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Untitled Article
him to a level with those brutes , who , in many cases , enjoy more happiness than he . Existing privations are not , it is true , so extreme as to produce this extreme of moral ruin ; yet they are great enough to create a mass of depravity which one cannot think of without a shudder . Hdw much of this is fairly attributable to the misconduct of individuals , and how much to a system of
government that has sought , all but exclusively , the interests of the few to the detriment , the fearful and lasting detriment of the many , —it is not now my object to inquire , so much as to suggest , that a mission to the poor might do something to relieve their wants by pecuniary aid , and eventually still more , by encouraging the growth of that moral excellence , which , except in awfully
adverse times , will find or make a way to a sufficiency , if not to comfort . I am fully persuaded that the best charity is that which , by improving their characters , enables the poor to improve their physical condition by their own exertions . Knowledge , —virtue is with them , as in all cases , power , —and pre-eminently the power of multiplying the necessaries and comforts of life .
I have alluded to an extension of the subjects of education in the Sunday Schools . To effect so desirable an end the formation of a teacher ' s class has , I know , been found useful , and might , perhaps , be rendered still more serviceable , if those who undertake the important work would , in addition to instructions in geography , history , and science , direct the reading of the young persons over whom they preside in the Evidences of Christianity , —and
generally all the great fundamental truths of religion , striving , by connecting with their pursuits devotional exercises , and infusing a spirit of genuine , unobtrusive piety into all their intercourse , to foster and develop the spiritual affections , which are at once a source of the highest pleasure , of the loftiest virtues , and the most consistent and self-denying character . In those cases where ministers are not burdened by the duties of a school , nor worn
down by its jading toils , they could not , I think , find a sphere of greater and more certain usefulness than in the class which consisted of those who would communicate each to many the knowledge and good impressions they had themselves received . It admits of a question if all that they are capable of occasioning has been made of the places that are set apart for education on the Sunday . Why should they , as in many cases , remain unoccupied six days out of seven ? There they are , ready to be
employed in any beneficent service , and there , too , is their machinery of teachers , desks , kind and Christian supporters , which might surely be turned to some good account . How easily may a Sunday School be converted , six days in seven , into an infant school . And if objections are felt to teach history and science on the Sunday , —or , if the whole of that time is well occupied in imparting religious knowledge , and religious impressions , and the time is not too much for so important an object , —then why may
Untitled Article
Sunday School Education * 237
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1832, page 237, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1810/page/21/
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