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THE SUNDAY SCHOOL

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Promised, in the Cure for Melancholy, to give some account of the manner in which Mrs. Jones set up her school. She did not much fear being able to raise the money; but money is of little use, unless some persons of sense and piety can be found to di rect these institutions. Not that I would discourage those who set them up, even in the most ordinary manner, and from mere views of worldly policy. It is something gained to rescue children from idleing away their Sabbath in the fields or the streets. It is no small thing to keep them from those tricks to which a day of leisure tempts the idle and the ignorant. It is something for them to be taught to read; it is much to be taught to read the Bible, and much, indeed, to be carried regularly to church. But all this is not enough. To bring these institutions to answer their highest end, can only be effected by God's blessing on the best directed means, the choice of able teachers, and a diligent attention in some pious gentry to visit and inspect the schools.

On Recommendations.

Mrs. Jones had one talent that eminently qualified her to do good, namely, judgment; this, even in the gay part of her life, had kept her from many mistakes; but though she had sometimes been deceiv

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ed herself, she was very careful not to deceive others, by recommending people to fill any office for which they were unfit, either through selfishness or false kindness. She used to say, there is always some one appropriate quality which every person must possess, in order to fit them for any particular employment. "Even in this quality," said she to Mr. Simpson the clergyman," I do not expect perfection; but if "they are destitute of this, whatever good qualities "they may possess besides, though they may do for "some other employment, they will not do for this. "If I want a pair of shoes, I get a shoemaker; I "do not go to a man of another trade, however in"genious he may be, to ask him if he cannot con"trive to make me a pair of shoes. When I lived " in London, I learned to be much on my guard as "to recommendations. I found people often want"ed to impose on me some one who was a burthen

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to themselves. Once, I remember, when I un"dertook to get a matron for an hospital, half my acquaintance had some one to offer me. Mrs. Gib66 son sent me an old cook, whom she herself had dis"charged for wasting her own provisions, yet she

had the conscience to recommend this woman to "take care of the provisions of a large community. "Mrs. Grey sent me a discarded house-keeper, "whose constitution had been ruined by sitting up

with Mrs. Grey's gouty husband; but who she yet "thought might do well enough to undergo the fa"tigue of taking care of an hundred poor sick peo"ple. A third friend sent me a woman who had no "merit but that of being very poor, and it would be "charity to provide for her. The truth is, the la"dy was obliged to allow her a small pension till

she could get her off her own hands, by turning "her on those of others."

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"It is very true, madam," said Mr. Simpson, the right way is always to prefer the good of the many to the good of one; if, indeed, it can "be called doing good to any one to place them in "a station in which they must feel unhappy, by not "knowing how to discharge the duties of it. I will tell you how I manage. If the persons recom“mended are objects of charity, I privately sub"scribe to their wants; I pity and help them, but "I never promote them to a station for which they

are unfit, as I should by so doing hurt a whole com"munity to help a distressed individual."

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Thus Mrs. Jones resolved, that the first step towards setting up her school should be to provide a suitable mistress. The vestry were so earnest in recommending one woman, that she thought it worth looking into. On inquiry, she found it was a scheme to take a large family off the parish; they never considered that a very ignorant woman, with a family of young children, was, of all others, the most unfit for a school; all they considered was, that the profits of the school might enable her to live without parish pay. Mrs. Jones refused another, though she could read well, and was decent in her conduct, because she used to send her children to the shop on Sundays. And she objected to a third, a very sensible woman, because she was suspected of making an outward profession of religion a cloak for immoral conduct. Mrs. Jones knew she must not be too nice neither; she knew she must put up with many faults at last. "I know," said she to Mr. Simpson," the "imperfection of every thing that is human. As "the mistress will have much to bear with from the

children, so I expect to have something to bear "with in the mistress; and she and I must submit to our respective trials, by thinking how much "God has to bear with in us all. But there are

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"certain

"certain qualities which are indispensable in certain "situations. There are, in particular, three things "which a school-mistress must not be without, good

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sense, activity, and piety. Without the first she "will mislead others; without the second she will neglect them; and without the third, though she "may civilize, yet she will never christianize them." Mr. Simpson said, "he really knew but of one person in the parish who was fully likely to answer "her purpose: this," continued he, " is no other "than my house-keeper, Mrs. Betty Crew. It will "indeed be a great loss to me to part from her;' "and to her it will be a far more fatiguing life than "that which she at present leads. But ought I to "put my own personal comfort, or ought Betty to

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put her own ease and quiet, in competition with "the good of above an hundred children? This "will appear still more important, if we consider "the good done by these institutions, not as fruit, "but seed; if we take into the acconnt how many, yet unborn may become Christians, in consequence of our making these children Christians; "for how can we calculate the number which may "be hereafter trained for heaven, by those very "children we are going to teach, when they them"selves shall become parents, and you and I are "dead and forgotten? To be sure, by parting from "Betty, my peas-soup will not be quite so well fla"voured, nor my linen so neatly got up; but the "day is fast approaching when all this will signify "but little; but it will not signify little whether one

hundred immortal souls were the better from my "making this petty sacrifice. Mrs. Crew is a real "Christian, has excellent sense, and had a good "education from my mother. She has also had a "little sort of preparatory training for the business s; "for when the poor children come to the parsonage

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