CONCLUSION—BENEFITS OF SUNDAY-SCHOOLS.
Having now brought my sketches to a conclusion, I would here make a few remarks, before I take leave of my reader. First: the benefits resulting from Sabbath-schools are not confined to those which are present and palpable. How often do we hear of children leaving the school, and going out into the world, without any apparent effect being produced in their minds; but yet, in the course of time, through the blessing of God, the most beneficial results have appeared from these instructions.
Not a few instances of boys who have been excluded on account of bad conduct, but who have been brought to the knowledge of the truth, through the blessing of God upon the instructions received in the Sabbath-school, have been laid before the public. And who will say, that in many cases where there seems no connection whatever between the instruction and the conversion of the individual, no such connection exists? It is my firm conviction that a person who has received instruction in a Sabbath-school is much more likely to receive the truth in the love of it, than is the individual who has been brought up in complete ignorance of the truths of the gospel. The heart and understanding of the former may be compared to the ground broken up, and prepared for the seed; while those of the latter are like the field through which the plow has never passed, and the face of which has never been prepared; to sow seed on which is, in general, to cast it upon "stony ground, where" it is either picked up by the "birds of the air," or, should it chance to take root, soon "withers away, because it has no deepness of earth."
Secondly: if no positive good resulted from Sabbath-schools, the amount of negative good produced would be sufficient to compensate for all the labor and toil of the teachers, and to warrant their continuance and support. How much Sabbath-breaking is prevented by these instructions! A very great proportion of those children who attend Sabbath-schools would, but for them, be spending their time in running about the streets, and in profaning the Lord's day; and, by the unholy companionships which they must form, into how much of profligacy and vice would they be led! Is it true on the one hand, "train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it?" Then it is equally true, that if a child be trained up in the way in which he should not go, when he is old, he is not likely to depart from it! So that by the prevention of Sabbath-breaking, and its consequent train of evils, you actually lessen the amount of crime in riper years. Children will be educated; and if the people of God do not educate them for their Master, and train them for heaven, the servants of the devil will not be slow in educating them for theirs, and in training them for hell! I conceive that none, save the Tractarians of Oxford, and their party, will deny the beneficial moral influence which such Sabbath instruction has exerted upon our teeming population. Go to the gloomy prisons, and search in the lonely cells for those wretched beings who through crime have become their inhabitants, and make the inquiry as to who are the tenants of those places; and the result of that inquiry will be, an overwhelming majority stands on the side of the ignorant—of those who never had the benefits of Sabbath-school instruction. Search into the history of those poor wretches who people our "Union Houses," and you will find that but few of them enjoyed the benefits of Sabbath-school instruction. And it may be relied on as a fact, that in the black catalogue of the annals of crime comparatively few are to be found who were instructed in Sabbath-schools. Let Sabbath-schools become universal, let proper teachers be provided for the children, and let religious instruction of an orthodox character be instilled into their minds, and next to the preaching of the gospel, it will do more towards the establishment of the reign of grace—towards the universal reign of Christ—than any one thing besides.
Thirdly: let it be known that the immediate, positive results of Sabbath-school instruction, are incalculable! Scores, yea hundreds, have, during their connection with them, been soundly converted to God. Hundreds and thousands date their conversion from the instructions and admonitions received at those noble institutions; and not a few of the most devoted missionaries, illustrious divines, laborious commentators, and translators of the Bible, and most popular preachers of the age, have been among those very persons who owed—and have rejoiced to own that they owed—their conversion to Sabbath-school instrumentality.
I cannot take leave of the reader, without adverting for a moment to an objection which may be raised with reference to the subjects of the preceding narrative.
Some persons, perhaps, may be ready to say, that in all probability these brothers would have become what they are, had they never seen a Sabbath-school. To this objection I answer: That such a position would prove fatal to all instrumental means of salvation. God could, undoubtedly, save man without any instrumentality whatever. He could, we say, do this; but such is not God's method of procedure; and we are therefore justified in believing, that to the various instrumentalities in operation is the salvation of man attributable: and if so, why should we deny that God can and does bless the labors of Sabbath-school teachers, and, through their instrumentality, render Sabbath-schools channels of salvation to many?
I will only add,—and I rejoice that I am able to do so,—that each of the brothers is now actively engaged in the work of God. James is the superintendent and manager of a Wesleyan Sunday-school; and in point of perseverance, and constancy in the prosecution of duty, he is quite a pattern. Thomas and George are very acceptable local preachers in the Wesleyan connection. May they ever be zealous in every good work, and have grace to continue faithful unto the end.
"He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." Psalm cxxvi, 6.
"Cast thy bread upon the waters; for thou shalt find it after many days." Eccles. xi, 1.