Half measures useless and dangerous-If more be not done, too much has been done already-In doing more, parochial Practical efficiency of the Church hindered by defects in the working-False friendship to attempt to hide real faults- Unfair advantage taken of candour, no good reason against its exercise-True temper of Christian reproof-Some defects in the working of our National Church enumerated, and re- medies suggested-Concluding appeal: the inseparable con- nexion between religion and politics, mind and body, cause and effect-Exceeding urgency of this subject—The pros- perity, the peace, the free institutions, the missionary useful- ness of the country, as well as the salvation of immortal souls, LECTURE I. INTRODUCTION ONLY DIVINE TRUTH WILL BEAR THE SCRUTINY OF THESE TIMES-TO BE MAINTAINED AND EXTENDED, OUR CHURCH MUST BE SHOWN TO BE NOT ONLY USEFUL, BUT SCRIPTURAL-MEANS ESTIMATED WITH REFERENCE TO THE END IN VIEW-SCRIPTURAL MEAN 66 66 99 INGS OF THE CHURCH," FOUR-THE CHURCH MYS- THERE exists a very general conviction that some measures must be adopted speedily, and on a national scale, for the instruction of the people of this country. The ascertained ignorance of multitudes has long been a subject of painful consideration to the thoughtful, and some late exhibitions of its fatal consequences have arrested the attention of even the habitually careless. Men of all political parties agree in the conclusion that something must be done, however widely they differ in their views as to the best mode of proceeding. The most obvious mode would be to B make use of a machinery which is already laid, largely though now inadequately, over the face of the country, and to communicate the required instruction through the instrumentality of our established church. We esteem this mode, not only the most obvious, easy, economical, and in every practical point of view safest and most efficient; this would be merely to claim precedence for it as one human arrangement, preferable to other human arrangements: but we occupy much higher ground, and for the fundamental principles of our ecclesiastical instrumentality, we claim the direct authority of the word of God Accordingly, we solicit an extension, on a broad liberal national scale, of the framework of the church. This demand rouses, of course, the opposition of men who do not approve of our church, and also, of men who, although they do approve of it themselves, and of its extension by those who prefer it, yet shrink from any step which would enlarge its efficiency, at the cost, in any the smallest degree, of those who conscientiously dissent from it. This feeling would be correct, and this argument sound, in the absence of divine authority. Instead of extending the church, these persons propose a system of education, to become national, which shall combine, in secular instruction, the children of all parties, and keep so entirely aloof from everything sacred as not to interfere with the religious views of any. This, as naturally, rouses the opposition of those who consider the mate riel of man's intellectual constitution as so alienated from all that is good, that the direct cultivation of it is but placing a weed in a hothouse, and that consequently religious instruction, whose object and whose prerogative it is, to change the nature of the plant "to make the tree good," is the basis of all sound education, the only element which can render universal intelligence in secular things either a source of real happiness to the individual possessor, or compatible with the subordination and safety of the community. But the controversy is not confined to this. Some of our opponents not only object to any extension of our established church, but demand its total extinction, alleging that its existence is a hindrance to the spread of true religion. In support of this assertion they have eagerly and eloquently attacked the constitution of our church as opposed to the holy Scriptures. This has removed the discussion from superficial circumstantials, from all that Dr. Chalmers called microscopic in our differences, to grapple with fundamental principles; a consequence in which we greatly rejoice: because it is our matured conviction, that to inattention and consequent want of information upon this vital point, may be traced our present perilous position. The number of intelligent men, who, after due inquiry, are deliberately hostile to our church establishment, is comparatively insignificant. But what they lack in numbers, they possess in activity and decision. They seem to think, and they certainly |