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then we begin to rejoice in our labours, then we know that the soul of that child is come back unto her; and in a little time, for the hardened and wicked being whom you saw us receive, we will exhibit to you a decent, orderly, instructed child, strongly fortified with the precepts of the Gospel, and prepared to act her part in life with earnest piety to her Creator, and steadfast faith to her fellow-creatures. This is what we have been doing for years past, and what, by the blessing of God, and the ministration of your charity, we hope to do for years and years to come. to come. I will not, my brethren, stop to consider whether the education of women is of greater importance than the education of men, because it is unprofitable to contrast two advantages which never can be opposed: but those who think only of the effects produced by the education of men may remember that one of the most certain methods of educating men is to educate those upon whom the early part of man's education must necessarily devolve; that if education be a good thing, by educating women we are taking it up in its first act, and in its simplest shape; we are preparing those for the task who must give to many other minds their earliest bias and their strongest impulse, who, if they are bad, may render all subsequent education impossible, and, if they are good, will almost render it needless. Most sincerely is it to be hoped that the importance of educating the poor will give life and energy to charitable seminaries for all ages and both sexes up to that period when their principles are fixed and safe; but, if you must reject any, let it not be this; if you can educate only a few let it be those who will impart that blessing to others, who will suffer most from ignorance and depravity, and who, if they are neglected, will insure to the world another race of beings as ignorant and as wicked as themselves. Independent of any claim which your goodness may allow to those important functions of education which these

children may hereafter be called upon to fulfil, they possess no ordinary title to your compassion from the perils with which they will hereafter be surrounded in this great city. It is not merely the want of friends and protectors, not merely a mind unfortified by strong rules, never lifted up to Christ, never wakened to the horrors of sin, that are to be dreaded for these children, but how are they to be guarded from those wickedest and worst of men, who are ever on the watch to corrupt the purity of women? This, surely, is a consideration which will move the heart of every parent, and make them their protectors and their friends. Then if these things are so, let good and gracious women be mothers to these poor children, and stand between them and the world; let not the way of the wicked seduce them. Exhibit to them models of living worth and gracious virtue. Your praise will animate more than our incentives; the power of imitation is far greater and better than the power of discipline. In fact there is no plea which any charitable institution for education can present to you which this does not possess: it is for the children of the poor—it is for the female children of the poor, and for the children of the poor living in the metropolis, of which motives to your charity the last is by no means the weakest. In places of lesser population the poor are restrained within the bounds of moderation. What they do, and what they do not do, is seen by those whose favour it is their interest to cultivate, and whose resentment it would be their misfortune to provoke. In this enormous multitude of human beings, an individual, and, above all, an individual of the lowest orders, is perfectly unnoticed, and quite invisible to the eye of inquiry. If he squander away the earnings of his labour in riotous intoxication he has no superior possessed of habitual and hereditary influence to threaten and reprove him, if he abstain from public worship he has no pastor to visit and admonish him: he

has the terrors of the law and the calamities produced by sin to deter him; but he has never been made better by the influence of opinion; his life has never been flung open to the daylight of the world; he has never been compelled habitually to consider under what aspect his actions would appear to men, wiser, better, and more powerful than himself, and to make of their opinion an aid to that awful distinction between good and evil which nature has implanted in every breast.

One circumstance which gives great pleasure to the conductors of this charity is, the unfeigned satisfaction evinced by the parents at the improvement of their children an occasion which I have seen more than once bring tears into the eyes of men whom none of us could have imagined to be capable of shedding a tear upon any occasion. Great, my brethren, very great, is the comeliness of knowledge and of virtue. The lowest love them, the most abandoned honour them; the man who has never held up his hand in prayer, or carried his thought beyond the appetite of the hour, blesses you, honours you, thanks you, that you have made his children better than himself, and opened for their souls a salvation, which he, poor forsaken wretch, could never hope for his own; therefore, my kind and good brethren, when you go out of the church this day, and give what little you mean to bestow, give a little more to make happy the fathers and mothers of the poor. Let us take in one more child, and bless one other family; let us give more room, and play, and space to the best and kindest feelings of the heart. When I talk of increasing our numbers I forget the situation of this charity, and the humbler object we have in view. We have no magnificent projects of increase; all our hope is that we may not experience a still further diminution: we have already lessened our numbers, and we are not without fears that we must still part with some of those children whom we have already received. Why the munificence

of the public has ceased to flow in this channel we know not. This we know, that no adverse fortune shall ever shake our purpose: we have taken up this system from a rooted conviction that we are alleviating human misery, and if there remain only one single friendless child under our protection, she shall experience from us unshaken friendship and unwearied kindness.

My brethren, you may think I am laying before you common topics of pity, and urging you with well-known reasons for compassion-I am so, I know I am; but if you wish for new topics, you must get rid of antient miseries. We see the same wretchedness that we ever yet have seen; the antient cry of the poor comes up to us, and we hear the repeated story of their sorrows and their wants. It is our duty to state these at the altar, to tell them to the congregation of Christ, to speak them out before God in this sacred place, and to conjure, solemnly, the faithful to give them of their abundance. My brethren, have mercy, therefore, upon the children of the poor! Jesus Christ took little children in his arms and embraced them, and said they belonged to the kingdom of God. They are as pure as the angels, and are full of sweetness and kindness; to be loved by them is a great joy-and their cries are anguish to the hearts of the good. Take thought of them, for they have no heed of to-morrow; be to them nursing fathers and nursing mothers, and the God of us all shall see it, and remember, and bless you in the dark and evil day.

SERMON III.

FOR THE YORK CHARITY SCHOOLS.

MARK, X. 13, 14. 16.

And they brought young children, that he should touch them; and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God. And he took them up in his arms, and put his hands upon them, and blessed them.

THIS is a very beautiful passage of the Gospel, and constitutes a striking feature in the benevolent life of our blessed Saviour. The Jewish women naturally crowded near him, and held forth their children, that they might receive, according to the notions of those times, some portion of the heavenly influence which his mere bodily presence was supposed to diffuse on all around him. When Jesus saw it, he reverenced the feelings of nature; he was moved by the innocence of children; he saw in them the marks of salvation; and he said, "Forbid them not; let them come: let the little children come to me; for of such is the kingdom of God." These are feelings, my dear brethren, to which every Christian heart responds. Every man says, Forbid them not; let them come to me: I will help them! All arms are extended for their reception; the open hand of mercy is ever on their heads.

The ensuing week is, I believe, a week of great charitable exertion in this ancient city. Collections are

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