catechizing, the Christian religion was suddenly spread over most parts of the known world within forty years after Christ; and as it was thus planted SO it must be preserved, for if we neglect to instruct "our posterity, religion would die with this genera"tion, and the next age would become barbarous and

atheistical, and therefore all churches have been very "careful to enjoin the practice of catechizing. The "Council of Trent declares it to be the best means "to preserve and propagate their religion, to com"pose a catechism, and command all parish priests "to instruct their people in it. Concil. Triden. Sep. "24. Luther also, in the beginning of the Reforma"tion, writ two catechisms, and not only prescribed "but used this duty himself, declaring that he de"lighted in it more than in all his other offices. "The like care was taken in this matter by Calvin " at Geneva, and by all the eminent reformers in all "nations as well as in this of ours; so that Sir "Edwin Sands observes, that nothing did more con'duce to enlarge the Protestant faith than the dili"gent catechizing used by the reformed divines: "yea, the Romanists confess as much in the preface "to their catechism, saying, Our age is sadly sen"sible what mischief they have done the Church, "not only by their tongues but especially by those writings which they are wont to call cate"chisms."

Nor is the instruction contained in the Catechism less admirable by the manner in which it is conveyed. I know that it has been exposed to frequent and violent assaults; but I feel sure, that if the attacks which have been made upon it have been at all successful, they owe their success to the ignorance or the prejudices of the parties to whom they have been addressed. I do not therefore think it worth while to Occupy your time by making a detailed defence of the truths contained in the Church Catechism, but I would simply ask any of you who may have entertained objections against it, to read it over thoughtfully and without prejudice, and I feel sure that your objections, if not altogether removed, will, at all events, be very much diminished. On this point I speak with great confidence, because I speak from experience. When our school at Blackpits was first opened, I understood that attempts had been made to prejudice the people of that neighbourhood against it, on the ground that every child attending the school would be expected to learn the Church Catechism. When this was reported to me, I felt, that as many of the children attending the school were children of dissenting parents, and being "short "timers," attended by compulsion and not by choice, it was desirable that the Church Catechism should not be taught to the children of parents, if any such there were, who entertained not a mere groundless

and infused prejudice, but a conscientious objection against it. On the other hand, I felt that, by too readily abandoning the Church Catechism, I should be unnecessarily depriving both children and parents of a very great benefit. What then was I to do? How was I to distinguish between groundless prejudices, infused by persons anxious to raise a clamour against any part of our Church system, which clamour I was bound to disregard, and conscientious scruples which I was no less bound to respect, even though I should respect them to the real loss and injury of those who entertained them? In this dilemma I had recourse to the following expedient:-I procured a large number of copies of the Church Catechism, these I desired the scholars to carry to their respective homes, and to request their parents carefully to examine them, and then to acquaint the master or myself with their objections, if they entertained any. What was the result? Not a single objection has ever been made, the outcry against the Catechism has altogether died away, and it has consequently been taught to all who are old enough to learn it. I do not imagine that all the parents fully approved of every expression which it contains, because I am well aware that the inhabitants of that hitherto neglected district have been laboriously prejudiced against many of the doctrines which the Church Catechism unquestionably does teach; but I believe

that even those were convinced that the valuable truth which it contains is at once a compensation for, and a corrective of, the few evil ingredients which they (most erroneously in my opinion) supposed to be mixed up with the good. And this, I believe, will always be the case wherever the Church Catechism becomes really known. Take, for instance, the well-known answer to the question, "What is "thy duty towards thy neighbour?" Ans. "My duty," &c. Is there any thing in this to which any parent could possibly object? On the contrary, must not every good parent feel that his children have been deprived of a very important privilege, if, while this instruction has been given to all the other children of their school, they alone have not received it; and is it surprising that a Clergyman should be desirous of having these things taught to the children of a school placed under his superintendence, and for the instruction given in which he is responsible?

But when the godparent is admonished that the child should be instructed in the Church Catechism, the meaning of the admonition is, that he should not merely be taught the words of the Catechism, but should be made to understand the truths which it contains. · Our Church," says Archdeacon Bather, "in her Catechism has herself provided a summary 'of the needful rudiments. And we have it in the "general heads of instruction to which all that we

"need teach a child may be conveniently and pro

perly reduced. This is of course to be committed "to memory. But the use to be made of the formu"lary when it has been committed to memory, or "how children are to be catechized out of it, is "another thing. Sure I am,' says Bishop Law, "catechizing in its true and original sense, implies

something more than the bare running over of an "old form, though that consists of proper questions

and answers, and contains whatsoever is needful for faith and practice.' Catechisms supply the "teacher with matter to be amplified and enlarged upon, and the learner with such a condensation of things delivered to him in their particulars as he may lay up easily in his mind, so as to recollect, by means of it, what he has been taught. But no summary of this sort will suffice instead of the necessary exposition in detail. For generals not "explicated are of no practical use. They do but "fill the people's heads with empty notions, and "their mouths with perpetual unintelligible talk.'

They must be explicated therefore; and it will be "best done by some method or other of vivâ voce "teaching."

But after all the godparents and teachers of the child may be unskilful in the use of the admirable instrument which the Church has put into their hands, and therefore another regulation was made,