interest and variety as well as weight and value to the book. At the same time, he would not be understood as accepting all the views that are given in the notes, some of them being intended rather to excite attention and to call forth thought, and, apart from their connection or bearing upon the subject in hand, it is believed that most of them will be found to embody great thoughts in clear and beautiful language. Hence it will be seen that those who confine their attention merely to the text will obtain but a very imperfect idea of the author's purpose and meaning; they will do better who give their attention to the notes; but only they who take the two together and read them in their connection will fully understand his object. In order to facilitate this, an Analytical Table of Contents has been placed at the beginning, which the reader will do well to consult in the first place.

ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PART I.

THE MUTUAL CONNECTION BETWEEN EDUCATION AND RELIGION.

Education and Religion distinguished

The necessary connection between education and religion

Religion gives to education its proper direction, imparts to it its

highest motives

Education necessary to religion, in order to the building up of the

Christian character; it shows how Christian thought and prin-

ciples are to be brought to mould and animate the daily life

Action, not contemplation, the true end of man's being

All progress, all growth, springs out of action

Action does not naturally, and, as a consequence, follow feeling

Hence the Christian feels that his actions often come far short of

his feelings or intentions: and many are brought to look upon

their physical nature as opposed or hostile to their spiritual

interests

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Many are thus led to attribute to supernatural agency, or the incor-
rigible depravity of human nature, much that is the result of
confirmed habits or defective educational training

Hence the desire for separating themselves from the world, and

giving themselves up to meditation and prayer

But it is by doing and suffering amid the every-day business of

life that the Christian is made perfect

It is from the same cause that we so frequently find the profession

of Christianity apart from the practice of it.

Christianity comprises both faith and works, and a knowledge of

their true nature would enable the Christian to bring them

together and make them mutually helpful the one to the other

Religion too much regarded as distinct from ordinary life

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29

32

It is not something distinct from, but superadded to, so as to

mingle with, improve, and elevate all other things

33

.

All learning and all education, if of the right kind, must lead up

to religion

34

From regarding religion as distinct from other things, Christians

frequently separate religion and morality

34

A man is a Christian only to the extent that he is a moral man,

and Christianity is, in a sense, but the highest morality

We call some things good and ascribe them to God, others evil and

attribute them to the Enemy of man

Such judgments can only be based in ignorance, and are attended

with the most pernicious consequences .

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The Creator must be regarded as the Supreme Ruler of the universe 42

The present order and disposition of things is the best possible,

and even evil is the means of effecting a greater good

44

The opposition that truth, righteousness, goodness, meet with here,

tends to their farther advancement

45

The laws of the universe are established so that the effects produced
by sin become the means of its destruction, and of restoring
man to a higher state of being than that from which he fell

Labour a blessing more than a curse

46

47

That the effects produced by sin should be the means of its destruc-
tion, and of raising man to a higher than his original state of
being, can only be regarded as a mark of the highest wisdom

Man's powers developed by opposition, his progress carried on by

antagonism

From knowing and having experience of evil we come to desire good

Truth has ever made greatest progress when most opposed by error.

Truth to us is relative

By means of contention, agitation, strife, the true is separated from

the false, the right from the wrong, the good from the evil.

Hence ought we to be less impatient with error, and more lenient to

faults as they manifest themselves in others

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51

53

54

54

57

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All persecutions have been owing to making too much of faults

The more one knows of his own nature with its imperfections, of

human nature with its tendencies to err, and of the course of

nature with its impenetrable mysteries, the more leniently will

he be inclined to look upon faults

By judging too harshly of faults we are condemning God's provi-

dential dealings with man

Further, we cannot know the sources whence they have sprung, or

the circumstances that have called them forth

We think not lightly of faults, but we think more highly of action.

The greatest of all faults is to be so impressed with the magnitude

or turpitude of them as to be deprived of all power of action

It is by acting out our belief that we can best judge of its truth

or falsehood

In individuals as in the race, truth is the offspring of error

The great thing is to be in earnest, -for one to be fully persuaded in

his own mind, and to bring his conduct into accordance with his

belief

God ever blesses with success the man of energy and earnestness of

purpose

65

Men err chiefly from not acting according to conviction

It is by action that the world is made better, that man is improved
and perfected; and the thought that tends to no action, or has
not action as its ultimate aim, is of little value
God is the governor of the world, and is working out His own pur-
poses with regard to it; and our bodies in His sight are not vile,
despicable, and polluted, as some would make out

Unless we regard this world as perfect, and everything around us

as designed for our benefit, unless we believe that all our powers

and faculties are intended to be cultivated, our ideas of education

will be very imperfect

This world is meant for a place of education, and everything in it

is adapted to that end

It is not for us to cavil at the established order of things, least of

all is it for the Christian to look upon the trials and temptations

to which he is exposed as other than designed for his benefit

Nature and Revelation must be calculated to help and assist each

other

Religion is simply a means to the glory of God and the perfection of

mankind: it is intended as a means to raise man to a high state

of perfection even in this world; and hence whatever tends to

this, is not distinct from, but allied to Christianity

God reveals his will to us in nature by laws

77

All progress is dependent on the observance of natural laws

All our evils result from the infringement of natural laws

The human race has progressed exactly in proportion as the laws and

operations of nature have come to be more fully understood and

more generally acted upon

In Divine Revelation God has simply given to man a higher know-

ledge of law and truth and right, than he could have obtained by

unaided reason alone

God has implanted in man a desire for happiness, and He has centred

this happiness in the perfection of his nature

Perfection consists in living according to law, and the more our
nature is brought into conformity with law the more perfect it is.

Grace does not set us free from law, but, on the contrary, brings us

more completely under subjection to it

Before the dawn of Revelation nature had a work to do in pre-

paring the way for its advent

The more we come to know of the laws of nature and the better we

comprehend the principles of Divine Revelation, the more clearly

will it be seen that the one is directly calculated to promote and

further the cause of the other

Were men to see that in everything they are subject to law, and to

seek for the cause of every calamity, the source of every evil, in a

broken law, evil would soon cease, and the earth become again a

paradise

b

conversion, but they were considered rather as having received

with the first dawn of consciousness the regenerating influence

of the Holy Spirit, which, through careful education, was to be

the means of overcoming the evil principles of their nature.

Indeed, the importance attached to education as a means of grace
was one of the leading characteristics of the early Church

In all ages men have been too much given to look upon Christianity

as something fixed and established, something that cannot change,

that is incapable of progress

In revealing His will to man, God had to stoop down to his limited

capacity, and had to employ means that were suited to his cir-

cumstances

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The earlier revelations of God to man were therefore simple, and

suited to his comprehension

Religion, which to the Jews was a thing of rites and ceremonies, is
to Christians a matter of the heart and life .

There is no reason to believe that Christianity attained to the

summit of its development in the time of the Apostles, or that

even now it stands revealed to us in all its perfection and beauty 140

On the contrary, we know that there are many points of Divine

truth, now plain to us, that were unknown to those of the early

Church; and it cannot be doubted that, as knowledge extends,

much that is at present hidden will at a future time be revealed. 140

One would naturally expect that, with the extension of our know-

ledge of God's works, our knowledge likewise of His revealed will

and character would be promoted .

141

142

One of the chief arguments for the truth of Christianity is its
admirable adaptation to the wants and necessities of our nature 141
The very fact that we are to look for no farther revelation of a direct
kind must lead us to expect our future progress in Divine know-
ledge to result from the improvement of our understandings and
the extension of our natural knowledge.

The sacred Scriptures were originally communicated to a particular

people living at a particular time, and to those living in other

times and under other circumstances much of their original

beauty and force is lost; but on the other hand, with advanced

knowledge and more highly developed faculties, other beauties

of a higher and purer nature are revealed

There is a deep-rooted objection in the minds of many persons
to the application of reason to matters of religion
But religion has more to fear from a dead formalism, or blind senti-
mentalism, than from any proper use of the reasoning powers

Our ideas and conceptions of Divine truth must of necessity partake

of the imperfection of our nature, and be subject to the like errors

and prejudices that characterise our judgments on other things 145

One has only to look at the history of Christianity for abundant

evidence of this in all ages

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