from the universal spread of education? Is it not because we have taught those to read and write, who ought never to have known any thing more than that they were to work, submit, and obey? I answer, It is not because education is so general, but because it is so incomplete ;-because it is directed so much to outward things ;-because its efforts are applied to teaching reading, and writing, without going to the root of the evil, the deeply polluted core of the deeply corrupted heart;-because so many rest satisfied with putting what may become a power of good into the hands of the ignorant, which, if not rightly directed, may become a power of evil-which Satan will not fail to employ for the accomplishment of his own designs. It is like placing a lighted torch in the hand of a child who will most likely employ it for setting itself on fire. The superficialness of education, causes the superficialness of every thing else. Instruction, in the head, will never influence the heart, and religion, in the head, will do no more than fit its possessor to become the prey of every idea, mode, and fashion, and form of religion.-" Every wind of doctrine," will successively lead them aside from their right course, till at last, without a pilot to guide, or a haven in view, they will "make fearful "shipwreck of faith, and of a good conscience." "" A universal education will be the only efficient corrective for the radical spirit of the age; an education based on religion, and in which religion is inwrought. What less means, than those prescribed by the great Physician, can suffice to cure the universal malady? Let it not be imagined, that these measures have the least tendency to set aside or nul lify the great institution of a preached gospel-on the contrary, I speak only of the preparation work -to fit the soul for the reception of the good seed. But why is this God-appointed means of so little efficacy now, but because of the ignorance of those who hear the word! There is no depth of earth, so that the fowls come and devour up the grain, as soon as it is scattered. The truths preached are not received, nor believed, nor understood. Instead of the obedience of faith, the radical and superficial spirit is manifested in the skill and diligence with which God's ministers are made, even by their most juvenile hearers, the subjects of criticism and satire. Every auditor is a theologian and divine, and many fancy themselves more qualified to instruct, than those who are "over them in the Lord." The mighty and irresistible operation of the Spirit of grace, it is true, can alone make the word profitable; but these operations are promised to accompany the faithful declaration of the truth of God-to "make his people willing in the day of his power.""When the Spirit shall be poured upon us from on high,” then shall" the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest." Let it then be the work, and labour, and prayer of every Christian, that he may be instrumental in helping forward this glorious time. Let each, by a personal and consistent part, shew his individual sense of the prevailing evil, which threatens to produce such ruinous and desolating results. Let the living power of the gospel be manifested in their walk and conversation, that "denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, they may live soberly, righteously and godly in the present world." Then when the church universal shall pour forth from her heart the prayer, 66 Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," may she look for and expect her Lord's coming; and he who hath put the petition into her mouth, and the desire into her soul" will come, he will not tarry." M. INSCRIPTION Transcribed from a Grave-stone in Tottenham Churchyard, Middlesex. FAR from his native Greece, the mortal part OBIIT APRILIS XVIII. MDCCCXXVII. ÆTATIS CIRCITER XIII. lify the great institution of a preached gospel-on the contrary, I speak only of the preparation work -to fit the soul for the reception of the good seed. But why is this God-appointed means of so little efficacy now, but because of the ignorance of those who hear the word! There is no depth of earth, so that the fowls come and devour up the grain, as soon as it is scattered. The truths preached are not received, nor believed, nor understood. Instead of the obedience of faith, the radical and superficial spirit is manifested in the skill and diligence with which God's ministers are made, even by their most juvenile hearers, the subjects of criticism and satire. Every auditor is a theologian and divine, and many fancy themselves more qualified to instruct, than those who are "over them in the Lord." The mighty and irresistible operation of the Spirit of grace, it is true, can alone make the word profitable; but these operations are promised to accompany the faithful declaration of the truth of God-to "make his people willing in the day of his power."-" When the Spirit shall be poured upon us from on high," then shall the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest." Let it then be the work, and labour, and prayer of every Christian, that he may be instrumental in helping forward this glorious time. Let each, by a personal and consistent part, shew his individual sense of the prevailing evil, which threatens to produce such ruinous and desolating results. Let the living power of the gospel be manifested in their walk and conversation, that " denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, they may live soberly, righteously and godly in the present world." Then when the church universal shall pour forth from her heart the prayer, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," may she look for and expect her Lord's coming; and he who hath put the petition into her mouth, and the desire into her soul" will come, he will not tarry." M. INSCRIPTION Transcribed from a Grave-stone in Tottenham Churchyard, Middlesex. FAR from his native Greece, the mortal part OBIIT APRILIS XVIII. MDCCCXXVII. ETATIS CIRCITER XIII. |