; and find that the remorse of conscience consequent upon
crime, in preventing future transgressions, is not more powerful in
those whose moral status is low, than is the feeling of delight and joy
after an act of benevolence, which excites to new deeds of charity, in
those whose religious attainments are greater. Scripture, and the
history of all those whom Scripture holds out for imitation, unite in
teaching the same sentiment. There are many more promises in the sacred
record given to virtue, than there are threatenings against vice; and
the highest altitudes of holiness are not only represented as having
been attained by the influence of these promises; but the persons who
have already reached them, are still urged to greater exertions, and a
farther advance, by the reiteration of their number and their value.
Moses, we are told, "had an eye to the recompense of reward;" and our
Lord himself, "for the joy that was set before him," endured the cross.
Let us not then attempt a better method than God has sanctioned; and in
our intercourse with the young, let us not only deter them from the
commission of evil by the fear of disfavour or the rod, but let us also
incite them to virtue, by the hope of approbation and of a future
reward.

3. In our enquiry into the practical working of the moral sense, we
found, not only that there were motives of action employed for
encouraging the pupil to virtue, and for deterring him from vice; but we
found also, that these motives referred chiefly to God, to a future
judgment, and to eternity. In our attempts to imitate Nature in this
particular feature of her dealing with the moral sense, we begin more
distinctly to perceive the high value of Religious Instruction to the
young, and are led directly to the conclusion, that the motives to be
employed with children for encouraging and rewarding good conduct, must
be those chiefly of a spiritual kind, referring to God, and to his
favour or disapprobation, rather than to the rod, or to any secular
reward. The importance of imitating Nature in this matter, for giving a
high tone both to the sentiments and to the morals of the young, is very
great. It is now generally admitted, that secular, and especially
corporal punishments, are never required, except in connection with a
very low and degraded state of the moral sentiments; but it is equally
correct with respect to secular rewards for moral actions. They may both
of them at times be neces