humble roofs, and they will infuse content into a thousand humble hearts.

To know thoroughly the value of these institutions, it is necessary to frequent them, to accustom yourself to the scenes they exhibit, and to mark well the progress of human improvement under the all-healing influence of religion, morality, and sound instruction. A child comes to them, covered perhaps with rags, negligent of truth, accustomed to profane swearing, and faintly instructed in every human duty. Of all sights, it is the most beautiful to see him gradually putting off his old nature, and developing every good principle which lies hid in the heart of a human being. He loves order, he submits to reproof, he is fond of praise, he glows with virtuous emulation, he shrinks from the feelings of shame; the idea of the God of heaven, of immortality, gets hold of him; we know that our work is done, that God has blessed our honest endeavours, and that we have not been unfaithful stewards of his great mercy. I will ask any governor of this charity here present if I am overdrawing this scene; if in the course of his experience he has not witnessed repeated instances of the extraordinary changes I have described. Why, then, my dear brethren, if they are doing this good, help them; if they labour for the poor, do not forsake them. Your feelings may settle the fate of many a wretched being, and doom him to eternal ignorance, or pour into his heart the light and heat of truth; and to refuse a man wisdom for a little money seems a hard thing, and an awful thing too! What is it I reject? A human being? Ay; but what human being? Is it a common spirit fit for the drudgery of the earth, or is it a sublime spirit that is to pass us all? No man knows what he rejects, when he says to a human being, "I will not teach you, nor look into your nature;" for God in this world often sets the grandest spirit in the lowest places, and compels him to dig with a spade, who had better have

wielded a sceptre. It is education which sifts the gravel from the gold, holds up every pebble to the light, and sees whether it is the refuse of nature, or whether the hand of art can give it brilliancy and price. We might make a brilliant list of great English characters who have been born in cottages, and who, originally supported and educated by charity, have risen by virtuous exertions to the highest honours both of church and state. God send that such instances may at all times abound! There can be no stronger proof that we are a wise, a happy, and a well-governed people. And yet, as there is no end to the perversity of the human mind, there are those who ask what all this education is to do for mankind? I rather ask them what it is not to do for mankind? It is to bless children with excellent understandings, with the love of holy things, with sweet dispositions, innocent deportments, diligent souls, chaste, temperate, and healthful bodies; it makes them live to God's glory; it renders them useful in their capacities to the world; blesses them with an humble and modest carriage; breathes into them a love of holy things; warms them with a constant and passionate religion. Think, also, by encouraging the education of the poor in such a commercial and enterprising town as this, into what regions of the earth you send the name of God. The Hymn to Jesus of the poor Bristol boy may be heard on the banks of the Amazon, may rise up to God from the summit of the Andes, may break the deep silence of the African desert, or be heard amidst the storms of the Polar Sea.

My brethren, you may think I am laying before you common topics, 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. The cry of the poor is always rising up from the earth; it is our duty to take care that it is heard in churches, and it is our duty to adjure the believers in Christ that

they give of their abundance to the poor; and I earnestly exhort you to attend seriously and diligently to their education, and to assist, with your utmost means, every charity instituted for that purpose. You aid the laws; you render many new charities unnecesary; you enlarge the field of human genius; you take away the excuse of ignorance, and vindicate the justice of punishment. You keep, too, your own heart in an attitude of tenderness and mercy. I charge you, then, in the name of Christ, that you bear in mind the children of the poor. The love of children is joy, and their cry is anguish to the hearts of the good; take thought of them, for they have no thought of to-morrow; be to them nursing fathers and nursing mothers, and the God of us all shall see, and remember, and bless you in the dark and evil day.

SERMON IV.

SOCIETY FOR PRISON DISCIPLINE.

PSALM cii. 19, 20.

From heaven did the Lord behold the earth, to hear the groaning of the prisoners.

ONE of the most beautiful effects of a free government are those voluntary associations for the promotion of order and virtue, which naturally spring up in all situations where men are left, in a considerable degree, to think and act for themselves. It is this valuable spirit which has given birth to the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline, in behalf of which it falls to my lot to address the present congregation;- a subject which I am sure no one here present will consider as devoid of importance; an object which no one here present will consider as deficient in benevolence; but, on the contrary, I am sure it will occur to you all that it involves very serious interests, that it touches very powerful feelings, that it fulfils very high duties, that it is fit for an enlightened age, that it may fairly occupy great understandings, that pious hands may be held up for it in prayer, that they will not be held up in vain, but that, as the Psalmist says, from heaven the Lord beholds the earth, that he may hear the groaning of the prisoner.

A question has been raised by some humane men, whether or not it is lawful to take away life as a punishment for crime. The argument has been carried on

with great force and great ingenuity: the humane reasoner almost wishes that the objection to capital punishments could be made good, and that reason and reflection could be led to disapprove a practice at which every feeling of humanity trembles; but whatever be the dif ference of opinion among thoughtful men upon this important topic, there is one observation in which all men have agreed and must agree, and that is, that you yourself must not have taught the man you put to death the very crime for which he dies; that the executioner ought not to be the master; that the pupil ought not to be the victim; that the corruption worthy of death should not have been instilled by him in whose hands the instrument of death is placed. If there be cruelty upon earth-this it is! If there is a mockery

Is

of justice that is it! What has been the state of our prisons before the late exertions of this valuable society, and what blood-guiltiness laid upon us? A young man led out to execution in the flower of his youth, and sent before his God and his Redeemer, with all the solemn and appalling forms of justice!-But what cruelty, you will ask, is there in all this? Was he not fairly tried? Yes. Was he not fairly heard? Certainly he was. there any doubt of his having committed the offence? None! But where did he learn to commit the offence? what blackened his soul? where did he acquire that portion of hell which drove him to murder and to rob? You found him when a boy in the commission of some trifling offence, and you placed him in prison, among grown-up thieves and murderers; and no one came to see the poor wretch; and no one warned him. Howard was gone-and that blessed woman who visits dungeons had not begun her labours of the Gospel, and day after day the poor youth was encouraged to murder and to steal-and the law smote him- and his soul is in the torments of hell! This is the foundation of our Society!-upon this plea we ask for your association