and virtually saying, "Make us what you would have us to be." This is a circumstance

of a most deeply interesting nature, and is worthy the attention of the philanthropist, the patriot, and the Christian. It is a valuable and sacred deposit for which we are accountable both to heaven and earth; to the present and to every future generation of mankind.

Any effort therefore to guide the benevolence of those who have gratuitously undertaken the active duties of instruction, deserves at least the acknowledgment which is due to good intentions, and which, probably, is the only debt that the author can justly claim of the public for this unostentatious little volume, the history of which is simply as follows:

Having been repeatedly solicited to print a second edition of an Address delivered to the Sunday School Teachers of the Birmingham Union, the author was preparing to comply with this request, when it appeared to him that the subject admitted of enlargement, and he therefore resolved upon publishing a fuller account of the duties of their office, formed upon the basis of the original address. The fruit of this determination he now offers to the public.

He has thought fit to embody every senti ment and almost every expression of the address in the present volume, in order that those who desired the former, might find in the latter, if they should be disposed to purchase it, the very object of their wishes.

Every thing of a controversial nature has been carefully excluded, that it might be rendered unobjectionable to all religious denomi nations. If any should be disappointed in finding nothing said about the regulations of Sunday Schools, he begs to observe that his object was with the moral, and not the mechanical part of the institution.

It is not improbable that in the estimation of some, he may appear to have invested the institution with an undue degree of importance, and thrown upon the subject too much of the seriousness of religion and the solemn grandeur of eternity. To this however he cannot plead guilty, convinced as he is that the original design of Sunday Schools was religious instruction, and consequently that their ultimate object must be the salvation of the im mortal soul.

He acknowledges his peculiar obligations to the Sunday School Repository for the infor

mation he has derived from it relative to the origin, progress, and improvements of the system.

The author now sends forth this unpretending production, conscious that it has many faults, which have been multiplied by the frequent interruptions attendant upon the situation in which he is placed. Should it however serve no other purpose than to provoke an abler pen, he will rejoice, even when sinking into the shadow of his successor, that he has not laboured in vain.

Edgbaston, Oct. 14, 1816.

PREFACE

TO THE THIRD EDITION.

THE rapid sale of the two former editions of this little work, the author is much more willing to consider as an indication of the increasing interest taken in every thing relating to the Sunday School Institution, than as any public testimony to the value of his labours in the cause. His first wish concerning this important system, is, that it might continue to prosper; his second, that it might be his honour to aid its triumphs; if he be gratified to witness the former, he would be contented to resign the latter, or at least could be satisfied, if his labours were successful, to be himself forgotten. He is anxious to see the beauties of holiness spreading over every region of society, but cspecially desirous of witnessing the fruits of righteousness abounding in the humble vale of poverty, where there are so few other fruits to be ordinarily found, and where, unless removed by the aid of real religion, the curse which came upon the ground for man's sake

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peculiarly broods, and the thorn and the briar luxuriate by the sweat of his brow. Hence the author feels great pleasure in every symptom, fancied, or real, of growing attachment to an institution, so obviously adapted to promote this end.

The enlargements of the present edition will be found principally in the appendix, to which the author solicits the impartial attention of the committees and managers of schools, as to them, rather than the teachers in their individual capacity, the subjects there discussed, more particularly belong. If any should think he fears, where no fear is, in reference to certain prevailing practices, the author begs again to state, that as he considers the system of Sunday School education, in the light of a RELIGIOUS INSTITUTION, and is solicitous that others should consider it so too, he feels a Godly jealousy over every thing, that would be likely to interfere with its efficiency, in this high and sacred relation.

Edgbaston, Jan. 1, 1817.