The class of individuals from which crime chiefly emanates is a class which public opinion does not reach. They are low and degraded. They have but little intercourse with society. They feel themselves to be outcasts from it, and at war with it. In all our towns there are families, perhaps neighborhoods, corresponding to this description. Crimes may be traced to them as sure as any effect may be traced to its cause. The minister is the only connecting link between them and the higher classes, and through him, and through him alone, may the healthful, purifying influences from these classes be conveyed to them. Let them be the favored objects of his care. If he would imitate his master, let him seek and save those that seem to be lost. Let him inquire them out. Let him be known and familiar to them. He may visit them as no one else may, he may have an influence upon them that no one else can exert. In the spirit of kindness and love let him inquire into their concerns. Let him impart instruction here a little and there a little.' He will gain their esteem and respect. He may bring them to feel an interest in society around them. He may cultivate the social spirit among them. He may cause them to observe the sabbath, to attend its public ordinances, and to enjoy the privileges of our modern associations for mutual improvement. He will thus teach them to respect themselves, and to respect one another. Instead of feeling that they are severed from society and that society is at war with them, they will feel bound to it by strong and endearing ties. Life to them will wear a new aspect, will put on new charms. Passions which were goading them on to

certain misery will be checked. Virtuous tendencies which have been choked and weighed down by sin will be revived, and who can tell how many a son of guilt and woe may thus be brought back to peace, to usefulness, to God? Every minister of Christ knowś that we have not been speaking of theories and impossibilities. Let every minister of Christ ask himself, have I been faithful in this way of duty?

And by such intercourse among the poor of his parish, the effect which the minister may exert in preventing pauperism is not less decided and beneficial. Some of the causes of poverty have already been mentioned. Knowledge is power;' power which the minister may be the means of communicating,-power which will drive away want; habits of industry will exterminate it-temperance will overcome it.

But there are causes of poverty which have not been alluded to. He who has been in the least an observer of human life, must have noticed how often families have been impoverished in consequence of some little mismanagement in their affairs, which the counsels of a loved pastor might have rectified. Some little negligence in guarding their interests-some little, profitless, habitual expenditure-some misapplication of industry, these are wings which their means of livelihood have taken to themselves these are frequent causes of poverty the operation of which the kind advice of the minister may prevent. Often then are those in circumstances of want, who are able and willing to work if they could but know in what channel to ply their industry. Let the minister seek such out, and give them counsel and direction. Sickness in the

lower classes often brings extreme want; but it is frequently in consequence of unnecessary or injudicious expenditures for the sick. Let such families be the objects of the pastor's care, and much poverty and suffering will be prevented. These are some of the ways in which the faithful minister may prevent pauperism and crime.

The remarks which have been made relate to the influence he may exert over the adult population of his flock. But it is not with them that his influence is the; greatest it is not with them that it will affect the most, it is not to them, therefore, that his exertions should be chiefly directed. The young should be the peculiar objects of his care. Over them his influence is as great as he should desire. Two considerations show the solemn importance of his exerting that influence aright, and of his exercising it over all. First, almost all the moral principle which men have, and which they carry with them through life is acquired in youth. Secondly, the causes which in after life lead to poverty and crime are clearly developed in youth. Of two hundred fifty-six convicts in the prison at Charlestown, one hundred twenty-seven were accustomed to use ardent spirits before they were sixteen years old; forty-five were guilty of petty thefts before that age; and eighty-two were brought up without any regular employment. I am quite satisfied,' says Dr Tuckerman in his last report—' that far the greatest part of the abject poverty, and of the recklessness in crime, which people either our prisons or alms-houses, or which is seen in our streets, or which gives insecurity to property and happiness, in society, may be fol

lowed back to causes which showed themselves most distinctly within the first fifteen or twenty years of life; to causes, which at that period are within our power.' Let the minister reflect upon these facts, and weigh them in his mind. If any thing can teach him how much he may effect in preventing pauperism and crime, and how great therefore is his responsibleness, it must be considerations like the above. Do all children in his parish-not merely the few in his own neighborhood-but all within the limits of his society receive instruction? Do they all attend the sabbath school? Are they all brought up in subjection to parental discipline? Are they all brought up to a trade, or to some regular employment? These are questions which the minister should ask himself. They are questions which he may, which he should be able to answer in the affirmative. And truly no consideration can be more solemn, and none more full of warning to the minister, than that if there be, within the circle of his influence, a family left to itself, growing up in ignorance, in disregard of the sabbath, in idleness, in disobedience to parental authority, he is permitting that family to educate itself to want, suffering and guilt. Why need there be a family like this in the parish of a minister of Christ? And if there be no such family, if the minister be faithful in all his opportunities, and to all his obligations, may not the time come when, in the words of the Report before alluded to, the amount of abject want, and of unprincipled and hopeless obduracy would be so much diminished, that we might dispense with more than half of our prisons and almshouses.

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.

MR. EDITOR:-You are aware that the Addresses of Hon. Thomas S. Grimké have been before the public a long time. They have not yet received, in this part of the country, I fear, the attention they deserve. The review which appeared in the Examiner for May, 1831, though written with great ability, and containing some just criticisms upon the style of Mr. Grimké's writings, is adapted, I am confident, to divert the public mind from the main purpose of the author; which is to effect an object devoutly to be wished.

The following letter, written to a friend, without any expectation of its publication, should it arrest the eyes of any of your readers, may do some good, by recalling their attention to a subject which deserves the most serious consideration of all who wish to see the precepts of Christ adopted as the rules of life by all who profess to be his disciples.

X. Y. Z.

Very much may and ought to be said in commendation of these Addresses. I would they could be read and inwardly digested' by every man and woman of intelligence in the land. Of all the tracts and essays elicited either in this country or England in the cause of education, no one that I have seen presents so important a view of the subject, as that set forth by Mr. Grimké. There may be some great defects in his style, but this surely is a matter of trifling moment, compared with the great purpose for which he has written so much and so well. However some minor.