Farewell to the First Congregational Church in Norwalk, Conn. (bound with other addresses)

in many places elsewhere, and with the most satisfactory results. In large towns and villages which will admit of it, the districts are thrown together ; a large building, with suitable apartments and fixtures, is prepared; the scholars are classed according to their studies and attainments ; more time is allowed for recitations ; each teacher has his department, ibr which he is responsible ; the scholars are advanced from class to class, according to their progress ; the same number of teachers will give more than twice the amount of instruction than can be given undei the miscellaneous system, and the scholars advance with proportionate rapidity. Where the system has been tried, the people would no more think of returning to the old method, than they would think of throwing up their machinery and returning to the hand-loom and spinning-wheel. So great is the advantage, that it is said that in the same city, and in the same street, real estate has greatly advanced on the side of the street which has the privilege of such schools, over the side which is without this privilege. The matter is no longer a matter of experi- ment. In the amount of studies accomplished in a given time, and at a given expense, and in the thoroughness with which they are ac- complished, the scholars educated under the old system can enter into no competition with those educated usder the new. In a large establishment, at a small expense to each, philosophical, chemical, and astronomical apparatus, can be provided, lectures can be given, libraries can be furnished, the pupils can be trained in the sciences to fit them for machinists or engineers, or they can be fitted for col- lege, or for mercantile life. What is more to the purpose, the chil- dren of the poorest possess equal advantages with the children of the rich. None can do better than to send their children to the pub- lic school, for the same want of classification and of division of labor which now troubles our public schools, is the bane of most acade- mies and boarding schools, which for that very reason are unable to furnish instruction equal to that which may be given at a trifling expense in well organized public schools. 4. We beg leave to represent further, that a very large amount of money is annually sent out of Norwalk every year for the education of children abroad, who, upon a proper organization of our schools, might be better educated at home. Upon a slight inquiry, the com- mittee are satisfied that not less than forty thousand dollars have been expended by inhabitants of Norwalk for the education of their chil- dren abroad in the last ten years. How much would it have added to the advantage and thrift of the place if this sum had been retained and distributed among our own mechanics, merchants, farmers, and laborers ! How much would it add to the thrift of the place to establish schools which shall attract scholars from abroad, instead of adhering to our present organiza- tion, which will inevitably continue to send away so liduch of our re- sources to build up other places, of vastly inferior natural advantages, but of more sagacity and public spirit ! We beg leave further to represent, that numerous families, having secured a competence in th6 city of New- York, are every year re- tiring into the country ; and others are looking for places in the vicinity of the city, where they may locate their families and educate their chil- dren. The location of Norwalk, directly on the Sound, and on the rail- road between New Haven and New- York, with another railroad in progress leading back into the country ; together with the proverbial healthfulness of the place, and the unequalled beauty of its situation, among all the beautiful towns on the shore of Long Island Sound, have already attracted the attention of numbers of people who are preparing to retire from the city. Some have already fixed them- selves among us, who are deeply pained with the contrast between the advantages furnished by our schools, compared with those of the schools which they have left behind. Several instances have come to our knowledge of families, whose residence among us would have been greatly to the advantage of the place, and who on other accounts would have preferred to settle in Norwalk, but who went elsewhere solely on account of the condition of our schools. Some are, to our knowledge, even now wishing to come to Norwalk, but are suspend- ing their decision, until it shall be known whether the effort which we are now making to improve our school system shall be successful. We leave it to you to calculate the pecuniary advantages of bringing in numbers of families of liberal resources, to spend their m^ans among us, or of having not only these turned elsewhere, but of having our own people, who have the ability, . continue to withdraw their children from the public schools, and to send so many thousands of dollars out of the place annually, for their education elsewhere. We admit, however, that the business and thrift of the place is the very lowest consideration. The great argument is the advantage of our own children, and the levelling up of the children of the poorest, to equal advantages for education with the children of the richest. Fellow Citizens : We have very briefly stated a few of the facts and 6 arguments which should induce us to attempt a better organization of our schools. With our 1169 children, and over $2000 of public money a year, — ^both of which are rapidly increasing as the town rapidly increases in population, — it is in our power to enable every poor man among us to give his children as good a practical education as money can ptocure. No place in the country ought to have better schools. No railroads that can be built, no manufactories that can be established among us, would, at the present time, give such an impulse to the thrift and improvement of the place, or confer such lasting advantages upon our children, as the enterprise of putting our schools upon the best footing possible. Shall it be done 1 The only difficulty in the way is to persuade every voter among us to come to the place where the decision is to be made, and say, with all bis heart, " Yes, it shall be done." We put the question to you ; we lay this matter before every man in Norwalk, and ask a response from each. Shall it be done ? It is a question which appeals to the intelligence, the public spirit, and to the self-interest of every citizen. It is a question which every man will probably be called on ere long to decide by his vote. To prepare the way for this, we ask that public meetings may be called for mutual consultation, for diffusing infor- mation, and for discussion, in each school district; and that, when the time comes for decision, every man will present himself and vote according to his best judgment. Yea or Nay. The Committee, in fulfilment of the duties of their appoint- ment, do therefore call a meeting of the citizens of Norwalk, to be held in the Town House, on Thursday, the 20th of March, at 7 o'clock in the evening, for the purpose of con- sidering the matters herein set forth, and of taking such measures as shall appear to them expedient. Stephen Smith, Stiles Curtis, James Reed, Edwin Hall, . /-. Wm. Cooper Mead,/^"'"'"*"''^- Newell Boughton,\ Samuel W. King, Stlvanus Haight, TriEf^|pliEICAN« N/^TJOifAL>REACHER ORIGINAL-MONTHLY, FKOM LIVING MINISTEES OF THE UNITED STATES. EDITED BY REV. W. H. BIDWELL. VOL. XV. NEW YORK: rtdljSHED BRICK CHOKCH CHAtEL. Entered' according to the Act of Congress, in tHe year 1841, By W. H. BIDWELL, In the Clerk's^ffi^ of the District Court of the United. States fos the Southern ^ District of .New York.. THE JPMEEICAN NATIONAL PEEACHER. No. 12. Vol. XV.) DECEMBER, 1841. (Whole No. 180. SERMON CCCXIII. BY REV. GEORGE B. IDE, PASTOR OF THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. MORAL INSANITY OF IRRELIOtOCS MEN. " Madness is in their heart." — Ecclesiastes ix. 3. The language of the sacred writers is no ^!vhere more awful, than when they describe the character and the condition of imgodly men. In the deep emotion which this subject awakens, they reject the ordi- nary forms of expression, and resort to the most glowing4p'agery, to give utterance to . the fearful thoughts which crowd upon them. Agreeably, they represent the wicked as " dead in trespasses arid sins," — " sowing the wind, and reaping the whirlwind," — " treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath," — ^tossed on a " troubled sea," where raging waves, and hidden rocks, and whirlpools, and darkness surround them, — or standing upon giddy and shppery heights, beneath which yawns the gulf of perdition. But in thi^ accumulation of dreadful metaphors none are more ter- ribly significant than the one contaiaed in the text What spectacle can be more appalling than that of madness l Look at the -man, in whose mind the golden cord, which holds tlie intellectual powers in harmony, has been broken, and left him a maniac. What a wreck of all t]|at is lovely, and valuable in humanity does he exhibit ! To the o^lm control of reason, have succeeded the dominion of passion, the empire of fancy, and the anarchy of delirium. The eye, which once shone with the clear light of thought, now gleams with unnatu- ral fire, or is fixed in the unmeaning gaze of idiocy ; and the counte- nance, once beaming witl^ intellect, and radiant with the glow of every nol&a%ption, is vacant ?^with stupor, or convulsed with the - : - -7 .. :~ .. : \.._-:.:_3e and recklessness m^k liis 270 THE NATIONAl PREACHER.. actions r Behold him bartering his dearest mterests- far a cMldish. toy — laboring to accomphshj enterjMises in their nature evidently unattainable, or using the greatest exertions to effect the most.frivo— Ictfis purposes — continually mistaking the objects around him, esteem- ing those valuable which are really trivial, and rejecting as -worthless those of the highest value — ^flying from his friends and relatives as, enemies, and caressing strangers and enemies as friends — rejoicing when Ms situation is most melancholy, and weeping when he has ^o cause for sorrow — ^wantonly exposing himself to dangers ; and, per- haps, in the frenzy of distraction, leaping from a precipiee, or plung- ing a dagger into his bosom. Who, without a &rill of horror, can witness a scene like this 1 Yet such is the image which% inspiration has selected as emblematical of the conduct of impenitent sinners. Having surveyed^ with a rapid and comprehensive glance, the histoiy of those who live " without God in the world," it has sketched the portraiture of their character, in few, but fearfully graphic words. "Madness is in their heart." Surely, nonebut a pencil dipped in heaven, could have flung upon the canvass so vivid and so trua a likeness in. so brief a compass.. The sentiment, which the text presents as the subjeafcof discourse, is the moral insanity of irreligious men. In the illustration of this topic, it is my purpose to mention some of the prominent characteristics of insanity, and- to show that the views and conduct of the wicked, with respect to rehgion, exhibit the same melancholy tokens.