SERMON IV. ISAIAH XXXIII. VERSE VI. Wisdom, and knowledge, shall be the stability of thy times. WE seem to have here something like a prophetic sanction for the propagation of knowledge: Isaiah, in speaking of the future prosperity of the Jewish empire, rests the stability of its fortunes, not upon wealth, nor extensive dominion, but directly upon knowledge. Wisdom, and knowledge, shall be the stability of the times;---as if he had said, you must be brave, to be free ;---you must be active to be rich; you must be rich to be powerful; but to be stable, to endure, you must be taught Gain all other good which you can, but do not expect to retain them without knowledge :-build upon that rock, or, though you build splendidly, you build in vain. As it has fallen to my lot to address you upon the present occasion, I know not what better, or more appropriate to the present occasion* I can do, than to discuss this sentiment of the prophet; and to examine into the effects which knowledge produces upon the welfare of mankind: I do not mean knowledge in general, but that species, and degree of it, which is produced by the education of the poor ;--by such investigation, the young people, who are assembled here to-day, will better perceive the nature, and scope, of those advantages they have received; their charitable guardians will be more confirmed in the utility, and importance of their good works; and those who object altogether to the education of the poor, may, perhaps, in the progress of such investigation, be induced to re-consider the validity of those objections upon which their opposition is founded. I rather prefer this course, than The anniversary at the Foundling Hospital. to make general observations on human misery; because, by satisfying the understanding that the thing is right, it becomes more probable that we shall excite something much better than temporary feeling; -benevolence, founded upon reasonable conviction, and leading to judicious exertion. The most common objection to the education of the lower orders of the community is, That the poor, proud of the distinction of learning, will not submit to the performance of those lower offices of life which are necessary to the well-being of a state: this objection, indeed, I only mention, that I may not be thought to have passed over any objection, for nothing can be more mistaken than to suppose, that the laborious classes of the community are laborious from choice, or from any other principle than that of imperious necessity;-a necessity with which education has no more to do than with the motion of the planets, and the flow of the tides ;-every person secures to himself as good a situation in society as he can; and it is essentially necessary to the hap |