A WORD TO

Fathers and Mothers.

PARENTS, will you permit a friend, who is himself a parent, to speak to you of your children? I would address to you a few inquiries, each of which I beg of you deliberately to answer. 1 would offer to you a few considerations, to each of which I beg for your solemn attention. My object alone is, your own, and the virtue and happiness of the rising generation. And can you refuse to hear me, but for two or three minutes, on a subject which most nearly concerns your own, and the best interests of your children, both here and hereafter? I ask, then, first, Have you children, who are between 4 and 7 years old, who are not sent to school? If you have, why are not these children enjoying the great advantages of our Primary Schools? Are you aware, that our city is paying yearly, for the support of these schools, not less than thirteen thousand five hundred dollars; and that all the children, even of the poorest parents, may have the benefit of their instructions? Have you reflected, that if your child, or your children, shall lose the opportunity which these schools offer for his, or their early instruction, this child, or these children, will be disqualified to enter our Grammar Schools; and that they will thus be exposed, between the ages of 7 and 14 years, to all the mischiefs and the miseries of idleness; to all the evils which arise from keeping company with the ignorant, idle and vicious boys; to profaneness, to intemperance, to dishonesty, and to preparation for the House of Correction, and the State Prison ?— Parents, these are solemn thoughts; and, let me tell you, they are not mere possibilities. They are realities. If you suffer your children, who are between the ages of 4 and 7 years, to lose the opportunities which are offered to them in our Primary Schools, these children

he not in some regular employment? Why is he not an apprentice, or upon a farm, or in some course of useful labor? Is not your soul chargeable with the misery of his present condition; with the fruit of his present conduct; with the sins and miseries to which idleness, intemperance, and dishonesty, if not immediately corrected, will bring him? Give not sleep to your eyes, till you have begun the work of his salvation. Allow not rest to your soul, till you have done all that you can do, to place him in a condition, and to fix him in an employment, which promises at least, with God's blessing, that he may be useful, virtuous and happy.

us.

Parents, a most momentous responsibility rests upon God intrusts our children to us, that they may be reared, and instructed, by our care, and our exertions for them. Let us not attempt to throw off our responsibility for them, for God will require it of us. In our free government, the children of the poorest may rise to the highest stations of wealth, honor, trust and usefulness. Let not one of your children, then, between the ages of 4 and 21, be from school, or without a regular employment. Make any sacrifice, but of virtue, and encounter any sufferings, rather than be the instruments of their ignorance, their vice, and their ruin. There are many who will help you, if you need, and seek, their help; and God will help those, who are faithful to themselves, and to his will. But if you permit your child, or your children, with the opportunities which you have in this city, to grow up untaught, and ignorant, and vicious, you will be partakers of their guilt, and sharers of their awful condemnation.

A PARENT.

NOTE. It may be well to inform Parents, who have children between 7 and 14 years of age, but who have not received the instruction which is required for admission to our Grammar Schools, that there is a School in Scotts' Court, in Union Street, where such children may be sent; and where, without any expense to the Parents, these children will be taught, and prepared to enter a Grammar School. It is earnestly desired, that such children may sent to this school, and that they be sent there as soon as is possible.

To

REPORT.

The Executive Committee of the

GENTLEMEN,

AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION.

I entered upon the duties of the mission, among the poor of this city, to which you appointed me, on the 5th of last November; and I have thought it to be proper, in this service, not to visit in any family, which is visited by any settled minister of the city as a part of his flock.

Within the past three months, I have taken fifty families into my pastoral charge. A few of them have lived in the city but six, or twelve months. Some, however, who have been here many years, and others who were born in the city, are kept from connexion with our religious societies by their poverty. They cannot afford to hire seats in our churches. Some, too, by the frequency of their removals, are now in the neighborhood of one, and now of another, of the churches in the city, on whose services they occasionally attend. The intellectual, moral, and religious character of some whom I visit, is very highly respectable. But the exposures of great poverty are very affecting. Among the very poor, I am afraid that there is not much more of the genuine spirit of our religion, than among the very rich. The rooms in which