use all their life after, if they live with those that use it. And so the opinions which they first receive, and the customs which they are used to at first, are very hardly changed afterward. I doubt not to affirm, that a godly education is God's first and ordinary appointed means for the begetting of actual faith and other graces in the children of believers. Many may have seminal grace before, but they cannot sooner have actual faith, repentance, love, or any grace, than they have reason itself in act and exercise. And the preaching of the Word by public ministers is not the first ordinary means of grace to any but those that are graceless till they come to hear such preaching; that is, to those on whom the first appointed means hath been neglected or proved in vain; that is, it is but the second means to do that which was not done by the first. The proof is undeniable, because God appointeth parents diligently to teach their children the doctrine of His holy Word before they come to the public ministry. Parents' teaching is the first teaching, and parents' teaching is for this end, as well as public teaching, even to beget faith, love, and holiness. And God appointeth no means to be used by us on which we may not expect His blessing. Therefore, it is apparent that the ordinary appointed means for the first actual grace is parents' goaly instruction and education of their children. And public preaching is appointed for the conversion of those only that have missed the blessing of the first appointed means. Therefore, if you deny your children religious education, you deny them the first appointed means of their actual faith and sanctification, and then the second cometh upon disadvantage." * grace. If these fail, all other means are likely to prove ineffectual."* An eloquent American writer remarks: "The aim, effort, and expectation of the parent should be, not, as is commonly assumed, that the child is to grow up in sin, to be converted after he comes to a mature age: but that he is to open on the world as one that is spiritually renewed, not remembering the time when he went through a technical experience, but seeming rather to have loved what is good from his earliest years. You will never practically aim at what you practically despair of, and if you do not practically aim to unite your child to God, you will aim at something less,— that is, something unchristian, wrong, sinful. What opinion is more monstrous, in fact, than that which regards the Holy Spirit as having no agency in the immature souls of children who are growing up, helpless and unconscious, into the perils of time? * The child cannot understand, of course, in the earliest stage of childhood, the philosophy of religion as a renovated experience, and that is not the form of the first lesson he is to receive. We are to understand that a right spirit may be virtually exercised in children, when, as yet, it is not intellectually received, or as a form of doctrine. Thus, if they are put upon an effort to be good, connecting the fact that God desires it, and will help them in the endeavour, this is all which, in a very early age, they can receive, and that includes everything - repentance, love, duty, dependence, faith. Nay, the operative truth necessary to a new life, may possibly be communicated through and from the parent, being revealed in his looks, manners, and ways of life, before they are of an age to understand the teaching of words; for the Christian scheme, the Gospel, is really wrapped up in the life of every Christian parent, and beams out from him as a living epistle, before it escapes from the lips, or is taught in words. And the Spirit of truth may as well make this living truth effectual, as the preaching of the Gospel itself. Never is it too early for good to • Works. Vol. II, (4to,) p. 450. be communicated. Infancy and childhood are the ages most pliant to good. And who can think it necessary that the plastic nature of childhood must first be hardened into stone, and stiffened into enmity towards God and all duty, before it can become a candidate for Christian character? There could not be a more unnecessary mistake, and it is as unnatural and pernicious, I fear, as it is unnecessary."* These statements are all confirmed by observing the loving-kindness of the Lord in His actual dealings towards His Church. It is remarkable, in the Old Testament, how frequently we see piety following a line of succession, as in Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph; or appearing early, if at all, as in Samuel, David, Josiah, and Daniel. Yet polygamy, which was contrary to the wise appointment of God, was almost destructive of true family life then, and made the holy school of home impossible. We have similar traces, in the New Testament, of piety continuing in the line of families as when we read of a Timothy knowing the Holy Scriptures "from a child," and possessing an "unfeigned faith" which "first dwelt" in his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice. And the fact, we are persuaded, is still more frequently seen in the Church now. "It was long ago observed," says a wise and judicious writer," and the observation ought to sink deep into the hearts of both the old and young professors, that where the Gospel is enjoyed in its purity, it is the ordinary method of Providence to call sinners into the fellowship of Jesus Christ in the days of their youth. Among those who have enjoyed from their childhood the benefit of religious instruction, of holy example, of sound and faithful ministrations, the instances of conversion after middle life are, for the most part, extremely rare. Let the aged Christian run over in his mind such of these instances as have come within his own knowledge, and we shall be much deceived if his list be not very short." Let the godless parent, then, be warned : • Bushnell on Christian Nurture, page 13. by the connexion which, as a fact, exists between early training in the way, and walking in the same way when old, and consider how serious a thing it is to give his children that mould of character which, to say the least, they will very probably retain for life. As his training is, so are they likely to be; as his aims are, so shall be his reward. Like himself, his children may be honest, truthful, money-making, hospitable, popular, and highly respectable; but, alas! they may, like himself, be children of this world, in their whole spirit, but not children of God, in holy love to their Father in Christ. And how will this stand at judgment? and how is this a preparation for glory? Christian parents be encouraged! Your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Seek the salvation of every member of your family. Aim at nothing else than that each and all shall be saints, for to be contented with less is to be contented with their eternal ruin. Labour in faith, and you may hope to enjoy the unspeakable reward of seeing your dear ones growing up in the Lord, and of finally presenting them to himself, saying, "Behold me and the children whom thou hast given me!" N. ADDRESS TO CARELESS PARENTS. "And now let me seriously speak to the hearts of those careless and ungodly parents that neglect the holy education of their children, yea, and to those professors of godliness that slubber over so great a work with a few customary formal duties and words, that are next to a total omission of it. Oh, be not so unmerciful to the souls that you have helped to bring into the world! Think not so basely of them, as if they were not worth your labour. Make not your children so like your beasts, as to make no provision but only for their flesh. Remember still that it is not beasts but men that you have begotten and brought forth; educate them, then, and use them as men, for the love and obedience of their Maker. Oh, pity and help the souls that you have defiled and undone! Have mercy on the souls that must perish in hell if they be not saved in this day of salvation! Oh, help them that have so many enemies to assault them! Help them that have so many temptations to THE MOTHER AND CHILD. WHAT is that, mother? The lark, my child. When he starts from his humble, grassy nest, sphere, pass through, and so many difficulties to overcome, and so severe a judgment to undergo! Help them that are so weak, and so easily deceived and overthrown! The morn has but just looked out and smiled, Help them speedily while your advan tages continue; before sin have hardened them, and grace have forsaken them, and Satan place a stronger garrison in their hearts. Help them while they are tractable, before they are grown up to despise your help, before you and they are separated asunder, and your opportunities be at an end. You think not your pains from year to year too much to make provision for their bodies: O be not cruel to their souls! Sell them not to Satan, and that for naught! Betray them not by your ungodly negligence to hell. Or, if any of them will perish, let it not be by you, who are so much bound to do them good. The undoing of your children's souls is a work much fitter for Satan than for their parents. "Oh, then, deny not this necessary diligence to your necessitous children, as you love their souls, as you love the happiness of the Church or commonwealth, as you love the honour and interest of Christ, and as you love your present and everlasting peace. Do not see your children the slaves of Satan here, and the firebrands of hell for ever, if any diligence of yours may contribute to prevent it. Do not give conscience such matter of accusation against you as to say,' All this was long of thee! If thou hadst instructed them diligently, and watched over them, and corrected them, and done thy part, it is like they had never come to this! You till your fields, you weed your gardens; what pains take you about your grounds and cattle! And will you not take more for your children's souls? Alas! what creatures will they be if you leave them to themselves? How ignorant, careless, rude, and beastly? Oh, what a lamentable case have ungodly parents brought the world into? Ignorance and selfishness, beastly sensuality and devilish malignity, have covered the face of the earth as a deluge, and driven away wisdom, and self-denial, and piety, and charity, and justice, and temperance almost out of the world, confining them to the breasts of a few obscure, humble souls, that love virtue for virtue's sake, and look for their reward from God alone, and expect that, by abstaining from iniquity, they make themselves a prey to wolves, Wicked education hath unmanned the world, and subdued it to Satan, and made it almost like to hell. Oh, do not join with the sons of Belial in this unnatural wickedness."-Baxter (Christian Economics.) To warble it out in his Maker's ear. For the distant dear one's quick return. In friendship as faithful, as constant in love. The eagle, boy, on. Boy, may the eagle's flight ever be thine, What is that, mother? The swan, my love. DONNE. "Sin and punishment, like the shadow and the body, are never far apart." "Better to praise too largely small deserts, than censure too severely great defects."-W. S. Lander. "Step by step, it is the mercy of God leads us so. People wish to know the future at the beginning. If God granted that wish, three-fourths of us would go mad."-Miss Lewell. "Draw forth the good that there is in all. None are all evil. Many hearts that appear hard and inaccessible, will be found, in the sunshine of kindness, like the granite rock in the south, which emits sweet music at sunrise. Many, still more icy, resemble the snowy Andes, which are not without their currents of genial air."-Miss Brewster. "There are some children whom God has chosen and marked for his own, as he has Sunday from the other days of the week."-Miss Drury. THE NEW EDUCATION MEASURE FOR INDIA. WHATEVER affects the interest of India | moral habits of the people, has been, if cannot but awaken our own. That great possible, still more remarkable and country covers 1,200,000 square miles, being an area equal to the third part of all Europe. It contains nine or ten races, differing from each other in language, religion, literature, and arts, and numbering upwards of 170 million souls. India, moreover, has been committed to the charge of Great Britain, by a series of what might be called miraculous providences, in order, no doubt, to be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; and our responsibility for the manner in which we discharge this duty is so momentous, as to be well nigh overwhelming. In spite of many defects, the British rule has been an unspeakable blessing to the natives of India, who have made more progress under our sway than could have been possible for them under any other upon earth. The material progress of India has of late been marvellous. The Ganges canal alone, recently opened, winds its way, like a huge artery, for 800 miles across the plains, and sends the life blood of its waters through countless tiny veins, to irrigate otherwise dry and parched lands, thus securing to the people produce annually worth about seven millions and a-half sterling, and increasing it in the same period to the value of £1,200,000. One great trunk-road, from Calcutta to Peshawur, stretches in an unbroken line 1423 miles. The railway is pushing its iron arms through tiger forests, over sacred rivers, and rapidly laying down a path along which the iron horse will snort as it wheels its peaceful load of formerly strange and hostile tribes from Cape Comorin to the Himalaya. Already the Hindoo can send his letter for three farthings for 1500 miles, from frontier to frontier; while the telegraph flashes its messages in a second over spaces that the quickest despatch would formerly have taken weeks and months to travel. The progress of India in a civilization reaching to the minds, and affecting the ideas and cheering. The freedom of the person, of the press, and of commerce, is better secured to our subjects 12,000 miles off, than to any of our continental neighbours under the eye of the government and their police. The horrible system of Thuggee, which numbered its tens of thousands annually, and the equally ferocious and deadly murder gangs of the Dakoits, also a system connected with a sort of devil's religion, have been put down. Female infanticide which desolated families, and the funeral pile, on which in Bengal alone 650 widows were once annually consumed, have been laid under the bann of murder; slavery has been made illegal; while the dreadful human sacrifices, which demanded in Orissa alone about 1500 men each year, have almost disappeared. Such glorious results as these, let it be remembered, have been achieved by the Indian Government, by the wise and righteous rule of British statesmen and British merchants. Our churches are acquainted generally with the names and labours of missionaries, who have done their part well in improving the people of India; but they ought also to know and cherish the names of those civil servants of the Company, who, with singular wisdom, philanthropy, and perseverance, and, in many cases we know, while we may hope in all, actuated by the highest Christian motives, have left behind them imperishable renown in the history of savage tribes whom they have emancipated from cruel customs, and introduced into the path of advancing civilization. Such men as Sleeman and his fellow thug-hunters; Wauchope among the Dakoits and robber castes; Outram, Augustus Cleveland, Dixon, and Macpherson, in civilizing Bheels, Kouds, and other savage tribes; Duncan, Walker, Ludlow, Raikes, &c., in saving the child; and Lord William Bentinck in saving the widow, with other illustrious names of well-known officials-Munro, Lord Hastings (who first set the press free), El phinstone, Charles Grant, Metcalf, &c., will live in history as among the greatest benefactors of the human race. But the Christian Church has also done much for India, with her direct agency, though we shall reserve our remarks on this topic to a distinct paper. Since 1813, when missionaries were first permitted freely to enter India, the mission staff has increased to 450 missionaries, with 700 catechists; while the church is represented by upwards of 4000 Christian youth of both sexes, 21,000 Christian converts in full communion, and five times that number under Christian instruction. But as yet we have said nothing of the special subject of this paper, the great cause of education, which is now beginning a grand era in the history of British India. We shall endeavour, as briefly as possible, to put our readers in possession of the facts of this question. It is one which must affect the future character of one-sixth of the human race; and to exaggerate its importance is hardly possible. Let us, first of all, as briefly as possible, state the progress of native education in India. The renewal of the Charter, in 1813, dates the commencement of any decided step, on the part of the Government, to educate the natives of India. It was enacted in the Charter, that a sum of not less than £10,000 a-year should be set apart from the public revenue for the promotion of education. But for ten years subsequent to this period, nothing was done; when at last, in 1823, a Committee of Public Instruction was formed at Calcutta, and the revenues of the actual fund were placed in its hands. Then came the erection of the Hindoo College, originated by Mr. David Hare; its comparative failure; with its subsequent revival by Mr. Hayman Wilson. But beyond this effort, ultimately successful, general education made little progress. The chief error which the Government committed, at this period, was confining instruction to the medium of the learned languages, to the exclusion of the English and vernacular tongues. Nothing more, however, was attempted The members of the Church of Scot- by Government for the general education of land, moreover, ought to be deeply inter- the masses, until the year 1835, when the ested in this measure; for it must tell Charter was again renewed, while Lord upon our schools and missionary opera- William Bentinck was Governor-Genetions. At last Assembly, it will be re- ral. This marks the beginning of a third membered, perhaps, by some of our educational era. His Lordship's great readers, that the proposed scheme of measure of reform was laying the axe at education for India by its rulers, was the root of the tree of mere Oriental condemned, and our teachers abroad for- learning, and by a minute of council orbid to touch the unhallowed thing. As, daining that all funds should henceforth however, we are unfortunately compelled, be employed “in imparting to the native with many others, to dissent unhesitating- population a knowledge of English literly from this decision, and to take a very ature and science, through the medium different view of the measure, inasmuch of the English language." This importas we think it fully deserves the best ant and successful blow was not struck at thanks and cordial co-operation of the the living, but at the dead languages of Church; and as we confidently hope, the country. The vernacular tongues moreover, that the next Assembly will were spared; but Sanscrit, Persian, and be induced, in a full and well-informed | Arabic, old and difficult paths leading to house, to rescind, by an overwhelming nothing, were given up as useless. Mr. majority, the resolution which was Macaulay and Sir Charles Trevelyan, adopted last year; we shall endeavour, both of whom were then in the Commitin this and a subsequent number of tee of Instruction in Calcutta, were his the Magazine, to inform our readers on Lordship's eager and enthusiastic supa matter of such vast and grave im- porters. The former became President of portance. the Council of Education. This system |