nothing is left to vague and uncertain arrangement, where the books supplied may vary with the choice or opinions of various individuals; the doctrines inculcated are not left to the fancy of unauthorized or inefficient instructors, which every week may change, or every day may unsettle; but in the scriptural forms provided by the church, or at least sanctioned by the authority of her ministers, there is a guarantee, that nothing depends upon chance, nothing on individual taste, or on private interpretation. To impress upon the tender mind the facts of the gospel history, those mighty transactions of divine compassion, by which the plan of redemption was gradually developed, and by which Almighty love at last triumphed over the works of the devil; to unfold the tendency of revelation, as a message of mercy, established by miracle and exemplified by the loving-kindness of the Saviour's life; to lead on the faculties of the youthful Christian to comprehend something of that length, and breadth, and depth, and height of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge; and thus to furnish the sublime principles and the urgent motives of the christian holiness; as these are the objects which our church contemplates in her ministrations among her members, so are they the objects which we contemplate in the instruction of the children of our poorer neighbours.

That these blessings may be still diffused amongst the children of this parish, we confidently appeal to your continued support. Nay rather, we would earnestly intreat your increased support, that something may yet be done to supply the increasing wants of your poorer neighbours,-the increasing demands for the education of these schools. I am confident that it is but too little known amongst us, that for a long period, the doors of the boys' school have been effectually closed against by far the greater part of the applicants for admission. There has not for many months been a meeting of the Directors, at which several persons who could not establish a claim to be parishioners, though actual residents amongst us, have not been compelled to withdraw without a chance of participating in the blessings of the school; while of those who could establish the more urgent claim to consideration, many have waited for months, before the admission which was promised could be granted. Can I mention this to a congregation of Christians, can I mention this to a congregation of churchmen without effect? Where is the guarantee, that of those whom we thus exclude from the blessings of religious education, any shall receive it elsewhere? May not they remain in ignorance,-may they not be brought up in error? May they not grow up without that knowledge which maketh wise unto salva

tion? and may not something at least, of their danger be attributed to us, in that we have done the work of the Lord negligently? I would hope that this consideration will be regarded as an answer to those persons who imagine that we have abundant funds for all our purposes. God be thanked, through the instrumentality of those whom he has blessed with abundance, and by the aid of congregations like the present, we have funds for the support of the institution in its present state; but never let it be said, that one of us will relax in his exertions, as long as one child resident in this parish shall be sent away from the door of these schools, and told to find instruction in any other place than within their walls.**

I have heard it remarked, not perhaps as an argument against education, but yet as a great discouragement to our exertions, that the benefits derived from it are not so apparent as one might be led to expect. It would be a most unfair reason for the discontinuance of the duty of charity, that its effects are not immediately apparent. It would be, in fact, the adoption of

*The author has great pleasure in remarking, that the deficiency of accommodation here alluded to has been obviated. The schools have been enlarged, by the munificence and exertions of the inhabitants of Richmond, so as to contain ninety-six boys and sixty-six girls, in addition to the former number.

the reasoning of expediency rather than of principle. The wise preacher of Israel does not lay down such a rule as this: he rather encourages us to renewed exertions in the cause of charity, in the hope that success shall at last attend them; or at least that our exertions shall not be overlooked. That bread cast upon the waters should be found after many days, might, at first sight, appear impossible: that seed sown upon a tract of land overflowed with water should spring up and flourish, might appear hopeless, did not experience, even at this day, confirm the fact and that the exertions of charity in the education of these children should not eventually be successful, no one would presume to argue, who would reflect how long the principles inculcated in youth may appear to be dormant, and yet, in the end, be influential upon the conduct. The fact is, that it is not reasonable to look for the full result of education all at once. Christianity itself has never yet had its perfect work; and if we consider that among the lower orders, many still remain uneducated; that many examples of evil are still before the eyes of those whom we are now educating; that the dissemination of evil has, in these our days, woefully increased; and the acrimony of political agitation has distracted the minds of all orders amongst us from those objects which ought rather to have occupied them; it cannot be expected that until

these have passed away, or been obviated, the full benefits of even a religious education can be realized. The improvement of the mass of a nation, in religion or in morals, is necessarily slow. Each succeeding age may indeed adopt the acquirements of its predecessor in science or art; but moral improvement has to contend with its greatest obstacles in the natural corruption of the heart; and each age is equally opposed to the principles of true godliness. The only conclusion to be formed from these considerations which I have mentioned, is, the necessity of increasing the diffusion of religious education, and the necessity of giving a more religious tone to what is called the literature of the day: that as far as possible the force of evil example may be diminished; the tendency of dangerous and immoral, or of indifferent publications, may be counteracted, by a sound and wholesome provision for the employment of the understanding; and the truths of the gospel brought, as early as possible, to the minds of all the rising ge

neration.

Equally untenable, on christian principles, is the objection, for which, alas! too much ground is often given, the insensibility of the objects of our bounty to their best interests, the ingratitude too often shown by those who have reaped the benefits of these schools. The parents and the children often discourage those