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himself, in succession, in the place of priest, levite, and Samaritan, and found in each that the wounded man was his neighbour. He sees that there is no one, however removed, to whom he does not owe the duties of brotherhood. He is prepared, then, for the comprehensive question of Christ (which seems to contain two questions-first, Was not the wounded man neighbour to all three of these? and then, Which, then, of the three rightly discerned his relationship, and acted as a neighbour?)-Which, now, of these three was neighbour to him that fell among thieves?' The lawyer answers, without a moment's hesitation, 'He that showed mercy on him,' and leaves for Jesus only to add, seconding the dictate of conscience, 'Go and do thou likewise.'

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This parable, then, reveals the threefold method I before pointed out:

"1. The good action and its neglect are made transparent, and the mind is directed by the picture to the consequences beyond, which touch the primary compassion.

"2. The sympathy affected is directed in its secondary form upon the good action, and the neglect, which are seen as the opening, or the neglect to open the door of mercy.

"3. The moral judgment is awakened and taught to contrast the compassion thus felt with some lower feelings, and to pronounce upon the relative nobility and authority of the former, and, consequently, upon the character of the action and the neglect, which satisfy one and the other.

"We seek, then, in the whole of our moral training to imitate, though at an humble distance the method exhibited in this fragment from the Great Teacher. We endeavour continually to present to our pupils pictures of life-pictures of the joy and sorrow, elevation and degradation of beings in whom they are interested, all flowing from certain actions; thus touching the feelings of human affection and sympathy. We associate with right actions every feeling of love and approval-every imagination of that which it is delightful to contemplate. We associate with wrong actions every feeling of hatred and disapproval, every image that is fearful and abhorrent. You shall witness the presentation of some of these pictures of life to the children. But, remember, that they are not given for the purpose of interesting them in pretty stories, but as the actual diagrams of social existence, exhibiting moral properties, where alone they can be truly

estimated, in their relation to human life. Now, ask yourself—If such influences as these dropping day by day on the mind must not have the most powerful tendency to cultivate in it a moral tone? Will not life present itself every day more and more in a moral aspect, as a bible of revelations, speaking forth, in every relation, the most instructive moral lessons? Can children, thus living in the very midst of all that appeals to their better nature, of all that reminds them of the great aims and opportunities, and of the terrible responsibilities of life, help being impressed with some moral conviction and earnestness above what has hitherto been generally attained in education."

Elwood.-"Who can doubt it? And yet we must believe that there is something left for the pupil; and no mere combination of circumstances, however cunningly devised, can of necessity make him moral.”

Marsden.-"True; there is such a thing as will, from whose ultimate resolves all good and true action must proceed. And this will is a mystery which we cannot penetrate-an original power which we cannot force. The higher impulses and the conscience are but persuasive powers. They can only counsel; they cannot act. All that we can do in our culture of others, then, is to provide that the will shall have all the high and true persuasives that we can awaken; but with the last sacred resolve itself we have nothing to do. That is the mystery of the inmost sanctuary of the personality with which no stranger intermeddleth.

"Since man is free to listen to whatever persuasives he will, no doubt, in spite of our utmost educational care there will ever be bad as well as good. But, still one cannot but hope and trust that, since there has been so much goodness in the world, while the higher persuasives have spoken to the will with a weak, uncertain, and unfrequent voice, and the lower impulses with a strong and constant one, there will be still far more goodness when the higher impulses shall have always before them objects to inspire them with life, and cause them to sing within the soul, one continual strain of their eloquent music."

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CHAPTER IV.

"I have now," continued Mr. Marsden, "given you some idea of the two halves of our education of the porch, the intellectual and the moral. You saw how the first half-the intellectual-terminated in religion, having given the capacity for intellectual reverence. I need not point out to you how the second must necessarily terminate in religion, by giving the nobler capacity for moral reverence. When the mind has within itself some degree of moral life,-when it has felt any veneration for the right,-any striving to reach it,—and there is presented the image of some being who has felt all the same holy instincts in a higher degree,-who has wrought them out in a great and noble life, the mind turns to such image with a glad and affectionate recognition. It draws it to itself as something to strengthen all that is good within it; and yet it feels before it a profound and sorrowful respect, conscious now of its own moral littleness in the presence of such greatness. You have thus, from the soul's moral life, a capacity for moral reverence-surely the highest and most distinctive element of a pure religion."

Elwood." You seem, then, to leave no place in religion for that element which appears the most predominant one in the popular conception-I mean the sense of dependence, with its attendant hope and fear, gratitude and trust."

Marsden." On the contrary, though I have hitherto said nothing of this element, we do keep it ever in view; and we remember that the best method of raising the natural want of dependence and affection in the human heart into a religious feeling, is by presenting the Deity in such a character as to satisfy the want. The more the mind can realize the constant presence, the all-embracing love, and perfect goodness of the Supreme, the more it will fly to him for friendship and protection. The more the mind, by its own moral instincts, can estimate the perfect moral sentiments and faithfulness of God, the more it will trust in him. The more it comprehends of his beneficence, the deeper will be its gratitude. And then the more profoundly moral are its aspirations, the more its dependence will rise above the dependence of the merely

selfish nature. Its hope and fear will become hope of moral aid and blessing, and fear of forfeiting the precious love, and violating the sacred moral majesty of the Father-in other words, will become identified with its reverence and aspiration. Thus, I hope, I have shown you that our double culture does naturally and necessarily rise into religion, a religion composed of the noblest elements of our nature-awe and wonder, admiration and love, trust and gratitude, intellectual reverence and moral reverence."

Elwood." This is true; yet you will allow me to remark that the religion which you thus build up in the mind is still only natural religion-not revealed."

Marsden." Pardon me, sir; I think you will presently own there is a great fallacy in this remark,-a fallacy into which I cannot understand how any believer in the truth and necessity of revelation can fall. Surely, sir, you will be the first to contend, as a reverer of revelation, that it is, after all, to this that we are indebted for our religious conception of nature and of life. This religion of nature and life is undoubtedly natural; but so in this sense must all true religion be natural, that is, correspondent, to the facts of existence."

Elwood." But you do not communicate this religion as revealed, but as natural: you do not begin to teach your first notions of religion from the Scriptures."

Marsden.-"Precisely; because the synthetic method which we follow imposes upon us the duty of beginning with ideas in the simplest form, and as much as possible within the experience of the pupil. We, the teachers, have received this revelation-and have been endowed with reason and a moral nature-in order that we may absorb the revelation into our own souls, make it a part of our own moral being, and give it forth again in the form most fitted for our ehildren. This jealousy, which the sects display, of having any religious truths conveyed except through the language of the Bible, appears to me as absurd as would be the prohibition to children of the use of the senses and observation in the outward world, and the exclusion of all knowledge of that world but such as came through the study of some Newton or Herschel. Surely we use the Scriptures most reverently when we bring the mind as swiftly and effectually as possible to recognise the great truths which they have revealed."

Elwood.- "But still is it not a point of justice that the children should learn to look up with gratitude and reverence to the real source of their highest knowledge, and not consider it as their own or their teachers' discovery ?"

Marsden." Certainly; and this is provided. Our teachers are careful whenever the mind has been awakened to any moral or religious fact, to point to some passage in scripture expressing it; and to acknowledge with gratitude and reverence that for their own knowledge of such fact-the knowledge which has enabled them to draw the attention of the pupil to it-they are indebted to the scriptures. The sacred writings are thus continually presented to the minds of the young, as the expression of all they have previously found most true and precious, and receive a reverence and a trust actually unknown in that system which degrades them by bringing them into familiarity before they have been grounded upon confidence and respect. The fact is, with regard to the young, we consider the language of the scriptures more fitted to give a worthy and beautiful expression and embodiment of feelings when awakened, than of primarily awakening them.

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'But, now, if you are satisfied with this explanation, let me proceed to show you how we endeavour to sublime the two portions of our culture into two corresponding elements of religion. We will proceed from the outer courts of primary culture into the inner courts of reverential or religious culture. We conceive the principle of progressiveness should still be observed. Every one's idea of God must be constructed out of the materials in his own experience. If he has grand materials, the result will be grand-if poor ones, the result will be poor. It may be like the palace, constructed from mighty blocks, cunningly and beautifully wrought; or it may be like the hovel, formed from mere pieces of turf and clay, piled together by the rudest savage. The only materials out of which can be formed a true conception of Him who is a spirit, are the conceptions of the highest spirits which are his images on earth. And the same principles must hold good with regard to the conceptions of these higher spirits themselves. The farther they are above ourselves, the more they become to us as gods, and the more difficult it must be for us to realize their greatness to our minds. The more familiar,

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