1836 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION, IN A COURSE OF LECTURES, DELIVERED IN LONDON, IN SPRING 1829. By E. BIBER, PH. DR. "O, they have lived long in the alms basket of words !" SHAKSPEARE. LONDON: EFFINGHAM WILSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE. 1830. ADVERTISEMENT. THE following Lectures having been delivered ex tempore, and written out afterwards from a few notes, taken by a friend at the time, it will not be expected, that this volume should contain anything like an exact report of what was then said. The leading ideas, however, have been preserved, and no topic of importance has been omitted. The writer, though an alien by birth and by law, belongs more to this nation than any other, by his sentiments and his affections, which may serve as his apology for speaking of this country as if it were his own; and for censuring, without reserve, what he has found in it worthy of blame; a freedom which, had his feelings been those of a foreigner, he would have avoided, as unbecoming and invidious. In vindication of his principles, he has nothing to say; hoping that the Spirit of Truth will vindicate them in every candid mind; in which hope, if he should be deceived, he is willing that his views should stand condemned. iv He has but one request to make; which is, that those who find these pages worthy of their attention, will not judge of the contents upon a partial perusal. Man's mind and his language, like the prism, divides the light on its passage, and reflects it, not in one splendid ray, but in a succession of shades and colours, none of which deserves, for itself, to be called light, though, when reunited, they reconstitute the ray, from which they received their birth. |