tion. The feast of redeeming mercy is not spread for them: they must endure the privations of half-civilized society, without the softening influence of "the communion of saints." The colonist must struggle with poverty, uncheered by the voice of ministerial sympathy; the tie that binds him to the wife of his bosom is unsanctified by the blessing of the priest; the child of his affections has no one to present it to the Saviour,-no servant of the Most High is there found to receive the lambs of the flock, or to plunge in the baptismal font the new-born infant: the beloved parent must go down to the grave without being solaced by the prayers of a venerated pastor; and, when all that remains of the friend dear as our own soul is committed to earth, no holy benediction consecrates the soil where he lies,-no religious rite hallows the funeral solemnities.

Can we endure the thought that those who have shared with us the lessons of childhood, and joined in our infantine gambols by our father's hearth, should thus be abandoned? Can we bear the idea that those with whom we have taken sweet counsel, and walked into the house of God as friends, should thus be debarred those

Christian privileges which we so justly prize, and be left to perish in a foreign land for want of the Bread of Life,-that knowledge of salvation which we have it in our power to send them, did we but exert in their behalf the talents with which we are intrusted? " If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; if thou sayest, Behold! we knew it not; doth not He that pondereth the heart consider it? and He that keepeth thy soul, doth not He know it? and shall not He render to every man according to his works?" Prov. xxiv. 11. 12.

65

CHAPTER IV.

ON EDUCATION.

A GENERAL reference has been already made to education, as the grand means of national improvement; but the subject is so important that it demands a more particular examination. We have now arrived at a time when the question so long agitated as to the utility and expediency of universal education is well-nigh set at rest. But had this not been the case, the people would not have waited the deliberations of their rulers: learning they would have; and the only question that now remains is, how it may best be given? We cannot shut our eyes to the fact that there is at work in the present day a spirit of infidelity and rebellion against constituted authorities. The advocates of these deadly principles are ever ready to avail themselves of the prevailing thirst for knowledge to

F

influence the minds of their countrymen; and too often, together with popular information, instil into the minds of youth the poison of a false philosophy. To combat this growing evil, the friends of good government and order have no other course left than to take into their own hands the mighty instrument of public instruction, and seek to direct its working. Knowledge, by means of printed books, is daily spreading among the great mass of our population, and is thus giving to "the people" a degree of power and influence which they never could have possessed before the discovery of printing, and the general diffusion of the first elements of learning. Religion is the only means of rendering this power beneficial: Christianity alone can sanctify knowledge, and render its possessors a blessing to society.

If ever there was a period in the history of the world when religion was necessary to man, the present is that period. The recent discoveries of science, the profound views which the geologist and the astronomer have opened to the public, render it imperatively necessary that some sure rock of truth should be pointed out, on which the mind may rest, and from which it

may view the speculations of the philosopher, and the changing theories which pass across the horizon of science, and chase each other as the discovery of new facts, and the induction of new phenomena, give rise to changes which, though they may ultimately lead to truth, yet expose us for the present to the danger of error. How often may the mind be startled by some fresh and unexpected peep into the immense laboratory of nature; and, feeling its own littleness, shrink from the grasp of such mighty calculations, and be depressed with fear lest a Being of inconceivable power may, in the immensity of his avocations, and the extent of His empire, overlook the insignificant inhabitant of some remote spot in this little world, which we call earth! What, under such a feeling of apprehension, can minister to the mind such consolation as the assurance which God in His infinite knowledge of the wants of His creatures has mercifully revealed that He regards mankind as His children, and encourages them to look to Him as their Father, yea, even as their friend? What can give such sweet satisfaction to the doubting, tempest-tossed inquirer, as the intelligence that the mighty Lord of the Universe has