EDUCATION. 



351 



Sducttion. threatens, to promote his dearest interests, and to mul- 

 ^~~Y~~ > tiply his enjoyments, and there is no species of self-de- 

 nial which he will not account happiness, compared 

 with the evil of incurring his displeasure. 



On the same principles of respect, affection, and gra- 

 titude, must religious obedience be founded. " Thou 

 shall love the Lord thy God," said our Saviour, " with 

 all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy 

 strength. This is the first and great commandment " 

 Let it be our endeavour to prepare the hearts of our 

 children for this ardent love, by accustoming them to 

 entertain those endearing views of the Supreme Being, 

 in which he has uniformly been represented by him, to 

 whom only he was known. Let them learn to think of 

 him as their bountiful Creator, their tender Parent, 

 their generous Friend, from whom they derive all their 

 capacities of enjoyment, and who delights in supply- 

 ing these capacities with their proper means of grati- 

 fication. Let them be taught, that the happiness of his 

 creatures was his gracious design in forming them, and 

 that, in all the services which he requires, in all the 

 dispensations of his providence, this benevolent pur- 

 pose is uniformly kept in view Let them be taught 

 to reflect on their constant dependence on his bounty, 

 to refer to him all the pleasures they enjoy, and, in the 

 fulness of their bliss, to pour out their hearts in gra- 

 titude to the Giver of all good. How pleasing will dii- 

 ty appear, when considered not as a compliance with 

 the arbitrary mandates of a tyrant, but as a due sub- 

 mission to the authority of a kind and indulgent Fa- 

 ther, whose commands are founded on a regard for our 

 happiness, and who blesses, while he restrains us ! 

 How will the ingenuous heart burn with the desire of 

 pleasing, by cheerful obedience, so affectionate a guar- 

 dian, protector, and friend! How dreadful an evil 

 will it appear to incur his displeasure ! How unpar- 

 donable a crime to requite his goodness with ingrati- 

 tude ant! disobedience ! 



Benevolence When the youthful breast is thus occupied with 

 the natural love to God, it will not be difficult to make it ex- 

 effectoflove pand in benevolence to all the human race, the fa- 

 mily of the same Heavenly Father. " The love of 

 God," says the excellent Miss Hamilton, to whose 

 work on education we have already referred, " being 

 the purest, the most sublime emotion of which the heart 

 is capable, must, from the very ratnrp of the human 

 eoul, exalt and purify its affections, preparing it for the 

 exercise of those generous sympathies that flow from 

 unbounded benevolence. When the first conceptions of 

 the Deity have tended to expand the heart with grati- 

 tude and love, every additional step in the knowledge 

 of his attributes, every new light thrown on ' the mys- 

 tery that was hid for ages,' but now displayed in the 

 Gospel of Jesus Christ, will add force to these senti- 

 ments, and inspire a deepur humility, and a more pro- 

 found veneration. With such feelings, no selfish or 

 vindictive passions can possibly mingle. By true piety, 

 no such passions can possibly l>e produced. From 

 whatever has a tendency to inspire these passions, un- 

 der whatever imposing form it may appear, I would 

 endeavour to preserve the infant mind : and therefore, 

 instead of warming the infant heart with zeal for any 

 dogma that may l>e the object of veneration to myself 

 or my party, I would present it as a sacrifice to Him, 

 who fills heaven and earth with the majesty of bis glo- 

 ry, and, by the idea of one common Father, connect it 

 Veeosit of '" a *"' ect ' on w ' 1 ' 1 tne w ' ( ' e circle of the human race." 



- canrlot ( !"'t this interesting subject without ob- 



ample. serving, that all our endeavours to impress our children 



with proper sentiments of religion will be unavailing, Education. 

 unless we shew, in all our conduct, a consistent regard S """"Y""" 1 *' 

 for whatever is sacred ; a reverence for pious and good 

 men, i' whatever station they may be placed ; and a 

 marked disapprobation of vice and it-religion, however 

 imposing the form in which they may appear. While 

 we enjoin on our young pupils a respect for the ordi- 

 nances of religion, let us beware of counteracting the in- 

 junction by a marked contempt, or habitual neglect of 

 them. While we exhort them to aspire to piety and 

 virtue, as the only estimable possessions, let them not 

 be tempted to question our sincerity, by seeing us fix- 

 ing our esteem and affections on possessions of a very 

 different kind. While we express our abhorrence of 

 vice and profanity, let us not taint their moral atmo- 

 sphere by the contagion of our own impurity. While 

 we endeavour to direct their natural love of praise to 

 its legitimate gratification ; while we teach them to 

 hope for distinction only by superior worth, and to 

 prize, above all other fame, the approbation of the wise 

 and the good, let us never be seen bestowing our own 

 admiration on the trifling distinctions of wealth, or 

 rank, or even talents unallied to virtue ; let us be seen 

 uniformly respecting excellence, however obscured by 

 poverty ; and disdaining all intercourse with bad men, 

 however they may bask in prosperity, or be encircled 

 in the dazzling glare of dignity and fashion. 



We find that we have been carried away by the import- u 5Ua j mo< j e 

 ance of our subject, far beyond the bounds which we had of imparting 

 prescribed to ourselves in entering upon it. Yet we must religious in- 

 still crave the indulgence of our readers, while we ex- ftrucdon 

 press our opinion of the usual modes of imparting reli- ""I 110 !** 

 gious instruction to children. These modes, we fear, 

 are but ill adapted to the great end which they have in 

 view, it is not by loading the memory of a child with 

 tedious catechisms, comprehending a whole system of 

 divinity, that you will either enlighten his mind with 

 any proper ideas of his Creator, or raise his heart to- 

 wards him in the glow of spontaneous devotion. As 

 formal instruction, however, may be necessary, it might 

 be extremely useful to have a short and simple cate- 

 chism, which might be easily committed to memory, 

 and which should contain only those leading truths of 

 religion, to which the attention of a child may with 

 propriety !>e directed. One great advantage of such a 

 catechism would be, that, to parents, whose time or 

 opportunities do not allow them to frame a plan for 

 themselves, it would serve as a valuable guide in this 

 important department of education. 



But it is to the scriptures that we must teach them Reading the 

 chiefly to look for direction in moral and religious duty, scriptures. 

 Impressing them with deep reverence for the sacred 

 writings, as the revelation of their heavenly Father's 

 will, let us teach them to regard it as their greatest 

 privilege, and their indispensible duty, to peruse a cer- 

 tain portion of them daily, and with becoming atten- 

 tion. At first, it will be proper to confine them to the 

 simple but interesting narratives of the Old Testa- 

 ment ; to the life, the miracles, and the precepts of Je- 

 sus, recorded in the Gopels ; and to the delightful and 

 animating effusions of devotion in the book of Psalms. 

 To insure regularity in their study of the scriptures, we 

 would be disposed to recommend, that a stated portion 

 of each day should be devoted to this employment. 

 One evil, however, to be dreaded in this CUSP, would be, 

 that they might regard an employment recurring so re- 

 gularly as an irksome task ; and we think it would be a 

 most important point gained, to tic-custom them to 

 look forward to the reading of the scriptures as the re- 



