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ON SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE.

(From the Rev. Robert Hall's Sermon " On the Advantages of Knowledge to the Lower Classes ;" preached for the benefit of a Sunday School.)

SCRIPTURAL knowledge is of inestimable value on account of its supplying an infallible rule of life. To the most untutored mind, the information it affords on this subject is far more full and precise than the highest efforts of reason could attain. In the best moral precepts issuing from human wisdom, there is an incurable defect in that want of authority, which robs them of their power over the conscience; they are obligatory no farther than their reason is perceived; a deduction of proofs is necessary, more or less intricate and uncertain, and even when clearest, it is still but the language of man to man, respectable as sage advice, but wanting the force and authority of law. In a wellattested revelation, it is the Judge speaking from the tribunal, the supreme Legislator promulging and interpreting his own laws. With what force and conviction do those Apostles and Prophets address us, whose miraculous powers attest them to be the servants of the Most High, the immediate organs of the Deity! As the morality of the Gospel is more pure and comprehensive than was ever inculcated before, so the consideration of its divine origination invests it with an energy, of which every system not expressly founded upon it is entirely devoid. We turn at our peril from Him who speaketh to us from heaven.

Of an accountable creature, duty is the concern of every moment, since he is every moment pleasing or displeasing God. It is a universal element, mingling with every action, and qualifying every disposition and pursuit. The moral quality of conduct, as it serves both to ascertain and to form the character, has consequences in a future world so certain and infallible, that it is represented in Scripture as a seed, no part of which is lost; for whatsoever a man soweth that also shall be reap. That rectitude which the inspired writers usually denominate holiness is the health and beauty of the soul, capable of bestowing dignity in the absence of every other accomplishment; while the want of it leaves the possessor of the richest intellectual endowments a painted sepulchre. Hence results the indispensible necessity, to every description of persons, of sound religious instruction, and of an intimate acquaintance with the Scriptures as its t genuine sourced from a doua hizoW $ geb.or

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It must be confessed, from melancholy experience, that a speculative acquaintance with the rules of duty is too compatible with the violation of its dictates, and that it is possible for the convictions of conscience to be habitually overpowered by the corrupt suggestions of appetite. To see distinctly the right way, and to pursue it, are not precisely the same thing. Still nothing in the order of means promises so much success the diligent inculcation of revealed truth. He who is acquainted with the terrors of the Lord cannot live in the neglect

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of God and religion, with present any more than with future impunity; the path of disobedience is obstructed, if not rendered impassible, and, wherever he turns his eyes, he beholds the sword of divine justice stretched out to intercept his passage. Guilt will be appalled, conscience alarmed, and the fruits of unlawful gratification embittered to his taste.

It is surely desirable to place as many obstacles as possible in the path to ruin : to take care that the image of death shall meet the offender at every turn, that he shall not be able to persist without treading upon briars and scorpions, without forcing his way through obstructions more formidable than he can expect to meet with in a contrary course. If you can enlist the nobler part of his nature under the banners of virtue, set him at war with himself, and subject him to the necessity, should he persevere, of stifling and overcoming whatever is most characteristic of a reasonable creature, you have done what will probably not be unproductive of advantage. If he is at the same time reminded, by his acquaintance with the word of God, of a better state of mind being attainable, a better destiny reserved, provided they are willing and obedient, for the children of men, there is room to hope that wearied, to speak in the language of the prophet, in the greatness of his way, he will bethink himself of the true refuge, and implore the spirit of grace to aid his weakness, and subdue his corruptions. Sound religious instruction is a perpetual counterpoise to the force of depravity. "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever; the judgments of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether."

While we insist on the absolute necessity of an acquaintance with the word of God, we are equally convinced it is but an instrument, which, like every other, requires a hand to wield it; and that important as it is in the order of means, the spirit of Christ only can make it effectual, which ought therefore to be earnestly and incessantly implored for that purpose. "Open my eyes," saith the Psalmist, “and I shall behold wonderful things out of thy law." We trust it will be your care who have the conduct of the School we are recommending to the patronage of this audience, to impress on these children a deep conviction of their radical corruption, and of the necessity of the agency of the Spirit, to render the knowledge they acquire practical and experimental. "In the morning sow your seed, in the evening withhold not your hand; but remember that neither he that soweth, nor he that watereth, is any thing; it is God that gives the increase." Be not satisfied with making them read a lesson, or repeat a prayer. By every thing tender and solemn in religion, by a duc admixture of the awful considerations drawn from the prospect of death and judgment, with others of a more pleasing nature, aim to fix serious impressions on their hearts. Aim to produce a religious concern, carefully watch its progress, and endeavour to conduct it to a prosperous issue. Lead them to the footstool of the Saviour, teach them

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to rely as guilty creatures on his merits alone, and to commit their eternal interests entirely into his hands. Let the salvation of these children be the object to which every word of your instructions, every exertion of your authority, is directed. Despise the profane clamour which would deter you from attempting to render them serious, from an apprehension of its making them melancholy, not doubting for a moment, that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and that the path to true happiness lies through purity, humility, and devotion. Meditate the worth of souls: meditate deeply the lessons the Scriptures afford on their inconceivable value and eternal duration. While the philosopher wearies himself with endless speculations on their physical properties and nature, while the politician only contemplates the social arrangements of mankind and the shifting forms of policy, fix your attention on the individual importance of man, as the creature of God, and a candidate for immortality. Let it be your highest ambition to train up these children for an unchanging condition of being. Spare no pains to recover them to the image of God; render familiar to their minds, in all its extent, the various branches of that holiness, "without which none shall see the Lord." Inculcate the obligation, and endeavour to inspire the love of that rectitude, that eternal rectitude, which was with God before time began, was embodied in the person of his Son, and in its lower communications, will survive every sublunary change, emerge in the dissolution of all things, and be impressed, in refulgent characters, on the new heavens and the new earth," in which dwelleth righteousness." Pray often with them, and for them, and remind them of the inconceivable advantages attached to that exercise. Accustom them to a punctual and reverential attendance at the house of God: insist on their sanctification of the Sabbath, by such a disposal of time as is suitable to a day of rest and devotion. Survey them with a vigilant and tender eye, checking every appearance of an evil and depraved disposition the moment it springs up, and encouraging the dawn of piety and virtue. Bye thus training them up in the way they should go," you may reasonably hope that "when old they will not depart from it."

We congratulate the nation on the extent of the efforts employed, and the means set on foot, for the improvement of the lower classes, and especially the children of the poor, in moral and religious knowledge, from which we hope much good will accrue, not only to the parties concerned but to the kingdom at large. These are the likeliest, or rather the only expedients that can be adopted, for forming a sound and virtuous populace; and if there be any truth in the figure, by which society is compared to a pyramid, it is on them its stability chiefly depends: the elaborate ornament at the top will be a wretched compensation for the want of solidity in the lower parts of the structure. These are not the times in which it is safe for a nation to repose on the lap of ignorance. If there ever were a season when public tranquillity was ensured by the absence of knowledge, that season is past. The convulsed state of the world will not permit unthinking stupidity to sleep, without being appalled by phantoms, and shaken

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by terrors, to which reason, which defines her objects and limits her apprehensions by the reality of things, is a stranger. Every thing in the condition of mankind announces the approach of some great crisis, for which nothing can prepare us but the diffusion of knowledge, probity, and the fear of the Lord. While the world is impelled with such violence in opposite directions,-while a spirit of giddiness and revolt is shed npon the nations, and the seeds of mutation are so thickly sown, the improvement of the mass of the people will be our grand security; in the neglect of which, the politeness, the refinement, and the knowledge accumulated in the higher orders, weak and unprotected, will be exposed to imminent danger, and perish like a garland in the grasp of popular fury. "Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation; the fear of the Lord is his treasure."

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[The danger of pronouncing what are called "Happy Deaths" to be proofs of sincere religion is very ably enforced in the following remarks, which we are confident our readers will receive with the respect due to Mrs. Hannah More, from whose Treatise on Practical Piety they are selected.

The name of this distinguished Lady has now been familiar to her country above half a century, during which period her talents Lave been unceasingly devoted to the cause of truth. In this time she has given to the world no less than twenty volumes on subjects intimately connected with the welfare of her fellow-subjects, and especially, directed to their spiritual interests. Her unrivalled popularity, as a Christian moralist, affords the most satisfactory assurance of the success of her pious labours.

Those who like ourselves have the happiness to enjoy her friendship, can estimate the delight, mingled with instruction, which she has so long diffused throughout the large circle of her familiar society. Highly as we appreciate her literary productions, we consider the charms of her conversation have been still more effectually though less widely employed in the service of Religion. While the learned and the dignified were captivated by her taste and judgment, her more youthful or humble companions have been won by the graceful benignity of those instructive lessons which she adapts with singular propriety and feeling to the capacity of all her hearers.

Providence has protracted the life of this excellent woman to a period when we contemplate her exalted character with veneration. She has seen her dearest friends and relatives gradually sink into the grave, while amidst habitual sufferings she has still sought comfort from the employment of her faculties for the benefit of mankind. We have heard her declare that several of her later writings were undertaken as the solace of those sleepless hours when anguish deprived her of repose; and the vigour and acuteness displayed in these works show the strength of that divine consolation by which she was supported, and exhibit her as a bright example of that Christian fortitude she has so ably inculcated.-L.]

FEW circumstances contribute more fatally to confirm in worldly men that insensibility to eternal things, than the boastful accounts we sometimes hear of the firm and heroic death-beds of popular but irre ligious characters. Many causes contribute to these happy deaths, as they are called. The blind are bold; they do not see the precipice they despise. Or perhaps there is less unwillingness to quit a world which has so often disappointed them, or which they have sucked to the last dregs. They leave life with less reluctance, feeling that they have exhausted all its gratifications. Or it is a disbelief of the reality of the state on which they are about to enter.-Or it is a desire to be released from excessive pain, a desire naturally felt by those who cal culate their gain, rather by what they are escaping from, than by what they are to receive. Or it is equability of temper, or firmness of nerve, or hardness of mind. Or it is the arrogant wish to make the last act of life confirm its preceding professions.-Or it is the vanity of perpetuating their philosophic character. Or if some faint ray of light break in, it is the pride of not retracting the sentiments which from pride they have maintained:-the desire of posthumous renown among their own party; the hope to make their disciples stand firm by their example; the ambition to give their last possible blow to revelation or perhaps the fear of expressing doubts which might beget a suspicion that their disbelief was not so sturdy as they would have it thought. Above all, may they not, as a punishment for their long. neglect of the warning voice of truth, be given up to a strong delusion to believe the lie they have so often propagated, and really to expect to find in death that eternal sleep with which they have affected to quiet their own consciences, and have really weakened the faith of others?

On account of neighbourhood, affinity, long acquaintance, or some pleasing qualities, we may have entertained a kindness for many persons, of whose state however, while they lived, we could not, with the utmost stretch of charity, think favourably. If their sickness has been long and severe, our compassion having been kept by that circumstance in a state of continual excitement; though we lament their death, yet we feel thankful that their suffering is at an end. Forgetting our former opinion, and the course of life on which it was framed, we fall into all the common places of consolation-" God is merciful-we trust that they are at rest-what a happy release they have had!"-Nay, it is well if we do not go so far as to entertain a kind of vague belief that their better qualities joined to their sufferings have, on the whole, ensured their felicity.

Thus at once losing sight of that word of God which cannot lie, of our former regrets on their subject; losing the remembrance of their defective principles, and thoughtless conduct; without any reasonable ground for altering our opinion, any pretence for entertaining a better hope we assume that they are happy. We reason as if we believed that the suffering of the body had purchased the salvation of the soul, as if it had rendered any doubt almost criminal. We seem to make ourselves easy on the falsest ground imaginable, not because we believe

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