of obedience, and is the bond of perfectness in all the compacts of social order.

4. The well-being of a nation consists in plenty. And plenty is produced by the liberal beneficence of God, when he crowns our smiling fields with corn, and makes the heavens drop down fatness on us. Plenty is secured, secondly, by a cautious and economical use of the blessings so provided. And in both these senses plenty is more fully under the command of man than he is generally inclined to believe. It is obvious that it is competent for man to gather in with care, and consume with prudence, the fruits of the earth which autumn spreads invitingly before him; but the industry, the honesty, the sobriety of the working classes are all necessary to this purpose; and mutual confidence, and a feeling of kindly and mutual dependence among all classes, are equally important. And while it is certainly true that God hath kept the times and seasons in his own hand, that man cannot bind the sweet influences of Orion, or refresh the earth with showers at his bidding; although it is true that blasting and mildew may come down in a night, and cut off the hopes and labours of a year; yet it is also true that man may make that acknowledgment of the principles and performance of the duties of morality and religion, which will secure the blessing of God with absolute certainty: for the connexion existing between propitious seasons and abundant plenty is not more certain and invariable than the connexion which God has established between the religious character of a nation, and its enjoyment of such seasons. The Old Testament abounds with passages corroborative of this statement; and the histories of other nations beside the Jews have furnished some striking comments on these passages.

Having stated a few of the leading points in which the well-being of a nation consists, let us next observe that,

II. Ignorance is unfriendly to the well-being of nations:

1. As it substitutes the dominion of appetite and passion for that of reason and principle. Instead of beholding the regular operations of enlightened genius and industry accumulating their trophies to enrich and beautify the land, we see the brutal ebullitions of savage ferocity marking its progress in devastation and ruin.

Man, in a state of ignorance, makes no improvements. His errors and prejudices are perpetuated without one ray of illumination. He secures no advanced position as the starting-point from which a succeeding generation may push forward to nore brilliant discoveries, or more glorious achievements.

He has no prudence to anticipate, he has no skill to provide for, the wants of to-morrow. He has no moderation to regulate his enjoyment of momentary plenty; his life is a constant alternation of gluttony and famine. Under the reign of ignorance there is a monotony of character which renders the description of an individual the description of his tribe or nation. The same vices and propensities are diffused through the mass: we see them either rioting in anarchy, or groaning under a cruel and stupid despotism, alternately suffering and inflicting the worst evils of savage and exterminating wars. The comforts and conveniences of life, useful arts, salutary laws, and good government, are all strangers where ignorance prevails.

2. Ignorance is unfriendly to the well-being of society, as it is demoralizing. The Arcadianism of ignorant life is mere poetry and fiction. The shepherds and shepherdesses are represented as accomplished without instruction, and naturally virtuous without the artificial aids of morality and religion. The hunter of the desert is invested with romantic gallantry and heroism; and the judgment is beguiled by the euphonious sounds of simple manners" and "rural life." But the realities of such a state of society are humiliating in the extreme.

The tyranny of a jealous and suspicious selfishness pervades all

bosoms, regulates all actions, and stifles all the kinder emotions of the human heart. Charity and mercy are unknown; the obligations of truth and honesty are disregarded; and the absence of conjugal fidelity destroys those relationships from which arise the motives, opportunities, and delights of active virtue. Religion is either totally disregarded, or only brought in to confirm by its sanctions the practices of a corrupt inclination.

3. This state of things is unfriendly to the well-being of society, as it is opposed to human happiness. The entire range of intellectual pleasures is excluded. The general habit of the mind is the torpor of stupid vacancy. The only qualifications which are sought or obtained are sensual in their nature; and the enjoyment of them is alloyed by a sense of their insecurity. Thus, every circumstance of ignorant and savage life is opposed to that state of things which we have described as constituting the wellbeing of a nation; and they who contend that it is a happy and enviable state in which to live, are confronted by the settled moroseBess depicted on the countenance of the barbarian, and the dismal wretchedness of the country over which he wanders.

But if ignorance is thus unfriendly to the well-being of a nation, let us not suppose that mere secular knowledge is sufficient to promote it. It is not enough to expand the intellect, awaken the perception of classic beauty, and give taste and elegance to a nation. Here is the point at which we must part company with the mere moral philosopher or political economist, and avow our dissent from the prevailing theories of the present day. The evils of a merely intellectual culture are different in nature from those of a state of barbarism; they are less obvious, and when discovered, are less disgusting; but they are evils still, and we shall proceed to describe them.

III. Mere education cannot seeure the well-being of a nation, as it is in all cases defective, and in

many positively injurious. By mere education I mean any system of teaching and course of study (however otherwise perfect) which does not include religious instruction.

1. Mere education is defective in principle, as it considers man only intellectually fallen; while the greater portion of human evil arises, not from ignorance, but from depravity. Education applies a remedy to the head for a disease which is seated in the heart. An enlightening of the understanding does not necessarily control the passions or regulate the affections. Many of the greatest monsters of iniquity have been found among the learned and polite. The infidels on the Continent taught us invariably to associate the most licentious disregard of morals with the profession of philosophy; and the most abandoned men of our own country were the wits and courtiers of our Augustan age.

If mere education could promote the well-being of nations, we should discern this effect produced in the nations which have been or now are the most learned and polite. Let us look first at those which occupy the most prominent and honourable places in ancient history for their arts and literature,-I mean Greece and Rome. Their poets sang in strains which will be read and admired while time endures. Their philosophers, mathematicians, and astronomers pursued their investigations with a discernment, perseverance, and success, which spread their fame to the very confines of civilization. The world went to school to them, and sat with patient submission at their feet, and was astounded at the grasp of their mighty minds,

Their sculptors moulded the marble block into forms of more than earthly beauty, and inspired the breathing statue with all the passions of the human breast.

Their architects have fixed the form and proportions of our buildings, and decorated them with every variety of appropriate, ornament. They have superseded invention; and mighty modern geniuses have abandoned the idea of originality,

and been proud to imitate the great masters of their art. But did all this intellectual refinement produce the well-being of the countries where it was found? No.

These very buildings were erected

for the solemnities of an obscene idolatry.

These very images were to be the objects of degrading worship.

Their slaves and captives were butchered by thousands in their public shows. Assassination and suicide were of daily occurrence. Prostitution was sanctioned not only by law, but even by religion.

Their capital cities were ravaged by a turbulent soldiery, their territories oppressed by extortion and cruelty; and at the time of their highest intellectual glory they were hastening to that ruin which shortly overwhelmed them.

In modern times we may turn our attention to the east, where China and India are at once rivals in learning and depravity, and exemplify under different systems of policy the same humiliating connexion of a high state of civilization with all the evils that can befal a nation. The learning and politeness of France did not save her from the disgrace of St. Bartholomew's day, the diabolical orgies of the reign of terror, or the portentous instability of her modern times.

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In our own country we that education has not banished immorality and vice from the higher ranks of society; and our gaol returns prove that education is not preventive of crime among the lower orders. The opinion that it is has been published by those who would have been glad of such a fact to sustain a favourite theory, and thought themselves supported by some coincidences of crime and ignorance: but coincidence is not causation; and the matter is now set at rest by the investigations of a high legal functionary, whose opportunities of observation enable him positively to pronounce, that mere education, without instilling religious principles, is no preventive of crime. But we also propose to show that, so far from being suffi

cient to produce the well-being of a nation, mere education is, in many instances, positively injurious.

IV. The natural tendency of unsanctified knowledge is, to produce pride, which puffeth up; and which is a state the very reverse of that childlike spirit which predisposes for the reception of divine truth, and the influences of the Holy Ghost. There are also some branches of literary and scientific education which, if pursued by a mind uninstructed in the truths of religion, tend to the promotion of infidelity and vice; and such are,—

1. Classical literature; which, by the pruriency of its subjects, and the fascination of its mellifluous style, enervates the mind, excites the imagination, relaxes the tone of the moral fibre, invests vice with the attributes of beauty, hides its deformity under splendid diction and delusive representation, peoples the invisible world with imaginary states and beings, trifles with the great moral principles of truth and chastity; and the enchanted victim listens to the syren song until he sinks enervated and undone into the arms of luxurious dissipation.

2. The study of the mathematics is an intellectual discipline, a sort of mental tonic. It braces up the powers and faculties to patient and persevering investigation; but while it counteracts the effeminating influence of classical literature, it induces a difficulty of belief,-a demand for a sort of evidence which the nature of spiritual things cannot furnish. It aims at the subjugation of all things to a deductive reasoning; and appears to justify the scepticism which exalts it as the arbiter of truth, and holds itself in suspense until this rigid science shall have defined and demonstrated, by its own inflexible principles, which is the rational faith.

3. Geology shakes the confidence of the student in the Mosaic system, unless the mind be previously filled with a persuasion of the truth of Scripture. It aims to confound our chronology, and thus shake our faith. A system is first espoused, and then its advocate can find a wit

ness to attest its truth in every fossil relic. There is no doubt but this science will eventually be enlisted on the side of revelation, and furnish some of the most important proofs of its authenticity; but it has hitherto been mainly employed with a contrary intention and a contrary effect.

4. The study of man, his anatomy and physiology, has too often proved prejudicial.

It is said, that the evidence of wisdom and contrivance displayed in a human skeleton first convinced the great Galen of the existence of a God; but it is a notorious and lamentable fact, that there prevails almost universally among the closest students of these sciences, especially on the Continent, a refined materialism.

They are taught that the functions of life are performed by nicely adapted mechanical structure.

The effects which are ordinarily attributed to the passions or affections of the mind are insidiously traced to the action of some material stimulus.

Ignorance or wisdom, kindness or cruelty, impiety or devotion, are referred to organic formation; and even life and death are wrested from the hands of Providence, and placed at the disposal of merely natural

causes.

5. History, whether of our own or other countries, is supplied to us through poisoned channels, and hides from us the first great Cause, the almighty Disposer of events; and the ultimate design of his government presents us with a series of events which it appears difficult to reconcile with the benevolent superintendence of God, and for which causes, independent of Him and apparently sufficient to produce them, are assigned in human ambition and avarice, and in all the worst passions of our depraved nature.

It may be answered that these effects are the exceptions to the rule, and arise from the abuse, rather than from the use, of learning to which I would reply, they are not the exceptions; for of those who are brought up without religious cul

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ture, and receive a merely scientific education, by far the larger proportion are irreligious and vicious.

Knowledge is power; and it is only enabling the wicked to become more deeply and mischievously so, to furnish them with the means and resources of secular knowledge. Let, however, this education be associated with proper religious training, and the result will be just the opposite.

V. It is necessary to explain what we mean by "religious training;" otherwise it would be said to exist in those institutions in which any portion of religious instruction was given, however crude, or however small. Religious training, then, should combine the reading of the Scriptures, catechetical instruction, and attendance on religious worship; and, to speak still more explicitly, the reading of the Scriptures should not be from garbled extracts, called "Scripture lessons," which not only fail to present that entire view of God's revelation to fallen man which strikes the mind by its greatness and completeness, but which omit some of the most important parts of Scripture, and hide from man some of the most solemn and impressive declarations of the Most High. Nor should they be read merely by the junior classes, and laid aside just at the time when the youth is beginning to understand them, and when their weighty truths should be impressed on his mind. He should be taught to draw his principles and maxims from this source; and, whatever may be su peradded in the way of ornament or use, that his character and life are to be formed on this model. The advantage of catechetical instruction will very much depend upon the character of the books employed. They should contain not only a statement of moral and religious duties, but also a copious summary of evangelical doctrines. The atonement, in all its important parts, should be set forth with decided prominency. The great doctrines of repentance from dead works, the utter impossibility of salvation without the direct in