a temple in which God will deign to dwell. There is little or no praiseworthiness in winning the affections of a loving child; but should a teacher lead a rebel to a recognition of our Divine religion, the victory gained will be a great one. It is in such triumphs that the glory of Sabbath-school work appears. That soldier who appears in uniform and assumes the air of a patriot in times of peace, but in the hour of anarchy and bloodshed abandons the field, has not the blood and spirit of a soldier. That sailor who is all brave and jovial in calm weather, but in the hour of storm leaves the reeling barque to sink beneath the black wave, has not the pluck of a sailor. That, in our opinion, is the real sailor, who will either save the ship or go down with her. That young man, too, has the blood and sinew of a teacher who feels that the greater the sinner, the deeper and stronger ought his affections to flow-the more defiant the child, the more intense ought his anxiety to be for the salvation of that child. There is charm-there is chivalry in such a teacher's life. He not only appears in uniform and rank on the Sabbath day, but he lives out what he professes. And although the three great difficulties hinted at in the work of the Sabbath-school be insuperable to any other spirit, yet he will triumphantly level them to the dust.

The next class of difficulties is in the teacher himself. It is difficult to realize the idea of a teacher at first to be thoroughly and constantly prepared for the work, and to live in sympathy with it. No rightminded teacher can deny the fact but what he has had to fight a hard battle with self before he could realize this thought. 'I have to discipline souls of priceless worth for the scenes of immortality? Viewing his work from this standpoint, he has ever felt that such a work demands careful preparation to discharge it well, and that his sympathies can only go with it upon the following conditions :

There must be pre-eminent piety. Without it, no real good can be expected. We expect no rain from clouds without water; nor do we expect streams of holy thought from a corrupt heart. A teacher without piety is like a system without a sun-like a flower without bloom, and like a tree without fruit. The individual worthy of the name of a teacher is like a richly laden tree in a garden, he affords fruit for all who like to take it. With goodness both men and children get enamoured. An epistle of Christ is easily read even by children. The teacher whose soul is filled with the light of heaven will be like the sun in creation, he will give light and beauty to all

around him.

The teacher whose character we are sketching, will have a deep acquaintance with God. This can only be had by prayerful study and action. If any man,' says Christ, will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.' There are mighty thoughts in the Divine mind about every good work, but in order to know them, there must be action in life and earnest supplication. These are the two instrumentalities by which a man and his God are brought together. What we want to teach our juvenile population is,-to get lofty ideas of God. The most perfect idea of him has been brought down from heaven by

Christ, and the teacher's object, who has seen it, is to take his class back upon its wings. In the revelation God has thus made, we find him a being possessed of supreme, divine excellence; and this is expressed by Robert Hall with unrivalled beauty. Our conception of God,' says he, 'is continually receiving fresh accessions by attracting to itself, as a centre, whatever bears the impress of dignity, order, and happiness. It borrows splendour from all that is fair, subordinates to itself all that is great, and sits enthroned on the riches of the universe.' To understand this sentence, we must feel the grandeur of the truth contained in it in our hearts, and as it rises gradually up before our gaze, we shall ever rise with it, and yet it will eternally tower above us. The teacher who would live on the ascending scale must understand these things, and he will be able, step by step, to take his class into new and higher regions of thought, and to nearer approaches towards the standard of perfect excellence. This can be done by prayer and study, for it is a fixed law, that if we ask we receive, and that if we seek we find.

The advice of Cowper shall be ours

'Acquaint thyself with God, if thou wouldst taste
His works. Admitted only to his embrace,

Thou shalt perceive that thou wast blind before:
Thine eye shall be instructed; and thine heart,
Made pure, shall relish with divine delight,

Till then unfelt, what hands divine have wrought.'

II.

Secondly. The encouragements of the work. three.

We shall pen

1. It is a work for the good of society. We do engage in some enterprises which are simply for our own personal benefit, but Sabbath-school work is for the general good. The religious education of our juvenile population cannot fail to strengthen the future framework of society, and hasten the development of social excellence. The seeds of vice are generally sown in youth, and the harvest is reaped in advanced life, which is inevitably one of crime and infamy. To prevent such a work is the aim of every Sabbath-school, and that, too, by imparting right ideas of God, and the nobility of man's highest nature when ransomed and beatified by Christ.

We would here remark, that the Sabbath-school is doing what the State has failed to accomplish, that is, to make mankind feel the worth and immortality of good character. This country has had three schemes for the suppression of crime-the punishment of death, banishment for life, and partial forgiveness.

For a very long period, indeed, the punishment of death was the only treatment that offenders met with from the hands of the State. We scarcely need say that time has written Failure on the front of the scaffold. When men were most numerously executed, crimes were most numerously committed. Banishment has also been tried. America was the land for many a long year to which we transported our living vice, but when that country declared her independence, we sent it to Australia; and it is supposed that slavery has taken such a strong

hold through the slaveholders springing up from such immoral ancestors. And in reference to Australia, this country saw at length a black cloud arising in the distance that threatened destruction to our interests and suspended its operations in that direction. Well, there is the system again of partial forgiveness [the ticket-of-leave system]; why, it is a miserable failure. The leaders of the land thought that gratitude would compel such offenders to act aright in future, but we have had evidence demonstrative that men of decidedly bad principles cannot stand too much kindness.*

Since these schemes have failed, what can be done to make our generation good? Give the young a religious education. That is the foundation for the future superstructure of society. The gallows, sentiment, and punishment, can never correct.

Those persons who preach the gospel in all its beautiful simplicity to children in our Sabbath and ragged schools are striking at the rootevils of the world; † and if ever taxation and crime are to be reduced, we must commence at the foundation; that is to say, we must begin with children. Look for a moment at Ireland and Scotland in contrast. In the one instance a youthful and religious education has been entirely neglected, but in the other it has been attended to. What is the condition of Ireland? Why, its inhabitants are degraded, wretched, superstitious, and oppressed. Ireland has ever been the stronghold of the man of sin. What of Scotland? Why, the Scotch are decent, active, free, and intelligent. The physical advantages of Ireland over Scotland are great. The soil and climate of the former are much superior to those of the latter, but with this vantage ground, the Irish are distinguished for all that is low, a fact that must strike every reflective mind with the great importance of religious culture in the youth, and the truth of Solomon's declaration, That the soul be without knowledge is not good.'

2. The work is most successful. The work is God's, and his works are always prosperous. The flower never fails to blow, nor the landscape to bloom, nor the sun to shine; nor has Divine truth ever failed to advance the happiness of man. The true-hearted teacher may rest assured that he has planted his foot on reality. We feel honoured to be identified in opinon with the men who believe that real success in a work is not proclaimed by the jubilee of thousands who flock to see mountebank performances in the pulpit, and on the platform. It is only to penetrate below mere show, and you will see that success consists in the myriads of Divine influences that flow from the Sabbath-school centre to the world's circumference. Many a man will make a brilliant effort for once for some good object, and then retire to rest in solitude, and by some is applauded as a benefactor to the race; but we beg to dissent from the conclusion. That is the successful man who steadily pursues a course of Divine action for life. The virtue of such men's lives goes down to the very heart of society, and makes it throb with new life. We feel persuaded that all good

* Vide Hepworth Dixon's Life of Howard.

† Vide Hall's Discourse on the Advantages of Knowledge.

teachers are doing this great, this God-like work. They are shedding influences on character, that the eye of God alone can read; influences that shall go down into the deeps of eternity, and continue to carry souls up to higher altitudes of glory when the plaudits of the vulgar shall be unheard amidst the thunderbursts of melody ascending from a ransomed universe to God and the Lamb.

We may refer the reader to some splendid characters who have been benefited by Sabbath-schools. A Harris, the author of ‘Mammon,'—a Knibb, the liberator of the slave, and many others. Most of the sanctified genius and learning of the present age have been helped by good teachers. But enough on this point. Let us remark, that the greater part of Sabbath-school glory has yet to be revealed. It is, like the works of Nature, not seen either by one or two generations. The metal with which our best machinery is now formed was in the earth centuries ago, but men knew not its use. The water that propels our locomotives was in existence when the sun in yonder heavens baked the bricks for Nimrod to build the tower of Babel; but its use was unknown. The achievements of science give distinction to this age; but what the future revelations of nature and intellect may be no one can foretell. Nor can any man, however keen his penetration, tell what the future results of Sabbath-school work will be. The sun of its glory has only just broken through the morning clouds of ignorance and superstition; but it is destined to advance and unfold splendours that shall surpass the loftiest imagination. There is a depth of grandeur and significance in this great enterprize of making the young religious that requires the light which streams from God's throne to reveal it to our gaze.

Sabbath-school operations in our opinion are intended by Providence to affect the entire world. The truth of Christianity, by which the work is to be carried on, is eternal as God, and ever flowing in quiet, but nevertheless elevating power, like the springs of immortality. And that truth embodied in the lives and deeds of the young, one generation after another will affect at some future period the whole human family. To nations that are blackened by the burning sun of an Asiatic sky, or frost-bitten by the cold of Polar regions; to isles standing in all their created glory in the bosom of the great Pacific; and to continents on whose structures time has left the withering influence of its touch, and on whose inhabitants vice has left its brand of infamy, shall the Sabbath-school send forth its redeeming influence, and cease only with the introduction of the new heavens and new earth, and the joyful outburst of acclamation from heaven's responding spirits, The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all nations, and all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.'

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3. Such a work is connected with personal distinction. The most ennobling thoughts spring up when labouring for the good of others. The highest degrees of intellectual illuminations have ever been connected with genuine labour for God. Many a stream of pacific sentiment and thought sent forth from the depths of a teacher's soul has flown back again in all the richness of a bright reward. The brightest chapters in every man's history are those filled with his godly

deeds for others' good. Such men are prepared for greater developments of the Divine mind. Those who have laboured for Christ can speak from experience of the personal benefit derived. Reason is increased in power and glory by being brought into exercise. Labour will sublimate every faculty, and open fountains of intellectual pleasure to the labourer. 'Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.'

The sublime of all will be heaven. And what a heaven! Its breadth and length no spirit has ever scanned. Its beauties are untold, and its glories unsung. Thither the teacher wends his way. To this place of unlimited extent, in which Jehovah has erected his visible throne that radiates glory in which the wings of angels grow bright and glorious, the man who leads a sinner to Christ shall go. And in the rich coronal that encircles that brow that once palpitated on Calvary shall the Sabbath-school teacher be placed as a peerless gem, to shine with perpetual and increasing lustre; it may be to shed light on the destinies of infant spirits who shall occupy a part of the vast empire of our great Sovereign. Hence Daniel says, 'And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.'

Friends and companions, engaged in the weal of humanity, let us say that yours is a great and honourable work. It is one to which an archangel would feel honoured to consecrate his powers. Be ye heroic in the field of action, for the reward awaiting you is beyond all price -a reward, the anticipation of which can make existence happy, and the possession of which can alone make immortality a blessing. The work under consideration is a progressive and a Divine work. As teachers you are sowing the germs of life and immortality, out of which many a faultless flower shall spring for the service of Christ, and fling its fragrance over the scenes of a paradise regained by 'the second Adam, the Lord from heaven.' Let us urge upon you to carry out the thought of the greatest of modern sages and scribes

Record of Christian Missions.

MR. MOFFAT'S VISIT TO MOSELEKATSE.

We think we cannot do better this month, in the absence of other information of much interest, than present our readers with a reprint of a portion of the journal of Mr. Moffat, detailing the particulars of his visit to Moselekatse's country. We derive it from the 'Missionary Chronicle.' Its interest is unique. Apart from the accomplishment of the great purpose of the visit, the securing of this great chief's acquiescence in the establishment of the proposed Zambese Mission by Dr. Livingtone, it is remarkable for its strange history of gospel success.

'In the conclusion of my former letter,' writes Mr. Moffat, 'I stated that I