our means may be limited, who knows the success with which the Head of the church may crown our endeavours? And if we show a zeal commensurate with the importance of the undertaking, we shall be able to effect much good. Let us reflect upon the mind-darkening, and soul-destroying, and God-dishonouring effects of the united operations of ignorance and depravity-upon the benefits and blessings of a good education-let us be consistent, and honest, and devoted, and we shall say, we will do something. A TEACHER. DEAR SIR, THE Article in your Magazine for December on the Extension of Education, is calculated to awaken up those deep feelings of its importance, both to the national character, and to the cause of truth, which have for many years impressed every free and intelligent mind. When Sir James Graham and his party brought forward their Factory Bill, and sought, by its stealthy educational clauses, to introduce a system of compulsory education, to be supported by taxation, and placed under the control of the clergy, it was plain to every unbiassed mind, that it was not the intellectual advancement of the rising generation that was chiefly desired, but the extension of priestly domination and influence. It was, in fact, a declaration to this effect: if the poor are educated, the sectarianism of the national church shall be inculcated. But the public mind was already too much in advance for the attempt to succeed; and the minister and his supporters retired before the united resistance of the intellectual and free. It is, however, matter of rejoicing to the friends of education and freedom, that their opponents are forced to adopt the very means they have formerly repudiated and opposed; yet, whilst we rejoice, it is "with fear and trembling." We hope, however, that as the light of day frequently scatters the clouds of darkness, so education will rid the mind of the false glosses and superstitions that deceive and enthrall, and that eventually truth will triumph over igno rance and error. But, Mr. Editor, you ask "What Ought, Can, and Will the Methodist Association do in furtherance of the cause of general education? What it WILL do I will not presume to predicate-what it ought and can do I will venture to suggest. Let it identify itself with the "British and Foreign School Society," and lend all its energics to extend the benefits of education under its auspices and in accordanee with its well digested plans. The Association can add to the number of the subscribers to the British and Foreign School Society, and can have talented young men and women instructed, in its Normal School, to become qualified to act as masters and mistresses of day schools. If the Association will heartily engage in this work, it will thus confer blessings on our country, and on the world, that no human calculation can estimate, and which eternity alone can give scope to compute. Pardon me, dear sir, if on this subject I presume to write with earnestness and deep solicitude-most fervently do I pray that our youth may receive an education free, full, and unpolluted; and that the Wesleyan Methodist Association may engage in this work with a zeal commensurate to its importance. December 18, 1843. Yours truly, EDUCO, COMMUNICATIONS FOR THE MAGAZINE. On reading the article, sent by me, on the subject of "Communications for the Magazine," which you inserted in the December number, I was very much surprised at the omission of Manchester from the lists of circuits, which might reasonably be expected to furnish contributors. As, however, you have informed me, by private letter, in answer to an enquiry I deemed it proper to make, that the omission was my own, and not that of the printer, which I previously felt confident was the case, allow me to say, that I had no intention to exclude Manchester. The Connexion has, I hesitate not to say, a right to look to that town for considerable aid in conducting the Magazine and will not I trust look in vain. And there are other places, although not expressly mentioned, which will ill discharge their connexional obligation, if not found regularly on the list of literary contributors. The anxiety I feel, as to the result of the appeal made to our friends throughout the Connexion on this important subject, is not, I know, confined to myself. That result will be waited for with deep interest by many persons in different parts of the Association, as one in which the prosperity of the Magazine is deeply involved. December 8th, 1843. 4 Class Leader in a Manufacturing Town. ON THE EVILS OF WAR. An Address to the Ministers of Christianity; the Teachers of every kind of sound knowledge; the Students of literature and science; and all who seek to promote the intellectual, religions, and eternal benefit of mankind. Prepared for the Peace Convention, by the Rev. JOHN PYE SMITH, D.D., LL.D., F.R.S., &c. FRIENDS AND BRETHREN,-We will not suppose you to be indifferent to the question which has often hitherto, and especially in the last few years, drawn the attention of many wise and good men,-Whether the practice of war among mankind be consistent with social morality, personal virtue, and our supreme obligations to the infinite God. We also believe it to be a not unreasonable assumption that many of you have impartially considered the rational and scriptural arguments which have been abundantly laid before the world, in proof of the negative side of that position. From the days of apostolic Christianity to the present hour, the truth has been declared that war and genuine religion are irreconcilable opposites. During several centuries, it was almost entirely lost sight of; until, in the year 1523, Erasmus again called the attention of Christians to it. A few who, in that age, held the same sentiment, were trampled upon, and slow was the progress of conviction through the clouds of almost universal prejudice. The general habits of mind and action were perverted by the glare of military glory, the ambition of rulers and conquerors, and the selfish schemings of statesmen. Among religious men themselves, keen debate on primary theological doctrines too much engrossed time and attention; so that this point of evangelical morals was very blameably overlooked, as were some others of no little importance to the integrity and consistency of the Christian system. Erroneous views of the peculiar nature of the Old Testament dispensations, and of the design and extent of the Mosaic law, had a large share in producing and fostering the approbation of war; as they also had of the assumed right of governments to enact and inflict the penalty of death, for whatever crimes they might choose so to punish. The inveteracy with which those opinions were held, is a distressing exhibition of human weakness, and may diminish our surprise that the unchristian character of all war was not earlier and more clearly perceived. Scattered individuals, at all times, had glimpses of this great moral principal; but after we quit the early ages of Christianity, we do not find that any distinctive class or denomination of Christians has raised up its voice against this gigantic evil, till the rise of the society of Friends, in our own country, and but two centuries ago; except partially in the case of the Moravians, or United Brethren. It is reserved for Peace Societies, in our own times, to unmask this evil, and invite general attention to the pacific character of Christianity. We have called war a gigantic evil; but we might have used language more awfully strong; for it may be justly asked, Is there a sin against God or man which the practice of war does not, directly or by acknowledged consequence and established usage, include, concentrate, and aggravate ? Under the bewitching array of gorgeous dresses, beauty and order in manœuvres, soul-stirring music, admirable applications of science, and patriotism falsely so called, the military system covers over a dark and unfathomable pit of crime and misery. Is it a sin to lie and deceive, in word or action? Stratagem is an essential part of the science of war. The operations of a campaign include all manner of contrivances for the denial of truth and the accrediting of falsehood. To "deceive the enemy" is sought and practised, and is even lauded as wise and virtuous. Is it a sin to plunder, steal, and rob? The storm of war falls with ruthless desolation upon the property of a country, the houses, and fields, and other possessions of the unoffending inhabitants. The sustenance of life is, by violence, taken from them; and what cannot be consumed or wasted at once, is often wantonly destroyed, for the express purpose of insuring the greatest amount of misery to thousands, and eventually millions, of our fellow men. Thus, besides the lawless sacking of cottages and mansions, barns, and manufactories, and machinery, to restore which will cost the revenue of kingdoms, there is inflicted upon children and women, the aged and infirm, a variety and an amount of private suffering which words cannot describe. Is murder a sin? Who can, in thought, realise the actions of the battle-field, and conceive of them as free from that guilt? Do not the lines of a late bishop of London (Dr. Porteus) express the honest truth? Men have been taught "To make a death which nature never made. The foulest stain and scandal of our nature Is chastity, in all its modes and connexions, indispensable to a virtuous character? Who can be ignorant that its violation, in all its ways, usually attends the progress of an army; and that the giving up of the females of a sacked town is often the avowed reward conceded to the soldiery? Does religion consist of love to the most holy God, and its subordinate but inseparable quality, cordial benevolence to men? Is it then possible for sincere love either to God or man to dwell in my heart, while I am contriving and labouring to take away from my fellow-man the life to which he has the same right as I have to mine? Can I be guiltless in this matter? Can I put off my responsibility; and can it be taken up by generals and admirals, statesmen and sovereigns? Will such a transfer be admitted at the bar of Divine judgment? But we must check this kind of thought. If any entertain the slightest doubt of its perfect propriety, we refer them to the publications, small and large, of Peace Societies; and we are guilty of no arrogance when we say that the arguments have not been, and cannot be answered. If among so many treatises, the writer of this paper may be allowed to point out one, without the slightest disparagement to the works of Mr. Joseph John Gurney, Mr. Macnamara, and others, he would mention the late Mr. Dymond's Inquiry on War, especially the American edition of 1834. We then appeal to all classes and orders of men, and especially to those who possess the means of instructing and influencing the minds of others; and we ask, are ye not bound to employ the opportunities in your power for the widest diffusion of true sentiments upon this great subject? Ministers of the Gospel, what is that Gospel to the diffusion of which you have consecrated your lives? Can you forget that its summary in the highest revelation from heaven is, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth PEACE; good-will towards men?" Instructors of youth, you have invaluable opportunities for showing, in the most interesting and conclusive manner, by your comments on the classical poets and historians, the contrast of heathenism and Christianity; the immorality and cruelty of the one, and the beneficence and beauty of the other. Thus, and thus only, can you answer the solemn charge often brought forward by the best of mankind, that by the uncorrected impressions of your Homer and Thucydides, your Horace and Virgil, you infuse into the youthful mind, the love of war, and the soul-ruining abominations of polytheism. That a danger so awful is attendant upon classical school-learning, you cannot but be sensible. In proportion to the greatness of that danger, must be your desire, if ye be faithful Christian men, to use the best means of precluding it; and both the theory of the subject and universal experience show that THIS is the only course likely to be successful. It is impossible to exclude classical reading from a liberal system of education; the attempt to do so creates notions both erroneous and pernicious in the minds of pupils; and the method which we recommend would secure the literary and moral benefits to be derived from such reading, and unite with them those which are so powerfully suggested by the character of the Lord Jesus, and the principles of the New Testament. Men of science and letters, you know that the advancement and diffusion of knowledge are obstructed by war between nations, and you are well acquainted with the immense advantages to all philosophy, to expeditions of discovery, to astronomical and magnetic observation, to every branch of art, to the exploring of antiquities, and the most valuable applications of erudition, which have accrued to the learned world during the last thirty years; and evidently because it has been comparatively a time of peace. You cannot, therefore, but be deeply interested in the preservation of the peace which has already, and in a period so fully within our knowledge, afforded scope for the reciprocity of such scientific benefits, and the ease and speed of the communication. You must wish that the peace we now enjoy may become completely universal, and be inviolably perpetuated. Yours, then, is the honourable task of coming forth with your noble ardour, and throwing all your weight into the scale of our argument for UNIVERSAL AND PERMANENT РЕАСЕ. Within the latter part of that period more has been done than had been ever before achieved or imagined, in researches upon the affinities of nations and their languages, in actual intercourse for statistical and beneficent purposes, and in efforts to save tribes and races of men from utter extinction; but such efforts must be either totally forbidden, or cramped and injured beyond endurance, by the system of war. Above all, the most exalted, comprehensive, and far-seeing enterprise of benevolence, is that of CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. They communicate, by the shortest course, and yet in the most effectual manner, those principles and habits of life which are the most favourable to conjugal, parental, and filial happiness; the elevation of the female sex to its rightful dignity; the creation of domestic felicity, a joy unknown to savage life; agriculture and all other profitable industry; a nascent literature; in a word, the general blessings of civilization;-these, and their associated enjoyments, the earthly blessings of the Gospel, require peace for their development and preservation; but war is their fellest foe and destroyer. Yet, even those earthly benefits, inestimable as they are, are but the smallest part of the good to mankind men." 66 which flows from gospel missions. The spiritual and eternal benefits, "the unsearchable riches of CHRIST," exceed our power of thought; but their very essence is Peace ;-reconciliation to God, peace on earth, good-will to Must not, then, the friends and supporters of evangelical missions feel themselves called upon to be the most prompt and zealous in diffusing our principles ? But all good men are the friends of missions: PEACE is the essence of the Christian embassage: to the friends of missions, then, we look for their influence, their efforts, their prayers. The object of our association is a necessary part of Christianity. Who, then, are what the Saviour calls "Sons of Peace ?" Whose hearts are affected with pity for mankind, groaning beneath the heaviest accumulation of sins and miseries? Who desires to see holiness and happiness becoming the portion of all nations? Who hath faith in the prophetic word, that "they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more ?" A Christian is not only benevolent, but self-denying; even, when called to it, self-sacrificing he is a disciple of HIM who laid down his own life for us, and who has said, "As I have loved you, so do ye also love one another." Certainly, every sincere and consistent Christian must abhor war,-the offspring of wicked passions,-the concentration of all vice, and crime, and direst wretchedness; and must "seek peace, and pursue it." The attainment of the full triumphs of Christianity is not to be expected to be either momentary, or independent of the use of means. The progress must be gradual, and dependent on the faithful activity of our Lord's sincere disciples. Can any, then, be hostile, or cold, or unwilling to labour, in this field of holy exertion? Is not our work a direct result of the Gospel, an embodying of its characteristic genius? But we cannot conclude this appeal without calling especially on those Christians who have embraced the pacific principles of the Gospel, as a distinguished part of their faith, to renew in these auspicious times their zeal in behalf of this heaven-born cause, and unite their efforts more and more with the friends of peace through the world, in their present endeavours to diffuse light on this subject, and to banish war from every Christian land, and eventually from the face of the whole earth. They need, and have a right to expect your special countenance and co-operation; nor has there ever been a time when such aid could be given with equal hopes of success, in hastening the accomplishment of an object peculiarly dear to your hearts. "Our trust is in the name of the Lord:" and, "the Lord of peace himself give us peace always, by all means!" In this confidence we claim the support of "all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." SUNDAY SCHOOL INTELLIGENCE. TO THE EDITOR,-SIR, Will you allow me to suggest the propriety of devoting a portion of your columns to the interest of Sabbath schools? We have between six and seven thousand teachers, and upwards of forty thousand children in the Association; these therefore are a most interesting and important part of our Society. If you would be kind enough to request contributions relating to the interests of our schools, the advantage would be reciprocal, the teachers would be excited to a more devotional discharge of their duties, and I have no doubt the sale of the Magazine would be much increased. |