not only for introducing it as an integral For The Sunday-school World. COIN. dom they have inculcated. Earnestly BIBLE AND DOMESTIC FEMALE MISSION OF LONDON. Unprecedented in the rapid hold this agency has taken of the public sympathies, it almost stands by itself in the simplicity and unobtrusiveness of the method by which, under God, it has made its way. Barely four years have elapsed since the first Bible-woman entered Church Lane, but during that time upwards of twenty thousand Bibles have been sold to the poor of London by these women, whose number now exceeds a hundred and fifty. During this space of time £1,706 have been paid by the poor for those Bibles;. £5,013 have been contributed by them towards the purchase of clothing, beds, and blankets, and the public have given upwards of £13,000 towards the general purposes of the mission. In some points, no doubt, it works in parallel lines with existing agencies. In other points, it holds ground never occupied before. Women, before now, have done a most useful work in collecting pence for Bibles, but they have been gentlewomen, not of the poor. The clergy, Scripture readers, city missionaries, do their work of direct evangelization by the word of God and prayer. But as, in our own affairs, guided by an unerring instinct, we go to men for strength, and to women for sympathy, so man's work in spiritual things is rather argumentative, authoritative, admonitory; woman's, persuasive, suggestive, sisterly. In temporal matters the boundary is yet more distinct. To cut out a frock, to mend a coat, to make a cup for both, to boil a pudding, to tidy a room, to wash a shirt, to dress a baby, are not exactly the things in which men feel qualified to give advice, and by no means enter as a matter of course into the personal experience of the district-visitor. But here the Bible-woman is on her own ground! she is able at once to win her way to gratitude and confidence by hastening to instruct the enormous ignorance of the poor in the commonest duties of life while, as she smooths the pillow of the sick mother, she can soothe the heart with words of Jesus Christ, and through tact and kindness prepare the way for the Gospel, in trying to be a saviour of the body. The system is now spreading its network over the chief provincial towns; with some modifications it will probably be introduced into villages; and I even see more reason, From a missionary in Michigan. There were many discouragements and TAYLOR. PRIVATE JUDGMENT AN INEVITA- may together are the chart and compass which God has given to man to guide him over the dark sea of time into the deeper dark of eternity.* THE TANK AND THE WELL. There was once a farmer, in India where the rain falls only at a certain season of the year, who had a large piece of ground to cultivate. His living depended upon the field. If it produced plentifully, he had bread enough and to spare; if it was barren, nothing but death by famine stared him in the face. He had, therefore, the strongest possible interest in seeing the land well cared for; and as the soil was rich and the climate bountiful, there seemed no reason to doubt that he would have as large a return from it as he desired. But a great deal-we may say all-depended on the field being properly watered; and to see to that specially was his business. Well, there were two quarters from which, at first sight, water might be expected. In one part of the field was a cistern, which either he himself or his father had erected to perserve some of the rain when it fell in the rainy season; but this tank had somehow been badly constructed-it leaked and, do what the poor farmer could, it could not be made watertight. The consequence was, as he had learned by experience again and again, it was always found to be empty when the ever, as all the farmer's friends thought, time for irrigation had arrived, This, howwas no great matter, for in another part of the field, and equally accessible to him; was a remarkably full and reliable well of living water, out of which he might take as large a supply as he liked, and still it would seem to be as full as ever. On the ground of his possessing this well, the man was much envied by his neighbours; for they said to themselves, that with such a spring within reach he need not fear the coming of the severest drought. He had always that at command whereby his field might be made fertile. But they might have saved themselves the trouble of casting an envious eye upon the farmer's riches, for, strange to say, he turned his back upon the well,--made no use of it,-never drew from it,-let its water run to waste, while he spent his whole time and efforts in trying to repair the old tank, which experience had so often taught him could hold no water. Men may strive as they will to get rid of Private Judgment, but Private Judgment, in some form or other, will always come back upon us. We can no more get rid of it, or transfer it to another, than we can transfer or get rid of our own conscience. There is not merely the right of private judgment attaching to each individual, but the responsibility. Each one is bound to search out Truth for himself, and to use all the means within his reach of enlightening his judgment. If he pins his faith absolutely upon what any other tell him, and exercises no judgment of his own, he renounces that which constitutes the highest distinction of his nature. It may seem very desirable, à priori, that there should be an infallible guide for fallible man; but God, in fact, has every where denied it, and in denying it in religion he has only acted in consistency with the whole of his government of man moral agent. Man's constitution, and his position in relation to the external world, obviously and absolutely subject him to this responsibility of judging for himself throughout the whole course of his life.-ger. Jer. ii. 13. The way, then, to deal with the sceptic, is not to try to relieve him of this responsi- INCONSISTENCIES IN PROFESSORS bility, which can never be set aside; but OF RELIGION. to urge upon him the duty of examining, candidly and honestly, the evidence for the truth of Christianity, or of any of its doctrines, and of being content to act upon such evidence for this, as he is satisfied with in all the other transactions of time. If there could be such a thing as absolute infallibility, wherever placed, there would be no room left for faith, in the proper sense of that term; but Faith and Reason as a The fact was, the man was mad. No sane man would have acted as he did; and the end of story is, that the soil being never moistened, the crop failed, and the farmer and his family perished with hun It is a sad and most painful fact, that professors of religion are often found to be guilty of acts, which they could in no wise excuse to themselves were it not for the soothing deception of their imagined piety and zeal for God. Things of which men of the world would be utterly ashamed, * Lond. Ch. Obs.-Reviews of Lord Lindsay's Remedy for Scepticism-Nov. 1861. and from which self-respect, or humane feeling alone, will be sufficient to withhold them, shall be done by religious people, with no sort of compunction whatever, though they hereby bring a dishonour upon that very religion for which they profess to have so high a regard. This could not be, were there not a fatal facility in the human conscience to convert even the Truth itself into the means of self-imposition.-Lond. Ch. Obs. FOOLISH THINGS CONFOUNDING THE WISE. There is a narrative of a half-wit in a parish of Dumfriesshire, who did not converse or reply to questions, but who often muttered, I'll sing you a song when I dee." This, his rhyme for many years, had attracted attention; and when the solemn hour came, which was to unfold and enlighten the hampered mind of the poor imbecile, his village became curious to hear if he would sing his long-promised song-and they heard it!— "There's Three in One, and One in Three, And the middle's the One that hath sav'd me." Poor Tom! The divine teacher can penetrate where man is excluded. He was going to behold in glory the One that had saved him; and if the tale be true, as it goes, that an under-shepherd, who had never held up that middle One to his flock, was of the number of those assembled to hear the idiot's death-song, surely his heart smote him at that unlooked-for strain. RIVERS HOW THEY FLOW. ALL rivers, small or large, agree in one character; they like to lean a little on one side; they cannot bear to have their channels deepest in the middle, but will always, if they can, have one bank to sun themselves upon, and another to get cool under: one shingly shore to play over where they may be shallow, and foolish, and childlike; and another steep shore, under which they can pause and purify themselves, and get their strength of waves fully together for due occasion. Rivers in this way are just like wise men, who keep one side of their life for play, and another for work; and can be brilliant, and chattering, and transparent, when they are at ease, and yet take deep counsel on the other side, when they set themselves to their main purpose.And rivers are just in this divided also, like wicked and good men ; the good rivers have serviceable deep places all along their banks, that ships can sail in; but the wicked rivers go scooping irregularly under their banks, until they get full of strangling eddies, which no boat can row over, without being twisted against the rocks, and pools like wells, which no one can get out of but the water-kelpie that lives at the bottom; but, wicked or good, the rivers all agree in having two kinds of sides.-Ruskin. TRUTH FIRST.-He who begins by loving Christianity more than Truth, will proceed by loving his own sect or Church better than Christianity, and will end in loving himself better than all.-Coleridge. DWELLING IN TENTS. Life in tents was especially appropriate to those whose wealth lay in flocks and herds, and whose residence was necessarily changed according to the wants of their charge. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob moved their tents when the pasture failed, and pitched them in a fresh spot. The ten sons of Jacob led their flocks from the vale of Hebron to Shechem and to Dothan; and the twelve tribes, while in the desert, and to no small extent afterwards, were dwelling in tents. Hence the current expression, Every man to his tents, O Israel!" and the frequent allusions in Scripture to this mode of life. 66 Thus each part of the tent is mentioned the coarse cloth of which it was made, the poles and cords on which the covering rested, and the wooden pins used to fasten the cords to the ground, Judges iv. 21: Isa. liv. 2. These temporary dwellings were easily removed. A few moments sufficed to pull up the stakes of a tent, loosen its cords, drop its coverings to the ground, fold it up, and pack it on the camel's back, ready for a days journey, and a quick erection at its end. So King Hesekiah says, "Mine age is departed, and is removed as a shepherd's tent.'" This easy removal is a great convenience to the modern tribes of Arab robbers, who, when threatened with an attack, can strike their tents almost at a moment's warning, and disappear across the desert. Travellers in the East are obliged to use tents, and thus necessarily become familiar with this time-honoured mode of life, which clears up many allusions in the Christian on such a journey is forcibly reBible. Every morning and evening the minded how easily his "earthly house of this tabernacle" may be dissolved, and of his need of "a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." He is also perpetually taught that he is a pilgrim and a stranger on earth, ever journeying, and says, with the poet "Here Arab-like I roam, 100 Copies, per year, $1 80 2.40 3 75 7.00 975 12.00 Monthly. $1.15 1 70 2 63 4 75 675 8.50 Semi-Monthly. $2.50 3 40 525 9 50 13 50 17.00 Says Lord Lindsay, "There is something perior paper at the following rates: The tent-pins are plucked up; and in a few very melancholy in our morning flittings. minutes a dozen holes, a heap or two of ashes, and the marks of the camels' knees in the sand, soon to be obliterated, are the only traces left of what has been for a while found ourselves shelterless before being for a less number than 10. For any number more than our home!" "Often," says M'Cheyne, "we fully dressed. What a type of the tent of the body! Ah! how often is it taken down before the soul is made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light!" 15 Copies, per year, 50 Copies, per year, 100 Copies, per year, Dwellers in tents are ill-protected from supervision of a watchful Providence. robbers or from wild beasts, and need the while leading the Israelites through that Moses had felt this, times without number, cloud and of fire. he remembered, too, the houseless wilderness, beneath the pillar of paid) application to any of the Depositories. various wanderings of the patriarchs of old, each one the object of infinite love and care; and in the 90th Psalm extols God for all-Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations." Happy is the man that has placed himself in the care of a covenant God, and knows that wherever 66 NEW YORK, 599 BROADWAY, BOSTON, 141 WASHINGTON STREET. Sample copies will be furnished and subscriptions reCincinnati, Ohio; Tomlinson Brothers, 153 and 155 Lake ceived also by George Crosby, 41 West Fourth street, street, Chicago, Illinois; J. W. McIntyre, 9 South Fifth 313 Fourth street, Louisville, Ky. street, St. Louis, Missouri; and by Wm. H. Bulkley, "THE YEAR ITS LIFE RESIGNING." The leaves around me falling The light my path surrounding, The joys that round me wing- Before the morning's ray, The friends gone there before me Tempt sweetly to the sky. "Why wait," they say, "and wither, 'Mid scenes of death and sin? O rise to glory hither, And find true life begin." I hear the invitation, And fain would rise and come, A sinner-to salvation; Thus, thus, let all I see Point on, with faithful finger, To Heaven, O Lord, and Thee! New Haven, 3rd Cong. Ch. S. S. $50; North Coventry, Cong. Church S. S. NEW YORK. Albany, Home Miss. Society of 4th Pres. Ch. S. S., $100; 2d Pres. Church S. S., $100; A Friend, $5, Brighton, Sunday-school, Brooklyn, Washington Ave. Bap. Ch. S. S., $10; Judson Miss. Society of the Greenwood Bap. Ch. S. S., $10; Bethesda Mission S. S., $5; Ch. of the Pilgrims S. S. Miss. Assoc. $75; Westminster Pres. Ch. S. S. Miss. Assoc., $40; Clinton Avenue Cong. Ch. S. S. Miss. Assoc. $75; Central Pres. Ch. $10 50; 1st Pres. Ch. S. S., Remson street, $10,. Castile, Baptist Church Sunday-school, Cayuga, Pres. Church Sunday-chool, Elbridge, Pres. Church, $6 13; Baptist Church, $9 37, Hunter, Pres. Church Sunday-school, Hempstead, Washington square S. S. Donations for the Missionary Service of the Hannibal, Congregational Church, American Sunday-School Union. From November 15, to December 15, 1861. 60 00 3 15 12 00 73 00 2.00 5.00 5965 2.00 75 Philadelphia, James E. Brown, $2 50; Theodosia Bayard, $30; Greenway Mission S. S. $10; First German Ref. S. S. $10; M. A. L. $1; Robert Raikes Mission S. S. $15; North Broad st. Pres. S. S. $20; Arthur G. Coffin, $20; Olivet Pres. S. S. $50. 12 00 Pittsburg, S. S. per Jas. McCandless, West Chester, Jas. Atwood, $10; First Presbyterian Sunday-school, $1, 10 00 York, Union Meeting Pres. Ch., Samuel Small, $20; Mrs. Samuel Small, $10; David E. Smsll, $10; Philip A. Small, $5; David Small, $5; Susan Small, $3; Mrs. Spangler, $3; J. Emmet, $1; D. Prince, $1; Mrs. Slaymaker, $2 50; Mrs. Franklin, $1; Miss Bond, $1; Henry Kanfelt, $1; J. Evans, $1; Miss H. Barnitz, $2 50; Mrs. Henry Welsh, $2 50; Dr. Haller, $1; Annie K. Small, R. Brinkley, Allie Fulton, K. Adams and Emma Bosler, each 25 cts.-$1 25, 71 75 OHIO. 205 00 7.00 235 50 6.06 10 00 15 50 Dayton, 1st Eng. Lutheran S. S., 10 00 Knightstown, Sunday-school, 5225 Brighton, Presbyterian Sunday-school,. Jersey Prairie, Pres. Sunday-school, 570 5.00 Lewistown, Presbyterian Sunday-school, Payson, Sunday-school, 10 00 2.00 St. Louis, Central Mission S. S., Jordan, Presbyterian Church, KENTUCKY. Louisville, Col. D. R. Young, $30; John A. Dunlop, $30; Portland Ave. Pres. Ch. S. S. $12; Thomas E. Wilson, M. D., $10; W. H. Dulaney, $10; John Homire, Edgar Needham, George H. Carey, M. D., W. W. Morris, Huffman, Duncan & Co., A. Peter, Win. Musselman, D. H. Smith, James Todd, Wm. Prather, Robert N. Miller, Charles Miller, A. Borie, each $5-$65; J. J. & George Harbison, $3, Ashford, Cong. Church Sunday-school, Bethel, Cong. Church Sunday-school, Brookfield, Cong. Ch. Sunday-school, Broad Brook, Cong. Ch. Sunday-school, Bozrah, Cong. Church Sunday-school, Canterbury, Cong. Ch. Sunday-school, Danbury, 1st Cong. Ch. Sunday-school, Darien, Cong. Church Sunday-school, East Lyme, Cong. Ch. Sunday-school, East Haddam, Cong. Ch. Sunday-school, Easton, Cong. Church Sunday-school, Fairfield, Cong. Ch. Sunday-school, Fitchville, Cong. Ch. Sunday-school, Gilead, Cong. Church Sunday-school, Greenwich, 2nd Cong. Church S. S. Guilford, 1st Cong. Ch. S. S. & Society, Hartford, 1st Cong. Church S. S. $50; North Cong. Church S. S. $10, Harwinton, Cong. Church, S. S. Jewitt City, Baptist Sunday-school, Kensington, Cong. Church S. S. 15 00 5.00 $118; 1st Reformed Dutch Ch. $30, 65 00 SUNDAY-SCHOOL PERIODICALS. 10.00 The only papers published by the AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION are 112 00 The Sunday-School World, 5.00 15 00 60 00 Flanders, Sunday-school, 10 00 Millstone, Cross Roads S. S. $2 54 MONTHLY. 25 CENTS A YEAR. The Child's World, MONTHLY AND SEMI-MONTHLY. See terms in another column. LIFE-MEMBERS of the Society will be supplied with a copy of either gratuitously, upon application to any of the Depositories, THE Sunday-School World. VOL. II.-No. 2.] AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION. THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORLD Is published by the American Sunday-School Union on the FIRST WEDNESDAY of every month, and embraces the interests of Sunday-schools, and their improvement and extension at HOME and ABROAD. TO SUPERINTENDENTS AND TEACHERS OF SUNDAY-SCHOOLS, WITHOUT DISTINCTION OF RELIGIOUS DENOMINATION. The art of right teaching is not a denomIt contains a general survey of the Mis-inational endowment. He who knows sionary field occupied by the AMERICAN SUNDAYSCHOOL UNION and kindred institutions in the United States and other parts of Christendom. It presents a summary of Sunday-school intelligence from all sources within reach, and a view of the progress and prospects of religious education generally. Price Twenty-five Cents a Year. Samples of the paper will be sent gratuitously to schools or individuals upon a call or a post-paid order. CONTENTS OF THIS NUMBER. Our Paper. EDITORIAL. Feeding from an Empty Spoon His Soul is not in it.. The late Chief Justice Williams.. Precious Gifts... 17 17 18 19 how to teach can teach anywhere; and, so far as Gospel instruction is concerned, he will teach every where very much alike. The Sunday-School World, published by the American Sunday-School Union, is designed to aid Sunday-school teachers in their work. To this end, it discusses the principles of teaching-suggests methods of teaching-points out faults of teaching -supplies examples of teaching-and, in general, offers aid, sympathy, and encouragement to those engaged in teaching, There are other periodical publications 9 having the same objects in view. We wish they were numerous, cheap, and attractive enough to induce every Sunday-school -29 teacher to seek and study them. Not one of them could fail to supply useful hints, .17 both in the theory and practice of teaching. The Sunday-School World will be found useful to SUPERINTENDENTS and other Or FICERS of schools, inasmuch as it treats of 24 | organization and discipline, and the vari ous appendages subservient to order and efficiency. How an Old Stick was Worked into the S. S. Temple.20 | Meeting at the Tap". 2 24 .26 ..31 [FEBRUARY, 1862. tain it. Hence, if sthools would order it for ALL THE TEACHERS, as an item of school expenses, and if superintendents would make it a point to induce teachers--all teachers to read it as early as practicable after it is received, we might hope that its usefulness would be greatly extended. The catholic character of the SundaySchool World, and its low price, (being only twenty-five cents,) would seem to remove all obstacles to its general introduction to schools of all denominations. FEEDING FROM AN EMPTY SPOON. A young minister, somewhat self-conceited, was curious to know what was thought of the first sermon he preached. As he was walking by the house of a godly family, humble in condition but always in their place in the house of prayer, he overheard a voice as of some one talking, and he paused a moment to listen. It was the old patriarch, offering up the evening sacrifice of prayer and praise. With a peculiarity quite becoming such a service, thanks were expressed for the privileges of the day, and "especially that we have the divine oracles in our own hands, and may find therein the food we need for our hungry souls, for thou knowest, O Lord! that we have been fed this day out of an empty spoon." It would, perhaps, surprise some of us to find how many empty spoons are put to the lips of our Sunday-school children, even where the provision is abundant enough to satisfy the largest desire, THE OWASCO HILL MISSION- One of the missionaries of the American in Western New York, lately received the Sunday-School Union, serving the church following letter: OWASCO HILL, Dec. 27, 1861. Owasco Hill are glad to write you. Your little Sunday-school friends on You remember when you were here last spring how the people thought there were not enough children and good folks in the distriet to carry on a Sunday-school, and how bard it was to start one. Would you have thought it! we have growed to forty little folks, and one big Bible class of old men and women. A little while ago the cold weather set in, and we were told that it was time to close the school for the winter. Now, we wondered what this all meant, for we didn't know why we couldn't come through snow to the Sunday-school as well as to the daily school. When our teachers found how we felt, and that we were willing to keep coming, they said no more about it. We have as large a school now as when it was summer. We have been taking the Sunday-School Banner. Our little boy says he would not take fifty cents a piece for them. But our time for taking them is just up, and we send the money for the Child's World, the new paper we have been reading about so long. We hope to think the world of our new Sunday-school paper. Signed, SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCHOLARS. HIS SOUL IS NOT IN IT. For the Sunday-School World. AN ACTIVE AUXILIARY. The thirtieth anniversary of the Rensselaer County Sunday-School Union (N.Y.) was observed by interesting public services in the Fifth Baptist Church, in the city of Troy, on the afternoon of the 16th, and on the evening of the 19th of January. Appropriate addresses of Rev. Dr. Sheldon, Rev. Mr. Barlow, and the Associate Secretary of Missions of the American Sunday School Union, were delivered. The aid rendered to the missionary work of that Society, by schools in the Rensselaer County Union, last year, cannot be less than $700. One school, Rev. Mr. Duryea's, sustains one of the missionaries of the American SundaySchool Union, and the church also apportions to the Society a liberal percentage of its collections, so that from this source alone, the contributions are $500 or more per year. During the past season, a missionary of the parent Society labored in Rensselaer County, at the request of the County Society. The whole county was very thorMany new schools were organized, and old ones revived and reinvigorated. It would be very difficult for a general to make an effective address to his army on the eve of a desperate conflict, if his sym-oughly canvassed. pathies were about equally divided between the contending bodies. It requires consummate skill, so to simulate patriotism or any other strong sentiment, as that nothing in words, tones or features, should betray the imposture. The spirit of our Sunday-school teaching will reveal, with surprising exactness, the power of divine truth over our own minds. We may be conscious of variations in this respect. At the business meeting, Franklin Field, Esq., was elected President, to succeed filled the office for several years. Mr. Edward Carter, who has so acceptably A SPECTATOR. TROY, Jan. 20th, A BOY'S STORY OF IIIMSELF. A little boy, eleven years old, was taken At times our perceptions of from the high road to a life of crime, and spiritual things are dim, and exert but a placed, about a year ago, in the Philadelfeeble influence upon our thoughts. The phia House of Refuge. Perhaps he was preparation for Sabbath duty, and the ex- allowed to run in the street, and to have citement which the anticipation of leading his own way, or he may have been disobea group of confiding children in the study dient to his parents, and unwilling to be of things that belong to their peace, are controlled by anybody. Since he has been well fitted to invigorate the power of truth. in the Refuge, he has not only learned to It must, however, have already taken po-write, but he has learned a very important ssession of the mind and heart. Its suprelesson about himself. Here is what he For The Sunday-School World. A CASE FOR STUDY. My neighbor Goodspeed is not well. What is the matter with him? He does not know. He feels no particular pain anywhere, nor is he aware of any one thing he has done or omitted to do, which might cause disorder in his system. Neither can he accurately date the beginning of his indisposition. But for several weeks or months he has felt a gradual decline of strength and discomfort of body, accompanied by depression of spirits. It will never do to go on this way. His life is a burden to himself and he fears it will soon be such to others. He must send for a doctor. He does so, and the doctor comes, feels his pulse, looks at his tongue, asks him many questions. Finally, he tells Mr. Goodspeed that "he is run down;" that he wants stimulating and invigorating; new strength must be by some means imparted to each nerve and muscle, and the lifecurrent must be sent with a new impulse through his veins. He gives him tonics, advises active exercise in the open air and cold baths. Mr. Goodspeed is glad he sent for the doctor; is glad that he has no positive disease, and is glad that the remedies are no more severe. The Sunday-school connected withChurch is steadily declining. Its numbers have diminished from two hundred to one hundred and fifty, then to one hundred. No one special cause can be assigned for this declension, nor can any time be fixed as the date of its commencement. But certain it is that increasing weakness exists remedies can be found, it will continue to in that Sunday-school, and that unless languish. It will hardly die, for a large and influential church must have some sort of Sunday-school connected with it, but it may live with feeble powers and impaired usefulness. macy must have been recognized as a rule says, in a letter to one of his kind friends. help them to remedy it. Let them do this, of thought and duty. Its transforming influence must have been felt. Hence, if the truth fail to produce its legitimate effects and to be followed by the promised blessing, we do well to inquire whether it reigns in our own hearts-whether the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has indeed made us free from the law of sin and death. It is not affirmed that a teacher who is conscious of no such controling principle, should relinquish his office. He could not be in a better position to gain the vantage ground he lacks. Let him apply at once to Him who is the way, the TRUTH, and the life, and rely upon the promise that he who asks shall receive. He that cannot see God in a judgment, will never be truly humble; and he that cannot see God in a mercy, can never be truly thankful. We. print it exactly as it is written : *** “I was a bad boy last Tuesday, and every day of my life I will do something wrong. There is not a day but I must do something wrong. I am trying to be a good boy, but something comes in my way, and I get angry. I soon feel I am sinning, and then it goes away, and a good temper comes in my mind, and then all my femper is gone away from me. It will be a happy hour when all my sins are forgiven. I hope God may forgive me all my sins, and wash them away out of his great book of Remembrance." Who can look without emotion upon a child struggling with temptation, and fail to invoke, in behalf of all such, the strength of the Almighty? All our times are in God's hands: our time to come into trouble, our time to continue in trouble, and our time to come out of trouble, is at His disposal. God seldom comes at our time, always at His own; and if our deliverances from dangers, our success in our endeavours, our supply of wants, had come sooner or later, it had not been so good for us. What remains for those to do, who have the interests of that church and school near to their hearts, but to appeal to the Great Physician? What can they do, but earnestly entreat Him to show them the source of the weakness, and instruct and with true penitence for whatever is wrong or wanting in their labors,-and their request will be neither neglected or denied. They will be led to see that there is lack of faith, or zeal, or system somewhere; that unbelief, or indifference, or irregularity has unawares crept in, established itself, and palsied their efforts; that teachers and scholars alike have grown careless and formal in their services. humble prayers for grace and strength to begin anew, will be heard and answered. Cold hearts will be warmed, lifeless prayers quickened, languid songs changed to joyful, heartfelt praises, empty seats will be filled, and a blessing go forth to the world from that now feeble school. And then With the Great Physician is wisdom, skill, tenderness, faithfulness and Almighty power. What more can be needed to supply the wants of any sin-sick soul, or any number of souls, who together seek His help? Why need we ever languish, "When with us is prayer, And joy, and strength, and courage are with Thee?" M. |