Notwithstanding, therefore, the above-mentioned instances, of benevolent zeal, it must be obvious, that before a real education can be extended to all the children of these manufacturing towns-before the working classes, rescued from intemperance and vice, can be taught to improve all the advantage of their position-before they can think of their country with just exultation, as affording them the best opportunities of self-cultivation-before they can be proof against the delusive seductions of Socialism-before their physical and mental energy can become their country's glory and defence--before they can be elevated to a condition upon which a Christian philanthropist can reflect with complacency, and take their proper place as the most intelligent, cultivated, religious and cheerful working population in the worldfar more extended and energetic efforts must be made to improve them. They must not merely be schooled, but educated; not alone be drilled to perform their ma nœuvres with military precision, but be trained to intellectual and religious habits. Parents and children must be thoroughly interested in the matter; the community must be roused to educational zeal; schools must be multiplied and improved; masters must be better and more liberally paid, a larger supply of books must be provided, there must be more vigorous inspection, and much larger funds must be raised, than the friends of popular education, hitherto few and timid, have ever ventured to hope for. If these remarks are correct, they appear to lead to the following conclusions:1. That, as there are numbers of children who are neither taught in schools nor working in factories, there is a great want of school-buildings, and the friends of education will need the help of Government in erecting them. 2. That, as there is a general complaint of the extreme difficulty of getting good masters, the Government should institute training-schools in various parts of the country, in proportion to the wants of the community, at which masters may be educated freely. 3. That, as the funds of many schools are so low as to prevent the school-committees from allowing salaries adequate to retain the services of able men, and from employing assistant masters, the Government may usefully afford small allowances to those masters, a certain number of whose scholars shall pass an examination satisfactory to the Government Inspector; all public elementary schools which are conducted on principles approved by the Committee of Council being at liberty to invite such inspection. 4. That, as no elementary school-books have as yet appeared which are unobjectionable to all parties, the Government might, perhaps, advantageously offer prizes for the best class-books on various subjects, and furnish such class-books at a cheap rate to the patrons and conductors of schools. 5. That, as many uneducated parents are unconcerned about the education of their children, it would, perhaps, serve the cause of education; if the Government should offer prizes for the best tracts on this subject adapted for general circulation among the parents, and should enable the friends of education to circulate them at a cheap rate through the country. 6. That, as the public are not well informed respecting popular education, just views might be widely diffused, if the Government should offer a prize or prizes for the best essay or essays upon this subject. Having thus presented to your Lorships such information on the quality of the education in the cotton towns as my limited time would allow me to obtain, permit me, my Lords, to subscribe myself your Lordships' Most obedient and humble servant, To the Right Honourable the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education. BAPTIST W. NOEL. REV. WILLIAM JAY. PREACHED AT ARGYLE CHAPEL, BATH, ON SUNDAY EVENING, JAN. 12, 1840. "The living know that they shall die."-Ecclesiastes ix. 5. "We are but of yesterday," says Eliphaz, "and know nothing.' Here are two facts-the brevity of time, and the imperfection of knowledge: and these have a connection with, and an influence over, each other. The imperfection of knowledge requires application, observation and experience and these require time. We say, "Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom." If a man lived as long as Methusaleh and others before the flood, we might expect great things from him he would have opportunities to learn, and means of acquisition. What can be done in a few years? and "we are of yesterday, and know nothing." Yet, my brethren, our ignorance is not entire; we know something. We know something of nature; for "He has never left Himself without a witness," in His works, or ways, or Word. We know something of ourselves. We know that we had a beginning; we know that we have not been here always, and we know that we shall not be here always. We know that we were born, and we know that we shall die; and the one is as sure as the other for "the living know that they shall die." not to be informed, but to be impressed." And what is the language of our Saviour? "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." "Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father, which is in heaven.' 22 Let us plunge into our subject; and of the knowledge of which our text speaks let us take five views. Let us consider, first, the sources of this knowledge; secondly, the limitations of this knowledge; thirdly, the extent of this knowledge; fourthly, the happiness or misery of this khowledge; and fifthly, the uselessness or use of this knowledge. I. THE SOURCES of this knowledge. "The living know that they shall die." You derive it from the Scriptures. Thus you read, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." "Man dieth, and wasteth away; yea,.man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?" "In Adam all die. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." But this is not one of those truths, which This is one of the most common-place depends entirely upon revelation. Revereflections ever uttered,' you are ready to lation alone could have informed us of the say: 'and is it to hear this we are assem- origin, the nature, and the future consebled together this evening?' It is; and quences of death; but we could have need I tell any of you, that the plainest learned the fact without it. For what truths are the most important, and, at says all history for nearly six thousand the same time, the most neglected? And years? Where now are the heroes that is it the duty of the preacher to gratify once triumphed, the philosophers that curiosity, and indulge the rage for novelty; once taught, the kings that once goor to lead his hearers from speculation to practice, and to render their convictions principles of action, and to bring their minds under the operation of the "powers of the world to come?" Oh! it was a fine answer which the incomparable judge Hale returned to a person, who one day asked him why he attended a ministry so constantly and invariably, which could not inform him. "Oh!" said he, "I go 66 verned? "The fathers, where are they? cover our cotemporaries. And does not observation say the same? Do you not continually see man "going to his long home, and the mourners going about the streets ?" Is there one of you here this evening, who has not been called more than once to mourn-who has not more than once exclaimed, 'What a dying world! what dying children, what dying families do we mourn!' Who has not more than once sighed, 'Eternal Disposer of all things! lover and friend hast Thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness?' And is this all? Does not experience teach the same? Our very life is only a succession of dyings; every hour wears away a part of it; and as far as life is gone, so far we are already dead and buried. Some of you have had very fierce attacks of mortality; and yet you were able to withstand them; though they told you in language plain enough, that "your strength is not the strength of stones, nor your bones brass." Those of you who have escaped these, do you not feel, that while your survive, you yet decay? While you are persuaded that you are immortal in destination, do you not feel that you are mortal also in state? Have you not "the sentence of death in yourselves?" Is not some pin taken out, or some cord loosed, in the tabernacle? Why, old age bends down the man, as he walks along, towards the ground, as if it ordered him to survey the place towards which he is travelling. Why, the lengthened life is proof enough of the certainty of death for what are dimness of sight, and dulness of hearing, and trembling of limbs, and loss of appetite, and chillness of blood, and depression of spirits-what are all these but the forerunners, the signals, the beginnings of death? But it seems entirely needless to enlarge on a thing which no one denies. Every question besides this, with regard to a fellow-creature, is answered only by peradventures. If you are asked, Will he reach maturity?" you say, ' He may.' If you are asked, 'Will he become rich?' you say, 'He may.' 'Will he fill such an office?' or will he form such a connection ?' 'He may.' But now ask whether he will die; and the reply will be, He must,' without one moment's hesitation or reserve; for "the living know that they shall die." Let us consider II. THE LIMITATION of this knowledge. "The living know that they shall die,” but they know not when. If there are persons who have seemed to have some kind of apprehensions or intimations previously of the time of their dissolution, these were casual, and not prophetic ; events alone rendered them predictions. "There is an appointed time to man upon earth; his days also are like the days of an hireling: God has appointed his bounds which he cannot pass: it is He who has filled our glass, and He knows how many sands there are to run out. But He communicates not this knowledge to any man; and therefore every man must say with Isaac, “I know not the day of my death," nor the week, nor the year. "The living know that they shall die," but they know not where-whether at home in the bosom of the family, or among unconcerned strangers-in the garden, or in the field, or on the road. Where have not persons died? Some have died in the house of God; some have died at the card table; some have died in the play house. Ehud died in his summer parlour, and Pharaoh in the Red Sea. There seems hardly to be a place, which has not, one time or other, been a door of entrance into eternity. "The living know that they shall die," but not how—whether suddenly or slowly, whether by a fever or dropsy, whether by accident or by the hands, or device of wicked and unreasonable men. "One dieth," says Job, "in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet; his breasts are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow. Another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure. They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them." "The living know that they shall die," but not what it is to die. Thus Joshua said to the Jews, "Ye are going a way that you have not gone heretofore." It will be a new path to every one of you. Here is a case in which no information can be derived from experience; none from your own experience, none from the experience of others: for no one, however charged or importuned, ever returned to "blab the fatal secret out, and tell us what it is to die." Then let us consider, III. THE EXTENT of this knowledge. "The living" not only "know that they shall die," but they know much more; they know a number of things pertaining to it too. For instance, they know that they shall die, whatever be their character and their condition. They know that "in this war there is no discharge," that this is "the way of all the earth." Enoch indeed "walked with God, and was not, for God took him :" and Elias ascended to heaven in a chariot of fire: and at the last day there will be multitudes who "will not sleep, but be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." But these are all miracles, these are all exceptions to the general rule; not one of you looks for anything like this. "The living," therefore, whether they are old or young, whether they are rich or poor, whether they are in palaces or poor-houses, whether they are sinners or whether they are Christians-each of them can individually say, "I know that Thou will bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living." And as "the living know that they shall die," they know also that death cannot be far off, unless indeed they choose to be entirely deluded. There is now and then an individual who reaches a century; but he is noticed and spoken of as a kind of prodigy. I dare say there is not a single person here this evening, who expects to reach such a period as this. No; "the days of your years are threescore years and ten:" this is the general average of human life now; and need you be told, that it is a very favourable one, and that numbers more die on the one side of it than on the other? And as "the living know that they shall die," they know that it may be very near. Yes, they know this: they know, that but for the will of God, there is not a week, or a day, or an hour, or a moment in which they may not die: they know the perilousness of the outward situation in which they live: they know the truth of Dr. Watts's remark "Dangers stand thick through all the ground, And fierce diseases wait arouud They know the brittleness of the human frame; they know that the body is constituted of a multiplicity of delicate organs and vessels, the destruction of any one of which may bring on the dissolution of the whole. The philosopher said, with regard to those who sailed, that they were alwayswithin three or four inches of death. Why, you know what a narrow partition there always is, wherever you are, between you and the eternal world. And as "the living know that they shall die," they know that they shall die only once. "It is appointed unto all men once to die :" and what can only be done once, ought to be done very well. The ruler's daughter, indeed, the widow of Nain's son, Lazarus, and others, died twice: but these, again, were miracles; these were exceptions from the general rule. There is not one of you, who expects this: you all know, that when you go hence you shall be "seen no more ;" you well know, that when you go hence you will be going by "a way by which you will not return." And as "the living know that they shall die," so they know that when "the dust shall return to the dust as it was, the spirit shall return to God that gave it;" and "after death the judgment.' And if Ifany of you should say, 'But there are persons who do not believe this,' you must distinguish between profession and belief in a thousand cases. You must remember, too, that no man can be sure, perfectly sure, that there will be no hereafter. A man may hope that he is a brute, but he cannot prove it: he may live like the brutes that perish, and wish to die like the brutes that perish, and be no more, but he cannot. He can never be sure of this; he cannot be free from some misgiving, some fears, some doubts in this case. if it be supposed, that now and then, there is an individual who has entirely subdued his reason, and conquered his conscience, and forced God to give him up to "strong delusion to believe a lie ;" yet their number among us, we hope, is very few: 1 should presume that there is not one such individual to be found in this congregation this evening. There are, therefore, in the number of the living those who know that they shall die, but that death is not annihilation; that death is not the extinction of existence, but only the change from one mode of it to another; that it is only a transition from a mortal to an eternal state, and from a state of action and probation to a state of decision and retribution. Let us now contemplate, IV. THE HAPPINESS OR THE MISERY OF THIS KNOWLEDGE. For, my brethren, what a source of misery must this knowledge be to a man who is a sinner! If it be not, it ought to be. But it commonly is; and much more commonly than those who feel it are willing to allow. In several of Voltaire's works, (not in auy of his published works, -no, no, he wished to appear the hero before his comrades, but in several of his letters to his private friends, which are now indeed published), you meet with this expression frequently-I think I have remarked it four times in one volume: "I hate life, and I dread death." Why, the only concern of thousands of our fellowcreatures is, to banish the thought of it from their minds; for the thought of it, like the handwriting on the wall, is enough to turn the pleasures of the feast into horror and anguish. Inspiration itself calls death"the king of terrors." What view can be taken of it, that can be agreeable and inviting, that must not be repulsive and terrible-to an unpardoned, unrenewed sinner. If he desires it, the Scripture meets him with the question, "For what do you desire the day of the Lord? The day of the Lord to you is darkness, and not light." If you say "it is better for you to die than to live," you are perfectly mistaken for whatever be your present hardships, and privations, and sorrows, and trials, these are only "the beginnings of sorrows," these are only the beginnings of misery-the first words in the roll which is "written within and without with lamentation and mourning and Woe." : You have heard of the afflictions of Job. You know a number of messengers arrived one after the other, and the last was always worse than the preceding: and what a sad story is the summing up of the whole ! We may apply this to a dying sinner. Oh! how many messengers may we suppose arriving to him! One messenger comes and says to him, You must resign all your offices, and all your employments, however honourable and however beneficial they may be, and have nothing more to do with any of the concerns below the sun.' While he is yet speaking, another comes and says, You must be stripped of all your possessions-your houses, your lands, your silver and your gold.' While he is yet speaking, another comes and says, You must resign all your recreations, all that ever charmed your imagination, or delighted your senses you must no more walk by the side of the murmuring brook; no YOL. XIII. more inhale the fragrance of the spring; no more behold the tints of autumn; no more be melted by the singing of birds and by the converse of friends.' While he is yet speaking, another messenger comes and says, You must now take your last leave of your connections and your relations, regardless of a fainting wife and sobbing children and praying friends.' While he is yet speaking, another comes and says, Your blood must be congealed, your body become a mass of loathsomeness; you must be laid in a corner of the earth, and be devoured by worms.' While he is yet speaking, another comes and says, Your soul must enter the invisible world, and in a new and untried condition, appear before the Judge of all.' You can easily imagine, therefore, what a source of misery this knowledge must be to a sinner. "The living know that they shall die." But let us turn the medal; and let us see what a source of comfort it is to the Christian. If it be not, it ought to be, and continually too: for with regard to those of you who know the Saviour, the curse is turned into a blessing, and the enemy is converted into a friend. "The righteous hath hope in his death." "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace" peace in the issue, and commonly peace in the exit too. "To die," says the apostle to the Philippians," is gain." The traveller then gains his Father's home, the mariner then gains the desired haven; the soldier then gains his victory and his triumph the believer, after all his conflicts, gains then a complete deliverance from all his sorrows, and all his sins, and all his temptations. And observe now, the whole life of the Christian here is founded upon a hope that can only be accomplished by dying. What is it, believer, that will complete your bliss, but your being with your Saviour, to behold His glory, and to be for ever with the Lord? And death to you is not a bar, but a bridge, so that you can pass over to the possession of it. Jesus therefore said to His hearers, "If a man keep My sayings, he shall never see death." Why, do not believers die as well as others? 'Oh!' says the Saviour, 'death with regard to them comes so changed, that it ought not to be called by this name. It is not, properly, dying; it is "sleeping in Jesus;" it is departing to be with Christ, which is far better;" it 66 2 @ |