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places our blessed Lord before their eyes, because everything in His heart and life was perfect beauty.

The Religious Tendency.

Among Christians the religious tendency first addresses itself to the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth; and then to Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who came down upon earth to reveal the unknown Father to His earthly family, and who, in His life here below, marked out the way which should lead us to Him. Our pupils will have received these two great truths at home; they will bring them to our lessons in language, and we shall avail ourselves of them to enforce the decrees of conscience, and to quicken the innate love of right.

With this view, in speaking of the Father Almighty, we shall not now dwell on His justice which awaits us beyond the grave, and which will deal with us according to our deserts; this consideration we have already referred to, when we sought to enlist the desire of happiness on the side of morality. But we shall appeal to a disinterested motive-to gratitude. Is it not true that when the father or mother would carry a point with their child, they often say, "If you wish to please us, you will do so and so?" and the child hastens to obey, under the impulse of gratitude, without any view to self-interest. He borrows his motive from the past, not from the future. Now the child cannot have heard of his Father in heaven, without experiencing some feelings of gratitude, and to these we would now appeal in support of the decrees of conscience.

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With this view, our course of language will remind the pupils of the innumerable mercies of God; nor will it be always necessary to add the moral inference, we love Him because He first loved us*;" for the heart of the child, which is no stranger to gratitude, will anticipate our words, and will rejoice to be able to do anything that is pleasing to Him from whom he has received life and all things. In our teaching we shall also continually

John iv. 19.

advert to the inestimable benefits which our Saviour has purchased for us, at the price of His own blood; we shall show how we owe to Him the knowledge of our Father in heaven, of life eternal, and of the way which leads to it. Thus shall we kindle in young hearts gratitude towards our Lord Jesus Christ; and this gratitude will show itself by obedience to His commands, which are identical with those written by the Creator on our hearts.

The Social Tendency.

This tendency also will supply us with means of enforcing the orders of conscience, and of animating the love of what is right. In Gospel morality there are two great precepts, which are also written by the finger of God on the heart of man: "Do not to others what you would not they should do to you;" and "Do to them what you would require of them." Thus are we commanded to put ourselves in the place of others, in order to judge of what we should approve or disapprove of in them. The rule is valuable for our daily practice in life, but, moreover, it comes powerfully in aid of the moral tendency; for if you acquire the habit of putting yourself in the place of those with whom you have constant or occasional intercourse, this transposition of yourself will beget in you a natural sympathy. And this, once awakened, will come in aid of the precepts and prohibitions of conscience with regard to the individuals with whom you will in this manner have identified yourself. Thus was it that our Lord was able to say, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

We know how powerful is the influence of family affection and of patriotism on the heart; and it is by this habitual transfer of our thoughts to our relations, or to our fellow-citizens, and by the sympathy which it engenders, that these powerful effects are produced.

Thus our course of language, adopting the spirit of the Gospel, and of the Author of Nature, will accustom the pupils to put themselves in the place of others, in order to listen in this position to the orders of conscience, and

to experience the salutary influence of sympathy; and of course it will begin by familiarizing them with the great truth, that all men are their fellow-creatures and their brethren. This may be inserted in the first proposition, and carried on throughout the whole course.

It will also call in the aid of the imagination, by generalizing the good it would inculcate, or the evil it would deprecate, by saying, for example, “If all men told lies, we could trust nobody, and speech would be useless to us;" or, "If every one respected the rights of others, all would be in perfect security by night as by day, without bolts or bars;" or, again, "If all the rich hoarded their wealth, the poor would die of want.”

Here it is imagination which generalizes the good and the evil. Thus it strengthens the voice of conscience; and whilst giving more weight to its commands, it also awakens sympathy more powerfully than will the detached facts presented by daily experience. And here it may be well to remark, that generalization of evil is more effective than generalization of good. The harmony presented by the latter is indeed attractive, but only to delicate minds; whilst a mass of evil will shock the imagination even of a child: and the reason is, that discord is more keenly felt than harmony. Our course of language will therefore more frequently generalize evil than good, and will thus better promote the cause of education.

To inspire Children with Christian Humility.

As soon as a man thinks, however falsely, that he has attained to perfection, he stops short, he views himself with complacent satisfaction, and casts a look of disdain on those whom he considers his inferiors. In his blindness he will even presume to vaunt himself before the thrice holy God. Such was the pharisee, who boldly advanced to the sanctuary, and regarded with proud disdain the humble publican; while the latter, in deep self-abasement, acknowledged himself to be a sinner, and dared not even cross the threshold of the temple. This is the picture of Christian humility contrasted with pharisaical pride, as drawn by our Saviour.

Humility does not consist in overlooking or in disparaging the dignity of our nature, or our high privilege as the children of God; on the contrary, it feels their full value, and takes shame for having responded so ill to the bounties of Divine goodness, and for still falling so far short of the standard proposed to us. This Christian

humility has been stigmatized as mean and abject; but, on the contrary, it is an elevating principle which produces, on one hand, amendment in ourselves, and, on the other, indulgent charity to others.

The functions which we have throughout ascribed to our educative course of language, are all of a nature to check the risings of pharisaical pride in the heart, and to substitute in its stead Christian humility. How should those learn self-sufficiency who are continually taught to look to our Father in heaven, and to His beloved Son, as to the models which they must endeavour, at however immeasurable a distance, to imitate. Moreover, by contemplating the immense extent of moral obligation, our pupils will become more and more aware of their faults and defects, and will be little tempted to think they have attained to the standard, or to set themselves above others. Nevertheless, our course of language will add other measures to accomplish its purpose more surely.

With regard to the principle of right which children may discover in themselves, for they are not destitute of it, it will teach them that this gift is from above, from the Father of lights. We shall ask with the Apostle, “What have ye that ye have not received; and if ye have received it, why do ye boast as if ye had not received it *?”

Sometimes men are so blinded, that they think they can give to the Creator, from whom they have received life and all things; and that they can claim in return from Him, as they might from their fellow-creatures. But our course of language will dispel this illusion, which is the offspring of gross ignorance and incarnate pride. With this view it will comment on those words of our blessed Lord, "When ye shall have done all those things which

* 1 Cor. iv. 7.

are commanded you, say, we are unprofitable servants; we have done that which was our duty to do*."

Children are also tempted to compare themselves among themselves; and they do not select for this purpose the best among their companions, but those whom they consider their inferiors. By this means self-conceit gains as much as virtue loses. All ardour for what is right is chilled by this comparison, because the child will think himself justified by the example of others in doing wrong; and, moreover, in order to exalt himself, he will magnify the faults of others, and will even impute to them some which in truth they have not. We shall therefore have two things to do: first, to remind our pupils that God bestows His gifts variously, and that "to whom He giveth much, of them will He require the more†," for He is just as well as holy; and, secondly, to turn the attention of our pupils to their own defects, that they may judge themselves, and not encroach on the prerogative of the Supreme Judge, who can alone try the heart, and discover its secrets.

We have now shown in detail what our educative course of language will do for the moral cultivation of our pupils. In our statement thoughts are grouped together in their natural order, and the different groups form a regular series, as should be the case in all consecutive instruction. But not so in our course of language; for its peculiar object is to develope first the thoughts, and then their expression; and therefore it must follow its own particular method. So what is combined in our statement, must necessarily be scattered in our elementary books; but on this subject we have already appealed to the natural association of ideas, which will of itself combine analogous ideas, and collect in groups the scattered elements which have been supplied at different times. And this dissemination in our lessons, and particularly in our moral instruction, which always appears rather grave to children, has the advantage of divesting it

* Luke xvii. 7-10.

Matt. vii. 1-5.

+ Matt. xxv.

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