minds of the young ?"-We answer, without hesitation, Yes; you must employ the best instruments you can find; and if, with discretion and a knowledge of Scripture, they combine, the essential quality of real piety, be thankful that you are favoured with such fellow-labourers. And we would moreover remind some of these objectors, that they themselves, with all their cavils against the system of Dr. Chalmers, are pursuing the same system under far more disadvantageous circunstances; for, we would ask, who are the individuals set over the mass of the National Schools, and other large public establishments for the poor in this country? And to whom is an unlimited right conceded, in these institutions, of moulding the minds of the young? Are not the individuals entrusted, generallyspeaking, laymen? are they not unlettered laymen? and are they not laymen, in many instances, taken almost at random from the mass of society; and, in some cases, chosen with little other recommendation, perhaps, for the trade of tuition than that they have been bankrupts in some other? Are they not sometimes retain ed as masters, on account of their technical skill in teaching and or ganization, when their moral habits are of more than a doubtful cemplexion? We ourselves have had the opportunity of observing the prevalence of immoral habits, even among those who are themselves candidates for the office of teachers. And we could point to an individual removed from one school on a charge of drunkenness, who was immediately, and with a full consciousness of his habits, employed in the superintendance of a neigh bouring school. We advert to these facts, not from any disposition to plunge into controversy, but because we wish to convince the most sceptical of our readers, that if the young are to be taught, they must be instructed by lay teachers; and that it is absurd and unjust to become squeamish as to the emCHRIST. OBSERV, No. 242,

ployment of laymen only in this particular direction, where their industry may be most usefully and efficiently exercised, and where their zeal and piety may produce the most advantageous results on the increase of the church, and the peace and prosperity of the nation. The reformation which we could wish to see accomplished in the views of large numbers of persons of influence as to this point, is, that they should, on the one hand, feel less hesitation as to the employment of such agents; and that, on the other, they should take infinitely more care respecting their moral and religious character. The larger employ ment of such inferior agency is, in fact, in our minds, one of the grand desiderata of the day. We are deeply concerned to see many individuals of talents and piety sinking under burdens which, if they were properly enlightened on this point, they would feel it their duty to cast upon others. Their error is partly the result of prejudice; but it is, in some instances we apprehend, the result, in part at least, of personal vanity. There is a prodigious disposition in all of us to think that no man can do any thing so well as ourselves. With this delusive persuasion in his heart, a young minister. enters upon his field of action. It is his governing principle, that no society is to exist of which he is not to be trea. surer, secretary, or patron; no school to which he does not dictate every rule and lesson; that none shall meet unless he preside over the meeting; that his parish, in fact, shall be tethered by a set of ropes which he holds in his hands. Now all this would be very well if only, by some new constitution of his nature, he could, like "Michael Scott,” be every where at one moment, and do the work of a regiment with one' pair of hands, and look as many ways as Argus with one pair of eyes; and had he only, like "Swedish Charles," "a frame of adamant and heart of fire." But we correct Q

ourselves: even if he were thus marvellously gifted, his congregation might contain individuals fitter than himself for many of the offices he thinks proper to undertake. But the fact is, that, though his youth and zeal sustain him for a little moment under his Atlantean duties, his nerves and frame soon give way. The afflictions of life, perhaps, press upon him. Its cares are sure to follow him. The failure of some favourite scheme, perhaps, discourages him. His very piety languishes from the want of reasonable repose, and solitary prayer, and quiet communing with his heart, and with his God. And, after a few tumultuous years, he is found sinking into premature decrepitude, old in middle age, and exhibiting all the indications of a man who has lived too fast for the powers of his own nature. Nor is it the only mischief, or the worst in such a case, that the individual himself thus deeply suffers. All around him feel the ill effects of his feverish industry and officiousness. His people have leaned so much upon him, have been accustomed so exclusively to trust to his super intendance and vigilance, that there are no working bees to be found in the hive: so that, when he falls, all falls with him. His people are children when they should be men. And when the solitary lamp at the parsonage is extinguished, the whole place is left in perfect darkness. This, we are persuaded, is one of the grand causes to which we are to attribute the sudden extinction of institutions, and the disappearance of all moral improve. ments in particular churches or neighbourhoods, when a leading in. dividual pays the debt of nature. The interests of humanity have been bound up in his single bosom, and the blow which struck that was fatal to the community. How widely different from this case is that of an individual who, looking, with modesty and enlargement of mind, over the vast field of moral

usefulness, perceives at once his own incompetence to occupy every part of it; and, without shrinking from personal exertion, and with a hearty disposition to turn every moment to the best account, feels it his duty to be labouring rather in the gross than in the detailrather in creating agents around him, than in discharging the duties of agency-rather in directing and controlling the energies of his people, than in slipping into their harness. In the first instance, indeed, his zeal may make less show, and attract fewer admirers: he may seem to be stationary when others are advancing. No grand institutions may arise at once, like an exhalation, under the touch of his wand; but, after a time, his enginery will begin to work; and, should he fall, much as he will be mourned over by the children of his hand, they will not mourn as men without hope. Being dead, he will yet live and speak, in the energies of those formed under his fostering care. And as the influence of the moon on the tides is greatest after the full, it may be, perhaps, when his countenance no longer beams upon his people that his influence is the strongest, and the converts to his ministry the most numerous. It is not possible for us to give more space or time to this topic. But we consider it as one of high importance; and we shall be amply repaid for our labours if we learn that any of those admirable men whom we have the pain to see tossing in the whirlpools of perpetual occupation" their foreheads ridged and furrowed" with needless perplexities should be led by these bumble observations to set themselves to consider whether they have not hitherto mistaken their proper sphere and occupation, and whether, instead of in future acting the distinct parts of general, soldier, and trumpeter, of the same ecclesiastical regiment, they may not be better employed in drilling the awkward soldiery around them,

and wielding their strength instead of exhausting their own.

If we could but once see our clergy and others consistently and vigorously acting upon the principle of creating such an agency in their respective parishes, we should not despair of seeing the fair vision conjured up by Dr. Chalmers in the following passage, at length realized.

"This holds out a very brilliant moral perspective to the eye of a philanthropist. In a few years, many of the scholars at our present seminaries will be convertible into the teachers of a future generation. There will be indefinite additions made to our religious agency. Instead of having to assail, as now, the general bulk of the population, by a Christian influence from without, the mass itself will be penetrated, and, through the means of residing and most effective teachers, there will be kept up a busy process of internal circula. tion. It is thus that he who can pa. tiently work at small things, and be content to wait for great things, lends by far the best contribution to the mighty achievement of regenerating our land. Extremes meet; and the sanguine philanthropist, who is goaded on by his impatience to try all things, and look for some great and immediate result, will soon be plunged into the despair of ever being able to do any thing at all. The man who cau calmly set himself down to the work of a district school, and there be satisfied to live and to labour without a name, may ger minate a moral influence that will, at length, overspread the whole city of his habitation. It is rash to affirm of the local system that it is totally im. practicable in London; while most na

tural, at the same time, that it should appear so to those who think nothing worthy of an attempt, unless it can be done per saltum,—unless it at once fills the eye with the glare of magnificence, and it can be invested, at the very outset, with all the pomp and patronage of extensive committeeship. A single lane, or court, in Loudon, is surely not more impracticable than in other towns of this empire. There is one man to be found there, who can assume it as his locality, and acquit himself thoroughly and well of the duties which it lays upon him. There is another, who can pitch beside him, on a contiguous settle.

ment, and, without feeling bound to speculate for the whole metropolis, cán pervade, and do much to purify his as who will find that a walk so unnoticed sumed portion of it. There is a third. and obscure is the best suited to his modesty; and a fourth, who will be eager to reap, on the same field, that reward of kind and simple gratitude, in which his heart is most fitted to rejoice. We are sure that this piece-meal opera. tion will not stop for want of labourers; though it may be arrested, for a while, through the eye of labourers being seduced by the meteoric glare of other enterprises, alike impotent and impos. ing. So long as each man of mediocrity conceives himself to be a man of might, and sighs after some scene of enlarge ment that may be adequate to his fan. cied powers, little or nothing will be done; but so soon as the sweeping aud sublime imagination is dissipated, and he can stoop to the drudgery of his small allotment in the field of usefulness, then will it be found, how it is by the summation of many humble mediocrities, that a mighty result is at length ar rived at. It was by successive strokes of the pickaxe and the chisel that the pyramids of Egypt were reared: and great must be the company of workmen, and limited the task which each must occupy, ere there will be made to ascend the edifice of a nation's worth, or of a nation's true greatness." pp. 852 -355.

The author concludes his essay by a vigorous call upon the followers of Mr. Wesley to adopt the local system, and to carry the Gospel, by this means into every alley and cottage in the country. Now doubtless the light and disposeable force of which their body consists, supplies extraordinary facilities for such an enterprise. The sort of Cossack warfare proposed by the author, would be more congenial to them than for a time it would be to the heavy-armed troops of the Establishment. Thus far we certainly concur with Dr. Chalmers, that, rather than the work of moral reform, among the many hundreds of thousands of our countrymen who are without all means of instruction, should continue to be neglected, we should heartily desire

to see it in the hands of the Methodists, or of any other body who will supply the Church's lack of service. We may add, however, that if it is not to be done by the Establishment, which above all things we desire, there is no other body of Christians, perhaps, who, on the whole, we should be better pleased to see engaged in it than the followers of Mr. Wesley. The strictness of their discipline, their rigid system of inspection, their singular facilities in availing them selves of precisely those individuals in their body who are best suited to the work; all seem to constitute them, if the Established Church hangs back, suitable agents for so extensive an undertaking. May we not also, in spite of some fresh acts of alienation from the mother church, even now state it as a reason why this body of religionists is preferable for the work in question to systematic Dissenters, that, after all, there may be lingering in their breasts some latent attachment to the parental roof from which they have wandered, and some anxiety to repose once more in the parental bosom? But, be all this as it may, whilst Methodism goes on approximating to Dissent, and whilst not a little of enthusiasm is cherished among its followers, we cannot wish to see the business of locality left in their hands. Indeed, where can we wish to see it, except in the hands of those to whom the spiritual interests of the great mass of the community are entrusted? where, but in the hands of the national church; a church, of whose formularies few complain; the revival of whose discipline all desire; whose name is so dear to most orders of society, that her movements will not be suspected; and whose interests are so linked with those of the state, that her labours to promote them will never be feared;-of that church which, of all religious bodies in this kingdom, perhaps alone comprehends that quantity of

learning in her members, and that moderation in her principles, which would serve to controul and regulate the zeal a system of such energy would be sure to kindle? It is then to the Church of England that we would consign this great enterprise; and had we a hundred voices, they should all be lifted up to implore her clergy and her members to awake from the sleep of ages, for such her past suppineness may be called, and to go forth for the recovery of her people from the depths of vice and ignorauce to which in so many cases they have sunk. We cannot think of the state especially of our vast metropolis, without the most heart-rending emotion. Ten thousand individuals have passed through its few principal prisons in a single year. Many thousands of children in its courts and alleys are subsisting altogether upon depredation. Hundreds of thousands, in spite of all the laudable exertions of the National and other Societies, are still destitute of Christian education. Crime seems, for the present, to have so mastered our existing means of improvement, that its circle, in spite of every exertion, widens and deepens around us. The race of benevolence after sin and misery, is, at the present moment, that of the tortoise after the hare. What joy would it be to us to see a body of philanthropists, with the clergy of London at their head, forming themselves into a committee to determine by what means the local system might be best set in motion in streets and cellars, on which scarcely a ray of the Gospel has ever yet shone! What a consolation even to know that the number of individuals was multiplied, who were beginning to move in their own immediate sphere'; and, without waiting for the public, were determined to discharge their own consciences, and ply their sickle, even if it be the only one, in the great harvest of souls! May the God of all mercy stir up our minds to this work of justice and

of love! and may the century which found the poor of our country "perishing for lack of knowledge," leave us a people "taught of God," and heirs of all the "peace" and joy which such knowledge is calculated to convey! May God give the word, and great will be the company of those who shall arise to nurse the children of this neglected flock, and to lodge them in the bosom of their Father.

With this examination of the Eighth Number of Dr. Chalmers, which ends the first volume of his quarterly papers, we close our observations for the present. How soon we may be able to follow him through the next volume, we know not. We shall, however, the less regret our disability to track his

footsteps in our humble pages, because we venture to hope that those who miss him here will go in quest of him to his own admirable papers. In so doing, they will be every way gainers. They will, we venture to prophecy, find much to admire, and little to lament, except a style which is perhaps fuller of vigor and of faults than the style of any English or Scottish writer since the time when reading and writing were considered as among the capi. tal crimes of the country. Such is the amount of his offence against society. His claims upon it will, we confidently believe, be fully known only in the land where the triumphant servants of the Lord "will see the face of their God," and have his " name written in their foreheads."

GREAT BRITAIN. PREPARING for publication :—Memoirs of an only Son, by the Rev. T. Durant; -Sketches of the Highlands of Scotland, by D. Stewart;-Naval Biography by Lieut. Marshall;-History of Charles II.;-Fishes of the Ganges, by Dr. F. Hamiltou ;-Village Sermous on the Christian Character, by the Rev. E. Berens;-The Beauties of Jeremy Taylor, with his Life, by Mr. Melmoth.

In the press:-Specimens of the American Poets ;-Elements of Mathematics, by P. Nicholson;-Public Men of all Nations ;-A Technological Dictionary, by Mr. Crabb;-Elements of Self-knowledge, by the Rev. T. Finch;-Psalm and Hymn Tunes, by the Rev. D. Everard;-Oriental Literature, applied to the Illustration of the Sacred Scriptures, designed as a Sequel to Oriental Customs, in 2 large volumes 8vo.; by the Rev. S. Burder, A. M.;-A Letter to Rabbi Herchell, containing a Comparison between the Force of the Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, and that adduced to prove the miraculons Exodus of the Israelites

from Egypt; by the Rev. George Hamilton;-A third volume of the Remains of Henry Kirke White, selected from his Letters, and other MSS., with prefatory Remarks by R.Southey;-Considerations on the Subject of Calvinism, and a short Treatise on Regeneration, by W. B. Knight, A. M. ;—The Life of John Goodwin, A. M., comprising an Account of his Opinions, Writings, and Controversies, with a Review of the Civil Wars and the Inter-regnum, by T. Jackson-The Works of Arminius, trauslated from the Latin, with the Life of the Author.