christian. We trace him to his retirement, and find him tasting that holy peace and joy, which the pleasures of the world can never bestow. We regard him with admiration and love, and almost envy his felicity. But not inferior to him is the Sunday school teacher. Have we not seen him too, when the duties of his office were suspended, devoted to similar labors of love;-following his pupils to their homes, often to the sad abodes of severe poverty, sickness, and mourning, and exemplifying his own instructions by the most winning virtues, while he became the instrument of divine consolation to others. Have we not known him cheerfully sacrifice his time and strength in the cause of human improvement, and by a most salutary influence, become the efficient helper of the poor, and ignorant and desolate? Have we not seen all this? Oh yes! and we have thought of the happiness he must derive not only from the consciousness of his endeavors to do good, but from the reward his exertions meet in his success. This however is but part of his happiness. We will dare to hope that these feeble efforts will meet a higher reward, the approbation not only of men but of God. We will look beyond this state of existence, when all these exertions will be fully known, and receive their due reward. The apparently discouraging parts of his duty will then be made manifest, and the improvement in his life which he may not have traced to any particular cause, may then appear to have been sought for and found, within the walls of a Sunday school.

Where is the teacher that has not experienced moments when he was forcibly impressed with the necessity of learning himself, before he could instruct those under his care? who has not found a careful investigation

necessary in order faithfully to perform his duty; an investigation, which perhaps would never have been. attempted had he not been called on to perform this pleasant and interesting task? Who is the teacher that has endeavored to instil religious instruction into the minds of the young, that has not been convinced that in order to produce the desired effect on others, he must exemplify the powers of religion in his own life? Who is the teacher, that has been long in the Sunday school, that has not seen qualities in others to attract his esteem which were of intrinsic and permanent value, and might be to himself at once a source of the purest satisfaction, and an incentive to the highest improvement? What aid has he not found this in his purposes of benevolence; what assistance to his frail virtue; with what increased fortitude has not this communion with those with whom he was associated in this delightful task, enabled him to return into the world and encounter the trials of his lot?

We often speak in considering this subject only of the nearest and most obvious results. But there are results equally important, which we can neither calculate nor witness. Who can tell the effect of the lessons given the child on the mind of others to whom he stands related? Who can tell how many impressions are thus transmitted from mind to mind, producing the most important consequences through a long period of time? Who can tell that in the least promising subjects, an influence unnoticed at the time, may not revive in after life and be renewed in the mind; and when the season of passion and folly is past,-when the world and its vanities have satiated, but not satisfied that craving for happiness which is heaven's own stimulus to virtue; who

can tell, that the advice given in childhood, the instruction of the Sunday schools, may not, like the remembrance of home to the prodigal son, inspire the same salutary remorse, and make some wanderer from God exclaim with him, "I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son, make me as one of thy hired servants."-We know the earthly father's answer: how much more shall our Heavenly Father do for those who love him. May this be the reward of those who are thus laudably engaged in these schools. At all events, they may be encouraged in their labors from the knowledge, that they will have prepared the ground for the reception of the good seed, and though it be not planted till the summer of their days, it will find a ready reception then, and yield a bountiful harvest before the winter of life overtakes them.

G.

SUNDAY SCHOOL INSTRUCTION.

WHAT is the object of Sunday School Instruction, is at question which is too seldom put in the true spirit of inquiry. A serious and definite attention to this subject, would perhaps be attended with results equally important to parents and teachers. Among the former, too many regard Sunday schools only as part of a series of measures for making premature and injudicious impressions on the minds of children; while others are favorably disposed towards them, for no better reason than a vague impression, that they are somehow a means of doing good, or cherishing early piety; and it is not uncommon for teachers themselves to regard their own exertions in the Sunday school

with no truer or more distinct perception of their

value.

Were the question now alluded to more frequently and more attentively proposed, it would be a more easy matter to satisfy the doubts of those who are not fully persuaded of the usefulness of Sunday schools; and more natural and rational methods of instruction would probably be adopted, than in most cases have hitherto prevailed.

In attempting to follow the question with which we have set out, we shall draw our answers not only from the forms of religious instruction usually adopted in Sunday schools, but from what appears to be demanded by the nature of the case, though it may not yet have obtained a place in any school, and presents itself rather in the light of desirable improvement; our object being not so much to offer an apology for Sunday schools as to contribute something, if possible, to the assistance of those who teach them.

Definite ideas on the subject of our present inquiries, are peculiarly important. For if, as is sometimes supposed, the business of Sunday schools consists in joining in formal and unintelligible acts of devotion, or in saying by rote a chapter or a hymn, little benefit can be expected to result from them.

The true object of all religious education is, or ought to be, such a course of instruction and exercise as has the greatest tendency to enlighten and enlarge and elevate the mind to interest and regulate the affections, to cherish good dispositions, and develope good habits by the permanent influence of religious principle. That Sunday schools contribute effectually and peculiarly to these excellent results, is evident to all who have had opportunity to observe schools of this kind taught on methods suggested by a benignant regard to the present happiness

But where the early

and improvement of the young. communication of religious impression is made to depend on the mere repetition of texts of scripture, or of answers from a catechism; and where warm harangues or gloomy denunciations are the customary addresses of the teacher, -where the object is a violent excitement of emotion or a premature creation of character, children may be little benefited, notwithstanding all the zeal and labors of their instructers. The intellect may be left wandering among mysteries; the heart may become the subject of a diseased and precocious action; and imagination obtain the ascendency in the mind; and extravagance become the habitual expression of outward deportment.

If, on the contrary, it is the teacher's endeavour to promote a natural developement of the soul-if he is content and willing to keep pace with the progress of the minds which he is guiding-if he has faith and patience sufficient to wait for the progress of "bringing up" the children of his charge in the "nurture" of truth, he will in all probability see them attain the stature and the vigor of "perfect men." To attain these results there must be a gradual diffusion of intellectual and spiritual light in the young mind: the rays of instruction must fall with a directness, a steadiness, and a constancy, sufficient to communicate the warmth and activity of a natural life. Occasional gleams of brightness cannot serve to guide a being formed for perpetual progress. The understanding must be made the great agent in religious thought: the memory must be made the home of noble ideas. It is in this way only that the heart can be early trained to beat to none but generous purposes, and the imagination be exclusively occupied by pure and happy forms. Principle will thus pre