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You have already given good reason to hope that this also is your wish, from the great number of children who attend, and seem desirous of improvement in the best knowledge and this hope will be greatly increased in proportion as you regard the following advice: 1. Shew them the nature and excellency of our design.

2. Strictly enjoin them to be exact in attending at the appointed times, and to be attentive to the instructions given them.

3. Give them admonitions and directions at home as to their behaviour in church, and in going thither and returning.

4. Encourage them to learn at home, what they will be expected to repeat at church; and inquire at home what they have heard at church, and explain to them what may be to difficult for their present capacity.

5. Keep them, by all means in your power, from loose and vicious books and companions; and endeavour to correct evil dispositions, before they take root, and resist all your efforts.

6. Frequently explain to them, and enforce upon their consciences, their ruined state by nature and practice-their redemption through Jesus Christ-and the necessity of the

Holy Spirit's influence to make them see and feel these truths.

7. Enjoin upon them regularity in private prayer, and reading the word of God.

8. Pray for a blessing on your and our endeavours; for neither is he that planteth any thing, nor he that watereth, but GOD that giveth the increase.

9. Be watchful over your own conduct, that your example may not counteract our instructions.

10. Despair of nothing in a right way, and with the Divine blessing: Be not weary in welldoing; for, in due season, ye shall reap, if ye faint not.

No. XXVI.

ADVICE TO THE FOUNDLING CHILDREN.

The following is a Copy of the Instructions,* which, with the signatures of the Governors present, are given to each of those Children of the Foundling Hospital in London, intitled to Rewards for good Conduct, when they attend the Committee to receive their Rewards, at the expiration of their Apprenticeships.

As the recompence for a long period of care and attention to your maintenance, education, and introduction into life, we have now the pleasing and enviable satisfaction of beholding you entering upon your course in this world, with many very important advantages ;—with a character to preserve,-with the means of supporting yourself by your own industry,-and with instruction and habits of life, so to direct your conduct in your present state of existence here, as to preserve the good name and reputation

Reports, Appendix to Vol. IV.

Advice to the Foundling Children. 295

which you have happily obtained, and to lay up for yourself a treasure of eternal and unfailing reward hereafter.

Few, if any, situations of life could be pointed out, so forlorn, so helpless, or so destitute of hope, as was yours, when, by the gracious intervention of Providence, the hospitable doors of this house were opened for your reception. Without a parent capable of supporting you, without a protector to whom your infant steps might be directed, you would have protracted your existence in a state of ignorance and beggary, or (an event much more probable) you must have perished in your infancy.

The directors and supporters of this charity received you. You were adopted, by baptism, into the church of CHRIST; and you were then placed, under a careful inspector, in the country; where your health and situation were frequently and anxiously examined and reported upon, and where every cause of disease and infirmity (so far at least as human care can provide) was removed, or prevented,

At the age of four or five years, when your faculties had so far advanced towards maturity as to be fitted for instruction, you were returned to these walls. The care of your religious and

moral education, under the watchful eye of the governors, was then committed to instructors, whose kindness and attention do now, and we trust ever will, impress your mind with affection and gratitude.-Happy will it be for the children of the poor in this country, when the advantages of a similar education shall be extended to all of them:-and most unhappy, and most ungrateful, will you prove, if, with those advantages, you do not bring forth the genuine fruits of Christian education,-PIETY, VIRTUE,-and INDUSTRY.

When your progress of instruction, and your period of life, had fitted you to be placed out as an apprentice, a proper situation was carefully sought for you; where the good habits, and untainted principles, of your early years might be confirmed and extended. From that to the present time, the provident care of your benefactors has been rather increased than diminished. Frequent investigations with regard to your conduct and situation, and constant and unwearied attention, on their part to guard against any circumstance which might blight or disappoint your hopes and expectations in life, have conducted you safely through the period of your apprenticeship.

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