unintelligible terms, express the clear and important doctrines of the Bible, but they are to be taught in accordance with, and not in opposition to, the constituted organization of the powers of the human mind, and the degree of intelligence that mind has attained. Milk is for babes, and strong meat is not milk, Let our Sunday-school children be taught to repeat, as soon as they can articulate, the simplest expressions of religious thought and feeling; let them be made to read the simplest portions of Scripture, with propriety; let them be taught the LORD'S PRAYER, or some other simple form of expression-not merely to repeat it, but to understand and use it; and let them be perfectly familiar with the law of God, by whch they are required to live, and by which they will hereafter be judged. We would not be understood as advocating the irrational and misguiding opinion, that the great truths of the Bible cannot be taught to very young children. We have no doubt that the doctrines we have above mentioned may, every one of them, be made intelligible to children of common capacity, as soon as they begin to think and act for themselves-and very much earlier than most Christian parents suppose; but they must be so presented, that the infant mind may understand, and the infant affections feel, their import. And as they advance towards maturity of years and understanding, let them be led into the knowledge of all that the human mind can comprehend of the amazing revelation of the deep counsels of God.

In the memoir before us, a religious character is delineated, the general features of which are in accordance with the principles of the gospel; but

yet it is so exhibited, as to be altogether unsuited to the contemplation or instruction of a Sunday-school child, And this is our objection to it. It will fall into the hands of children from six to sixteen years old. Some of them unable to read at all, and most of them unable to read properly and profitably, unless oral instruction accompanies their reading: many of them entirely thoughtless of religious subjects; unacquainted with the "first principles of the oracles of God;" and without any inclination to examine the traits of religious character, or the history of religious experience. The views of truth and duty entertained by most Sunday-school children, are very vague, and entirely unsatisfactory even to themselves. The mode of instruction is not generally adapted to the inculcation of elementary truth, and the first exhibition of the power of religion is often made in some such bald and unnatural form, or under some extreme, incredible, unparalleled, and inimitable circumstances, as to make it any thing rather than " a model of life, or an illustration of Scripture truth;" and it induces any thing rather than a spirit of inquiry and consideration. Let the history of any conversion be told, as we please; the fact will still be, that the religious experience of children is, in its nature and character, precisely accordant with the strength of their affections, the vigour of their minds, and the extent of their knowledge; and while it is the Spirit of God alone that exerts a transforming influence upon the hearts of children, as well as upon the hearts of their parents and teachers— it is still through the medium of language (sometimes of his providence, but generally of his word) addressed

to the senses, and convincing the understanding, that he strives with them, and subdues and renews their souls. Bearing in mind these principles of religious education, let us take this up memoir, and examine it as an instrument in the hands of a Sunday-school teacher, of explaining, illustrating, and enforcing the simple truths of the Bible, and impressing them more deeply and intelligibly upon the mind.

Her character before conversion is thus described

"ISABELLA CAMPBELL was from the earliest childhood, blameless and of good report, of mild and gentle manners, full of affection and tenderness, beloved by all who knew her, because so lovely, and worthy of love.

Her

countenance had a gravity combined with a most delicate sweetness of expression; while her manner was very diffident and retiring. p. 7.

66

Any concern she had about the state of her soul was light and trivial, consisting merely of transient emotions

childhood, indeed, she saw, as she believed, God saw them, only as varying manifestations of error and guilti

ness.

"She exhibited not merely that outward decorum, which we have described, but many serious thoughts of God, and of her condition; many a scheme of righteousness, framed in much anxiety, occupied her mind; and many breathings after holiness would agitate her heart. pp. 8, 9, 10.

"The prospect of her father's death filled her with great apprehension and grief of spirit; but she did not attempt those exercises, and intercessions, and fastings, with which, formerly, she had hoped to subdue the divine sovereignty to a compliance with her wishes. p. 21.

"At last, however, several months after her father's death, she was excited, as she had never been before; and filled with new emotions. While reading Walker of Truro's Christian,' a condition of the immortal soul was made known to her, without which she saw there could be no comfort or blessedness. The new creature there set up before her, she

tive of no results, because growing out of no seed planted by the hand of God. That form of godliness which seems desirable for children, may adorn them, as it did her-without any knowledge or experience of its power. Had she then died, it was her firm belief, (when the light of truth took possession of her mind,) that she must have gone to a place of torment, entirely ignorant, as she was, of her God, reconciling in Christ her rebellious heart unto himself; and consequently, without any of those feelings that fit for the society of the heavenly Jerusalem. Any one looking upon her outward frame, saw only the loveliness, simplicity, and innocence of childhood, a beautiful form of an interesting age.

"But what was it in reality?-If her own conceptions were correct and true, a lovely mansion of levity and unholiness, an object of meritorious wrath, equally with the most infamous receptacles of pollution and impiety. The decorum, the services of her

*We have italicised some of the most objectionable or unintelligible sentences. VOL. VII.-30

she looked on it, death to all peace and happiness in any other condition.

So roused now was Isabella. Every new conversation she held with her soul, occasioned only anguish. Such a feeling, indeed, was progressive, not immediate, in all its depth and energy.

"She was truly in a sore extremity, consciously alienated from God, and helpless in her ungodly misery; while she felt the essence of that misery to consist in hatred of that, which alone could make her happy. She recoiled from the holiness of the new creature as the image of him who is holy; while unbelief of his power to change her, would not allow her to enter into the rest he has prepared for miserable and impious rebels. In this state, she at last turned to the Bible, in search of counsel; but, although in every age it has been full of light, to her it was all darkness. She began reading the gospels, in the hope of finding something suited to her condition; but as she proceeded, in every declaration there, she seemed to see only the record of her own condemnation, As

the word condemned her, she hated it; and in a tumult of despairing anguish, as if the arrows of the almighty Avenger were all piercing her spirit, she would cast it from her, fearing, lest in reading more, she should perish as she read, although she felt that would have been a blessing. pp. 23, 24, 25.

"From this period, her sorrows multiplied beyond all expression, and often as if beyond endurance. She felt in her soul an utter incapacity of happiness. The dread of punishment comparatively little affected her mind; her conscious vileness was the burden of wo under which she groaned. For at this period she had most clear conceptions of the holiness of the divine law-the transcript of God's own glorious excellency; and her conscious non-conformity to what she saw ought to be loved and embraced, constituted that moral condition of her soul, which, to use her own words, she felt to be 'a very hell of pollution and torment.'

"While listening one morning to her brother and a stranger, conversing about a person who had been guilty of some infamous profligacy, she said to herself, 'O did they but know how much more abandoned and depraved I am! would they allow me to remain in their presence?' pp. 27, 28.

"It may be recorded also, as very remarkable, that the passages of Scripture which she had got by heart, entirely faded from her remembrance. She seemed to have no kindred thought or feeling, none that corresponded with the sentiments they contained; so that her mind, as it were, lost the power of retaining them. She likewise absented herself from church, and assigned as a reason for doing so, that Had she felt otherwise able for such an exertion, she would have recoiled from any such outward professions of piety,' while her enmity against God was not abolished, but reigning with all its virulence in her mind. p. 30.

"She now became more diligent than ever, in the performance of religious duties. She prayed, and read the Scriptures; repeated her fastings; adhered at all times to the severest abstinence; took only what was barely necessary to sustain nature, and

that of the coarsest food she could find. While she was anxious to do all that the law required, she was scrupulous in avoiding what it forbade, even to the least appearance of evil. She would not, for example, exchange the ordinary salutations with any person she met on the road, lest she should be tempted to utter vain words, or expend foolishly one of those moments upon which eternal results seemed to depend. pp. 31, 32.

"Isabella slept at this time with her mother, and the account she gives of her condition and practices is very affecting. Groaning and lamenting, night after night, she literally watered her couch with her tears-the house continually resounding throughout the silent watches, with the voice of her weeping. Long would her mother lie sleepless, listening to expressions of grief, for which she had no remedy or comfort; or when awakening from slumbers, which, through weariness of nature, she could not avoid, finding Isabella absent, she would thus be filled with alarm, lest some new calamity should visit her beloved child. Thus, at dead of night, had she to rise and leave the house, and search for her in the fields, or where she often found her, and that during the depth of winter, careless of any of its storms, weeping and praying in her little garden. O then it was pitiful to see her,' she has said, not like an earthly creature. I could give her no help, and she could find none where she was seeking it. She looked so pale and wo-begone, it was easily seen that her misery could not be told.' pp. 37, 38.

"The remark of a little boy, of sufficient simplicity indeed, affords a very graphic description of her protracted devotional exercises: Isabella makes as long prayers as would save a kingdom."" p. 39.

Her change and its consequences are related in this manner

"She was not, however, permitted to die under so manifest a delusion. She had traversed, as it were, the whole world of legal inventions; left nothing in it unexamined, none of its arts untried; and all she now intense

ly felt to be, but travail and vexation. p. 40.

"Her attention was directed to various passages, descriptive of the comprehensive love of God; but more especially, she was enabled to hear, and understand in some degree, the blessed invitation, Come unto me,' &c. p. 43.

"She was now satisfied, that the necessities of her miserable case were not excluded from the commiseration of Jesus, or his Father; since the words which he uttered were addressed to all that are weary and heavy laden; and this conviction soothed and quieted her amid the misgivings and doubtings that still would disturb her mind. Her condition was now that of comparative enjoyment; which indeed was visible in her outward demeanour. pp. 43, 44.

"The mighty realities of an unseen world, engrossed her thoughts when awake and when asleep. p. 50.

"Her words, although expressive, were but feeble signs of what reigned, and shone, and enraptured within. p. 56.

"Never did assurance of faith sit more meekly on any believing soul, or the appropriation of Christ's salvation, with an ever present apprehension of the unmerited grace manifested by God in its bestowal, more beautifully harmonize. p. 102.

“Her heart, full of gratitude with passionate love, continued gazing in constant contemplation of all he [Christ] was, and had done for her soul." p. 107.

And when the time of her departure came, we are told, that those who witnessed it, "were struck dumb with astonishment at her triumphant ascent to glory.” p. 154.

It is unnecessary to add a single word by way of comment on these passages. If they are objectionable at all, their objectionable character is too obvious to require an index; and if the work is not objectionable on this ground, or any other, there is discernment and good sense enough in the community to give it circula

tion, these objections to the contrary notwithstanding.

For ourselves, we can only say, that there is, upon our principles, more of the simple, intelligible, attainable religion of a child, exhibited in the prayer of "Little Susan,"*"O my heavenly Father, make me love the Bible-let me love to read it better than the Pilgrim's Progress, or any book, O Jesus! teach me to love thee," &c.--than in all we learn, from this memoir, of the religion of Isabella Campbell, and yet we doubt not, (if the memoir is true,) that Isabellu Campbell was a child of God on earth, and is now a blest spirit in his presence above. The objections we have made lie not to the character, but rather to the exhibition of it, in this form, to Sunday-school children.

CHARACTER AND DESIGN OF REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS.

In the character and mode of our punishments and rewards, I think we can be greatly assisted by minute attention to the manner of God's dealing with us, his children. I would only remark generally, that our heavenly Father never proposes any thing as a reward or punishment, that is not justly and righteously an object of desire or of fear. He never proposes as an incentive to obedience, that, on which at other times he teaches us to set no value; neither presents he to our fears, that, of which it is unworthy of an immortal being to be afraid. I do not remember that he ever promises to us, in way of reward, the admirations of a sinful world, or the high places of sublunary pride, or any thing by which vanity can be fostered, or mere earthliness fed. And when he threatens us with

* The title of a work just published by the American Sunday-school Union, and containing a very surpris ing instance of early piety.

temporal ills, it is such as a rational, sensible, and feeling being must ever account such, and not the fictitious mortifications of ambition and self-indulgence. Most generally his own approbation, his own wrath, is the appended consequence, including, as they must, all real good and ill. In this we have a guide that may be followed. Our rewards must be something, that with consideration of the age and condition of our children, may be reasonably desired, and our punishments something that may be properly feared: the former must be that which is likely to excite no sinful feeling in the acquisition, and to gratify no sinful passion in the enjoyment: the latter should, I think, be as nearly as possible like the chastisments of God upon his own people; preventive, remedial, rather than judicial, and it should be made as much as possible apparent to the child, that the punishment inflicted has more reference to the future than the past-is meant to make him good, rather than to requite him for being naughty.-[Lond. Teach. Magazine.]

SUGGESTIONS TO PARENTS AND TEACHERS, RESPECTING THE BEST MODE OF

TEACHING.

I think, that many serious parents, even, mistake the path of mere formality for the path of true religion, in teaching their children. With my feeling, a child never ought to learn by heart a hymn which he cannot understand or apply. I am persuaded that children learn to say and sing hymns without at all entering into the meaning of them. Now, do but consider, our tongues were given us to speak the language of our hearts: and is it not a bad thing to begin by using them to utter what they do not feel? Devotion may, no doubt, be felt by a child: but it is beginning at the wrong end to expect that devotion will grow out of learning by rote a hymn or a psalm, in which feelings are expressed such as he never had experienced. The same in prayer.-0 how sad it is to see prayer spoiled to a little child, by its being only a task to be said over, night and morning! This need not be; a very young child

may learn to pray real prayer: but it must be by calling his mind to daily mercies, opening his heart to the happiness of having a God always near; by, more especially, dwelling on the lovely character and glorious offices of Jesus; all his works of love, all his bright promises, and all his power to fulfil them. Then the child's feelings will be touched; little circumstances will occur which a Christian parent can turn to good account.

A child may learn his lesson very well, and his school-master or mistress may be pleased with him. Now to learn a lesson requires both attention and memory: but to be able to spell and read words is one thing-to understand what we are reading about is another; and you cannot do a worse thing for your child, than to let him read, without any thought or consideration what he is reading about. A child's capacity should be attended to, and though when we first learn to read, we must learn letters and words, which, taken separately, do not make sense, yet, as soon as a child can read a little, a parent should try to put before him something suitable to his age and wants. It is a sad misfortune to children, when they are made to read difficult portions of the Scriptures, before they can at all understand them. This is one reason, perhaps, why we find so many dull and heartless readers of the Bible in after-life: they have got the habit of reading over the words without pleasure or interest.— Ibid.

WHAT MAY BE EXPECTED OF EARLY

EDUCATION.

The following paragraphs are from an English sermon, preached in aid of Infants' Schools, January, 1829.

The establishment of Infants' schools proposes to forestall temptation, and by preventing evil habits, to clear the way for the better influence of good instruction hereafter. Before the commencement of these institutions, the labours of the few years' schooling given to children, were, in most instances, insufficient to eradicate from their minds the evil princi