And who will say, that in many cases
where there seems no connection whatever between the instruction and the
conversion of the individual, no such connection exists? It is my firm
conviction that a person who has received instruction in a Sabbath-school
is much more likely to receive the truth in the love of it, than is the
individual who has been brought up in complete ignorance of the truths of
the gospel. The heart and understanding of the former may be compared to
the ground broken up, and prepared for the seed; while those of the
latter are like the field through which the plow has never passed, and
the face of which has never been prepared; to sow seed on which is, in
general, to cast it upon "stony ground, where" it is either picked up by
the "birds of the air," or, should it chance to take root, soon "withers
away, because it has no deepness of earth."
Secondly: if no positive good resulted from Sabbath-schools, the amount
of negative good produced would be sufficient to compensate for all the
labor and toil of the teachers, and to warrant their continuance and
support.
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