Page images
PDF
EPUB

be considered in respect to their teachers. As such ought to be possessed of ability, so they ought to be encouraged. "Pity it is," says the great Mr. Ascham, "that commonly more care is had, yea, and that among very wise men, to find out rather a cunning man for their horse, than a cunning man for their children. They say nay in word, but they do so in deed; for to one they will gladly give a stipend of two hundred crowns by the year, and are loth to offer to the other two hundred shillings. God, that sitteth in heaven, laugheth their choice to scorn, and rewardeth their liberality as it should. For he suffereth them to have tame and well-ordered horses, but wild and unfortunate children; and therefore, in the end, they find more pleasure in their horse than comfort in their child."

The moral principle of children ought to be strictly attended to. They who write of Japan, tell us that these people, though mere heathens, take such an effectual course in the education of their children, as to render a lie and breach of faith above all things odious to them; insomuch, that it is a very rare thing for any person among them to be taken in a lie, or found guilty of breach of faith. What a reproach is this to christians! How culpable are they, whether tutors or parents, who even for once suffer a lie to pass unpunished or unreproved!

Plato, in several parts of his writings, lays down this great principle: That the end of the education and instruction of youth, as well as of government, is to make them better; and that whosoever departs from this rule, how meritori ous soever he may otherwise appear to be in re

ality, does not deserve either the esteem or the approbation of the public. This judgment that great philosopher gave of one of the most illustrious citizens of Athens, who had long governed the republic with the highest reputation; who had filled the town with temples, theatres, statues, and public buildings, beautified it with the most famous monuments, and set it off with ornaments of gold; who had drawn into it whatever was curious in sculpture, painting, and architecture, and, had fixed in his works the model and rule of taste for all posterity. "But," says Plato," can they name one single man, citizen or foreigner, bond or free, beginning with his own children, whom Pericles made wiser or better with all his care?" He very judiciously observes, that his conduct, on the contrary, had caused the Atheni ans to degenerate from the virtues of their ancestors, and had rendered them idle, effeminate, bab-, blers, busy-bodies, fond of extravagant expences, and admirers of vanity and superfluity. From whence he concludes, that it was wrong to cry up; his administration so excessively, since he deserved no more than a groom, who, undertaking the care of a fine horse, had taught him only to stumble and kick, to be hard-mouthed, skittish and, vicious." It is easy to apply this to education: it is of little consequence what we teach children, if we do not learn them to be better.

We should be careful what books we put into the hands of children. All publications tending to infidelity, looseness of character, vice, &c. ought to be proscribed. If the Athenian laws were so delicate, that they disgraced any one who shewed an enquiring traveller the wrong road, what disgrace, among Christians, should attach to that tu

tor, parent, or author, who, when a youth is enquiring the road to genuine and useful knowledge, directs him to blasphemy and unbelief?

The effect of a good education in a national point of view, is very important. The late celebrated Henry Fielding assured a person, that, during his long administration of justice in Bow Street, only six Scotchmen were brought before him. The remark did not proceed from any national partiality in the magistrate, but was produ ced by him in proof of the effect of a sober and religious education, among the lower ranks, on their morals and conduct..

From the tables of the celebrated Mr. Howard, it appears that in the whole of Scotland, whose population at the time of his calculation was estimated at one million six hundred thousand souls, only one hundred and thirty-four persons were convicted of capital crimes in a period of nineteen years, being, on the average, about seven in each year. In a subsequent table we are informed, that in the single circuit of Norfolk in England, including six counties, and containing not more, it is supposed, than eight hundred thousand persons (being but one half of the population of Scotland,) no less than four hundred and thirty criminals were condemned to death in the space of twenty-three years; which is an annual average of nearly nineteen capital convicts, besides eight hundred and seventy four sentenced to transportation..

THE EMPTY CHURCH.

WHERE the truth is not preached in its purity and simplicity, we do not find many hearers,

A minister went one day to a certain church in the city to officiate for the lecturer After a walk of two miles, he entered the church a few minutes before the time, and was surprised not to see an individual in the church; except the boy who was tolling the bell with the surplice on his arm. He went into the vestry, and was but just sat down, when a man in black opened the door, and, walking up, addressed him with a very consequential air" Pray, Sir, who may you be?"

Who am I?- Such a one; and come to. preach for your lecturer this afternoon." "There was nobody here last Sunday," said this man ; "and I see nobody to-day." Upon which, taking up his hat, he stalked off with dignity, saying, "Let us depart in peace;" and left the clergyman overwhelmed with indignation and astonishment. These things ought not so to be. On the Lord's day-in the midst of the city of London -in one of its most beautiful churches-not an individual attended for two successive sabbaths! There must be a cause for effects so awful!

THE FAMILY EXPOSITOR.

MR. W., a merchant at Boston in America, according to his wonted liberality, sent a present of chocolate, sugar, &c. to the Rev. Dr. B., with a billet desiring his acceptance of it as a comment on Gal. vi. 6. "Let him that is taught in the word, communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things." The Doctor, who was then confined by sickness, returned his compliments to Mr. W., thanked him for his excellent family

expositor, and wished Mr. W. to give him a practical exposition of Matt. xxv. 36. "I was sick, and ye visited me."

THE PIOUS FARMERS.

The Farmer's Faith better than the Prelate's Disquisitions.

2

THE late King of Sweden was, it seems, under serious impressions for some time before his death. A peasant being once, on a particular occasion, admitted to his presence, the king, knowing him to be a person of singular piety, asked him, "What he took to be the true nature of faith?" The peasant entered deeply into the subject, and much to the king's comfort and satisfaction. The king at last, lying on his death bed, had a return of his doubts and fears as to the safety of his soul; and still the same question was perpetually in his mouth to those about him"What is real faith?" His attendants advised him to send for the Archbishop of Upsall; who, coming to the king's bedside, began in a learned logical manner, to enter into the scholastic definition of faith. The prelate's disquisition lasted an hour. When he had done, the king said, with much energy, "All this is ingenious, but not comfortable; it is not what I want: nothing, after all, but the farmer's faith will do for me." So true is that observation, that religion is a plain thing; and indeed it wants no metaphysical subtilties, no critical disquisitions, no laborious reasonings, to set it in a clear light.

When the late Mr. Burgess was a boy, he went

« EelmineJätka »