the Lord, no fire to consume the sacrifice, no incense ascending up on high, all is dead, cold and corrupt as the heathen temples of old. In urging you to avoid this rock of a hollow and artificial ministration we do not wish to depreciate the use of figures, nor to eschew the laws of taste; it is your work to make every law and form of human speech, and every tone of human voice subservient to the great work of teaching your people the truth of God in the most effective and powerful manner possible. By constant study, unceasing toil, and earnest prayer, remove from you, if possible, everything that may in the least hinder or harass you in preaching Christ Jesus. As long as life is given you strive to so improve your thoughts, words, voice, and gesture so that every sentence you utter, whether in the pulpit, on the street, or in the afflicted chamber may be carried to the heart with all the weight of human speech and the charm of human tongue, as well as with the majesty of truth and the power of the divine Spirit from heaven. Like your blessed Saviour, you will then be masters of your work, polished shafts in the hands of God, burning and shining lights in your day and generation, growing up into him in efficiency of labour, who is our head, even Christ Jesus. The FIFTH and last element of this growth is Divine usefulness; a vigorous approximation to the perfect usefulness of Christ. The life of Christ was replete with the fulness of blessedness to man. Around it, infinite holiness, eternal truth, Divine kindliness, and matchless ability, for good were encircled as the rolling planets around the orb of day. While as the result, as the stream flowing from this infinite fountain we have usefulness, watering and replenishing the earth, making grass to grow, flowers to bloom, birds to sing, and the desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose. The usefulness of the Lord Jesus Christ was all comprehensive, reaching down to the every day wants of man, and up to the mightiest claims of conscience, and the vastest needs of the soul. With one hand he scattered earthly good and temporal blessing, while with the other he lifted man up from blank despair, lit up his heaven with hope, and led his trembling spirit into the vestibule of glory. When amongst men, he went about, not comforting his flesh, taking his ease, acquiring wealth, or increasing his fame, but with the purity and majesty of godhead, doing good to the bodies and souls of the people. This was his supreme aim, his sole business on earth, and, standing in the fulness of his love amongst the poor and the needy, the fatherless and the widows, the sick and the dying, the fallen and the outcast, he becomes the pattern for his minister, the guiding light for his pilgrim hosts in toil and labour. Hence, brethren, to walk in the steps of your master you must aim supremely at usefulness. Whether in the pulpit or on the platform, in the family or on the street, in the study alone, or abroad amid the hustling multitude; to fulfil your mission you must be useful. Let nothing deter you from this. Let no cloud darken your vision, no hindrance bar your path, no obstacle stay your progress, and no form attract your attention from this one grand object of your ministry. This usefulness is contingent on mental, and especially on spiritual advancement. It is the offspring of sanctified, social power and public efficiency. The one is necessary more or less to the other, and they are proportioned to each other. When there is the concentration of every faculty and energy, the whole man drawn up into Christ, there is usefulness; and in proportion as is that growth, so will be the majesty or poverty of the ministry. Therefore, brethren, press up into the fulness, and out into the usefulness of Christ. Your fathers are failing and falling around you, and their mantles of duty and power are descending on you. After long years of toil and hardship, they are resting in bodily weakness from their great work, and heaven hath appointed you to the battle and storm. Go forth then to this great labour, and go in the name and with the weapons of God; be holy, be intelligent, be kindly, be efficient, and depend upon it that so sure as God sitteth on the throne of the heavens, so sure shall usefulness in a rolling tide of blessing be your reward. The Lord shall prosper you by the way; he shall bless you, and that right early; the beauty of the Lord your God shall be upon you; he shall establish the work of your hands upon you, and though now going forth weeping, bearing precious seed, you shall doubtless return again rejoicing, bearing your sheaves with you, while Jesus himself shall welcome you home saying, "Well done thou good and faithful servant, thou has been faithful over a few things; I will make the ruler over many thing; enter thou into the joy of my Lord." So that through the boundless eternity it will still be, “Up into him in all things, who is your head, even Christ.” And now may the God of all mercy keep your hearts and minds in the love of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. J. N. 317 ART. IV. GOVERNMENT GRANTS FOR DAY SCHOOLS. IN REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. a former article* we attempted to describe the present working and probable results of day schools under government supervision. Some of the positions therein maintained, in favour of grants, have been assailed. Before proceeding with the task of attempting a reply to the principal objections that have been urged, it may be well to place before the reader a few articles from the Revised Code, in order to refresh his memory, and enable him to see the subject in its own light. As to the Trust Deed of school buildings, for which building grants are received, we have the following: "30. The Trust Deed must declare the premises to be granted in trust for the education of the poor, and for no other purpose whatever. It must also provide for the legal ownership of the premises, and for the inspection and management of the school according to one or other of the precedents settled for: Church of England Schools, British Schools, Established Church of Scotland Schools, Wesleyan Schools, Free Church (Scotland) Schools, Roman Catholic Schools, Jewish Schools, Episcopal Church (Scotland) Schools, Undenominational Schools, (belonging to none of the previous classes, but in which the Bible is read daily from the authorised version.)" "The Article 8 decides the question as to what kind of schools may receive the grants: "Every school aided from the grant must be either a school in connection with some recognised religious denomination; or a school in which, besides secular instruction, the Scriptures are read daily from the authorised version." object of the grant is to promote the education of children belonging to the classes who support themselves by manual labour. The means consist in aiding (by grants) voluntary local exertion, under certain conditions, to establish or maintain schools, which are either for the instruction of children (elementary), or for training school-masters and school-mistresses (normal.)" As to inspection, we have the following: "12. No grants are made to schools which are not open to inspection by inspectors appointed by Her Majesty in Council on the representation of the Committee of Council on Education. 13. The Committee of Council consults the religious or educational bodies which are mentioned in Article 30 (see above) before making representations † Art. 4, 5. * See "Christian Ambassador," 1866, p. 326. Y to Her Majesty for the appointment of inspectors to visit schools in connection with those several bodies. 14. The inspectors do not interfere with the religious instruction, discipline, or management of schools, but are employed to verify the fulfilment of the conditions on which grants are made, to collect information, and to report the results to the Committee of Council." According to article 10 the "aid to maintain schools is given by grants to the managers, conditional upon the attendance and proficiency of the scholars, the qualifications of the teachers, and the state of the schools." Space forbids further quotation. Against the system to which the foregoing extracts refer, very numerous and startling objections are raised, objections which, if well founded, may well make the friends of the system pause in its advocacy. Some persons meet us with the fundamental objection that government has no right to educate the people at all, but that in attempting it the state goes beyond its proper bounds. Others, who admit the right in question, very hotly resist the regulation requiring the Bible to be read in government schools, affirming that it is an assumption by the state of the right to interfere in matters of religion. Again, there are persons who do not quarrel with this, but think that denominational schools supported by government are inadmissible; that government schools should be of the British School type. Then again we are met by objectors against the system on the ground, that as the system now stands it aids error as well as truth. And to close up all we are told that we cannot, as a religious body, receive grants without the forfeiture of Connexional honour and independence; and that, moreover, we don't need grants, we are doing weil without them, and had better therefore act on the common and sensible maxim of letting well alone. Let us proceed to examine these objections, or some of them, and see what measure of solidity and force they possess. The first objection to be considered is that which is directed against the right of the government to educate. This claims the first attention, for if government really has no right to do what it is doing in this respect, this should settle the question entirely, and render the consideration of other objections unnecessary. Let us hear the objection as it is stated by the most able writer against the grants that we have seen :-"On this subject there are conflicting opinions; but with regard to ourselves as a religious body, we maintain that we are bound to submit to the Word of God; not to Parliamentary blue books, but to the Bible; not to government inspectors' reports, but to the Holy Scriptures. . . . Our religious duties are here distinctly pointed out, and perhaps no duty is more clearly indicated than the duty of parents to teach their children." After citing some texts in which this is undeniably shown, he proceeds :-"Upon parents rests the responsibility of children's education, and it cannot be abrogated, superseded, nor transferred." And a little further on he remarks: "In opposition to what has now been advanced both philosophers and statesmen from ancient times have asserted the main right of the state to educate the young." So far our author. Without going into detail in our reply, we observe that the flaw, the unsound part of the above quotation, is that which places government education in opposition to parental education, and assumes that the one is abrogated, superseded, or transferred by the other, which is no more true than would be the assumption that government authority sets aside parental authority. Whatever might be the case in Sparta, to which the writer refers, it is not so in this country, nor in the United States, nor indeed in any state in Christendom at the present time. Whatever Lycurgus, Plato, or Aristotle taught in this respect, our philosophers and statesmen teach no such thing. The very object of government education amongst us is to assist parents, under certain conditions, in their educational duties, not to wrest such duties out of their hands. Hence the objection is without force, and will be till government shall monopolise all the teaching to itself, which is hardly likely to be. We have next an attempt to prove from Scripture that kings may not meddle with the work of educating their juvenile subjects; that not only are they disallowed to wrest it from the parents, but they may not touch it at all. Let us hear the proof of this startling proposition:"It may not be improper to enquire, what saith the Scriptures in reference to the duties of civil government? If it be that divine thing which many have described, its picture and model will, it may be presumed, be enshrined there. We read of the king who was to succeed the theocracy, that when he sat upon the throne of his kingdom he should write him a copy of the law and read therein all the days of his life, that his heart might not be lifted up above his brethren,' and that he that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of the Lord.' We also read that 'rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil.' None of these passages place a sceptre in the monarch's hand to educate the people." "The education of the people of a country cannot but be a very serious matter, and if a government claims to do this, we may surely be allowed to ask whence it derives its authority."† So far our author. We quite agree with him as to the propriety of submitting this matter to the "law and the testimony," for we also take the Bible to be the ultimate standard of appeal in things civil and social, as well as in things religious. But we cannot accept his conclusion from the three texts produced-that because these passages do not "put a sceptre in the monarch's hand to * "Christian Ambassador," present year, p. 60. † Ibid, p. 61. |