who expose the perversion, are the enemies of science. But in spite of interested clamour and unjust censure, the Christian is bound to maintain, that knowledge is valuable in the degree in which it makes men not merely wiser but better: and that however he may approve of literary and scientific pursuits, however ready he may be to extol their value, for great indeed is their value, still their highest value is in proving subsidiary to the acquisition of Christian knowledge. Whilst, therefore, he recommends their attainment, because they are calculated to enlighten and invigorate the mind, correct and refine the taste, exalt and dignify the character, to supply a rational and unfailing source of relaxation and enjoyment, he must ever maintain, that unless hallowed with some portion of that “wisdom which is from above,” they will be useless to their possessor, and may, by a mischievous perversion, not only be fatal to his present and future happiness, but injurious to the best interests of a community. That the extension of education has contributed to the production of such evils is true, but it is not less true, that education is not fairly chargeable with accidental and separable consequences. The fault has been, that the provision for the religious instruction of the age, notwithstanding the zeal and activity shewn to accomplish this great object, has not increased in the same ratio with that for its advancement in literature and science. The supply of the mental wants of the middle and lower classes of society, which have received this powerful impulsion towards knowledge, has been too much in the hands of those who avowedly exclude religion from their system of popular education. Thus, a much neglected soil has been broken up, and prepared for cultivation, but “whilst men slept, the enemy came and sowed tares in the field;” the Lord’s labourers, however, are not therefore to desert the field, but to employ, for the future, more watchful vigilance, more earnest zeal, and more assiduous labour. There is no benefit nor blessing which is not capable of perversion and abuse; but it would be a strange act of folly to refuse a manifest advantage, through fear of contingent evil, both the prevention and correction of which are in our own power. “The almost universal diffusion of elementary knowledge furnishes the enemies of revealed religion with abundant materials to work upon: but then it also furnishes the friends of truth with the obvious means of counteracting the influence of erroneous doctrines, and of instilling sounder principles into the bulk of the community. Any attempt to suppress, or even to check, the spirit of inquiry, which is abroad in the world, would not only be a vain and fruitless attempt, but a violation of the indefeasible liberty of the human mind, and an interference with its natural constitution. To impart to that spirit a right direction, to sanctify it with holy motives, to temper it to righteous purposes, to