But this is not enough-ministers must combine their influence with parents, to secure the youth of this sex; and yet is it not an undoubted fact, that both parents and ministers do more for the religious education of girls than for the spiritual good of boys? And why? Because it is, or seems to be, a more easy task to succeed with the former than the latter. "I can do nothing," says the mother, the father, and the minister, "with that lad; I can teach and move his sisters, but his sturdy and unyielding nature resists all my efforts; I must give him up." Thus requiring more attention, they receive less. True it is, they are removed at an earlier age, and through subsequent life far more, from beneath the care of parents and ministers than their sisters; but even with this admission, I still say they are neglected. Ministers, I speak to you and intreat you, as you would have your churches built up with pious and intelligent young men ; your Sunday-schools replenished with able and influential teachers; your institutions directed by sagacious and well-educated committees;-look well to the boys that are growing up in the families of your flock. Wait not till they are young men ; they will be gone then from beneath your care. Gather them round you in Bible classes, and for catechetical instruction, while they are yet boys, and labour, by training their minds and hearts to habits of right thinking, reading, and piety, not only to attach them to yourselves, which you easily may do at that age, and by such attention, but to your denomination, and, what is of far more consequence, to true religion. I do not hesitate to say, that we are all verily guilty touching this matter, and are thus as much wanting in pastoral sagacity as we are in pastoral duty. Be this one of the defects of the past which in the future we will supply-one of the mistakes we will rectify-one of the means of revival we will adopt—one of the plans for increasing our churches we will carry out. Here, in this increased parental and pastoral attention to the religious education of children, especially of the boys, is something definite, tangible, easy of accomplishment, and which, if earnestly, judiciously, prayerfully taken up, will, by God's grace, be followed with a blessed result. I shall conclude by a few hints both to parents and ministers on the momentous subject of this paper. To the former I would say Cultivate, I repeat, your own personal religion to a higher degree of eminent and consistent piety. Without this you will have neither the disposition nor the power to do much in forming the religious character of your children. Many of you must be sensible that you are in too lukewarm a state, and too inconsistent as professors of godliness, even to make the attempt to bring your children under the influence of religion, much less to expect success, if you were even to make the attempt; and it is not improbable that some of you are acting upon the conviction that you will do more good by silence and by leaving them altogether to ministerial influence, the power of preaching, and the course of events. Alas! for both you and your children. But shall matters remain thus? Shall this year be added to the number in which you have thus lived? Awake from your slumber, which, if continued, will be the sleep of death, both for you and for them. Settle with yourselves the point fully and for ever, that whatever advantages of general education you wish and intend to procure for, and bestow upon your children, their religious character is the first object of your deepest solicitude, and shall be of your practical and persevering effort. Let there be no question, no hesitation, no wavering here. Here fix you centre; here direct your aim ; here concentrate your efforts, your energies, and your prayers. Remember, their religious education is your business. Whatever aids you call in from ministers, or teachers, you never must, you never can, you never should, delegate this work. God will hold you responsible for the religion of your children, so far as means go. Begin religious education early. It is in general too long deferred. The natural corruption of the heart is al lowed to acquire strength before it is resisted, and Satan is permitted to be beforehand. Begin with calling out the conscience; this may be done as soon as a child can speak. Conscience is the great faculty which in religious education is to be enlightened, invigorated, and made tender. A child can soon be made to know and feel the distinction between right and wrong, and taught to be a law to himself. Inspire a reverence for yourself; be you, in a sense, to the child in the place of God as his representative, before he can understand who and what God is. Train even the little child to obedience, to surrender his will to a superior will. What else is practical religion, if we only substitute God for the parent? Let religion be seen in you as an ever-present and ever-regulating reality; no mere abstraction, or thing of times and places. Let it be a part of your whole character. Appear before your household as one habitually conscious of the presence of God and walking with him. Be exemplary in matters of truth, integrity, generosity. A religion without these will disgust your children. Let there be no little acts of equivocation, injustice, spite, or meanness. Acquire a nobleness of character. A very little child can understand all these matters. Be good tempered; not passionate, stormy, impatient, severe, denunciatory. A bad-tempered saint is a contradiction. You may give your children much Scriptural knowledge, and even bore them with warnings and admonitions, but frequent fits of passion and stormy gusts of anger will drive it all out of their heads and hearts. Avoid all censoriousness upon the failings of professing Christians, and all cynical criticism and cavils upon the sermons of ministers. Bring round your children the best specimens of religious professors. I do not mean the most fashionable and worldly, for these are often the worst, but those whose piety is consistent and cheerful, whose manners are engaging, and with as much of polish as can be obtained. Choose their schools with reference to religion as well as fashionable accomplishments; and if you can, send them where they will have the advantage of a lively, impressive ministry. It is a sad thing for a lively girl, or a sprightly boy, not perhaps illdisposed towards religion, to find the Sabbath the dullest of all dull days. I need scarcely remind Christian parents how much of earnest, believing, persevering prayer for the Holy Spirit is necessary, and how much of familiar, affectionate, judicious, instruction, or how much of vigilance, expostulation, tender rebuke, and salutary restraint, must enter into their system of domestic religious education: all this is taken for granted. Well, then, parents, be this your purpose for the year on which you have just entered; your intelligent, solemn, and deliberate purpose. Begin afresh. Set out anew. Recollect, again, what an awful thing it is to be a parent, and what a responsibility attaches to those who have immortal souls committed to their care, and those the souls of their own children. Ministers, have we not something to repair for the future in the neglects of the past? Have we been faithful pastors as regards the children of our church members? Have we fed the lambs? Have we, with the mild authority, and, at the same time, with the tenderness of a good shepherd, looked after the younglings of the flock? True, we are not to be the substitutes, but ought we not to be the helpers, of the parents? Has not the catechetical instruction of children fallen into general desuetude? Why? Can we assign a solid reason? If we neglect it, are we not the only religious functionaries who do? Do the Roman Catholics neglect it? Do the clergy of the Church of England neglect it? We are the ministers of the whole congregation committed to our care, and the children are a part of it, and therefore a part of the objects of our legitimate attention. The parents will thank us for aiding them in their endeavours to bring up their children for God, and the children will gladly avail themselves of our instructions. What a field do we neglect to cultivate while we leave this virgin soil untilled. Let us then all begin the year with a renewed consecration of ourselves to the interests of the youth of our flock, and then all future years will yield us abundant evidence that this is one of the most effectual plans for the revival of religion. THE holy spirits of the just Grow fairer in the skies, THE SAINTS. But handfuls of their crumbled dust Were loathsome in our eyes. No altars to the saints we build, Though faithful deed and word Have long with pleasant fragrance filled The temple of the Lord. We heap not in a golden shrine There are, have builded altars fair, Have carved the shapely stones, With eager hands have gathered there The blanched and scattered bones. If ever to the sculptor's side The blessed ones drew nigh, Methinks they marvelled at the pride, The fond idolatry; If aught could mar their high content Their tombs we would not garnish now, But in their footsteps tread, And in the heart's dim chamber show The relics of the dead. What though the images of stone To gaze upon the martyr Yes, we have gone, and so have learned What had been dimly taught, If where the flickering tapers burned For counsel we had sought. It was not for a broidered vest,Not for a sculptured rood,They who have entered into rest In the hot battle stood: It was not for a vision fair It was not for the love they bore It was, that Jesus crucified In every heart might reign, It was, that men might see the light In life's unfailing well. Look not on broken images, On altars trampled down, And say we blot their memories And mar their glorious crown ; For he who through the opened door Their crowns they would not wear, But cast them on the crystal stone LETTERS TO THE WIFE OF A YOUNG CLERGYMAN.-No. XIV. BIBLE CLASSES. MY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND,-I do not doubt that your many and varied duties fully occupy your time and thoughts, and that you often feel the necessity for much watchfulness, consideration, and prayer, to prevent their injurious effects upon your own spiritual state. You know by experience that it is these "little foxes that spoil the grapes," and often prevent your heavenly Father from reaping that portion to which he is justly entitled. (Canticles viii. 11, 12.) Our great adversary is constantly endeavouring to injure the root, blight the blossom, or destroy the fruits of our exertions; and we cannot be too earnest in prayer that God would fulfil his own promise, of "keeping his vineyard, watching and watering it every moment," by the dew of the Holy Spirit. But we must not be discouraged by constant proofs of our own weakness and imperfection; on the contrary, we must pray for a deeper sense of the infinite value of souls, and the great importance of making, as well as using, opportunities of usefulness. By this means our capabilities will increase, and the performance of our work will improve we shall act with more decision, and mingle less of human infirmity, less of self, and less of misplaced endeavours in our essays to do good. In proportion as you enter into the details of your own schools, you will see the importance of having your teachers grounded in Scriptural truths, and you will find it a most desirable thing to meet them yourself once a month, or if you please more frequently, for the express purpose of a simple conversation on the word of God. If you endeavour to make these seasons really interesting and profitable, you will have no difficulty in keeping up either their attendance or their attention. As to the plan of reading, your own judgment will direct you; but, perhaps, going through the life of our blessed Saviour, with his discourses 66 66 66 and miracles harmoniously arranged, (as Mr. Bickersteth has done,) will answer the twofold end of personal improvement, and qualification_for teaching, better than any other. You will find the greatest assistance in this work from the marginal reference Bibles, which you should accustom your young friends to use constantly in their own reading, and whilst instructing their classes. If you do not know Bagster's "Treasury of Scripture Knowledge," I would strongly advise you to procure it. This work is far preferable to the Scripture Harmony," by the same author. The illustrative notes connected with the "Treasury," and the improved arrangement of the references," so as to correspond with each clause, without obliging the student to look through those for the verse, make this work more generally useful. After your own prayerful investigation of the word of God with your young friends is concluded, you will find it both interesting and profitable to add your usual family worship. This affords the clergyman a nice opportunity of sanctioning and impressing the instruction which his wife may have given, and of making all present feel the family interest which is taken in the work. If you undertake the duty in a simple dependance upon Divine aid, and with the desire to advance your Saviour's cause, you will find many other benefits attached to it besides the improvement of your schools. An increasing interest in the word of God will be felt when every faculty of the mind is called into exercise by it, and your young people will see, that He who requires them to avoid all those mental snares, which would lead them into sin, has provided for them an inexhaustible fund of enjoyment, whilst they are preparing for those pleasures which are at "God's right hand for evermore." A late eminent servant of God speaks of the "well-stocked garden of spiritual delights, where every tree hears heavenly fruit, to which the smile of an approving God will yield a flavour truly divine." This description is fully realized by those who can say, "Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart.” When by this means your young people become more and more interested with the simple reading of God's word, they will be led to bring what they hear and what they read to its standard; and never was there a time when this result was more to be desired. There is something very striking in the account which we have of the Bereans. (Acts xvii. 11, 12.) A real desire to know God's will, accompanied by a diligent search into the Scriptures of truth, was followed by a believing reception of it. Such an opportunity as a Bible class affords of bringing forward Scripture difficulties, is also truly valuable; and as our acquaintance with the state and circumstances of our flock increases, we shall find many opportunities of giving a hint which cannot be done from the pulpit. The last benefit which I shall refer to is, the more personal intercourse which often results from such meetings, and which brings the wife of a clergyman acquainted with the domestic trials, temptations, and duties of the young people around her. Without encouraging an unlawful exposure of family concerns, she may often give much valuable advice, especially as to the distinction between what is really sinful, and what is only self-denial on the part of the young Christian. In the former case, the greatest watchfulness is needful. That resistance whilst decided, may be in the spirit of Christ; in the latter, the same spirit is needed in the giving up of our own will. Affectionate advice, in such cases, is often most valuable in the commencement of a religious course; and I can truly say, that the means of usefulness to which this Letter has referred, have often been to myself seasons of great enjoyment. In a small country town, out of a Bible class of about fourteen, three young persons have now entered on spheres of important parochial usefulness, and I trust that they will find that word, which they once searched out with much interest, to be indeed a lamp unto their feet, and a light unto their path." 66 It is said that they which feared the Lord, spake " oftentimes one to another." And surely no conversations are so suitable and delightful as those which are founded upon God's own word, of which it has been quaintly, but truly said, "Men's books with heaps of chaff are stored, God's book doth golden grains afford." May we, my dear friend, profit by the advice which follows: "Then leave the chaff, and spend thy pains In gathering up the golden grains." With much Christian affection, THE SPIRIT OF THE GOSPEL. A GREAT evidence of the divine origin of Christianity is found in the circumstance that its maxims are in direct opposition to the opinions current in the world. On the prosperous and the powerful are bestowed the applause and friendship of mankind; and the very fact of a person's not wanting help or praise seems often a sufficient reason for his being loaded with it. But the JANUARY-1847. Gospel has made an entirely different class of persons the subject of panegyric. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." "Behold, we count them happy which endure." The world heard with astonishment that patience under oppression and insult was a mark of B |