A fifth lesson to be learned from this history, is the _benefit of education_. Here was a young man most unlikely to profit from the early instruction he had received; and to what account did it turn? In his worst times he was enabled to read the word of God, and this he was led to do in the tediousness of his sea watches. In his imprisonment, the blessings of his previous learning was incalculable. In his last exhortations on the scaffold, he pressed upon his youthful auditors the advantages of attendance upon a Sunday school, and the public means of instruction. It is impossible to say how much, or if any of the preparatory work of religion, had, by means of education, been going on in Jolin’s mind. But information had been given—a desire for instruction had been implanted—the wretchedness of a sinful course had been taught—the Scriptures had been read—the scaffolding, in fact, had been put together, by which the future edifice might be erected. How striking is the lesson of encouragement derived from this history, to those who are labouring in the school or in the prison. Who could have thought that in either case, as it concerned Jolin, the event would have been what it was? But who knows what the most untractable child may yet become, or how far the seed which is sown, may, even a long time hence, produce the desired fruit. “In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand, for thou knowest not whether shall prosper either this or that, or whether they shall both be alike good.” We may, in our efforts to instruct, meet with many disappointments, but it is plainly our duty to proceed, with becoming care indeed, but in the remembrance both of God’s almighty power to teach the heart, and of instances, such as this, in which that power has been so remarkably exerted. The state of prisoners is one which invites, as it has in general received the peculiar commiseration of our countrymen: men are often to be found there in Jolin’s state of mind. The prison is, perhaps, their first resting-place in a career of ignorance, and sin, and misery. The visitor may too often, in his researches, discover the man, as Mr. Pinel did Jolin, “without hope for this world or the next,” and may lead him to discoveries of what, perhaps, never entered his imagination. At all events, the circumstances of trial and affliction are those most favourable to seriousness of reflection; and this is the course by which the sinner is most often led, by the grace of God, to turn from the error of his ways, and to seek the hope offered in the Gospel. The event is always in the hand of Him who directs the heart. But, under all circumstances, we work with the blessing of the Almighty, and with his promise, that our labour shall not be in vain.