commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing.
O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, because we have sinned against
thee; neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in
his laws which he set before us.
To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have
rebelled against him.
For thou art the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long
suffering, and abundant in mercy and truth. Therefore will we trust in
thee.
To the only wise God, our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and
power, both now and ever. Amen.
_Or this_:
O Lord, my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and
majesty:
Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment, who stretchest out the
heavens like a curtain.
Who layeth the beams of his chambers in great waters, who maketh the
clouds his chariot, who walketh upon the wings of the wind.
Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle who shall dwell in thy holy hill?
He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the
truth in his heart.
He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour,
nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.
In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear
the Lord.
He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.
He that doeth these things shall never be moved.
O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me.
Thou knowest my down-sitting and my up-rising; thou understandest my
thoughts afar off.
Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my
ways.
For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it
altogether.
Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain unto
it.
I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvellous
are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well.
Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts;
And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way
everlasting.
Now unto the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be
honour and glory now and forever. Amen.
Next, the children may be required to bring texts in reply to such
questions as these:
Who is Jesus Christ?
For what did he come into this world?
What is the character of Jesus Christ?
What has he done for us?
What does he require of us?
What is to be the condition of those who are wicked after death?
What is to be the condition of the good after death?
How are we to escape from the portion of the wicked after death?
How are we to gain the rewards of the good after death?
Some such question can be given each morning; and the children can be
required to learn a text from the Bible, which will answer this question,
to repeat the next morning. If they are too young to find it themselves,
they can be required to ask the aid of their companions who are older,
or of their friends at home.
The being, character, and works of God, the feelings and duties owed to
him, and our relations and duties in reference to a future state, are the
topics which usually are classed as _religious_ instruction.
_Moral training_ commonly is understood as relating to the duties we
owe to ourselves and to our fellow-creatures. In this department the
following methods could be adopted:
Each morning, some one of such practical texts as the following could
be given out for the children to reflect on through the day, and in
reference to which, they can be required to seek from books, or from
their friends, some cases in which this command of God is either obeyed
or disobeyed.
“Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
“Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.”
“Recompense to no one evil for evil.”
“Forbear one another, and forgive one another, if any one have a quarrel;
as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.”
“Bless them that curse you; bless, and curse not.”
“If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink.”
“Put away _lying_, and speak every one truth with his neighbour.”
“Put on humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering.”
“Be followers of Christ, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his
mouth; who hath left us an example, that we should walk in his steps.”
When such texts are given out, their spirit and meaning should be
illustrated by example, and then the children should be required to learn
the text, and next morning to bring some case to illustrate the violation
of, or obedience to this rule.
But it is not sufficient to give children clear views of duty, and store
their memories with the precepts enforcing their duties.
The teachers should keep a strict watch over the children, and whenever
any conduct or disposition appears, that violates these rules, they
should be pointedly applied. _A precept from the Bible_ should be
employed to counteract whatever bad disposition or bad conduct is
observed.
For example, if a child complains that a companion has defaced his
booklet the faulty child be called up, and made to repeat the command
of God which he has violated: such as, “Whatsoever ye would that men
should do to you, do ye even so to them.” If a child has taken a pen
from his companion without leave, take occasion, on reprimanding him, to
set before the school the evil and danger of pilfering. Enlarge on the
nobleness of strict honesty and uprightness. Show that the evil is not so
much the loss of property by the owner as the _bad habit_ induced in the
pilferer, which may lead at last to the dungeon and the gallows.
Again, if a child is found to be _prevaricating_, or using _any kind_ of
deceit, require him to repeat the commands of God, “Thou shalt not bear
false witness.” “Lie not at all.” “Lying lips are an abomination to the
Lord, but they that deal truly are his delight.”
Then set forth lying before the school, as what should be held in
universal abhorrence; show the importance of _truth_, as indispensable
to the existence of society and the happiness of all beings; show how
any kind of attempts at deceit weakens the habit of truthfulness, and
certainly will lead, at last, to lying.
When it is needful to punish, endeavour to select a penalty that will
have a good effect on the school, instead of one that will awaken
sympathy for the offender. When a child is _whipped_, in many cases, his
cries excite pity and sympathy, and often indignation at the teacher.
But if, when a child has broken the laws of God, the teacher sets forth
the evil of the sin, and then takes some such precept as this, “Withdraw
thyself from every brother that walketh disorderly,” as his directory in
requiring all the school to be separate from him, shutting him out from
the play-ground, and depriving him of the usual period of recess until
the delinquent appears penitent and anxious to do well; then the teacher
appears to the school as acting by Divine authority, and for the good of
the whole.
There are many sins against such commands of God as these: “Let all
things be done decently and in order.” “Whatsoever things are lovely and
of good report, think of these things.” “Be ye courteous.” The violations
of the rules of politeness, of neatness, and of order, come under these
precepts, and school is the place, above all others, where such faults
should be checked. Throwing down hats and caps, abusing clothes, tearing
books, defiling desks with ink, cutting the benches, marking the walls,
are faults which ought to be noticed as disobedience to these rules.
So, also, rude language, calling nicknames, teasing and frightening
companions, mocking the aged, or deformed, or lame, cruel treatment of
birds and other animals, injuring trees, and many similar practices,
should be checked by appeals to the Word of God.
In addition to this, let the _benefits_ of refined taste and good
breeding be set forth by specific examples. Show the consequences where
the children of a community are rude in the streets, abuse and injure
fences, milestones, graveyards, and fruit-trees, and then set forth
the advantages of _street_ politeness, of the care of our neighbours’
property, and of all that belongs to the public.
In all efforts to lead children to benevolent feelings and conduct, it is
very important to set before them the example of Jesus Christ, appealing
to their feelings of gratitude and love.
If a child frets at being obliged to serve another, let him be reminded
that Jesus Christ has done far more for him, and that he came into this
world to set us an example, that we should walk in his steps.
While it is indispensable to notice and reprove faults, it is no less
important to notice and approve whatever is commendable in children. And
much care should be taken to observe whatever is right, for it is much
easier and much better to govern by motives of pleasure rather than those
of pain.
Whenever, therefore, any cases are observed of kindness, firmness,
patience, truth, and faithfulness, let them be spoken of, not in such
a way as to awaken vanity, but simply with approbation as _right_, and
worthy of imitation.
For example, if a child gives up some gratification in order to relieve
some poor companion, or furnish a destitute schoolmate with clothes or
books; if a child has aided or defended a companion when laughed at, or
ill-treated; if another has found some tempting article, and, instead of
secreting it, has sought out the owner and returned it; if, when insulted
and provoked, another has refrained from angry words and all retaliation;
if another has refused to believe evil of a companion, and endeavoured
to stop an injurious report; if another has taken care to preserve his
own premises from filth and disorder, and protected the schoolhouse and
play-ground from abuse; let all such actions be presented to the school
as good, and worthy of imitation. Commendation not only encourages and
animates those who do well, but inspires the desire to imitate in others.
In cases where a teacher assumes the care of a school where there are
many children who have formed bad habits, it is very important that he
should imitate Christ in his feelings and deportment towards sinners. In
such a case, it is very important to convince his pupils that, however
bad they are, he is still their friend, and ever ready to do them good.
He should state to them that he is aware that they have formed bad
habits, and that the labour of curing them is great and difficult. He
should carefully notice all _attempts_ to do better, and where there are
efforts made to improve, occasional failures should be spoken of with
words of kindness, sympathy, and encouragement.
And all teachers need to be careful not to be so frequent in finding
fault, and so severe in manner as to produce the feeling of hopelessness
in efforts to please and satisfy. When a child feels that, however
earnestly he may try to do right, he has such bad habits already formed
that he shall not succeed so as to please his teacher, all motive for
exertion ceases, and he becomes reckless and hardened.
The great art of curing faults is, so to secure the affection and
confidence of a child, that he shall be a cheerful co-worker with his
teacher, assured of approbation in success, and of forbearance and
sympathy in any failure.
In cases where the morals of a school are very bad, it will be wise for a
teacher to let many things pass unnoticed that in a better community he
would reprove.
Some one, two, or three rules of duty can be presented at a time, and
diligent efforts be made to remedy habits which violate these rules.
When some gain has been made on these points, then one or two more can
be added, and thus a _gradual_ advance will secure far more success than
attempting everything at once.
There are many ways of rendering the Bible interesting to children,
which should, if possible, be introduced into common schools. Some of
these will be mentioned.
When reading the historical parts of the Old or New Testament, a large
map of Palestine and the other countries spoken of in the Bible,
should be suspended before the school, and all the places mentioned be
pointed out. There are large maps of this kind to be obtained of the
Sunday-school Union.
There is also a cheap chart of history prepared by a Mr. Lyman, which
is most excellent for aiding in the study both of sacred and profane
history. It is so made that it can be hung conveniently around the wall
of a schoolroom, and is so large, that children can read the names and
events while sitting in their seats.
Besides these articles, there are large drawings to be obtained of
the tabernacle and all the articles spoken of in the Pentateuch, and
others, also, that illustrate the manners and customs, dress, furniture,
and dwellings of the Israelites, and the scenery of Palestine. These
pictures, employed to illustrate the history of the Bible, would give
wonderful interest to the exercise of reading it. It is hoped that, ere
long, gentlemen of wealth will begin to endow _common schools_ with such
useful apparatus, instead of confining their benefactions exclusively to
higher seminaries.
In reading the Bible in schools, the following method will be found to be
both useful and interesting: Let the teacher, by the aid of Townsend’s
Bible, arrange a regular course of Bible history chronologically,
selecting only such chapters as will carry on a connected and complete
history. This can be read aloud by the children in portions each morning;
and by the aid of the maps, pictures, and charts, a vivid interest can be
imparted to the exercise, while, at the same time, opportunities will be
given to the teacher to notice incidents that convey moral instruction.
After this course is completed, then the teacher can prepare a course of
_biographical_ reading, arranged in chronological order, and use this
opportunity also to point out the moral instruction to be found in these
histories of individuals. Next, he might arrange a course embracing the
didactic portions of the Bible, combining in one course of reading all
the moral precepts; and while this is going on, he can collect anecdotes
to relate to the school illustrating these precepts. Lastly, he might
make a selection of the poetry and other rhetorical beauties of the
Bible, and, while this is being read, point out the inimitable sublimity
and beauty of the ideas and the style. The Introduction to the Study of
the Bible by Horne, the larger edition, and Lowth on Hebrew poetry, are
works which would greatly aid a teacher in such a course of Biblical
instruction.[2]
In this course of moral training, it will be seen that there is nothing
sectarian, and nothing which would be objected to by any but those
opposed to the use of the Bible in schools, and to all religious and
moral training. In such cases, it would be proper to adopt the following
course:
It could be stated to the objector, that in this country it is _the
majority_ that must decide every question not already settled by the
Constitutions of the state or nation. That, in regard to the question of
moral and religious training in the schools, the people are free to use
their own judgment. That where the majority wish to have such training a
part of school exercises, they have a right to require it. But in cases
where persons object to having their children so trained, the majority
have no right to insist on it. In order to avoid this, in every case
where a parent requests it, his children can be allowed to leave the
schoolroom while these exercises are going on, to study, or to perform
some other school duty. Or if this is inconvenient, they can be allowed
to come half an hour later, and then remain half an hour longer, after
the others are dismissed. No man could object to such an arrangement
without violating the first principle of our democracy, by demanding that
the _minority_, and not the _majority_, shall be accommodated in this
matter.
Now is it not practicable for every woman, who attempts to promote the
_proper_ education of American children, to use whatever influence she
may have with parents, or teachers to secure such a course of moral
training in the schools in her own vicinity, as is here indicated? Let
every woman _try_ what she can do to promote this important object.
American woman, whose eye may be resting on this page, are you willing
to commence an effort to aid in saving your country from the perils of
ignorance? Are you not spending more time in adorning your person, your
children, or your residence, or in social enjoyments, or in providing for
the gratification of the palate, than you have yet given to this cause?
Can you continue this unchristian, unpatriotic apportionment of time,
without an upbraiding conscience? Do you say that already you have more
to do than you can properly perform? But, in the list of your pursuits,
are there not some that are of far inferior consequence to this, which
it would do no harm to curtail, and thus gain time for this? Do you not
spend time and money for articles of dress, or ornaments, or in social
intercourse, or for needless luxuries, that you might, without any evil,
give up to this object?
Do you say that you can do but little, and relieve yourself from
obligation because it is so little? Suppose each drop of rain should urge
this plea, and thus delay to refresh the fields? Is not every great and
good work accomplished by _a union of many little influences_, and as
much so in the moral as in the natural world?
Are you dwelling in those parts of our land where most is done for
education, and comforting yourself that at least you and yours shall
escape in safety? But how can you tell that in five or ten years either
you, or those you love best, will not be the other side of the Alleghany,
and in the most destitute portion of the nation? The changes of fortune,
the pursuit of wealth, the mutations of matrimonial connexions, utterly
forbid any reliance on permanency of residence.
And how can one portion of this nation suffer and the other escape? Is
not the vast River Valley, whatever may be the character of its millions,
to hold the controlling power of our nation? If any portion of the fair
West be tortured with civil commotion and lawless rage, will not every
groan re-echo from the maternal heart of New-England and New-York, whose
sons and daughters are dwelling on every prairie and in every valley of
our land?
Mother, whose hands are so busy in ornamenting your darling child;
Sister, whose fingers fly so swiftly over the canvass or lace; Daughter,
so earnestly engaged in preparing your elegant habiliments, look back to
that beautiful daughter of emperors, that sister of kings, that mother
of princes, brought to her palace-home amid a nation’s transports, the
welcome bride of the nation’s heir.
Again, on the birth of her first-born, hear the triumphant pæan re-echoed
across the ocean, sung by the very children in our streets, and in the
memory of many now on the stage:
“A Dauphin’s born! let cannon loud
With echoes rend the sky;
All hail to Gallia’s King!
Columbia’s great ally!”
And thus the great English orator of that day describes her: “It is now
sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the Queen of France, then the
Dauphiness, at Versailles: and surely never lighted on this orb, which
she scarcely seemed to touch, a more delightful vision! I saw her, just
above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she just
began to move in, glittering like the morning star, full of life, and
splendour, and joy. Little did I dream I should have lived to see such
disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men
of honour and of cavaliers. I thought ten thousand swords would have
leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her
with insult.”
Look, now, through those prison bars. There, pale and mournful, upon a
pallet of straw, rests one for whom the splendours of Versailles scarcely
seemed enough. Her once bright locks, even in youth, are gray with fear
and sorrow. She is in solitude; her husband in one cell, and her weeping
children, torn from her and placed with brutal keepers, in another. And
now her husband is borne forth to a bloody death. Again her prison doors
unclose, and she comes forth, seated on the fatal car, her hands tied
behind her back, surrounded by thousands, who shout with malignant joy as
the fatal guillotine terminates her woes.
See that last and most innocent sufferer, the poor little Dauphin,
every tender feeling crushed, deliberately instructed in vice, doomed
to disgusting and degrading services, and, ere long, cruelly starved to
death!
American mother, wife, sister, daughter, the same earthquake is trembling
under your feet! If such an awful period agitates any portion of this
land, it will be those raised by wealth and station as the objects of
popular envy, who must first meet the storm. You sit now in peace and
plenty; you spend your time in elegant pleasures, and, while absorbed in
selfish enjoyment, you forget the young and destitute growing up around
you. And as you embroider the flower, and twine the silk, and fold the
riband, they are learning to sharpen the dagger, and twine the cord,
and plant the cannon. Within a stone’s throw of that smiling child with
golden locks, who now absorbs a mother’s thoughts, may be growing up, in
the darkness of ignorance and vice, the very hand that, at some awful
crisis, will grasp those locks in rage, and plant the dagger in that
happy bosom.
And when, in some after hour of terror and distress, when the roar of
musketry is heard, shooting down father and husband, and brother and
friend; when the bells are tolling, and the drums beating, and the wife,
mother, and daughter behold those they love best girding to meet the
violators of law; when they catch the parting expression of flushed
excitement, or stern determination, or serious foreboding, as the loved
one departs, perhaps to be returned a breathless corse--then, in the hour
of anxious solitude, will the solemn inquest be made for those ruffian
minds, ruined by neglect; and the voice of the Lord God will be heard,
walking in the trees of the garden, demanding, “Where is thy brother?”
And the trembling response, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” will meet the
stern rebuke, “What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood
crieth unto me from the ground.”
But why appeal to motives of fear and danger? Alas! those thousands and
millions of neglected little ones in our land, they know not their wants
or their danger, or they would raise their supplicating hands. Is there
anything more appropriate than that gentle woman should be invoked to
their aid? Is there anything more beautiful, more heavenly, than that
she should spend her time, and thoughts, and means to rescue them? What
is it that you would enjoy the most in after days, gazing at the fading
beauties you have wrought in canvass, muslin, or lace, or looking around
on the intelligent, useful, happy minds you have been instrumental in
training, and who will rise up and call you blessed? True, you cannot
gain this rich reward without some self-denying toil and persevering
effort. But is it not worth the labour?
And when your eye is closing on earth, and the memories of the past are
hovering around your pillow, who do you wish should meet your dying eye,
the haggard faces of those ruined by your neglect, or the grateful smiles
of those you have toiled to bless, who will bear you in their love and
prayers, like seraph’s wings, to the opening gates of heaven; who will
shine forever as stars in your crown of rejoicing?
And into that world of perfected benevolence and joy, who is it that
shall enter and go no more out? It is those who, in this world, have
followed the footsteps of Jesus Christ; who have lived, not for
themselves, but for others; who, like him, have _denied themselves daily_
to promote the salvation of the lost. Is not Jesus Christ presented as
the bright and perfect example of _self-denying benevolence_, and is it
not written, “If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of
his?”