Carpenter, Dr. Harmony of the Gospels by Channing, Dr. Tribute to the Memory of Dr. Worcester, by Creeds, On the Use of Dewey, Sermons by the Rev. O. 1 Divine Worship, ... Doherty, Rev. W. H. Installation of ... ... Dromore, Theological proceedings in Girvan, Sectarianism in Glasgow, Calvinistic Bigotry in God, Do All Things to the Glory of ... Holywood Congregation, Address of ... ... ... Irish Unitarian Society, Anniversary of the Love, The Chain of, by Miss Sedgwick, Martyr, The ... Martyrs, Unitarian ... ... ... 307 ... 255 811 ... 339 210 482 34 ... 183 181 ... ... M'Caw, Rev. J. Soirée to Moira, Tea Party at ... Monks and Nuns, Unitarian ... ... 17, 58, 90, 128 Non-subscribing Bodies, Triennial Meeting of the Non-subscribing Presbyterians, Dinner to the Orr, Rev. Alexander, Installation of Orthodoxy, Ingenious Devices of Sermons by Dr. Armstrong and the Rev. D. Stuart, Commentary on the New Testament, by Dr. Bruce, Sunday-Schools in the United States, Sunday-School, The, by Dr. Channing, Sunday-School System, The, by Dr. Ware, Trinitarian Concessions, Notice of a Work, entitled ... THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL-BY DR. CHANNING. [Our limits will not permit us to present our readers with this excellent discourse at length; we must therefore be satisfied with making large extracts. The Preacher gives his views on the important subject of Sunday-schools under the following heads ;-first, the Principle on which such schools should be founded; next, their end, or great object; in the third place, What they should teach; and lastly, How they should teach.-BIBLE CHRISTIAN.] I. I am, first, to consider the principle on which the Sunday school should be founded. It must be founded and carried on in Faith. You must not establish it from imitation, nor set it in motion because other sects have adopted a like machinery. The Sunday school must be founded on and sustained by a strong faith in its usefulness, its worth, its importance. Faith is the spring of all energetic action. Men throw their souls into objects, only because they believe them to be attainable and worth pursuit. You must have faith in your school; and for this end you must have faith in God; in the child whom you teach; and in the Scriptures which are to be taught. You must have faith in God; and by this I do not mean a general belief of his existence and perfection, but a faith in him as the father and friend of the children whom you instruct, as desiring their progress more than all human friends, and as most ready to aid you in your efforts for their good. You must not feel yourselves alone. You must not think when you enter the place of teaching, that only you and your pupils are present, and that you have nothing but your own power and wisdom to rely on for success. You must feel a high presence. You must feel that the Father of these children is near you, and that he loves them with a boundless love. Do not think of God as interested only in higher orders of beings, or only in great and distinguished men. The little child is as dear to him as the hero, as the philosopher, as the angel; for in that child are the germs of an angel's powers, and God has called him into being that he may become an angel. On this faith every Sunday school should be built, and on such a foundation it will stand firm and gather strength. Again, yon must have faith in the child whom you instruct. Believe in the greatness of its nature and in its capacity of improvement. Do not measure its mind by its frail, slender form. In a very few years, in ten years, perhaps, that child is to come forward into life, to take on him the duties of an arduous vocation, to assume serious responsibilities, and soon after he may be the head of a family and have a voice in the government of his country. All the powers which he is to put forth in life, all the powers which are to be unfolded in his endless being, are now wrapt up within him. That mind, not you, nor I, nor an angel, can comprehend. Feel that your scholar, young as he is, is worthy of your intensest interest. Have faith in his nature, especially as fitted for religion. Do not, as some do, look on the child as born under the curse of God, as naturally hostile to all goodness and truth. What! the child totally depraved! Can it be that such a thought ever entered the mind of a human being? especially that of a parent! What! in that beauty of childhood and youth, in that open brow, that cheerful smile, do you see the brand of total corruption? Is it a little fiend who sleeps so sweetly on his mother's breast? Was it an infant demon which Jesus took in his arms and said, “ Of such is the kingdom of heaven?" Is the child, who, as you relate to him a story of suffering or generosity, listens with a tearful or kindling eye and a throbbing heart, is he a child of hell? As soon could I look on the sun, and think it the source of darkness, as on the countenance of childhood or of youth, and see total depravity written there. My friends, we should believe any doctrine sooner than this, for it tempts us to curse the day of our birth; to loathe our existence; and, by making our Creator our worst foe and our fellow creatures hateful, it tends to rupture all the ties which bind us to God and our race. My friends, have faith in the child; not |