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which he pays divine honours, and which in imagination he invests with powers and faculties superior to his own.1 is indeed a necessity of his nature, in its present imperfect and sinful state, to have some being higher, purer, and more perfect than himself to look up to, adore, imitate; and hence it was a saying among the ancients that “no one ever became great that did not reverence the gods,"- -a superior being for adoration being regarded as necessary to the attainment of true greatness. In the very act of worship man is, as it were, drawn out of his own nature, and brought to conform more and more to the nature of the being whom he adores.3 Men thus invariably assimilate to

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in youth no higher occupation than this; no godlike recreation of his soul, no spiritual sciences; and if what he is taught of intellect be thus bowed down, like Prometheus, to the barren earth, then have we an education which, however splendid in its apparatus, however imposing in its experiments. is poor and meagre, low, mean, and earthly. Such education will depress a people out of manliness, out of liberty, out of poetry and religion, and whatever else hath been the crown around the brows of mankind."-(EDWARD IRVING: Sermons.)

166 If you search the world," says Plutarch, "you may find cities without walls, without letters, without kings, without money; but no one ever saw a city without a deity, without a temple, or without prayers." "There are probably none (no people) who do not possess the idea of some invisible power, external to themselves, whose favour they seek, and whose anger they deprecate by sacrifice and other ceremonials.”—(Dr. W. B. CĂRPENTER.) "Whether true or false, sublime or ridiculous, man must have a religion. Everywhere, in all ages, in all countries, in ancient as in modern times, in civilized as well as in barbarian nations, we find him a worshipper at some altar, be it venerable, degraded, or blood-stained.”(M. THIERS.) "There is in the nature of man, or in the circumstances in which he is conditioned, something which leads him to recognize and worship a superior being."-(Philosophy of Plan of Salvation.) "That there exists in the human mind, and indeed by natural instinct, some sense of deity we hold to be beyond dispute, since God himself, to prevent any man from pretending ignorance, has endowed all men with some idea of his Godhead."-(CALVIN: Institutes.) "In spite of all contrary efforts and all pretensions, each one has his religion, never doubt it; each has his worship-each deifies something, and if he has no ideal to pay homage to, he deifies self."—(VINET.)

2 "Does not every true man feel that he is himself made higher by doing reverence to what is really above him." "This, at bottom, is the wish and prayer of all human hearts, everywhere and at all times;— Give me a leader- --a true leader, not a false, sham leader-a true leader, that he may guide me in the true way, that I may be loyal to him, that I may swear fealty to him, and follow him, and feel that it is well with me.'"(T. CARLYLE.)

3"Man, by worshipping, becomes assimilated to the moral character of the object which he worships. This is an invariable principle operating

the character of the being that they worship; and it is only in the person and character of Christ, as revealed to us in Scripture, that we find a perfect object of worship, one in all points calculated to elevate, refine, and improve humanity."

But while religion forms a necessary and important part

with the certainty of cause and effect. The worshipper looks upon the character of the object which he worships as the standard of perfection. He therefore condemns everything in himself which is unlike, and approves of everything which is like, that character. His aspirations, therefore, every time he worships do, from the nature of the case, assimilate his character more and more to the model of the object that receives his homage."-(Philosophy of Plan of Salvation.)

1 "It is natural to votaries of all sorts to think that it is glorious and honourable to resemble the deities which they worship; and they will be very proud to imitate their practices."-(GEORGE MONRO.) "The character of every nation and tribe of the human family has been formed and modified in a great degree by the character attributed to their gods."—(Philosophy of Plan of Salvation.) "Towards the character of the object worshipped that of the worshipper must constantly progress. This is true of all religions, even the false, when sincerely believed." "The ancient Egyptians were brute worshippers, and bestiality, the lowest vice to which human nature can descend, was common among them. Odin and Thor, the divinities of the Scandinavians, were hero-kings, bloodthirsty and cruel; and hence, in the bosoms of that fierce race of Northmen the milk of human kindness seemed to be turned into gall. Venus, the personification of lust, was the goddess of Corinth; and, as a necessary consequence, her inhabitants were proverbial for dissoluteness." -(Dr. H. DARLING.) "It is well ascertained that the first objects of idolatrous homage were few and simple, and the worship of the earliest ages comparatively pure;" but, says Cicero, "instead of the transfer to man of that which is Divine, they transferred human sins to the gods, and then experienced again the necessary reaction.""-(Philosophy of Plan of Salvation.) "Man must have a god; but he forms his own god, and he makes it a god after his own image. Instead of forming his own character after the likeness of God, he would fashion a god after his own likeness." (Dr. M'COSH.) "According to men's conceptions about God is their practice, religious and moral, very much regulated. And since

all men apprehend the example of God a perfect rule of action that they cannot do better than resemble, and imitate Him, such as they conceive God to be, such in good measure they will endeavour to be themselves, both in their disposition and demeanour; whence infallibly the virtues and defects which lie in their notions will exert and diffuse themselves into their life."-(Dr. ISAAC BARROW: Sermons.)

2" We all of us go out in our thoughts after a hero. I have found my hero always in Christ. : He furnished the fullest conception of greatness and nobleness of character. Every ideal that I have had of true manhood was comprehended in Him."-(H. W. BEECHER.) closer our association with Christ the nearer shall we be assimilated to Him.

"The

The soul that is always beholding the glory of the Lord shall be changed into the same image from glory to glory."(Divine Breathings.) "The more you love Christ the more will your faults disgust you; for a

of education, it by no means follows that it can only be taught, or be best taught, in the ordinary day schools and by the ordinary masters.1 On the contrary, we believe that it is very much to the injury of religion that it is so generally made a part of the business of the ordinary day school.2 One of the most characteristic features of an advanced civilization, and at the same time one of the main causes of its advance, is division of labour.3 A man, by confining his attention solely to certain branches of a science, or to particular parts of an art, obtains a much deeper insight into, or a much greater dexterity in, those parts than if his efforts were diffused over a wider sphere. This is much more the case when there are certain aptitudes in the individual specially qualifying him for dealing with the part which he takes up. It is mainly to this system of division

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hatred of vice follows the love of goodness."-(ERASMUS.) "In proportion as we advance nearer to Him, our judgment, aim, and end will be conformable to His, and His glory will have the highest place in our hearts."-(Rev. JOHN NEWTON.) "The height and perfection of goodness is to resemble God as near as is possible; and we resemble God in being just, and holy, and wise."-(PLATO.) "The man who sees God such as He is will become more and more like Him, will feel his heart dilate with all that abounds in the heart of God, will see his inner nature becoming gradually just, loving, and holy, and will for ever rejoice in subserving the adorable designs of his Father."-(VINET.) "The nature of God is the true idea and pattern of perfection and happiness. And, therefore, nothing but our own conformity to it can make us happy."-(TILLOTSON.)

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1 "It does not at all follow that the common and ordinary course of a secular education is also to be followed up by the same man in the same place in this higher order of instruction (i.e. religion)."—(Rev. T. BINNEY.) "Though I now hear a good deal said, chiefly with a controversial bearing, about the excellent religious influence of our parochial seminaries, I never knew any one who owed other than the merest smattering of theological knowledge to these institutions, and not a single individual who had ever derived from them any tincture, even the slightest, of religious feeling." (HUGH MILLER: My Schools and Schoolmasters.)

3The great principle of division of labour, which may be called the moving power of civilization, is being extended to all branches of science, industry, and art. Whilst formerly the greatest mental energies strove at universal knowledge, and that knowledge was confined to the few, now they are directed in specialities, and in these again even to the minutest points." (The PRINCE CONSORT, at the Opening of Great Exhibition.)

4 "The concentration of the faculties on some one object is indispensably necessary to profound investigation; and, on the contrary, the diffusion of the faculties over a large surface is, generally speaking, absolutely inseparable from a comparatively superficial knowledge." (HENRY ROGERS.)

"The great secret of wealth was discovered long ago in the division of labour. It was discovered that if instead of making our coats and

of labour that we owe the rapid strides that have lately been made in the arts and sciences. We find the same principle taken advantage of in education, and with the like beneficial results. Thus, there are teachers for languages, for mathematics, for music, for drawing, &c.,-men who are specially fitted for teaching these branches by natural aptitude or long study. In like manner, in order to the right teaching of religion, and the proper developing of the religious side of our nature, which we hold to be the highest of all education, special qualifications are necessary in the teacher, as well as special modes of teaching and special surroundings.1

It is one of the evils resulting from the attempt to combine religious and secular education-from having religious instruction imparted at the ordinary day schools and by the ordinary teacher-that those who are the natural and proper religious teachers of the young consider that they shoes for ourselves, we commissioned certain persons to spend their whole lives in making coats and shoes for us, the result was that we got better coats and shoes than we could have ventured to imagine before, because they were now made by persons whose genius specially inclined them to this pursuit, and by persons whose skill was perfected by perpetual practice."(Prof. SEELEY: Lectures and Essays.) "Genius," says Dr. Brown, "is a peculiar nature, aptitude, or tendency to any one calling or pursuit over all others."-(Hora Subsecivo.)

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"As the first rule to be observed by anyone who will give something is, that he must himself have it, so it is true that no one can teach religion who has it not."-(J. P. RICHTER.) "Every man judgeth according to that he hath, and not according to that he hath not; piety is discerned by piety, true knowledge by true knowledge." (HENRY MOORE.) The man who is most competent to teach the arts of reading and writing, and the most skilled in arithmetic, may not be the fittest person to impart religious instruction," even granting that he is a religious man. "The labour alone which is imposed upon him by his other duties is sufficient to prevent that life and earnestness so necessary in explaining a subject of the first importance, especially to children."-(Colloquies on Religion.) "It were extremely to be wished that things were so ordered, that in all considerable schools, at least, one person of serious piety, of gravity and experience in Divine things, or more, according to the number of the scholars, should be fixed on and have a competent encouragement allotted to them, whose only or chief task should be to converse with the youth about their spiritual concerns, to instruct them in the principles of religion, and to guide them in the exercises of devotion, and in the practice of a holy life."(GEORGE MONRO: Essay upon Christian Education, 1712.) "Care, watchfulness, earnest cultivation it requires, but that cultivation is of a different kind, as its objects are different from that which trains the intellect and the imagination, and it cannot be directly taught in colleges and schools."--(Prof. SHAIRP: Religion and Culture.)

acquit themselves of their responsibility by devolving it upon others.1 Thus parents and churches neglect their duties, and devolve them upon the schoolmaster, in addition to his proper duties; and it cannot be wondered at that they are all very indifferently performed.2

Parents are the natural, and, we believe, ought to be the principal, moral and religious educators of their children.3 While they may, and in general must,'delegate the secular education of their children to others, it may well be questioned how far they are at liberty to do so with their moral and religious training. God has for this purpose given them advantages

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Many a man being ignorant of the duty incumbent on him for the instruction of his family, casting the whole weight of it on the public teaching, is, by the deceitfulness of sin, brought into an habitual sloth and negligence of duty."-(OWEN.) "O how sweetly would the work of God go on if we would but all join together in our several places to promote it." "A family is the seminary of Church and State; and if children be not well principled there all miscarrieth. A fault in the first concoction is not mended in the second. If youth be bred ill in the family, they prove ill in Church and Commonwealth." (Introduction to Confession of Faith.)

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2 "To train the schoolmaster to deal with peculiar doctrines. absorbs so much of their time that the other branches of knowledge are not sufficiently studied by them, and subjects very essential to the future success of the pupils in the world are badly taught or altogether omitted."—(Dr. NEIL ARNOTT.)

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3 "The law of the New Testament is that parents are to educate and bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The proper religious training of the young of a Christian family is a duty resting primarily and directly on Christian fathers and mothers."- (Rev. T. BINNEY.) "Domestic instruction in religion I have always considered as the best and most successful form of it."-(Dr. T. BROWN: Sermons.) It is the indispensable duty of parents to attend with the utmost diligence to the pious and virtuous education of their children. It is a duty of infinite importance; a duty they are called to by every argument; a duty on which the support of society, as well as the usefulness and happiness of their offspring, depend." (Dr. A. KIPPIS.) "Those who are professedly religious. are under peculiar obligations to train up their children in the way they should go; and that this is practicable may be inferred from the precept-God enjoins nothing that He does not communicate the power to perform." (JOSEPH BENSON.) "It is at home, even more than at school (because at home it may be done earlier and more effectually than at school), that religious motives and feelings should be implanted, and a knowledge of the truths of religion acquired."-(Report of Her Majesty's Commissioners on Education.)

"The proposition, 'It is the duty of parents to educate their children,' is in danger of being ignored, and its place usurped by the poor substitute, 'It is the duty of parents to provide education for their children.' "The true relation of the professor to the parent is that he is employed to perform such parts of his work as cannot be undertaken personally." (Eclectic Review.) By "the habit which fathers have of delegating alto