Human reason is destroyed by its rash application, or its too long continuance. Who can bear to live for days and weeks together without seeing any human face, or hearing any human voice? in perfect darkness, perhaps, and in perfect silence, with the consciousness of guilt, with the expectation of death, with the anticipation of judgment! The use of such means requires great prudence, considerable skill, and a perpetual recollection of the moral weakness of those disorderly beings who are the objects of our discipline and care.

If the Prison Society is productive of the best effects in this country, how much more important, because more wanted, must be its labours on the Continent! And its labours are now circulated and appreciated on the Continent. From our exertions and our attention, the most despotic states in Europe are awakened to the importance of prison discipline; and the physician and the magistrate, the legislator, the philanthropist, and the priest, now visit those cells which were before abandoned to the brutality and extortion of the lowest agents of power. And if proper feelings can be excited, gradually excited I mean (for there is nothing more important in charity and Christian benevolence than to be content with little improvements), but if proper feelings can be gradually excited on the Continent respecting prisons, it will render them accessible and visible; for the misfortune now is, that there are many countries in the world where to be imprisoned is to be forgotten!-the key is turned upon the unhappy wretch, and he is no more thought of. But in this country it is a pleasure and a pride to think of the numberless persons who are responsible for the meanest prisoner, and watchful to guard him from oppression. He belongs to the magistrate, he belongs to the sheriff, he belongs to the minister of the gaol; the richest men of the province superintend his labour, and inspect his accommodation: every thing is done upon principle,

every thing is done in public; and if this spirit be good, one great object of our Society is to keep it up; to take care it does not relax; to preserve in spirit and in strength an emanation from the Gospel so ministerial to the highest interests of the world.

A system of humanity, it is true, is now established in gaols, but inspection and superintendence are the parents of humanity; and associations such as this, the rivalry and animation they excite, are the parents of superintendence and inspection. Mankind may be left alone where their interests are concerned; but the monitor and the moralist and the minister must be heard where duties are concerned. Forgive us if we rouse you and warn you in the name of Jesus, when the object is to lessen the crimes of the earth-forgive me if I think it possible that you may not have sufficiently reflected upon this high charity, if I earnestly press upon your attention the discipline of prisons.

When the interests of such an association as this are at stake, it is of importance to remove every unfounded objection. Such is that of the great and needless expense to which we are subjected by the present system of enlarging and improving gaols. But it must first be settled if the system itself be good or bad. If we are not lessening the quantity and intensity of crime,if by classifying, instructing, employing, and punishing, we are not lessening the frequency or preventing the increase of offences against the law, then I admit that we are calling upon you to no useful purpose; but if prison discipline effect such things, and prevent such things, as eyes may see, and common sense must admit it, to effect and to prevent, shall any man object to it on account of the expense? Has any Christian man a right to those savings of his fortune which are made by carelessly exposing a boy to all the immorality of a prison without separation-without religion -and without control? Is this wisdom from God? Is this economy

from the Gospel? Is it the economy even of this world? If a man had a heart that looked only to the good and evil of this world, if he had no fear of meeting in the day of judgment the victims of his careless indifference, yet his understanding might tell him that the strictest and wisest economy was to secure the morals of the lower orders of mankind; that if a long expanse of walls and dungeons can prevent from time to time the destroying effects of a few wicked men, society are not only better and happier, but even richer by the exchange. It has very lately fallen to my lot to be present at the delivery of gaols or general assize of the province in which I live, and to witness there the trial of many prisoners, and I admired (as most persons here present must have admired somewhere or other on similar occasions) the order, the wisdom, and the utility of this great national institution; but in the midst of my gratification I felt a pang, and it came into my heart that something was wanting. Are the engines of detection and punishment to be so perfect? and are we to do nothing for the prevention of crime? Is the metropolis to pour forth its sages?-is so much practised talent to be arrayed against guilt?-is the province to gather together all its wealth and power to increase the solemnity of the scene, and will no one listen to the plans and labours of men, who come before the solemn array of justice, preaching innocence, and calling out to the thoughtless and ignorant that the judge is coming; and pointing to them where his sword is lifted up to smite, and showing them above the earthly judge, the God of heaven beholding the ways of men? My brethren, I conclude my observations on this subject with inviting you to join good men in doing good things! I invite you to lessen the crimes of the lower orders of mankind, and to return these blessings to the poor for the blessings which God has bestowed upon you! The malefactor must die, but not upon us shall his blood

rest!-the sword of the law must have its victims, but less often shall it strike!-- crimes must exist upon the earth, but they shall not be committed within the places of the law!-the guilty must be cut off, but we will try to save those who have just begun to live. Assist us, my brethren! join us-come with us into prisons. We know prisons, and are known to prisoners: these things moved us-they will move you. You may listen to me in vain, but you will not see those for whom I plead in vain. You will then know why we put ourselves forward, and call upon the public for assistance. Your own heart will explain and justify what we are doing, and teach you (for He made your heart) that God looketh down from heaven to behold the earth, and to hear the groaning of the prisoners.

SERMON V.

FOR THE PHILANTHROPIC SOCIETY.

2 CHRONICLES, xxv. 4.

The children shall not die for the fathers.

It is impossible for any godly man, who has the love of order at heart, and the precepts of the Gospel deeply inculcated in his mind, to live long in this great metropolis without perceiving those circumstances in it which tend so powerfully to the corruption of the poor. In places of lesser population they are restrained within the bounds of moderation by the effects of opinion; 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 insensible 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 terror of the law, and the calamities produced by sin, to deter him, in common with all other poor, but he has never been ameliorated by the mild and steady influence of opinion; his life has never been flung open to the daylight of the world; he has never been habitually compelled to consider under what aspect his actions.