Remarks made at the Banquet given to General Grant and the Trustees of the Peabody Education Fund, New York, March 22, 1867 . . 685 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION FOR THE YOUNG. A SPEECH MADE AT THE ANNIVERSARY MEETING OF THE AMERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION IN BOSTON, MAY 27, 1852. I AM greatly honored, my friends, in being called on to preside over the Anniversary Meeting of this excellent Association, and I gladly avail myself of the opportunity to express, in a few introductory words, my cordial concurrence and sympathy in all its operations and in all its objects. There is, indeed, no nobler work to which human efforts can be devoted, than that of sowing the seeds of Christian knowledge, and cultivating the growth of Christian principle, in the minds and hearts of the young, through the agency of Sunday Schools. There is no object, certainly, more conformable to our highest religious obligations, nor any more conducive to our most cherished social and civil interests. I cannot forget that among the principal reasons of our Pilgrim Fathers for quitting Holland-where, as you all remember, they sojourned for nine or ten years after their memorable flight from England. was the desire to be in a condition to pursue this precise object. They sought not merely "freedom to worship God" for themselves, and in their own way, but they sought freedom and opportunity to bring up their children in the way they should go, and to habituate them to a proper observance and improvement of the Lord's Day. In the words of their memorialist, as received by him from their own lips, they foresaw that Holland would be no place for their church and posterity to continue in comfortably, because "they could not bring the Dutch to reform the neglect of observation of the Lord's Day as a Sabbath;" and because, also,"which was very lamentable, and of all sorrows the most heavy to be borne,- many of their children were drawn away by evil examples into extravagant and dangerous courses, and they could not educate them, nor give them due correction, without reproof or reproach by their neighbors." And we all understand, my friends, what the Pilgrims, and what the Puritans, understood by education. It was not the mere cultivation of the mind. It was not the mere study of languages or of sciences. It was not the mere acquisition of arts or of accomplishments. But it was the formation of the heart, the regulation of the affections, the preparation of the soul for the great business of time and of eternity. The crown-jewel of all education with them was education in spiritual things. These, then, were among the main moving principles which brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth Rock, in 1620,-"the observation of the Lord's Day as a Sabbath," and the religious instruction of the young. And these must be among the main moving principles of their descendants, wherever they are gathered, and wherever they are scattered, if they mean to maintain, uphold, and transmit to posterity the glorious institutions which they now enjoy. In the expressive language of Wordsworth, "The discipline of slavery is unknown Amongst us, hence the more do we require Cannot subsist, nor confidence, nor peace." And, let me add, the virtue which rests on any other foundation than religious faith and religious fear, will stand only until the next tide of temptation shall sweep it into the flood. And now, my friends, I am sensible that it is to voluntary associations like this, that we must mainly look for the circulation and practical development of these great principles. We have a noble system of common schools, under the patronage of our various State governments, which supply all that is needed. in the way of secular education. But we have no State religion, and it would be regarded, perhaps, as an infringement upon the principles of religious freedom, to introduce any thing more than we now have of religious instruction into schools supported at the public cost. It is then for voluntary associations to supply this great want, this great demand, this great necessity of our country; and I rejoice to see so many evidences on every side, both that it has been supplied to so great a degree heretofore, and that there is a pervading determination among Christians of all denominations, that it shall be fully and completely supplied hereafter. I think it may be safely said, that there has never before existed in our country so widespread and universal a conviction, that Sunday Schools are an essential and vital part of our system of education, as at the present moment. You have, yourselves, proposed as your own noble design, "to plant a Sunday School wherever there is a population." Let that design be accomplished, and, whatever fears we may entertain for the present, the future of our country will be secure. Let the Banner of the Cross go forth side by side with the Flag of our Union wherever it is carried; let the Spirit of the Lord be invoked to accompany the Spirit of Liberty in its triumphant march; let the Bible be everywhere on the same shelf with the Constitution; let there be no region so remote, no valley so secluded, no wilderness so solitary or so desolate, that men shall be able to escape from the visible presence of Religion, as manifested in the observance of the Lord's Day, and in that most attractive and fascinating of all its forms, the religious instruction of young children; let this be accomplished, and, depend upon it, the people of this country will have much less to fear for the stability of their institutions, and Congresses and Cabinets will have much less to do to preserve the Union. There will then, too, be no longer any doubt that we are a power on earth;" a power for every purpose of promoting either the welfare of men, or the glory of God. 66 But you have another and hardly less prominent object of association and effort, of which I cannot forbear to say a single word. I mean the preparation and publication of books peculiarly adapted to the religious instruction and improvement of the young. And here you have substantially a common object with the Bible Societies and Tract Societies of our State and |