a copy of the Scriptures to every convert, and therefore many of them had no more knowledge of Christ and salvation than was written on their memories; and hence, without a constant miracle, Christianity was doomed, in the very nature of things, to be blended with heathenism and error. While the inspired apostles lived, they were so many "lets" or hindrances in the way of "the man of sin," but no sooner were they removed, than antichrist began to triumph. In the days of the reformers, and of Whitfield and Wesley, cheap books, and especially cheap Bibles, were not to be had. One of the most important achievements in modern times is the destruction of the Bible monopoly. Could Wickliffe have seen a copy of the Scriptures for eighteen pence, he would have exclaimed with good old Simeon, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people. A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel."

millions, and every copy of the Scriptures | comparatively towards "making disciples of on an average to cost two shillings. Then all nations." The Apostles could not give one hundred millions of pounds would furnish every single person on the globe with the word of God. Now it has been stated again and again that we spend directly or indirectly this very sum on intoxicating liquors. I am not going here to decide the question whether it is of the most importance for us to have alcohol, or the world to have the Bible, but I merely mention the fact that on one article of luxury alone, we expend enough to supply the nations with the best of books. And were the cost of all our luxuries to be calculated, it would be found that we have ample means, with but very little sacrifice, to drive ignorance not only from our country, but from every part of the world. It should also be observed that the sum mentioned above will never be needed to be spent by us on the distribution of the Scriptures. For as soon as we set about this work of education in earnest, we shall have from America and elsewhere hosts of persons who will emulate our zeal; and besides, as soon as the Scriptures are understood and valued by the heathen, they will not only become purchasers, but contributors to the Bible and other Societies intended to enlighten the world.

Not only were Bibles scarce and dear, but other valuable publications intimately connected with the improvement of the masses and the illustration of Scripture were beyond the reach of the multitude. Philosophers, historians, and divines not unfrequently wrote in Latin, or some other unknown tongue. Then the books they composed were so large, so scholastic, so dear, that to talk of putting them into the hands of the people would have been accounted one of the most foolish vagaries. Who of the ancients thought of writing history, science, or divinity for peasants and clowns? But now almost every popular writer appeals to the multitude. Knowledge is being simplified and condensed, and cheap scientific publications are daily issuing from the press. Booksellers are beginning to learn that to place knowledge within the reach of the masses is the best speculation. What a de

What has been said concerning the Scriptures may be applicable to other publications. The world must have history, science, and revelation. Without these three sources of knowledge the human mind can never be perfected, but the printing-press stands ready to multiply publications on each and all of these subjects to any amount. Its powers are incalculable, and there is no limit to the good which it is capable of effecting. Hence we are raised to an educational eminence, which, had it been hinted to the ancients, would have been deemed one of the wildest of dreams, and for want of which knowledge among them was stationary or retrograde. We have reason to believe that without books society must rather degenerate than improve. After all that we hear of the lite-mand there is for "Chambers' Educational rature, poetry, and philosophy of Greece and Rome, yet the masses were not in a more moral condition in the time of our Lord than in the days of Moses. How little were the peasants and operatives benefited by the philosophy of Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle! We know there was little disposition generally to enlighten this most valuable and most essential portion of the human family; but had such a desire existed, the want of printing, and consequently of books, would have presented a very formidable, if not insurmountable obstacle. And hence, too, not only philosophical minds among pagan nations were prevented from giving any very general publicity to their sentiments, but the apostles of our Lord, the reformers Whitfield, Wesley, and others, could do but little

Course!" What would Bacon or Newton have thought of seeing optics, astronomy, chemistry, and animal physiology written in so popular a style that children could read them with edification and delight, and the whole of each subject made plain in a few pages, and sold for so small a sum that every person could procure a copy? The lad who goes to keep sheep or work at the factory can carry in his waistcoat pocket a full and familiar description of animal physiology, mechanics, &c. These are wonderful days, and intimately connected with that golden age which is about to bless the world.

Were another word needed on the connection between education and books, we might just advert to the complaints of missionaries and others that their efforts are re

tarded for want of the publications that abound in our country. Without maps, pictures, diagrams, and books, schools and schoolmasters can do but little. With what gratitude I have known a master and his pupils receive a diagram, a map, or a new set of school publications! One pleasing feature of the age is the attention that is paid to pictures. It is almost getting an axiom in education that we cannot cultivate the mind without pictorial representations and philosophical apparatus. To expect a schoolmaster to enlighten the minds of the young, and yet refuse him a large supply of books, maps, diagrams, pictorial or real exhibitions of nature and art, is just as absurd as to attempt to sink a mine without machinery, or to produce a beautiful plantation without any variety of shrubs or trees. In estimating the state of education in the country, the number of schools and of scholars is but a very small item. If we would form a correct judgment, we must not only gauge the minds of the instructors, but we must ascertain the amount of school machinery. In former years a dark room, a dame, a hornbook, and good birchen rod, might be dignified by the name of a school; but the age for such delusions has passed away. The era has dawned when nothing short of the impartation of real, valuable knowledge, and the cultivation and proper direction of every power of the human soul, will be allowed to pass for the educa-be usefully employed, and thus made the be tion of the people. Judged of by this standard, we fear that many of the schools of our day are undeserving of the dignified names they bear, and if with us tuition is still in its infancy, what must have been the state of ancient schools when there was of necessity such a deficiency of correct knowledge and cheap books!

children should be individuals of superior minds and attainments. Persons destitute of either literary or intellectual qualifications were selected to form and inform the minds of the rising generation; and we I have reason to believe that the custom still prevails to an awful extent. I know not a few instances in which funds are raised quite sufficient to conduct a first-rate school, but which are nearly all thrown away in consequence of the incompetency of the teachers. I have watched the effects of these schools upon the public mind, and have been pained to perceive that they have scarcely effected anything for the intellectual and moral culture of the neighbourhood; and were they to exist until the day of doom, the population would advance hardly a single step beyond their present ignorance.

3. There has hitherto been a deficiency of suitable instructors. The Reports of the various Inspectors of Schools who have been appointed by the Committee of Council on Education, by the National and British School Societies, present us with a very poor account of many of the masters, mistresses, and dames who preside over the tuition of the young; and if, in our day, we have such defects, what must have been the instructors of former years? Within the present century, more has been done to improve teachers for the instruction of the masses than in any previous part of the world's history with which we are acquainted. The further we search into ancient times, the worse matters appear: and they could not be otherwise. The want of knowledge, and the scarcity of books, left the majority of the teachers in ignorance; and, as they could not impart what they had not to give, their pupils were as ill-informed as themselves. Indeed, until lately, it was not at all a prevalent opinion that the instructors of

Such is the state of education in some hundreds of parishes in England now, and we shall not find things better if we search into antiquity. It is true that many of the philosophers of old were persons of profound minds, but then they were generally wrong. For want of philosophical apparatus and experiment, there was little science among them, and that science which they had they rarely knew how to use for the advantage of mankind. It is not the least of the benefits which we owe to Bacon, that he laboured to impress the public mind with the doctrine, that philosophy ought to

What

nefactress of the whole human family; and
we owe more to him for giving popularity to
this opinion than even for his system of in-
duction. Ancient philosophers had less
scientific and religious knowledge than
many of the children of our day; and, even
had they been better informed than they
were, yet they had little idea of employing
their wisdom for the improvement of the
masses. Where, then, are the schoolmasters
and schoolmistresses of antiquity?
public school existed in Egypt, Chaldea,
Greece, or Rome for the complete education
of operatives and slaves? In vain do we
look after the charity-school, or infant-
school, or any cheap school for the labourers
of those days. The apostles refer to the
"Teacher of babes," and the xarxa,
catechiser; and our Lord commanded that
"all nations should be discipled ;" but still,
how few fellow-helpers our Lord and his
apostles had to carry out the principle of
universal education! "The schoolmaster
was not then abroad." Wickliffe sent out
his poor priests, and these, doubtless, did
much, but they could not teach the whole
population. In the days of Luther, Wesley,
and Whitfield, there were few public teach-
ers to superintend the rising race, and "bring
them up in the nurture and admonition of
the Lord." We have often thought that
the success attending the preaching of these

commenced early. The farmer who altogether neglects the seed-time, and neither ploughs nor sows, might just as rationally expect to have abundant crops, as for the church to hope for great prosperity so long as the rising generation is left to be nurtured in vice and impiety.

holy men has caused a disproportionate | importance to be attached to the public ministry of the word; so that private instruction has been awfully neglected. We have allowed persons to grow up in ignorance, and have fondly hoped if we built a chapel, appointed a preacher, and held a few revival meetings, that God would come But to teach the young, we must have down in the power of his Spirit, and, by knowledge, books, suitable teachers, and converting the people, destroy all the de- commodious buildings; without the latter we pravity which has been engendered in can never succeed. Hitherto our zeal has consequence of our apathy and inactivity. been chiefly directed to church-building and These means have not answered our ex- chapel-building; but these structures will pectations. In some places, after the trial be of comparatively little avail unless we of years, the people, with a few solitary become school-builders also. Let us only exceptions, are as ignorant as they were awaken the public mind to this fact, and all when the church or chapel was first built. the means necessary to accomplish so imHence, too, the missionary abroad not un. portant an object will be very speedily supfrequently succeeds better than the minister plied. The country, through the liberality at home. And the reason is obvious: the of the past and present generation, has been good man at home is a preacher, and per-studded with places of worship; and the haps nothing more; but the missionary is a teacher, is a schoolmaster himself, or has his schoolmaster with him, and, having suitable machinery to work with, rarely labours in vain. Without intelligent, pious, wellinformed teachers of the young, society can never make any rapid advances in knowledge and religion; and as these did not exist in former years, the moral condition of the masses was, of necessity, stationary or retrograde.

On

4. There has been a sad lack of schoolrooms. The writer's views on the necessity of educating the great body of the people have been the same for many years. first entering the ministry, he felt that the children of the working classes demanded especial attention, and that he must lose this hope of his flock unless he had a dayschool. He was doomed to wait for a long time before a suitable building could be obtained; and during that period had the melancholy sight of many of the youth of his congregation being completely ruined for want of such an institution. He has not been alone in these painful circumstances. Thousands of ministers, for want of a proper day-school, "labour in vain, and spend their strength for nought." Persons brought up in the service of Satan until they are twenty, thirty, or forty, are rarely converted in great numbers. It is evident that God does not choose that his omnipotent grace should become a substitute for our indolence by miraculously removing the ignorance and depravity which we have allowed to be generated around us. Considering the few efforts we have made to enlighten and evangelize the youthful mind, we have had more converts than we had any Scriptural reasons to expect. The great harvest of souls is reserved until the time when every portion of the moral world shall be intellectually and spiritually cultivated; and this cultivation, to be complete, must be

same zeal can now cover the land with schools. Taking it for all in all, there never was a more generous and active age than the present; and certainly we read of no period when the Church possessed so much wealth, so much liberty, and so much benevolence. Whatever is taken in hand is done. Defeat is a calamity almost unknown to believers in modern times. As soon as any really Christian project is commenced, men and money immediately follow, and our exertions are soon crowned with sufficient success to encourage us to go forward. The present generation, especially, is ready for something great; and nothing is beginning to command so much attention as the improvement of the labouring population. In this great work we shall soon have denomination vie with denomination in holy emulation; and the regeneration of the world will be the result. It is only therefore to ask for school-rooms, and they will arise as by magic throughout the length and breadth of the country. As soon as the subject is fairly stated, it will be seen, as if suddenly written with a sunbeam, that school-houses are as essential as places of worship, and that to the want of them may be attributed not a few of those discouragements which have broken the spirit of many a zealous labourer in the Lord's vineyard. In ancient nations there were no seminaries erected for the masses; Egypt, Greece, and Rome, could boast of no such institutions. The apostles had neither liberty nor property sufficient to build school-houses; and up to the present time either the want of means, or the want of knowledge, or of a willing mind, has prevented the work from being undertaken on a large and efficient scale. But public opinion is undergoing a glorious change; education is becoming the rallying cry of every denomination; and the competition which sectarianism may create, far from being produc tive of evil, will conduce to the more thorough

improvement of the whole population. We | little time school-rooms sufficient for the are now not likely to have any uniform whole population will adorn and bless our government system of tuition. We shall country. have no imperial or ecclesiastical functionary prescribing how much and how little shall be taught. The minds of British youth will not be harnessed by despots or bigots, nor doomed to drag along any political, military, or ecclesiastical Juggernaut which tyrants may construct to crush the minds of the people. Hereafter it will be seen that liberty of thought, and the multiplied sects to which it has given rise, instead of being an evil, has wrought out the emancipation and complete cultivation of the human intellect. Were there but one creed among us, it might be possible to induce the masses to fabricate and rivet their own chains. But it is fortunate for us that we are split into denominations; and each religionist, in demanding freedom for his own opinions, is compelled to concede to others what he asks for himself. England has little fear of being scourged with the centralization of the Continent. Every sect must work out its own salvation or condemnation by argument alone; and as from the chaos of old our world came forth in all its pristine loveliness, so from the collision, the bigotry, and the zeal of religious faction, we shall see truth arise in her own essential majesty, and the minds of the people prepared to contemplate her glory without a veil. The zeal of the sects awoke the Church of England; and her emulation and ambition, as embodied in the bill of Sir James Graham, has in return infused new life into the breasts of those whom she determined to crush: and thus a spirit is aroused which shall pour the light of truth, science, and religion into every benighted bosom. The long neglected, long despised, long oppressed masses shall become the pets of those who used to trample them in the dust. Already persons are found, who, to make "one proselyte" from even peasants or clowns, will "compass sea and land." Some are teachers from "envy and strife," and some also from "good-will;" but, "notwithstanding, every way, whether from contention or sincerity," so the people be taught, we "therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice." As persuasion and not compulsion, argument and not the Inquisition, competition and not exclusiveness, are to be employed, truth and religion have nothing to fear from the anxiety which is about to be manifested to give a proper polish to the human mind. In the present state of things, bigotry will subscribe its thousands, where there was not charity enough to part with a penny; and the effort to uproot Dissent on the one hand, and overthrow the Church on the other, shall afford no small degree of aid to the good cause. Already thousands have been paid down, or promised, to meet the requisite expense; and we trust that in a

5. The want of liberty was for centuries an insuperable obstacle in the way of education. It will soon be seen that real liberty and true Christianity are intimately connected together; and indeed, that the former cannot exist without the latter. It is a desecration of the word freedom to apply it to the unrestrained licentious life of the savage. In this sense, wild beasts may be said to be free, because they have the power of devouring one another. But then there is nothing humane or rational in such a condition. In fact, these animals are the most abject slaves of appetite. The only principle that animates them is self-indulgence; and in gratifying this desire they are continually destroying one another. Liberty in a desert, among savages or wild beasts, is impossible. In such a wilderness the weak are in constant alarm from the strong; each animal has its den, and its weapons of defence. Numbers of them never see the light,—so intimately, even among brutes, are tyranny and darkness connected together. In these circumstances man travels with his club, his rifle, or his bow; for he who disregards the rights of another is in constant alarm for himself. Where there is neither justice nor benevolence, there can be no real freedom. Hence, every principle and every blessing of liberty is comprehended in the words "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength; and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." This love to God and man is the only palladium of liberty. The least particle of selfishness in ourselves will lead us, to an equal extent, to disregard the claims of others; and the existence of this feeling in others will cause them to neglect what is due to us. The best, and indeed the only guarantee for universal benevolence to man, is love to God. The pagan nations of antiquity knew nothing of this feeling, and therefore were strangers to liberty. No one could trust his neighbour or his brother, and society was without any solid bond of union. The strong arm of power seemed to be the only means of repressing crime and licentiousness; and tyrants may have thought that the viciousness of their subjects was an ample apology for the despotic character of their governments. Ignorance, depravity, and despotism are very closely related. The four kingdoms which Daniel saw were the kingdoms of beasts. Wild beasts presided over wild beasts, and both the governed and the governing were slaves. Every tyrant is of necessity a slave; his ambition, avarice, injustice, and sensuality are the chains which he wears; and his dread that some day the victims of his cruelty will avenge themselves, subjects

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