understanding and improvement of the heart, which is the proper employment of the day. And blessed are they who do so employ the hours which remain after the attendance on public worship is over. One of the great lights of the law, in the last century, Lord Chief Justice Hale, went so far as to say, and has left it upon record, in his instructions to his children, that he never failed to experience the kindly influence of a well spent Sunday, on the business of the succeeding week. He supposed (and I know of no good reason to be given why we should suppose otherwise) that, by the devout exercises of such a Sunday, the mind and the temper were formed and prepared to encounter the fatigues and difficulties which might occur; as also, that the favour of Heaven was a natural consequence of having kept its commandments. Give me leave, therefore, to take this opportunity of entreating you to consider, whether the face of things would not be very soon and very much altered for the better among us, if each master of a family should resolve to institute a kind of SUNDAY SCHOOL (if I may so speak) in his own house, and dedicate the evening of the Lord's day to the instruction of his children and his servants in matters of religion. I am not pleading for a Jewish or a puritanical sabbath, for a sour face or an ill temper. But it seems reasonable, that one evening, at least, out of seven, should be given to this good and necessary work, and

On the design of the Christian sabbath, and the proper manner of observing it, see a very sensible letter in the Supplement to the Gentleman's Magazine for the year 1785, p. 1020.

that Sunday evening should be fixed upon; for unless some time be fixed upon, the work will never be done at all. A man may live fifty years, perhaps, without once recollecting, that it is his duty to take this care of the household over which it has pleased God to place him.

IV. By a SUNDAY SCHOOL a number of children are kept out of harm's way; they are collected together, and inured to early and regular habits of attendance on God's worship; they are instructed in what is right; they are enabled to employ well their leisure hours when they grow up, and teach others after them to do the same. Let me say, that these are very great points gained indeed! For though the observation be trite, it is true, and cannot be too often repeated; that most of those unhappy wretches who suffer for their crimes, when they come to confession, charge their destruction upon the manner in which in the days of their youth they misspent Sunday, while their neighbours were at church. And how can it be otherwise? What wonder that they should turn out bad, who constantly missed the opportunities (the only ones, it may be, which they had) of becoming good? The thing speaks itself. And in confirmation of what was said above respecting families, let it here be added, that more young people of either sex, servants especially, are ruined by being permitted to wander abroad, instead of being well employed at home on a Sunday evening, than on any other. The reason again is plain; because on that evening, for want of the discipline in families above recommended, there is a far greater

number of idle young people stirring, whose sole business is to seduce and corrupt one another. Thus is the holiest of days, beyond any other, polluted and profaned! "If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!"

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V. The children of the poor, by being drawn out of their obscurity into notice and protection, are humanized and civilized. They are equally surprised and pleased, on finding themselves thus regarded, and quickly become different creatures. Their pastor has an opportunity of visiting, addressing them according to their capacities, examining them, conmending and rewarding the good and diligent, and reproving those that misbehave themselves. In these circumstances, he is always sure of being attended to with reverence and respect, and every thing he says will be minded. To form early in young minds a proper disposition towards their spiritual father and teacher, is a great acquisition, which must be productive of the best consequences, and would often prevent some of the worst evils with which we are troubled.

Lastly, let it be considered (for, though the consideration be of a less noble kind, it is by no means to be omitted) that by the principles of honesty and industry instilled into them, these children will be disposed, in future, to provide for themselves and their families, the number of paupers will be dimi nished, and that heavy burthen of poors' rates lightened, which now threatens to overwhelm and crush the nation.

It is hard to conceive a scheme which promises more benefit to the community. And wherever it has been tried, the expectation has been answered. Children have pressed to be admitted; when admitted, they have made due improvement; and, in some instances, have, ere long, commenced masters, and been found teaching other children at home what themselves had learned at school.

At first, it was imagined, that what was learned only on one day of the week, must needs be forgotten before that day came again. The objection seemed plausible, but the event has shown that it wanted solidity. Impressions made on one Sunday, have been found to remain on the following Sunday. We are not in general aware, how much may be done by a few hours in a week constantly employed on the same subject, especially where there is a willing mind.

Nor let us be discouraged though our endeavours may not succeed equally with all. What endeavours ever did so? What gift of God has not been bestowed on some person in vain? Rain falls on barren sandy deserts; but what would become of us, if none were therefore to fall on our fields and gardens? They must become deserts too. Nothing can be more trifling than this objection.

Another has been advanced in some of the public prints, though you will scarcely think it credible, namely, that they who teach the children are guilty of sabbath-breaking, because they work on that day for hire. Then the ministers of religion throughout the Christian world are verily guilty of sabbath-breaking, since they are paid for teaching. Were they

not so paid, and had they no other means of getting their bread, they must all be starved.

Such are the objections which have been hitherto produced against the institution of SUNDAY SCHOOLS. If no better can be produced, it must be said, that, for all which appears, they are worthy of universal encouragement. To encourage them is to forward the great design of the Gospel, in a case which seems to admit no other method of doing it. It is done with ease; for one person can instruct many children: and it is done at an expense which is a mere trifle, compared with the expenses daily incurred in ways which afford no real comfort to the mind, on the recollection.

The institution solicits and implores, above all, the patronage and assistance of the clergy, under whose direction and superintendence, it should, if possible, be carried on. May we live to see the time when the laudable example now before our eyes shall be followed in every parish throughout the kingdom! Grateful surely must it be to angels as well as men, to behold those children behaving with reverence and devotion in the house of God, who might otherwise have been committing acts of violence or fraud without; to hear the praises of the world's Creator and Redeemer proceeding from mouths which might have been pouring forth a torrent of blasphemy or obscenity; to find a love of their duty and of their business implanted in hearts, where a love of idleness and of mischief might have taken up its abode for ever. He who does not rejoice at the prospect of such a change as this, will have difficulty