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Ed. What we want to know is something of the real, inner life of America-not its exceptional or external life, such as Dickens may have seen, or Mrs. Trollope exaggerated. tures of the American religious world, sketched by an English Christian writer long resident in America, and not without some love for all its institutions-save one,-would be intensely interesting, and might have a salutary influence on the churches of Great Britain.

Aug. You should send a copy of our Magazine to America, and then, perhaps, some such person as you describe would see it, and fulfil your wishes.

Ed. Thank you for the hint. Now proceed to the next book.

Aug. One for young men :-HOW TO SUCCEed in Life.* The author, the Rev. J. B. Lister, has been a great deal among young men, and writes in full comprehension of their difficulties, and in much sympathy. His style is terse, forcible, and affectionate, and he gives most valuable exhortations on life, school, study, languages, talents, difficulties, reading, composition, manners, friendship, home, business, Christianity, Sabbath, and religion. You perceive, by this enumeration of topics, that Mr. Lister takes a wide range. His book is, however, but a small one.

Emm. This is a still smaller book-THE BABE IN CHRIST.† Aug. And on a much smaller subject,-a certain little Frederic Starling, who died at the age of two years four months and seven days. How important to the readers to have the age so minutely chronicled!

Emm. It is a pretty little memoir, Augustus.

Aug. No doubt of it. Yet, after all, I am sure that parents fancy a great deal. If a baby happens to sit with its hands folded, they imagine it to be instinctively at prayer, forgetting that the Praying Mantis, as naturalists tell us, does precisely the same.

Emm. For shame!

Mrs. M. " Out of the mouths of babes and

Aug. I beg your pardon for interrupting you, but I do not mean to deny the early influence of divine grace. I only think that parental affection sees through rose-coloured spectacles.

Emm. Possibly. However, in the case of this little Frederic, it was not only the fancy of his parents, but the judgment of their friends, that decided upon his being "a babe in Christ." "It seemed to have been the general opinion of our friends,

London: Snow.

+ London: Houlston & Stoneman.

that he was fast ripening for an early entrance into heaven. This we have since learned; not a hint of the kind reached our ears till after the event really took place. We cannot say no kindred thought ever crossed our minds, yet we scarcely expressed it to each other; for he had the appearance of health and vigour, and a constant flow of spirits; still, he was so 'very fair" that we thought at times he looked delicate, and the deep affection of our very hearts for him occasionally suggested the thought that he might possibly not be long with us. But we often spoke of the joy and happiness which the presence of this dear child diffused around his path."

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Mrs. M. I should like to read it.

Emm. I am sure you will be interested. It is a simple and touching narrative, calculated to encourage Christian parents in commencing very early to tell their children about the love of Jesus.

Aug. Here is a small book on a great subject-CONVERSION THE TEACHER'S AIM.* It is the New Year's Address to Sunday School Teachers.

Ed. Well, Augustus, give your candid opinion.

Aug. Will it be quite an impartial one, Mr. Editor?

Ed. It ought to be.

Aug. I think we may venture to recommend it to the perusal of teachers. Many of them may not have thought of the conversion of their scholars as their great aim. We will hope this address will lead them to make it theirs.

Emm. Augustus, read the instances of good resulting from Sunday School teaching; mamma would like to hear them.

Aug. "Listen to some brief statements of the glorious successes which the Lord has vouchsafed to the praying and believing Sunday teacher :

"In the year 1832, in a certain Sunday-school, out of one hundred and fifty scholars, under sixteen years of age, sixty-one exhibited satisfactory evidence of a change of heart; while out of seventy-one young persons above sixteen years of age, no less than sixty gave themselves to Christ, making a total of ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-ONE, in a school of two hundred and thirty-one scholars.

"A Sunday-school report, somewhere about twenty years ago, recorded the union with the Church of Christ, during the year, of one hundred and seventy-three teachers, and one thousand four hundred and forty-four scholars.

"A small Sunday-school Union' in Massachusetts, embracing ten schools, received a gracious answer to prayer

* London: Sunday School Union.

in the year 1835, by the rich outpourings of the Holy Spirit upon the children's souls. More than four hundred scholars passed from death unto life.

"It is said, of the missionaries who have gone from Great Britain, nineteenth-twentieths became decided for God in the Sunday-school, and that of orthodox English ministers more than two-thirds trace their consecration to the Redeemer to the influence of Sunday-school instruction. Do you want a bright example; take it in the case of the ragged scholar who so sorely tried his teacher's faith and patience, but who lived to translate the Bible into Chinese, and thus gave the Word of Life to the most populous nation on the face of the globe. If you ask whether conversion ought to be the teacher's aim, and if you desire encouragement to make that aim yours, think of Dr. Morrison.

"Read what Knill wrote from St. Petersburgh in 1819:'As an individual I feel peculiarly indebted to such institutions, and to the glory of God I record it, that all the blessings which have been given to others, through my instrumentality, may be traced up to a Sunday-school.'

"Of a similar purport was the testimony given at a public meeting by Hands, a missionary in the East Indies :- He owed everything to Sunday-schools; for it was there that the heavenly spark had first caught his soul.' He was followed by another missionary, who said, 'That but for the Sunday-school he should never have given himself to missionary work.'

"We turn to an old report of the Bath Sunday-school Union. This report saw the light before many of you did. It gives the pleasing information that out of its schools between twenty and thirty persons had been called to preach the glorious gospel of the blessed God.'

"At the Annual Meeting of the Sunday-school Union, in May, 1829, the well-known Dr. Philip, of the Cape of Good Hope, expressed his grateful acknowledgment of the usefulness of a Sunday-school to him. He also stated that when he commenced his ministry at Aberdeen, he felt the importance of promoting Sunday-schools, and that while he laboured there, twelve or fourteen young men went out into the field of ministerial labour. Among them were Dr. Milne and Dr. Keith.

"Mr. Clark, afterward a catechist in Sierra Leone, taught a Sunday-school at Edinburgh. His method was very simple and practical, and he always closed his teaching with a short address and prayer. One class in this school con

sisted of sixteen boys. Their interest in Mr. Clark's instruction was very striking, and the result of this interest not less striking. Fourteen of them were brought to the saving knowledge of God, and confessed that Mr. Clark's teaching had been the means of their conversion. The whole of them were afterwards engaged in preaching the Gospel, some of them in Great Britain, and others in foreign lands.

"At Newcastle-on-Tyne, an old teacher observed at a teachers' meeting, in reference to one school in the town, that he had known it for many years, and that from it, during his time, no less than twenty-six ministers had issued.

"In a spirit-stirring Address to the Teachers of London, recently given by the excellent Dr. Todd, of America, he stated, as an illustration of the religious influence of Sundayschools, that twelve ministers were, at one time, preaching the Gospel, who owed their conversion to his own Sundayschool, and that seven missionaries acknowledged a similar obligation. He said he had no doubt that three-fourths of the ministers of America, had passed through Sundayschools, and most of them had been converted there. During a ministerial experience of twenty-seven years he did not remember meeting with any minister who had not been thus benefited by the Sunday-school.

"These are instances taken just as they came to hand, without much trouble in searching. We might have brought forward many others, and we might have described them in fuller detail. But we prefer to place them before you in an almost bare statistic form, as we desire you to pass a sober judgment upon them, unbiassed by any impassioned narrative. Do they not, then, fully satisfy you as to the conversion of your Sunday scholars being a reasonable expectation? May not you have a Dr. Morrison in your class? May not the most unpromising child, with whose stupidity, or with whose religious hostility, you now so painfully and despondingly contend, become, in answer to your prayers, and in remuneration for your toil, a bright ornament of the Church of Christ?"

COUNSELS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

ALPHA.-You desire to know why the Roman cohort which came to Gethsemane to apprehend Jesus, brought "lanterns and torches," since it was the time of "full moon." The night may have been cloudy, for frost and snow have been known in Judea about the season of the Passover; and as heavy, cold dews then chill the air, there is every probability in favour of this supposition. The soldiers might have fancied that Jesus would hide himself in some retired, shady part of the garden. At any rate, the bringing of lights shows their determination to find their innocent victim. It was also usual for a guard on duty, such as this, to carry lanterns or torches. Thucydides mentions this custom, when describing the picket-guard of the Peloponnesians.

S.S.-We are very thankful to learn that our Magazine has been of so much spiritual advantage to you. You are, however, only one of many: readers from whom we receive similar testimony. We believe we have been rendered very helpful to our youthful readers, and we give praise to God on account of it. We print your letter, in order that we may let your appeal in behalf of the Connemara Schools speak for itself, and confirm the other appeal which appears in this number from "H. F." Surely these two appeals will be of service.

"Dear Mr. Editor,-I have taken your very interesting little periodical since I was ten years old, and have always derived great pleasure and profit from reading it; both my parents took it when they were young, and we quite look forward to the 1st of the month. There is sure to be something in it exactly what I want. Those articles by Miss Anna Mennell have been greatly blessed to me; they are written in such an inspiriting, lively style, and enter so sweetly into the hopes and fears, difficulties and embarrassments of the young Christian. Your Counsels to Correspondents,' too, I always read with great interest, and very often meet with advice just suitable for me. I sincerely trust, dear Mr. Editor, you will pardon my boldness in writing to you.

"The Irish School at Connemara is doing so much good, and is very much in want of help; I am trying to get all the subscriptious or donations I can for it, and the thought struck me, if you would be so very kind as to insert an appeal on behalf of the poor Irish children, in your widely circulated Magazine, some of your readers would perhaps render some assistance: even a penny would be thankfully received, or cast-off clothes of any description. To those who have tasted how gracious our Saviour is, and how sweet it is to serve Him, the appeal would not, I trust, be made in vain. Upwards of 2000 persons of all ages are taught to read the Bible in the Irish tongue by the children of these schools. Any donations in stamps, or parcels of clothes, I should be very thankful for. Please address, S. S., Post-office, Bury St. Edmunds. I send you my real address; if you should favour me with a line, I should be very grateful. "Sincerely wishing you every encouragement to persevere in your good undertaking, "Believe me, dear Mr. Editor,

"Nov. 10th, 1855.

"Your obliged young friend,
"S. S."

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