NEW YORK PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL SUNDAY SCHOOL SOCIETY. WE have received the Eighth Annual Report of the Board of Managers of the New York Protestant Episcopal Sunday School Society, dated March 30, 1825, from which it appears that at that period the number of schools belonging to the Society was 17, educating altogether 1998 children. We extract the following passage from the Report, not only as indicative of the sound Christian views by which the Society is actuated, but as speaking a language which cannot be too loudly sounded in the ears of our own countrymen at the present crisis. "The Board of Managers cannot allow the present opportunity to pass, without declaring their increased conviction of the importance of that institution which the Church has committed to their charge. Were the object of our association to impart to the ignorant the benefits of learning merely human, however commendable the undertaking might seem in a moral and civil point of view, the propriety of such an appropriation of the Lord's Day might well be questioned. But in the instrumentality and general necessity of literary instruction to the knowledge of God's word: in the attendance of the young and ignorant. upon the ministrations of the sanctuary in the exercises of reading and committing to memory the Holy Scriptures, the Catechism, and other pious writings in the attachment which, from habit, is formed to God's house and day; and in the pious exhortations and counsels of the superintendents and teachers; the Board discover, not only the warranty, but the duty of the undertaking; and have the fullest persuasion, that while they confer an invaluable benefit upon society, in laying the wholesome restraints of religion upon "the unruly wills and affections of sinful men," they at the same time do" God service," in bringing "up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," those "little ones," not one of whom he willeth to perish. In these general considerations, the Board recognize for themselves, the obligation of providing for the children of the poor the benefit of Sunday school instruction; and they deem them of that character, that none who regard the temporal and eternal welfare of their fellow-creatures, can contemplate them with indifference. They would, however, advert to another motive to diligence in this la- bour of love, which they think presses. with peculiar force at the present time upon every friend to religion, and upon the members of our own Church in particular. Before the institution of Sunday Schools among us, it is well known that there existed, and do still exist in this city, Charity Schools, connected with the different denominations of Christians, in which religious instruction is blended with such as is purely secular. The funds for the maintenance of these schools are drawn principally from the congregations to which the schools respectively belong, but are aided and increased by an allowance from the Common School Fund of the State, varying in amount according to the number of scholars. An attempt has recently been made to deprive those schools of this portion of their support, upon the pretence that such an application of the Common School Fund is to promote sectarian views and feelings; and to confine its benefits in this city to the Free Schools, where nothing that savours of the peculiarities of sect will be tolerated. It requires no very large share of discernment to per ceive, that the natural operation of the principle here avowed, is subversive of revealed religion itself. Because religious instruction, if given at all, must be given according to a system; and that system, if it reject all that is peculiar to the various denominations of Christians, can be little, if at all, better than a modification of Deism. For example-The doctrines of the Trinity, and of the vicarious atonement of Jesus Christ, must be rejected, because, in reference to the followers of Socinus, they are secta rian peculiarities-The doctrine, that from the beginning of Christianity there has been an order of men set apart to discharge the duties of the ministerial office, must be rejected, because, by the people styled Quakers, such doctrine is denied-The sacraments, which the divine Head of the Church instituted, and commanded to be observed until his coming again, cannot be recognized, because the same body of Christians do not receive them-One of the great sanctions of religion, that which denounces "indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil," must be dispensed with, because the advocates of universal salvation deem it unscriptural-In short, the very essence of Christianity must be extracted, if nothing of sectarian peculiarity is to be taught. Children, whose religious instruction is of this description, will therefore either remain ignorant of the fundamental doctrines of the Gospel, or they will learn to regard them as the traditions of men;' and the inevitable consequence will be, a feeling of indifference towards all that is distinctive in the Christian system. "Without calling in question the purity of the motives which have influenced the advocates of this plan, it becomes the duty of every friend to pure and undefiled Christianity, to exert himself to counteract its baneful operation; for whether the attempt now making succeed or not, we should regard it as an indication of the increasing prevalence of that spirit of liberality (or rather indifference) on the subject of religion, which is so characteristic of the present age. Among the most effectual which the providence of God places within our reach to prevent the inju means rious consequences of this spurious liberality, are Sunday Schools. Here superficial and erroneous views taken of Christian truth and morals, may be displaced by that form of sound words once delivered to the saints, and the youthful learner impressed with the necessity of continuing in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowshipHere he may be taught to know "God the Father, who created him and all the world; God the Son, who redeemed him and all mankind; and God the Holy Ghost, who sanctifieth him and all the people of God.'Here he may be taught the necessity of admission into covenant with God by the rite of baptism; of the renovation of the heart and affections; and of participation in all the ordinances of the Gospel, in order to the obtain ing of that grace, without which 'nothing is strong, nothing is holy.' We would therefore recommend Sunday Schools to the notice, the patronage, and the exertions of all who wish well to our common Christianity, and especially of all who love that Church which the divine Saviour purchased with his blood, as a powerful means of checking the growth, not only of sceptical and infidel principles, but of those falsely styled liberal, which in our conscience we believe are nearly allied to them. And we would impress it upon the minds of those actively engaged in the duties of such institutions, that the object of them is not human learning, except so far as it is instrumental to that which is of a higher character; that sound Christian principle is the best security for good morals; and that they are furthering the best interests of civil society, when preparing their young charge for the society of just men made perfect.' } UNIVERSITY AND CLERICAL INTELLIGENCE. OXFORD. Degrees conferred June 30. DOCTOR IN DIVINITY. Bull, Rev. John, Student of Christ Church, and Canon Residentiary of Exeter Cathedral. BACHELOR IN DIVINITY. Boultbee, Rev. Richard Moore, Merton College. MASTERS OF ARTS. Alexander, John Mansel Dawken, Brasenose College. Cameron, Donald, Wadham College. Cosens, Rev. William Burrough, Magdalen Hall. Dryden, Rev. Lempster George Gregory, Lincoln College. Farrant, Geo. Binstead, St. John's College. Goddard, Rev. William, Fellow of Jesus College. Gower, Rev. Herbert, Christ Church. Hassells, Rev. Charles S. Trinity College, Grand Compounder. Herbert, Hon. Algernon, Fellow of Merton College. Noble, Robert, Brasenose College. Roberts, Rev. Griffith, Jesus College. Taylor, Rev. Peter White, St. Edmund Hall. Twemlow, Wm. Hamilton, Christ Church. Webb, John Birch, Brasenose College. BACHELORS OF ARTS. Barrington, Hon. John Lowther, Oriel Cobb, Samuel Wyatt, Oriel College. Turner, Arthur, Exeter College, Grand July 4. MASTER OF ARTS. Whateley, William, New College. July 12. BACHELOR AND DOCTOR IN DIVINITY. Dibdin, Rev. Thomas Frognall, St. John's College. MASTERS OF ARTS. Fowler, Rev. Robert Hodgson, Exeter College. LICENTIATE IN PHYSIC. Atcheson, Henry, M. B. Jesus College.. BACHELORS IN PHYSIC. Bond, Henry J. Hayles, Corpus Christi Hobson, Richard, Queen's College. BACHELORS OF ARTS. Braddon, Edward Nicholas, St. John's Bulwer, Edward C. Lytton, Trinity Hall. BACHELOR IN DIVINITY. Underwood, Rev. John, Trinity College. BACHELOR IN CIVIL LAW. Salusbury, Rev. Thelwall John Thomas, Trinity Hall. July 5. This being Commencement Day, the following Doctors and Masters of Arts were created. DOCTORS IN DIVINITY. Buckland, Josiah Rowles, Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Head Master of Uppingham School. Burford, William John, Christ College. Donne, James, St. John's College, Head Master of Oswestry School. Jefferson, Robert, Fellow of Sidney Sussex Joynes, Richard Symonds, Catharine Hall, MASTERS OF ARTS. Adcock, James, St. Peter's College. Alexander, William J. Trinity College! Allan, Thomas R. Trinity College. - Charlton, Samuel, Sidney Sussex College. Colvile, Nathaniel, St. John's College. Dixon, Thomas, St. John's College. Fisher, George, Catharine Hall. ༣ས་་ Fowke, George M. Caius College.. Gape, Charles, St. Peter's College. Grey, William H. C. St. John's College. Hamilton, John W. Trinity College Heberden, George, St. John's College. Jarratt, Robert, St. John's College. Lloyd, Edward John, Trinity College. Newsam, James, Christ College. Ware, Ebenezer, Trinity College. Whitaker, Thomas W. Emmanuel College. White, Stephen P. Trinity College. |