EXAMPLE OF A POOR BOY.

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these children in your hands ?—That you may lead them into the fold of Christ; that you may labour and pray for the conversion of every child committed to you, and not feel that your duty, anxious duty, is performed, so long as a single child remains unconverted. I have known many teachers, whose aims were these, weep for joy as they sat down at the table of Christ with every one of their class.

No language can describe, and no imagination can conceive the influence, either good or bad, which each scholar under your care may yet exert. There may be a Cowper among them; there may be a Byron ;— a missionary of the Cross, or one who shall hereafter scatter arrows, fire-brands, and death. Facts are tiresome, unless your feelings are absorbed in the truth which they illustrate. But look at one, and see what a little child may become. "A little boy was put out as an apprentice to a mechanic in a large establishment, and, being the youngest apprentice, had to do errands for others: one part of his business was to procure ardent spirit, of which they drank every day. But he never drank any; and the others used to laugh at him, and ridicule him, because, as they said, he had not man enough to drink rum. And under their abuse, he often retired and vented his grief in tears. But now, every one of these apprentices, except himself, is a drunkard, or in a drunkard's grave. He is a sober man; the owner of a large estate, which he has acquired by his industry; has many workmen in his employ, all living on the plan of abstinence from the use of ardent spirit; and he is exerting a highly salutary influence over a large extent of country."

It is Sabbath morning. You have your pocket Bible in your hand, your Question-book and map lying by you. You are about to go to meet your Sabbath School. What should be your aim? What your feelings? You

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SABBATH MORNING.

are going to be engaged to-day, in imparting religious instruction, in making impressions upon immortal souls, in labouring for the salvation of the earth, as well as of these few children. Perhaps these children have no parents, and you are to supply the place of father or mother; perhaps their parents are ignorant, and know not how to give religious instruction; perhaps they are sinful, and have a decided distaste for religion; and all that is done for the souls of these children, must be done by you. Perhaps they are so young, or so unenlightened, that the instructions of the pulpit shoot over their heads, and they get no good from that source; perhaps the only conceptions of God, or Christ, or heaven, or hell, which these children have ever obtained, have been received from you. Perhaps when you meet your class, one will be absent,-who has been cut off by death, since the last Sabbath :-do you feel that if this be so, you can say, "I did my duty faithfully to the soul of that child?" Perhaps before another Sabbath comes, some one whom you meet to-day, will be called into eternity:—are you going with the heart to make impressions on the mind of each, as you would, did you know this would be so? God may remove you from this field of labour before another Sabbath :-are you going to meet your class in such a state of mind, that you could, from a dying bed, look back upon it with joy? You and these children are now a week nearer eternity and the judgment-seat than you were the last Sabbath :-are you preparing for it? Perhaps your pupils are dull, restless, inattentive, obstinate, and wicked be it so, is any thing too hard for the Lord? Are they more stupid, more obstinate, more wicked, considering their light, than you are with yours? If the Holy Ghost still waits upon you, warning, and striving, his patience still unexhausted, shall yours be exhausted in teaching these children? Many children

ACT ON A GREAT PRINCIPLE.

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have been converted to God,-multitudes have shouted the praises of redeeming mercy,-multitudes of such are now in heaven:-may not those committed to you, be prepared for the same blessedness? If you labour aright, pray aright, and feel aright, may you not hope hereafter to meet them, pure and glorious spirits in your Father's kingdom, and rejoice with them for ever? Perhaps you have sins lying upon your conscience unrepented of, and therefore cannot meet your class with right feelings. O remember that God says, "Go work in my vineyard to-day-labour to save these souls— to save the earth-to people heaven with redeemed souls-to snatch brands from everlasting burnings:-go labour faithfully and prayerfully, so that at night, and at death, you may feel that you have sown beside all waters, and that you have fitted yourself and others for the long, sweet Sabbath of heaven.

Permit me to urge you to live and act on the great principle, that you are living for the conversion of the world. We know how easy it is to be active, awake, and engaged in seasons of special out-pourings of the Spirit; and we know too, how we imagine ourselves to be excusable for being idle, when our feelings are cold and dull. But we must not act from feeling. We must act from principle. When our feelings are right and warm, they will bear us on to many and self-denying labours; but if we have only these, we shall be periodical Christians, and the times of our sleeping will be long and fearfully guilty. You will often think of your class with a reluctant mind, feel its duties a burden, and feel that the cross you must take up is heavy; and you need, and must have, a fixed, settled principle, which will force you onward through reluctance, and coldness, and the faintings of the spirit. Your dedication to God ought to be entire, unreserved, unwavering, or you are no disciple. You are to bring every

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STAND TO BE TAKEN BY TEACHERS.

power and faculty and gift which God hath lent you, to the work of leading those children to God. Your own peace of conscience now, and in death,—their usefulness and happiness on earth and in eternity,—the salvation of your country and of the earth-all, all cry in your ears, "Be faithful, be faithful!"

You take the place of parents who will not, or cannot guide their children to God;—of ministers, who cannot, amid the oppressive burdens of the day, feed the lambs, as they would be glad to do;-of legislators who have no knowledge of the results of rearing up a population without religious principle,—a population whose idea of freedom will be, to do as wrong as they please; or if these legislators see this, they see no way to create a national conscience. You take the place of officers in the host of the Lord, training up soldiers of the Cross who are to conquer the world. You impress your own views, your own character, your own principles, on minds which may do immense good in time, and which must enjoy or suffer immeasurably in eternity.

At this day, in every department, new energies, new views are developed, and brought into exercise. Every thing seems to cry out for advancement, as if the human mind was rushing towards some great, unknown results. There should be, and there must be, a corresponding advance in the system of Sabbath Schools. I am not sanguine that new principles will be developed, or very great improvements made in the modes of communicating instruction; this is not what is needed; but the advanced position to be taken, should rather consist in new and deeper and more abiding impressions of the importance and value of the system, the responsibility of the teacher; in the influence of the system to save the world, and the necessity of deeper piety, more pure, elevated, persevering aims in those who labour in this cause. I do not only believe that it is the time for an

FIRST PRINCIPLES IN CHRISTIAN EDUCATION.

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advance to be made by teachers, but that they will make that advance. They are the élite of the Church: they, if any part of the Church, will gird up the loins for new efforts, make new and more solemn consecration of themselves to God, and will go into the vineyard with new ardour, with new and increased love, and hold forth the word of life with new zeal, and more delightful results.

CHAPTER II.

FIRST PRINCIPLES IN CHRISTIAN EDUCATION.

In every science, and in every department of knowledge, there are certain points, or what may be called First Principles, which must be definitely understood, and which must be used as starting-points by all who would succeed. These are not theories which each one adopts for himself, but they are discoveries of the combined wisdom and experience of all who have examined the ground. Some of these first principles I wish to present to the Sabbath-school teacher. I take pains to present these clearly and distinctly, because I deem them of great importance.

I. Lay it down as a first principle in Christian education, that the first object of the teacher is to form right HABITS in the scholar.

Were you to give the most solemn and impressive instruction possible to a company just as they were about going into the theatre, it would do no good. The impressions would all be gone in an hour, and other and deeper impressions would take their place. The same feelings awakened in an audience who were in the habit of daily prayer, would be likely to abide, and to bring forth the fruits of eternal life. Those children who are prodigies of learning and attainment in early life, often