and so deep that no amount of care was too great for him to give that group of boys. He was not only one of the most intelligent and loving of teachers while with his class, but tasked every resource to make them happier and better. He formed them, with some other boys of the school, into a Juvenile Society, which held weekly meetings-a unique organization, which was officered by its own members, but of which Mr. WILSON was the head, and in which he and they spent many of the most delightful hours of their lives. It existed for the double purpose of personal improvement and improving the condition of others. Reading and conversation were the staples of every meeting, and from what was there read and said, combined with what was heard in the Sabbath School, the speaker believed that many a boy had received the decisive influence that determined the aims of life. For himself he could say that he did not know the man to whom he was so much indebted as to GEORGE S. WILSON; and if those now in manhood, who had in youth felt the beneficent power of his spirit, but knew his resting place, they could not do a more fitting service than to place over his grave some memorial, that should speak to all who saw it, of the affection with which a Sabbath School Class cherished the recollections of their Sabbath School Teacher.

The speaker referred to the circumstances which led Mr. WILSON, called to a position of wider responsibility, to leave the school. It was then the good fortune of the class to be placed under the instruction of Mr. FREDERIC S. WINSTON, a gentleman who now presides with unsurpassed courtesy and ability, over one of the largest Life Insurance Companies in the world, and who then presided over a class of seven or eight boys, in such a way as to make them value not less his love as a teacher than his friendship as a man. In this class the speaker continued to be one of the happiest of scholars, until he was "drafted," on a neverto-be-forgotten Sabbath, to become himself the teacher of a newly formed class of little fellows, ranging from six to eight years; and while claiming no part of the credit of

making them what they are, he had been profoundly thankful, since coming to Utica, to take by the hand men filling honorable positions and possessing the warm respect of the community, who were part of the joyous group, his first Sunday School Class.

This was when there was but one Sunday School in Utica, and that one representing all Christian denominations. When the time came for the division of the school, which was accomplished in the most fraternal spirit, and, as was believed, for the highest good of all, the speaker, perhaps because there "was much water there," became connected with the school of the Baptist church; and Utica continued to be his home through ten or twelve years of his earlier manhood. "But," he said, addressing Dr. FoWLER, "the years spent in this city in connection with this school, and the subsequent years spent in other places, and in other pursuits, have not obliterated my appreciation of what I owe to the School, whose Fiftieth Anniversary we now celebrate. If you were to demand payment of the debt, I could do no more than to plead bankruptcy, and throw my self upon your mercy. I owe you more than I can ever pay; and, while I confess this, my prayer for this venerable church with its honored Sunday School, is 'Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.'"

The speaker said it was not necessary to go beyond the record of the School there represented, to demonstrate the great and comprehensive worth of the Sunday School as a Christian institution. If the boy was father of the man; if as the twig is bent the tree is inclined;" if every place of trust and honor, now in the hands of the men of this generation, both in the church and in the world, must inevita bly pass into the hands of those who are now children;—if the pulpit and the pew, the bench of justice, the seats of legislation, the halls of learning, the marts of business, are all passing into the hands of a generation now playing in the streets-who has the words to describe, who has the heart to conceive, of the importance of bringing these children under the influence of an institution so eminently adapted to nurture in them every good principle, and to fit them for

the dignity and gravity of their swift-coming responsibilities! A little child, in very humble circumstances, said the speaker, died a few days ago in a school with which I am now connected. She died with her hands uplifted in repeating that unspent petition of an innumerable multitude of children:

'Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray the Lord my soul to keep—'

Here her little hands

fell at her side. Her spirit had gone to Him who gave it. She had been in the Sunday School long enough to learn that she had a "Father in the promised land," and of Him she loved to sing. She had learned, too, that her Father had given Commandments for all to obey; and when she heard a boy in the street, one day, profane His holy name, she was filled with distress, and ran to him, saying, in tones of sorrowful concern, "Johnny, Johnny, you are breaking one of our Commandments," and then she repeated it to him. "One of OUR Commandments." Can there be a higher, holier, more blessed mission, than to give the children of a generation, and of a generation in such a country as ours, the conception of a personal inheritance in the Commandments of God? Can there be a broader, surer basis of an all-controlling moral obligation? Can anything exceed the sublimity of a work, the aim of which is to make the children worthy of the trust to be committed to them here, and to fit them for the crowns, and palms, and robes, and harps, that await them yonder? The reminiscences of the last two days have made more fragrant the names of those who once labored in this School, and who have gone where they have higher illustrations than can be conceived by any heart here, of the glory of its fruits. Heed, then, the three-fold argument, growing more eloquent and irresistible, as it rises and widensthe argument that comes from your own history, from the responsibilities that are before the children of this generation, and from the fruits as they appear in the light of heaven. Let this Triple Argument urge us to an ever increasing devotion to the Sabbath School.

CLOSING

EXERCISES MONDAY EVENING.

At the close of the Sunday evening exercises, Rev. Dr. FOWLER announced that he would be happy to see the friends of the school at his house on Monday night. In response to this invitation, a large company was gathered at the pastor's residence in Rutger Place, where they were most hospitably entertained by its inmates. So far from being wearied by the transactions of the last forty-eight hours, the guests would gladly have regarded the Jubilee as but just begun, and would have been very willing to extend it through the week. The materials of fifty years' history so copiously furnished in letters, reports and addresses had awakened in the more elderly members of the company, a train of delightful reminiscences. Groups of contemporaries were gathered in every room. With the oldest of these, a brisk comparison of notes, and a careful revision of dates was the order of the night. Hotly contested points of ancient date and doubtful importance were, of course, left to the decision of "the oldest inhabitant" present, who, as umpire, distinguished himself in nothing so much, perhaps, as in brilliant proofs of a lack of memory. To those who are the present managers of the school, and to the worthy pastor of the church, the scene must have been one of unalloyed satisfaction. It was an appropriate close to a celebration which had been successful through.

out.

In the course of the evening, Mr. THOMAS ALLEN CLARKE, of New Orleans, who had been a close attendant on all the exercises, but had, thus far, taken no part in them, was called out. Mr. CLARKE responded to the call with much feeling, and to admirable purpose. He gave the

company a glittering string of reminiscences, so interesting, that many listeners who could not be supposed to feel any great interest in occurrences and persons so remote from their own time, confessed that they found themselves as completely identified with them as the speaker himself.

Before dispersing, the company resolved itself into committee of the whole, and voted that the proceedings of the Semi-Centennial Jubilee should be collected and published in a permanent volume. For this purpose, a committee of publication was appointed, consisting of T. W. SEWARD, A. J. UPSON, R. S. WILLIAMS and S. E. WARNER. The committee having, to the best of their ability, discharged a very pleasant duty, now submit the result to their esteemed constituents, and to all friends of Sunday Schools. Even without this volume, the Jubilee was an event long to be remembered and discussed. Gathering up and embodying in permanent form the varied and rich material furnished for it, was a plain duty to the past, as well as to the present and the future. What stores the Centennial Jubilee may be able to furnish, the imagination may well shrink from depicting. Few of those who participated in this one can hope to be present at the other, unless, it may be, as silent, shadowy spectators. If such things are permitted to the inhabitants of other spheres, may we all be there to see.