humble mind can receive, or lowly lot may require, -of calling for their assent on the simple requirement of others who think themselves more enlightened,-of shifting accountability from them to those who undertake and enforce their stewardship,-savours of the most profane usurpation, and is "the merchandise of the souls of men." What right has any man, or has any community of men, thus to bring conscience into subjection, thus to arrogate dominion over the faith of their fellows, thus to grasp the " things which are God's ?"

The Religious Education necessary for the poor is, therefore, very much the same as that which is wanted for the affluent classes: it is "the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord." It is not our secular position which is the ground of this exigency we require it as men, as sinners, as immortals. They who form the debasing view of religion, that it is more needed by the poor, and that it is the fitting engine of a vile policy to perpetuate their depression, deserve no other reply but our indignant scorn. Religion is a mock-word on their lips. But we see in it the birthright and the discipline of an immortal soul: to all souls it is consequently alike indispensable. "This is life eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent!"

That all knowledge should be accompanied by Christianity, is only saying, that Christianity is so

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important that it should give temper to all our pursuits. To say that all knowledge should be based on Christianity, is little short of absurd. Almost every province of science lies out of the field of Revelation. Both possess independent grounds. The Scripture was no more intended to teach us science, than science can be qualified to take the place of Scripture. It is sufficient to remark, that any education is most seriously deficient to which true religion is not attached as its best motive and consecrating element.

It would be impossible to trace the extent of injurious influence upon the public mind of certain prospectûs of education. Religion has been prominently placed and urged. With this we can have no dissatisfaction. Christianity, the religion of salvation by the Cross of Christ, cannot be made too public and disciplinary in moral training. But it is deeply to be deplored that this has been frequently recommended, not for its high purpose and proper end, but as the source of "peace, order, and social happiness." This is to convey an impression that the ease and quiet of a government are principally sought. It seems to imply that an unenquiring and compliant people is all that is desired. Man is not set out in these proposals as any thing more than the humble, if not abject, creature made for the state. Where is the recognition of his immortality? Where is the consulted benefit of the individual man? He is confounded as is the drop with the sea. Nor is it to be less regretted that

the strongest advocacy of Christianity, as a portion of instruction, has often been urged as a corrective of knowledge. Lest the human mind should too suddenly open, too soaringly rise, this was to be the regulating principle, if not the powerful check. What was this but to insinuate that knowledge was a danger? Little would this conciliate the opponent of Christianity. What was this but to place our holy faith as the centinel and gaoler over knowledge? Little would this accredit Christianity to the world.

But should we be told that, if religion do not attend and direct the teachings of the human mind, general knowledge must be injurious, we instantly declare against the sentence. We see in the spread of sound information, and in the enlargement of human faculty, a great antidote of vulgar errors and crimes. We are sure, all things being equal, that the least tutored mind will be most addicted to the grosser vices. Knowledge, like every blessing, may be abused to evil: ignorance can never be turned to good. If knowledge may be, in its perverse misapplication, an uncertain good; ignorance is, in every way, only a necessary evil. Give any knowledge, worthy of the name, without, if you cannot give it with, religion. You secure a great present advantage. Religion would have made it perfect and eternal.

We think that deplorable mistakes have been committed in the religious instruction of children. Their infancy has been taught what their youth has been

obliged to unlearn.

Christianity is a system of revelation, dogmatic and complete. Its great and saving truths, to have their due effect, must be published without reserve. Let the youngest scholar be taught the doctrines of the Trinity, the Divine Incarnation of the Eternal Son, the Atonement of the Cross, Pardon and Justification by faith, the necessity and fruits of the Spirit's Regenerating influence, the grounds and motives of evangelic obedience; and he will understand the truth and power of such doctrinal facts, as well as the philosopher, and their mystery not less. The hold of these blessed verities on the mind cannot be too early given, and beautiful is it to see these young disciples trained to the simple confidence of those things which "angels desire to look into." There is no hosannah so sweet, as that which they sing, in all the temple!

Nor can it be unimportant, in the present day, to make the explanation and defence of Protestantism a very prominent article in our schools. The antichristian usurpation is healed of its wound. It puts forth an unwonted vigour. It rests on a hardihood of assertion, a recklessness of evidence, which it has scarcely ever adventured before. Where it cannot obtrude, it casts its dark and blighting shadow. It has power when itself is unseen. "It was, and is not, and yet is." An active and specious sub-agency is stalking through the land. Its ambition is to seize all the seats of learning, and carry into captivity the

mind of the nation. Children should be taught to detect its fallacies and deride its sophisms. A few counter-strokes of historic truth and inverted allegation will enable the infant to break the toils spread for its unwary steps.

In this connection we are the stout advocates of Catechetical methods and forms. It is recorded that Socrates so instilled his sentiments into the minds of his pupils. Two thousand years have invented nothing wiser. At this hour we see, in heaps, scientific and political publications, based upon the interrogative system. Why should we surrender so well-contrived an instrument for teaching religion? Why yield to a clamour which really is directed against the religiousness of the instruction, and against religion itself? Why compromise ourselves, that we may receive a tribute to our liberalism? Why abandon that which our enemies have imitated, and often wielded against us? Why reject the experience of human nature? Why start aside from the prudence and practice of every church and community?

The education, intended for the labouring class, ought only to be more abridged than that of any other class, because of circumstances. Less time can be devoted to it than the children of the opulent can spare. The cost of the higher branches of knowledge precludes their common attainment. Equal education is, therefore, impossible. By "separating himself" from other cares, only can a man seek and

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