Done and agreed upon in Consistory, under the inspection of the Honorable Constable and Overseers, the 8th, of October, 1682.

I agree to the above articles, and promise to perform them according to the best of my ability.

                        Johannes Van Eckkelen."

Many of the provisions of this agreement are calculated at this day to excite a smile. But in one particular it is to be admired. It shows how careful and exact our forefathers were, in embuing the minds of the young and rising generation, with a reverence for the God of their existence, and with a knowledge of the principles of our holy religion. These are matters which we cannot too sacredly guard. Mere secular knowledge is not a safeguard to personal virtue, nor to the security of the State. Sound education consists not simply in the cultivation of the mind, but in the infusion of moral and religious principles. Without the latter, it is but a frail support of the great temple of liberty and independence. But when moral principles are inculcated in connection with intellectual light, we may hope to see the youth growing up in virtue and proving ornaments in their day, and supports to the church and the state. Such was the deep rooted sentiment of the early Dutch settlers, and was transmitted by them to their immediate descendants. And hence the careful provisions in all their agreements with their schoolmasters. At that time religious instruction could be introduced in the schools without any difficulty, as all the community were of one faith—All adhering to the Belgic Confession, the articles of the Synod of Dort, and the Catechisms of the Reformed Dutch Church. Such a mode of instruction however, from the present state of society, and the multiplication of religious sects, cannot now be pursued. But we deprecate the day, when the Bible shall be excluded from our common schools, and no care taken to instill into the minds of the young, sound moral principles, the principles of the religion of Christ. We have presented an agreement formed with a schoolmaster, in the year 1682. We now give one made in the year 1773, nearly one hundred years after, with Anthony Welp, the last teacher of the Dutch language. As will be seen, it contains many of the provisions of the former, and is based in general, upon the same principles.

First the school shall begin and end in a Christian-like manner: At 8 o'clock in the morning it shall begin with the morning prayer, and end at 11 o'clock, with prayer.

1st. For dinner. At 1 o'clock in the afternoon, it shall begin with the prayer after meat, and at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, end with the evening prayer.