in proportion as this has imparted pleasure, has the information, on the other hand, distressed me, that the practice has occasioned umbrage, awakened jealousy, and drawn forth, from some of the more staunch adherents of your testimonies, serious admonition; and that attempts have been made to suppress these Bible classes, as if they were hazardous to your principles ! Has not this been the case? And do you really think, that the spirit, from which proceeded the suggestion of such counsels and such attempts, could be the Spirit of God,-the Spirit by which the Scriptures were dictated?—that the same Spirit that gave the lessons, gave also the advice to withhold them?-Are not such facts rather to be regarded as additional evidence of the timidity and shyness (to use the gentlest terms) which have existed among you in regard to direct Biblical instruction,-springing from the apprehension, that too much regard to the secondary rule might have the effect of drawing off the attention of the rising youth from that which you regard as primary? The mistake and presumption involved in such à sentiment, and in such a fear, will be afterwards considered.

Allow me farther to ask you, whether, in Quaker education, the object, to a very great extent, has not been rather to fashion Friends than to make Christians?-to impart acquaintance with distinguishing peculiarities, rather than with great essential princi

ples?-to train to external conformity, rather than to impart mental illumination? Has it not consisted in rearing to habits of morality,-of simplicity in appearance and manners, of integrity and truth in daily intercourse, of humanity and kindness, of domestic affection, of order, punctuality, industry, economy, sobriety, and moderation, with all those other virtues by which personal and social respectability, comfort, and usefulness in the present world are promoted ;while too little attention has been shown to the inculcation of those great evangelical truths, in which are contained the only motives to moral duty which the God of the Gospel sanctions,-and the faith of which, in their apostolic purity, is the grand principle of the whole Christian character? Has your moral training been sufficiently founded in evangelical instruction,-in the knowledge and belief of divine truths? I fear not. Am I wrong? I shall rejoice to be assured that I am. But if, to any considerable extent, my apprehension is well-founded, the error is a grievous one, and perilous to souls. It separates morality from religion; duty from faith. Unless a character be formed on Gospel principles,-its moral virtues springing from the faith of divine truths,—it is essentially defective :—it is worse,-its very foundation is wrong,-its primary elements unsound.

But is not the formation of characters of this description greatly encouraged by your regarding all

belonging to the families of your Society as born Quakers?-as members of your community by natural birth? The divine record tells us, that the genuine subjects of Christ's spiritual kingdom are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." * It is the testimony of the Redeemer's own lips-" Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."+ Is sufficient, or indeed is any regard shown by Friends to this, in reception to the privileges of membership? Is there, amongst them, any formal admission of the young to their fellowship, or any formal application, on the part of the young, for such admission? Is there any examination of their knowledge of divine truth, or of the evidence of its having been to them 66 the power of God unto salvation?"-any investigation into the Scriptural marks of a saving change having passed upon them,-of their having been born again? If not, is it at all wonderful that there should be found many growing up amongst you in melancholy ignorance of divine truth, and consequently without the distinctive influence of evangelical principle, and, amidst all the peculiarities of Quakerism, and all the decencies, and proprieties, and conventional virtues of society, with little of what the Bible denominates "the power of godliness ?"-little

of the holiness of the saint, as distinguished from the virtue of the moralist? When there is a strict conformity maintained to those peculiar practices in which the "testimonies" of Friends are regarded as especially consisting, is not this apt to pass for enough, and to supersede inquiry into what is, beyond controversy and beyond comparison, more important, the spiritual state and character of "the hidden man of the heart?"-I do not find, among your "Rules of Discipline," &c., any instructions with regard to the application of the young for reception into your religious communion, or the examination of their knowledge, principles, and character, with this view. I find particular directions on the subject of accurate registration of births, &c.; from which, as well as from visible facts, I conclude, that all children of Quaker parents, when born into the world, are born into the Society, and grow up as acknowledged members of it, without any subsequent investigation or recognition, on the part of the body at large, or of the particular meeting with which the parents happen to be connected. Is it to be wondered at, in these circumstances, that there should not only exist amongst you a great deficiency of religious information, but an extraordinary diversity of religious opinion; so that, to know a man to be a Quaker is to have no sure or definite conception whatever of his creed, or of any thing else than his conformity, more

or less strictly maintained, to the marked external peculiarities of the body?

I hope I may be allowed still farther, without subjecting myself to the imputation of "all uncharitableness," of the guilt of which imputation my inmost soul would acquit me, to suggest it to you, as one of the points of danger incident to a Society that has stood out with so prominent a distinctiveness as yours, that it is proportionally prone to admit the influence, consciously or unconsciously, of the esprit du corps. I put it to the truly and humbly pious among you (for such I rejoice to know there are) whether they are not sensible of a risk of this principle having more exercise than it ought to have, not only in keeping up attention to the outward badges and the special testimonies of Quakerism, but even in maintaining, to a certain degree, the high standard of Quaker morality itself? The body has obtained a character; and where such a character has been obtained, I freely and gladly grant the credit of having deserved it for however frequently individuals may impose on individuals, a whole body of men cannot be supposed to delude the community, and to maintain the delusion so successfully and so long. But while I admit a reality corresponding to the reputation, I cannot, with the sense I have of the deceitfulness of my own heart, and with my eyes open to the observation of others, be blind to the danger