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self for the reception of knowledge as naturally as the flower opens its rejoicing leaves to the rising sun. The earnestness which it discovers as it turns its eye towards the light or any bright object, its expression of surprise on hearing sudden and loud sounds, its strong propensity to imitate the actions and words of its attendants, all show most clearly that the work of intellectual developement is begun.

While no one doubts this early developement of the intellect, it has not been so generally admitted to be true of the pathematic and moral part of our nature. But there is no sufficient ground, as we have already had occasion to intimate, for a distinction in this respect; the developement of the head and the heart, of the intellect and the sentient nature, begins essentially at one and the same time. It is true that the perceptive or intellectual action is necessarily antecedent in the order of nature; but the sensitive action, both natural and moral, follows closely and perseveringly in its train. And this also may be added, viz., that the developement of the moral nature in its leading outlines appears to be sooner completed. Facts and the relations of facts, which are the subjects of the intellectual activity, are infinite. But the great principles of morals, however multiplied they may be in their applications, are in themselves few and simple. How few persons of the age of fourteen or sixteen years have completed their attainments in knowledge, and have fully unfolded and strengthened all their intellectual powers! And yet how many at the same age have established such a decided moral character, either for good or evil, as almost to preclude the hope of a correction of its deformities in the one case, or the enhancement of its beauties in the other!

§ 300. Of the discouragements attending a process of moral instruction, And here we would remark upon one discouragement which frequently attends the efforts of those who are so situated as to render it especially their duty to impart instruction to the young. We refer to the fact that it is sometimes, and but too frequently the case, that they see but little immediate good results from their labours.

They can see distinctly the advancement of their pupils in that knowledge which is appropriate to the intellect, but are less able to measure their progress in what pertains to the moral culture. Indeed, they too often believe that their instruction is seed sown upon stony ground, which is not only unproductive at present, but is absolutely and forever lost.

This is a great mistake. The truth is, that nothing is lost. The moral and religious instruction which is communicated to the youthful memory, is deposited in the keeping of a power which may sometimes slumber, but can never die. It may long be unproductive; it may remain for years without giving signs of vivification and of an operative influence, and yet it may only be waiting for some more favourable and important moment, when it shall come forth suddenly and prominently to view. No one, therefore, ought to be discouraged in the discharge of this duty. In nothing is the Scriptural declaration more likely to be fulfilled in its richest import. "Cast thy bread upon the waters, and thou shalt find it after many days."

Multitudes of illustrations might be introduced to confirm the views of this section. How natural is the following incident! And how agreeable, therefore, to sound philosophy!--"When I was a little child," said a religious man, "my mother used to bid me kneel beside her, and place her hand upon my head while she prayed. Ere I was old enough to know her worth, she died, and I was left much to my own guidance. Like others, I was inclined to evil passions, but often felt myself checked, and, as it were, drawn back by the soft hand upon my head. When I was a young man I travelled in foreign lands, and was exposed to many temptations; but when I would have yielded, that same hand was upon my head, and I was saved. I seemed to feel its pressure as in the days of my happy infancy, and sometimes there came with it a voice in my heart, a voice that must be obeyed: Oh, do not this wickedness, my son, nor sin against thy God." 301. Of the importance, in a moral point of view, of adopting correct speculative opinions.

But while we assert that there is ample basis in the

mental constitution for a moral education, that this education ought to be commenced at an early period, and that such a course of training has its due share of encouragements, we acknowledge that it is not an easy thing in a few words to point out the characteristics, and to indicate the outlines of a system of moral culture. Accordingly, we shall not attempt it any further than to add a few general suggestions. We proceed, therefore, to remark, that suitable pains ought to be taken to introduce into the young mind correct speculative opinions.

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It was seen in a former Chapter that the conscience acts in view of the facts which are before it. It will follow, therefore, if we adopt wrong opinions, whatever they may be, they will have an effect upon the conscience. If these opinions be important, be fundamental, they will be likely to lead us in a course which, under other circumstances, we should regard as wrong in the very highest degree. The belief that men by nature possess equal rights, is in itself nothing more than a speculative opinion; but this opinion, simple and harmless as it may seem in its enunciation, is at this moment shaking thrones, unbinding the chains of millions, and remodelling the vast fabric of society. The opinion that the rights of conscience are inalienable, and that no one can regulate by violent means the religion of another, is breaking the wheel of torture, and quenching the fire of persecution, and quickening into life the smothered worship of the world. The speculative opinion that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, appeared in the form of man, and by his death made an atonement for sin, is a truth, simple and ineffective as it may at first sight appear, which has already changed the face of domestic and civil society, and, like a little leaven which leaveneth the whole lump, is secretly regenerating the whole mass of human nature.

We infer, therefore, that it is highly important to consider well what truths we adopt. The doctrine that it is no matter what we believe, if we are only sincere in it, is derogatory to the claims of human reason, and full of danger. What persecutor, what tyrant, what robber, what assassin may not put in his claim for a sort of sincerity, and, in many cases, justly too? It is a sincerity, a con

scientiousness, based on all the wisdom which human intelligence in its best efforts can gather up, and nothing short of this, which stands approved in the sight of human reason and of a just Divinity.

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302. Further remarks on the same subject.

The important remark of the Saviour to his disciples, and ye shall know the TRUTH, and the TRUTH shall make you free," seems to have a connexion with this subject. It indicates that the truth, in other words, substantial and well-balanced knowledge (whatever other aids and appliances may be requisite in the progress of the religious life), is naturally effective, in a very high degree, in the renovation of the character and the support of just morals. In that great day when all hearts are tried, our Conscience itself will frown upon us, as guilty of a great dereliction of duty, if we have not taken every possible means to enlighten it.

The false practices of heathen nations, as we have had occasion to see in a former chapter, are very many of them based on false speculative opinions. The effect of their reception of the truth, as it is revealed in the Christian system, is at once to do away these practices. Touched by the quickening influences of divine knowledge, the benumbed and torpid conscience starts into a newness of life, and exercises once more its long-abdicated authority. The whole heathen world, so far as it has come under the influence of the Gospel, is a proof of this remark. It is the Word of God, filled as it is with moral and religious truth, which is destined to be instrumental, under the superintendence of a beneficent Providerce, of the rectification of the moral errors of the human race.

◊ 303. Of the knowledge of the Supreme Being, and of the study of religious truth generally.

And, in connexion with what has been said in the preceding section, we proceed to remark further, that all morality must necessarily be defective, in a greater or less degree, which proceeds on the principle of excluding RELIGION. It is true that a man who is not religious (in other words, who has not a sincere regard for the char

acter and institutions of the Supreme Being) may do many things which are right and are morally commendable, but he does not do all that is right; he comes short in the most essential part; and he thus throws doubt and perplexity, a sort of dimness and obscuration, over whatever lustre might otherwise have shown itself in his other acts. In fact, the amount in which such a person fails to do right is so very great, as compared with the amount in which he does not fail to do right, that it is almost a common remark, although not strictly true, that an irreligious person does nothing right. At the same time, although he may do some things right, yet his failure in infinitely the most essential point renders it impossible to speak of him, with any degree of propriety and truth, as a right, that is to say, as a just or holy person.

We assert, therefore, that moral education must include, as a leading element, some instruction in regard to the existence and character of God, and those religious duties which are involved in the fact of his existence and character. Our conscience, the office of which is to adjust our duties to our ability and the relations we sustain, imperatively requires this. In the eye of an enlightened intellectual perception, God stands forth, distinct from and pre-eminent above all others, as an object infinitely exalted; and a want of love to his character and of adhesion to his law is, in the view of conscience, a crime so grossly flagrant in itself as not to be atoned for by any other virtue. And not only this, a proper regard for the character of the Supreme Being has such a multiplicity of bearings and relations, in consequenee of the diffusion of his presence, and the multiplicity of his acts and requirements, that the crime involved in the want of it seems to spread itself over the infinite number of transactions, which, taken together, constitute the sum of life. So that the doctrine of the existence of God, received into the intellect, and attended, as it should be, with perfect love in the heart, is beyond all question the great foundation and support of a truly consistent moral life.

304. Of the application of the principle of habit in morals.

The law of HABIT, the nature of which, and some of its VOL. II.-H н

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