Excerpt from Suggestions in Vindication of Sunday-Schools: But More Especially for the Improvement of Sunday-School Books, and the Enlargement of the Plan of Instruction
The importance of the general diffusion of religious knowledge, seems now to be universally admitted. No longer is it pretended, that ignorance is the mother of devotion; or that real knowledge can be injurious to any portion of the community. Experience teaches, that the more ignorant men are, the more liable are they to be hurried into acts of violence and excess; or to be seduced into vice by the persuasions and example of the wicked. Most malefactors, who are condemned by the laws of the country, are exceedingly ignorant of religious truth: the mob, often influenced and led on to acts of shocking outrage, is every where composed of the least informed of the people. An ignorant multitude is always liable to be misled by designing demagogues, or seduced by artful impostors. A regard to character, and a respect for the opinions of others, is greatly strengthened by an increase of knowledge, and this is one of the strongest barriers against infamous vice. Conscience, the most powerful of restraints, possesses force in proportion to the light of truth in the mind. Superstition may, indeed, be promoted by ignorance, but true religion, never. Fanaticism also is closely allied to ignorance, but the most effectual remedy against enthusiasm, is genuine piety. Skepticism, it is true, is often associated with a considerable extent of knowledge; but the cure of infidelity must be found in a correct acquaintance with the truth; and the best preventive of this evil is, early religious instruction. It cannot be doubted, that the manners of men are polished by education. Where do you find manners the most sordid and brutal, but among those who have never been instructed?
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