where it could not extirpate them, to hide them in the shades of a disgraceful privacy? What else hath covered the land with blessings unknown in earlier and more renowned days—with hospitals, and infirmaries, and asylums? What but Christianity is gradually extirpating slavery from the earth, and bringing on a season, too long deferred indeed, but our approaches to which distance, beyond all calculation, those of the best heathen times-a season when men shall own universally a brother in man, and dash off every fetter which cruelty hath forged and cupidity fastened. What hath softened the horrors of war, rendering comparatively unheard of, the horrors of former conflicts? What hath raised the female sex, from the degraded position which they still occupy in the lands of a false faith? What hath introduced laws which secure the weak from injury, and protect the widow in her loneliness, and secure the orphan in his rights? What hath given sacredness to every domestic relationship, to the ties which bind together the husband and the wife, the parent and the child, the master and the servant, and thus brought those virtues to our fire-side, the exile of which takes all music from that beautiful word "home?" To all such questions, we have but one reply-Christianity, that exalter of nations. The determined foe of injustice in its every shape; the denouncer of malice, and revenge, and pride-passions which keep the surface of society ever stormy and agitated; the inspirer of genuine patriotism, because the enemy of selfishness; the founder and upholder of noble institutions, because the teacher of an unshackled philanthropy; Christianity hath lifted our fallen humanity to a moral greatness, which seemed wholly out of reach-to a station, which compared with that occupied under the dominion of heathenism, is like a new palace amongst the orders of creation. And there needs nothing, in order to prove that we put forth no exaggerated statement, but that Christendom be contrasted with nations which have not yet embraced Christianity. If you are in search of the attributes which give dignity to a state, of the virtues which shed a lustre and loveliness over families, value to what is magnificent in enterprise, refined in civilization, lofty in ethics, admirable in jurisprudence-you never think of turning to any but a christianized territory, in order to obtain the most signal exhibition and just in proportion as Christianity but gains footing on the territories of heathenism, there is a distinct improvement in whatever tends to exalt a nation, and bring comfort and respectability to its households. Oh, if we could but plant the cross on every mountain, and in every valley of this globe, and prevail on a thousand tribes to throw away, by one simultaneous impulse, the idols before which they do homage, and hail Christ Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords, who doubts that we should have done infinitely more towards covering our planet with all the decencies and with all the dignities of civilized life, than by centuries of unremitted endeavour to humanize barbarism without molesting superstition? We are clear on the point-it needs no argument, because ascertained by experience, and, if not proved by experience, may be made out by irresistible argument-that in teaching a nation the religion of Christ, we teach it the principles of government which will give it fixedness as an empire, of science which will multiply the comfort, and of truths which will heighten the character of its population. Thoroughly to Christianize is thoroughly to regenerate a land: and the poor missionary, who in the simplicity of his faith, and fervour of his zeal, throws himself into the

waste of paganism, and there with no apparent mechanism for altering the condition of the savage community, labours at nothing but making Christ known to the children of idolatry-we say of this intrepid wrestler with the ignorance of a long-neglected domain, that in toiling to save souls, he is toiling to develope the intellectual power, reform the policy, and elevate, in every respect, the rank of the immortal beings who engage his solicitude; he is working with that engine, which exalteth a nation: and, therefore, do we declare our belief, that the day on which a province of Africa hearkened to his summons, started from its moral debasement, and acknowledged Jesus as its Saviour, would be also the day in which that province overstepped one half of the desert of separation which has divided it from civilized Europe, and went forward as with a giant's stride towards its due place among the nations of the earth.

So that however it is true, that in sending Christianity, you send, according to the description of the Founder himself, a sword into a land, we will not, for a moment, entertain the opinion, that Christianity is no temporal blessing, if received by the inhabitants as their chart for eternity. It is a sword; and divided families and clashing parties will attest the keenness and the strength of the weapon but then it is also a sword whose bright flash scatters the darkness of ages, and from whose point shrink away the corruption, and the cruelty, and the fraud, which flourish in that darkness as a congenial element. It is a sword; and it must pierce to the dividing asunder of many close ties, dislocate many interests, and lacerate many hearts: but to wave this sword over a land, is to break the spell that has been fastened on it by centuries of ignorance, and to disperse or destroy those brooding hosts of foul spirits, which have long oppressed its inhabitants, and kept down every energy that can ennoble our species. And therefore are we nothing moved by the accusation, that Christianity hath brought some portion of misery into the world. We deny not the truth of the charge: to disprove that truth, would be to disprove Christianity itself. The Founder prophesied that his religion should be a sword, and the accomplishment of his prediction is one of our evidences that he came forth from God.

But when men go further, and arraign Christianity as having, on the whole, increased the sum of human misery, oh, then we have an appeal to the exalting power of righteousness, to the splendid institutions of civilized societies, to the bulwarks of liberty which they have bravely thrown up, to the structures which they have reared for the shelter of the suffering, to their mighty advancings in equity, and science, and good order, and greatness. Men may call Christianity a sword; but we shew you the desert blossoming as the rose, and all because ploughed by the sword of Christianity: we shew you every chain of oppression falling into shivers, and all because struck by the sword of Christianity: we shew you the coffers of the wealthy bursting open for the succour of the destitute, and all because touched by the sword of Christianity: we shew you the human intellect springing into manhood, reason starting from dwarfishness, and assuming a magnificence of power, and all because roused by the glare of the sword of Christianity: and thus able to demonstrate, that in every sense righteousness exalteth a nation, we are bold to declare, that the amount of temporal misery has been incalculably diminished by the propagation of the religion of Jesus, and that this sword, in spite of producing slaughters and divisions, hath been, and still is, as a golden sceptre, beneath which the tribes of our race have

found a rest, which heathenism knew only in its poetry, and a security, and a freedom, and a greatness, which philosophy reached only in its dreams.

Now, it has been our endeavour throughout this discourse, to impress on you the power of Christianity, to improve the condition of the people, and thus to satisfy you as to the propriety of the religious education of the poor. We have striven to shew you, that even for the accomplishment of secular ends, the Gospel of Christ is an engine which politicians, as well as philanthropists, should employ. And we have been the more anxious to do this, because we think it one of the signs of the times, that what is called "useful knowledge," does not include religious knowledge. When you come to examine into the knowledge which now usurps the definition of "useful," you find it limited to science and history; and embracing little or nothing which bears relationship to the soul and eternity. The definition is, at the least, somewhat presumptuous and misplaced; the really useful knowledge must be that which equips man for immortality, and informs him how he may secure happiness throughout the immortality of his being. And forasmuch as it is demonstrable that Christianity is as effective in fitting men for the duties of life, as in preparing for the solemnities of judgment, and is thus as useful for the present world as well as for the next, we think it right that attention should be fastened on a principle which seems nearly out of date, the principle-that to promote the piety, is to promote the good order and happiness of a people, and that moral greatness is both the foundation and safeguard of civil liberty. Whatever, then, our earnestness for the education of the poor, we have no hope of any system of which religion is not made the basis. We are sure, that in having Christianity in our hand, we have a machinery for grappling with that wretchedness which results from the inequalities of the human condition; and for bringing about such a revolution in society as would satisfy the desires of the most ardent philanthropist But let us in no degree set aside this machinery, as though modern discoveries had originated a better. To develope the intellect without improving the heart, (and for this Christianity is alone sufficient,) is to make a mighty population, but mighty only in arts—a population conscious of strength, but ignorant how to apply it-and concerning which, therefore, the likelihood, if not the certainty is, that they will bury themselves beneath the ruins of all that is venerable and glorious in the land.

It is, then, the Scriptural instruction of the poor, which we look to for promoting the well-being of society; for it is "righteousness" which "exalteth a nation." And scriptural instruction it is which is imparted to four hundred and sixty children, in the National Schools of this large and opulent district; so that we have every confidence in commending them to your liberal support. You cannot require lengthened appeals, in order that you may be led to contribute cheerfully and largely, to a cause which thus solicits you both as patriots and Christians. If you enter the courts and alleys of a densely peopled neighbourhood, the condition of children will excite your sympathies as much or even more, than that of adults: you will feel, that however pitiable the spectacle of vice and degradation by which you are too often met, the worst spectacle of all, because that which augurs a continued infliction of wretchedness upon a parish, is that of the rising generation growing up in the ignorance of God, and trained to the imitation of the dissoluteness of their parents. No approach can be

made towards the moral renovation of a country, except by dealing, and that, too, most vigorously, with the infancy and boyhood of that country. We can expect little success, when attacking the wickedness which hath grown with the growth, and strengthened with the strength, of our adult population. Nothing indeed is too hard for the Lord; and we would therefore ply the manhood and the old age of crime with the lessons of the Bible; but the alone hopeful attempt, is that of applying Christianity as a preventive, and turning away the children from the steps of their fathers. And this attempt it is in which you are now asked to join: the parochial schools gathering together the boys and the girls of our lower orders, and disciplining them in the fear of the Almighty, may be the nursery for those who shall exalt the nation; and thus possibly be greater than princes-greater morally, as admitted into the citizenship of the heavenly Jerusalem--greater politically, as doing more towards strengthening the institutions of their country. If God impress these truths on your minds, you will on this, and every the like occasion, display liberality in promoting the education of the poor.

RELIGION THE ONLY PRESERVATIVE AGAINST MORAL EVIL.

REV. WILLIAM CURLING, A.M.

TRINITY CHURCH, NEWINGTON, SUNDAY, MAY 25, 1834 *.

"Keep them from the evil."-JOHN, xvii. 15.

THESE were amongst the last words which our gracious and compassionate Saviour put up to his Father just before he left the world, on behalf of his disciples. He had, hitherto, been with them, assisting them by his counsel in all cases of difficulty, guarding them in his doctrine against all error, both in judgment and practice; and constantly setting before them, as the rule of their life, his own pious example. But now, their guide, their counsellor, their friend, was going away from them-was about to leave them, in a great measure, to themselves; to leave them too, in a world full of wickedness, and abounding with temptation. And this was a time in which he who loved them, and had always taken a deep interest in their welfare, could not but feel for them the greatest possible anxiety.

The parent, you know, feels for his child, when, just before death, fixing his eye on it, he thinks of the many dangers to which he will leave it exposed, without his advice to guide him, and his presence to admonish him, and so looking upwards, he pours out over it a parent's best prayer, imploring for it the care and protection of heaven. Similar to these were the feelings of our blessed Lord: he knew exactly what the world was, and he also knew in what a dangerous, what a peculiarly trying situation his disciples would very shortly be placed. They were not only going to act their part in it as Christians, but they were going forth as his emissaries, publishing his religion; and, in such a service, they would meet with peculiar difficulties, and be assailed by peculiar temptations: Satan would lay snares for them, to impede their progress; and the men of the world would raise against them a strong, a violent opposition. They would have much to guard against, much to struggle with, much to resist ; and, perhaps, their minds not being yet sufficiently established, they might yield to fear, turn traitors to avoid persecution; and, buffetted by the winds and waves of this troublesome world, make "shipwreck of faith." Yes, they might do all this; left to themselves, they would do it: for though Christians, though ministers, though apostles, they were still flesh and blood; nothing in themselves but weak and defenceless creatures; having no power to resist one temptation, or to overcome one enemy. And, therefore, he prays for them: he forgets for a while his own coming sorrows, in a tender concern for their well-being and happiness. And what is it he asks in his prayer? Is it, that his Father, to whom as a mediator he addressed his petition, would remove his followers from the reach of this world's temptation, by taking them altogether out of it? Oh, no: "I

For the benefit of the National Schools.