inward light, and a taking of the mind, as it were, out of the hands of God?-And if I am right in suspecting the prevalence amongst you, from such causes, of a defect of information on religious subjects, may not the existence of this defect contribute, in no small degree, to account for the fact of so many, when controversial discussions do arise, being shaken, and falling away? Ignorance, or very partial information, can never be a safe-guard against error, or a preparative for withstanding either its sapping and undermining insinuations, or its more direct argumentative assaults. It is quite the contrary. In such circumstances, knowledge is power; ignorance weakness. The uninformed mind is taken by surprise. With flimsy and confused conceptions of truth itself, and little acquaintance with either the evidence in its support or the objections against it, it is quite unprepared to meet the arguments of heresy, and, when they are presented, in their imposing dogmatism, or their subtle plausibility, is startled into scepticism ere it is well aware. To commit the

young to the world in this state of ignorance, is like sending out an uninstructed and inexperienced mariner on a voyage, without giving him any information of the rocks, and sands, and currents, and winds, to be expected by him in his course,-without furnishing him with a chart of the seas he has to traverse, or showing him how to use it; so that he is utterly

unqualified for avoiding or for encountering the dan gers that lie in his track, and may find himself in the very midst of perils from which escape is impossible, while he is fancying nothing before him but a clear sea, propitious breezes, and a safe haven.

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In saying these things, I am anxious to guard against two misconceptions. The first is, that I say them in ignorance of the counsels, on the subject of parents and education," contained in the Society's "Rules of Discipline with Advices," in which a careful instruction in the contents of Holy Scripture is recommended and urged on parents and guardians, in extracts from the minutes and letters of many successive yearly meetings. This would be a mistake. I have the third edition of the "Rules of Discipline, &c.," lying before me. The counsels therein given on this important subject are excellent. It would evince an unreasonable jealousy, and hypercritical captiousness, to find any very material fault with them. But this is not the present question. The existence of these advices is one thing; their reduction to practice is another. The question is, whether a practical conformity to these advices has been generally prevalent in the Society; or whether the Quaker youth, taken in the aggregate, do, in point of fact, evince a fair average of Scriptural information. -And here I would guard my reader against a second misconception, as if I intended to advance a

charge of the contrary, without exceptions. Far from it. I believe that there are exceptions, and I rejoice to believe farther, that the number of these exceptions is decidedly on the increase :-and I cannot but regard the multiplication of instances of exemplary attention, on the part of parents, to this essential branch of their duty, as one of the gratifying symptoms of a begun and advancing amelioration in the body.-But I more than fear I am right, in conceiving the average amount of religious, that is, of Scriptural knowledge, as having been, generally speaking, in the Society of Friends, unhappily and characteristically low. And the secondary place which, in their standard works, and by the venerated fathers of the system, is assigned to the Divine volume, as the rule of faith and conduct, is quite sufficient, independently of every thing else, to account for the fact, as one which it was no more than reasonable to anticipate. And even in the excellent advices in your Book of Discipline, there occur such occasional allusions to your primary principle of the inward light, and the immediate and independent guidance of the Spirit, as to enfeeble the force of that influence upon the conscience which they would have possessed, had the Holy Scriptures been distinctly acknowledged as the supreme and only authoritative test of religious truth, and source of religious instruction. I refer to such sentences as these, which

occur in immediate connexion with the inculcation of Scripture instruction:-" They" (parents) "will "frequently feel the vast importance of doing their "utmost to cultivate in their tender offspring a hum"ble obedience to the teachings of the Lord's Spirit;

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and, as they advance in years, to establish in them a "firm belief of the all-sufficiency of this holy Guide:"* "On this principle,"-(the correct and important principle, that we cannot of ourselves produce religion in the mind")—" we must make it our chief "object to direct the early and constant attention of our offspring to the Spirit of Christ within them, from "which alone can spring the fruits of righteousness:"† -"and in order hereunto," (that is, to their "instructing them in the nature and necessity of being born from above, without which, our Lord declared, no man shall see the kingdom of God") "that they labour to bring them acquainted with the holy seed, which is sown by the Divine hand in every heart for that gracious end."-This last sentence occurs immediately after the specification of the duty of "encouraging children, as well by example as by precept, to the frequent reading of the Holy Scriptures:"but it is evident, that instruction in those truths which the Holy Scriptures reveal is not regarded, nor recommended, as the principal means of regeneration,

*

Pages 203, 204.

† Page 200.

B

-but rather an early acquaintance with the inward light, here intended (as the established nomenclature of Quakerism might be adduced to show) by "the holy seed which is sown by the Divine hand in every heart for that gracious end."—And is it not a point of fact, that, in the process of early religious education, there has, amongst Friends, been more dependence on this supposed "holy seed" than on the written word, and a consequent disposition to leave the desired effect chiefly to its operation? Has there not been, amongst the really well-disposed and serious members of your communion, more of a propensity to encourage, in the terms of the same publication, a humble waiting for, and feeling after, those "secret and tender visitations of Divine love, which

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are afforded for the help and direction of all,”. than, by a steady and persevering process of Biblical instruction, to replenish the minds of the rising generation with a well-digested knowledge of divine truth? I have alluded, with satisfaction, to the multiplying instances amongst you of attention to Scriptural instruction in the fulfilment of the parental trust. It has been with a similar satisfaction, and a similar anticipation of benefit, that I have heard of meetings held with the rising youth of your Society by some of your senior members, for the express purpose of reading the Sacred volume, and explaining, in familiar remark and conversation, its divine contents. But,