiry into the nature of a system which must produce such an influence upon its future history. It is a subject for deliberate investigation, whether it be of God or not; and the decision should be made whilst its infancy may be taken advantage of to dispose of it in the easiest and most effectual manner. If the fact be admitted, all the abstractions of the argument are superseded, and we had better imitate our mother of Jerusalem, "hold our peace and glorify God," and obey his Providence.

In our judgment, the system of Sunday School instruction is a means, favoured by God, of supplying the deficiencies of ordinary ministerial duty, and of carrying into more extensive effect the designs of his mercy. It is not necessary to suggest any hypothesis respecting the moral and intellectual points of difference in the character of the people addressed by the apostles and of those of our day, which have caused a change in the style of preaching and in the discharge of other ministerial functions. Nor need we stop to fix the charge of delinquency upon the Church for not providing for the instruction of every class of the community. Taking admitted facts, we may, without prejudice, assert, that owing to the general character of preaching, the mixed nature of our congregations, their number, variety of employments, peculiarity of situation, and other causes, it is impossible for a single individual to apportion his services to all. This could not be effected unless every minister had a number of lay assistants,

of suitable age and qualifications, who should devote themselves exclusively to the business of private visits and meetings for instruction, whilst he should direct their labours, and give his chief care to the preaching of the word. Such an organization, we fear, is generally impracticable. Scarcely a congregation could be found where there is a sufficient number of pious men disengaged from business, who could do the service acceptably. The nearest approach to this desirable system is furnished in the adaptation of Sunday Schools to the distinct objects contemplated. In this manner, the intelligent members of every church might be employed, on the Sabbath, in superintending classes of domestic servants and other adults, white and coloured, male and female; in Bible classes, comprehending all the young persons of the congregation, and in similar classes for others out of it. It is easy to see how much a pervulgation of instruction would change the face of the Church, by making its members personally active in the great duty of teaching the ignorant, simplifying the instructions of the desk to the young, and diffusing the influence of the Bible directly amongst all classes and conditions. This subdivision of labour should have been learned long since by the Christian ministry, from Jethro, "And Moses' father-inlaw said unto him, the thing that thou doest is not good; thou wilt surely wear away, both thou and this people that is with thee; for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone. Hearken now unto my voice; I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee: be thou for the people toward God, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God: and thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt show them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do. Moreover, thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, and rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens." Such a band of efficient assistants to the ministry might well be included under the denomination of "teachers," in the apostle's catalogue of the agents delegated by Christ for the edifying of his body-the Church. Eph. iv. 11, 12. 1 Cor. xii. 28.

The Church has commenced, and in some portions made. some progress in filling up this large design. But as a faithful prosecution of that branch of it which is applied to chilVOL. IV. No. III.—3 B

dren will naturally result in its gradual extension to all grades of the destitute, it will be sufficient to limit our attention to this preliminary stage. And yet we must, in deference to human sense and the weakest Christianity, spare an elaborate argument to prove the value to individuals, to families, churches, neighbourhoods, and society universally, of having children taught statedly the principles and practice of religion from the Scriptures; watched over; and visited with affection and interest, followed in sickness, misfortune, and separation; by kind, prudent, and intelligent Christian friends. The proposition is too self-evident to need an argument, and, as one should think, the object of too much self-interest to require enforcement. These services in detail are beyond the power of any minister, with whatever variety of gifts he may be endowed, unless he superadd the faculty of collecting all these classes of persons together in one place, and instructing them with adaptedness to each case. To a minister, a faithful association of Sunday School teachers is the hundred eyes and hundred hands he is often disposed to wish for, and no human agency is capable of yielding him such efficient assistance. They supply the loss children have long sustained in the services of the sanctuary, by imparting a knowledge of the history and doctrines of the Bible in a manner which their immature minds can comprehend. They thus prepare a generation of hearers who are more likely to attend to, and understand the discourses of the pulpit, in consequence of their noviciate in the schools, and give the best security for becoming intelligent, stable, and useful members of the Church.

If the institution be recognised in the rank of importance to which we have assigned it, it is easily seen that the Church, as a body, has a deep interest in it, and is called on to be vigilant of its course. It must cease to be considered an adventitious appendage to the house of worship. Teachers must be regarded in another light than as amateurs of the science of school keeping, and must meet with some more cordial recognition than the unmeaning complacency with which they are commonly greeted as engaged in a harmless employment, for which they have some whimsical predilection. The Sunday School must be identified with the Church as positively as any of the other external means of grace. It claims the patronage and prayers of every Christian, and should enlist their active interest in its support. In it is their

hope for their own children, and there is the best cooperation they can have in training their families. In it are educating their successors in the visible church, and there is the strong-est human guaranty for its continued purity and prosperity. Individual members should well and prayerfully deliberate, before they relinquish the privilege of guiding these minds, and decide that Providence does not call them to be efficient agents in the cause. They well know that Christ denounces unprofitable servants, and before a professed follower determines to avoid the duty, or is contented to spend the Sabbaths without being engaged in some scheme of benefiting others, let he or she be certain that the reason is such as will bear the test of the Gospel requisitions.

We are commonly left to our own perceptions to judge when circumstances indicate any special duty as the assignment of Providence. If we seriously consider the history and present attitude of Sunday schools, we suppose it impossible to come to any other conclusion than that they have been sanctioned by the Saviour, not only as a means of hastening his triumph, but that none of his followers might be without a field for active and direct service. Its operations are so multifarious, that we can scarcely imagine a case of total disqualification. If precluded by any circumstances from direct teaching, the private member may still exert a general influence in furtherance of the design. One of the concurrent blessings of the plan is, that it opens so wide a door to practical benevolenee, and such a person may be excellently employed in visiting the poor and the ignorant, to inform them of the advantages of the school, to impress them and their children, by their kind familiarity, with favourable ideas respecting it. If poverty or sickness prevent their taking advantage of the offer, an opportunity is afforded of giving the most conclusive evidence of sincerity and disinterestedness, by guiding them to means of relief. In like manner they may make friendly visits at the homes of those who are already scholars; where they are sure of an unaffected welcome. By this proof of earnestness they open a way to the confidence and the consciences of the child's family, whom they may persuade to an attendance on the means of grace, and encourage to the pursuit of holiSecular and moral reformation, at least, will be easily

ness.