EFFECTS OF EDUCATION. To the Editor of the Cottager's Monthly Visitor. SIR, SOME people think that there is no good gained by the progress of Education; they see no difference in the manners of the people now, from what they were thirty or forty years ago, when there were comparitively few readers in humble life. For my own part, I cannot help thinking that I see a very great difference. I do not know when there has been a more general distress in the great manufacturing towns in England than at present, and the few months which have lately past;-and yet I do not think that the people, generally, ever conducted themselves with more propriety than during these present troubles. How little have we heard of riots and disturbances! at least I speak for the town in which I live; for in others, I do not know how far education has gone, or what has been its effects.In this thickly peopled manufacturing town of Nottingham we are almost all readers. There are different religious sects among us, as well as many devout members of the Established Church, and we perhaps do not all agree in the sort of books which are best-but we all read something, and the general effect I am sure is good. It would astonish you, Sir, to see the number of tracts and little periodical works which are weekly and monthly brought into this town.-The religious people read the religious tracts; and the effect is good;-indeed, when the mind is turned to religious subjects, the effect must be good; there is generally an end of all disposition to riot and rebel. There are other little works which are not particularly of a religious nature, but which afford amusement and instruction, and draw the mind to consideration, and reflexion, and shew the working-men the folly of rebelling against their masters, who are indeed fellow-sufferers with them in the distress of the times, and whose interest as well as whose desire it must be that their men should be prosperous and full of employment. A little reflexion teaches all this;-and reading teaches men to reflect. The leisure time, too, which is now employed in reading was formerly employed in idle, expensive, and dangerous pursuits.-I was quite surprised to hear the vast number of little works of science, such as the Mechanics Magazine, &c. which were introduced into this town, and read by the workmen. I own that I did not expect this work to be very popular, on account of the difficulty of the problems and descriptions of mechanical inventions which it contained; however, the workmen certainly do turn their minds to these things, and they find employment for the mind, and amusement in them; and some of them must gain much additional knowledge by them. What, however, has produced the change I know not, but I remember, in former days, we had, every year, alarms and disturbances in this town: when any thing went wrong in the way of trade, we heard of nothing but mobs and magistrates, and riot acts, and soldiers from the barracks, and men shot, and women and children trod upon, and dragoons pelted, and halfstarved stockingers hanged, and all to little or no purpose. For the last few years, how very different it has been! I hope and trust this will last, and that those who conduct themselves so well, will live to see the benefit of it in the revival of trade, and in their restoration to employment. Their distress has been great, so has their contentment and submission. I am Sir, yours, &c. Nottingham, April 6th, 1826. Notts. SCRIPTURE CHARACTERS. Moses. (No. 3.) THE life of Moses, says a pious Commentator on the Holy Scriptures, was remarkably divided into three periods, each consisting of forty years.— During the first, he sustained the rank of a courtier, during the second he was a shepherd in the wilderness, and during the third, he filled the important station of a lawgiver, and "King in Jeshurun +." * In the 2nd chap. of the book of Exodus there is a record of his birth, and of the protecting hand that was extended over him when, a helpless babe, be was laid" in an ark of bulrushes in the flags by the river's brink ;"-with many interesting particulars of his youth and manhood. In the 3rd chap. of the same book we have an account of his being called of God to be the deliverer of the afflicted people of Israel from "the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppressed them;" on which solemn occasion it pleased Je hovah to appear to him "in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush"-and to proclaim to him his sacred and incommunicable name or nature, I am that I am. I am he that exists independent, unchangeable, incomprehensible, eternal. I am, and all creatures, all worlds are dependent upon me. In the remaining chapters of Exodus, we have the history of his eventful course,-of his being endowed with the power of working miracles,-of the plagues inflicted upon Pharaoh and his host for their obstinate resistance to the will of the most High, of the institution of the passover, and the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt,-of their being divinely guided "in a pillar of cloud by * A person belonging to the court of a Prince. day, and of fire by night,"-of the destruction of the Egyptians in the Red Sea, and the song of Moses and of the children of Israel unto the Lord, the song of praise and of grateful triumph for their miraculous deliverance. In the 19th and 20th chapters we have an account of the promulgation of the law to Moses on Mount Sinai amidst lightnings, and thunders, and fire, and smoke, and earthquakes. "The earth," says the Psalmist, "shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God; even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel *."-In the 21st of Numbers we find the Israelites, notwithstanding the miraculous interferences wrought for them, murmuring against God and against Moses. And the Lord sent" fiery serpents among them,-and much people died;" but Moses prayed for them, and he had power with God and prevailed. At length, we come to the closing scene of the life of the Jewish lawgiver in the 34th chap. of Deuteronomy; Moses, the servant of the Lord, having been permitted, from the mountain of Nebo, to see the promised land, died in Moab, according to the word of the Lord. "These things were written for our learning.” There are several features in the character of this eminent servant of God, from the attentive contemplation of which, much good may be derived by readers of every class, and station. First. Moses by faith when he was come to years of discretion, deliberately, we read, " chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ," that is, the reproach cast on Israel for their expectation of a glo * Psalm lxviii. 8. rious Redeemer, "greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he had respect to the recompense of reward." Reader! thou professest thy self to be a Christain, a Believer. What fruit does thy faith produce? Hast thou learned to prefer the sanctified affliction of the people of God to the enjoyment of all the pleasures of sin? I say the sanctified, for no one can love affliction for its own sake:-but, when it produces its designed effect, when in this furnace + the heart is purified, then can the true Christian say with the Psalmist, "it is good for me that I was afflicted."-" Before I was afflicted I went wrong; but now have I kept thy law." Reader! art thou afflicted? Be assured that God taketh no pleasure in thy sorrow, he intends thy good: he would wean or snatch thee from sin, from undue compliance with the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil. See his hand in thy trial. Cast in thy lot with the righteous. Prefer loss in the way of godliness, to any gain that sin can procure thee; prefer any privation that God may call thee to sustain, to all the pleasures of sin. Is this a hard lesson, a trying service? It is indeed both; but remember, thou servest a Master who has promised to give to his faithful servants "strength equal to their day." "Is any among you," says St. James, "afflicted, let him pray." I see and acknowledge, says the pious Bishop Hall, the harbour that we must put into in all our ill weather. It is to thee, O God, that we must pour out our hearts, which only canst make our bitter waters sweet." Have "respect too to the recompense of reward." Here thou art a sojourner and a pilgrim. Thy day of trial will soon be ended; wait in hope for the accomplishment of the promises, God hath said, and he will perform. "To them who, by patient continuance in well Heb. vi. 25. † Isaiah xlviii. 10. Psalm cxix. 67. 71, |