nish indeed what has long been a desideratum in the business of education. The secret of their success lies in the circumstance of their supplying a remedy for a most ruinous defect in the ordinary systems of education, which aim almost exclusively at the cultivation of the intellectual powers of the mind. Now the excellence of Sunday schools is that they aim at the cultivation of the moral nature of man. And this they accomplish by bringing the influence of moral truth (with the co-operation of the Holy Spirit) to bear upon the heart; and this too at the proper period of life, the season of childhood and youth, and under the most favourable circumstances; for their instructions are kindly and gratuitously bestowed upon those who voluntarily receive them, and no coercion is used, save the irresistible force of kindness and love. "The Law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul."

Our limits will not allow us to refer to many facts to confirm these remarks. We will however present a few, out of thousands.

"It was stated before a Committee of the House of Commons in England, by persons who had been extensively engaged in Sunday schools, that they had never known one of their pupils become a common beggar."

"At Botany Bay, the grand receptable of the most abandoned and profligate of the English nation, General M'Quaine, the Governor, declares that in consequence of the establishment of Sunday schools, only one of the children of the convicts, during the whole of his administration, had been convicted of a single offence."

And the effect is the same in this country. In a letter addressed to the editors of the New York Observer, the chaplain of the State Prison at Sing-Sing, writes as follows: "I have lately made pretty thorough inquiry among the convicts here, for the purpose of learning who, and how many, have ever enjoyed the advantages of a Sabbath school. The result is, that out of more than five hundred convicts, not one has been found who has ever been for any considerable time a regular member of a Sabbath school; and not more than two or three who have ever attended such a school at all." The testimony of the Rev. Mr Dwight, who is the secretary and agent of the Prison Discipline Society, and who has explored many of the prisons in our country, is that he has seldom found a Sunday scholar in a prison. And

let it be remembered that a large portion of our convicts are under twenty-five years of age, and nearly half of the whole under thirty!

These facts in regard to the moral influence of Sabbath schools need no comment. They speak for themselves, and ought to secure the cordial friendship and support of every patriot as well as of every Christian.

The great moral influence of this institution was early foreseen by Dr Adam Smith, the celebrated author of the "Wealth of Nations," who says, respecting them, "No plan has promised to effect a change of manners with equal ease and simplicity, since the days of the Apostles." To this striking testimony,-the more remarkable coming as it does from an infidel,-let us add that of our own distinguished Chief Justice Marshall. In a letter to the Board of Managers of the American Sunday School Union, he uses the following language: "I can not be more perfectly convinced than I am, that virtue and intelligence are the basis of our independence, and the conservative principles of national and individual happiness; nor can any person believe more firmly, that Sunday School Institutions are devoted to the protection of both."

To this decided and illustrious testimony in behalf of Sabbath schools, we will add that of the beloved and venerated Washington to the importance of such institutions as promote religion and knowledge. It forms a striking contrast to the sentiments of another distinguished man who has followed him to a Bar where every decision knows no error or partiality. And this testimony is the more needful now when irreligion is rushing in like a torrent through the floodgates which infidelity is opening:

"Mobilitate viget, viresque acquirit eundo."

When the Father of his country was about to retire from the toils of office to the shades of domestic life, in the last legacy, which he bequeathed to a grateful people, he thus expresses his views on this subject: "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labour to subvert these great pillars of human happiness,-these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and

cherish them. Promote then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it (public opinion) should be enlightened." Such sentiments need not our commendation.

3. The religious influence of Sabbath schools. Scarcely a week passes without bringing to our ears tidings of joy, respecting the hopeful conversion of children and teachers in Sunday schools.

We seldom see an account of a revival of religion in which the Sabbath school, if there is one within the sphere of the Spirit's powerful influence, is not mentioned as having shared largely in the heavenly blessing. This, however, is no more than what we might reasonably expect. And not unfrequently do we hear of the conversion of parents, through the influence of the truth carried home to them from the Sunday schools by their children. Blessed be God for the establishment of Sabbath schools in our land! "No one," remarks one of the ablest civilians in our country, "can form an idea of the spreading influence of infidelity, who does not mingle much with the world. I see much of it in the courts. And there is this remarkable difference between the progress of infidelity thirty years ago, and at the present; then, it was confined to the educated, and to the higher ranks of life; now, it abounds among the lower class

And there is, in my opinion, no remedy but in Sunday schools." Who does not say, let them be established every where? And who can read facts like the following, and not lift up his heart in prayer for, and put forth his hand to help, an institution which has accomplished so much spiritual good?

"From the Reports of the American Sunday School Union we learn that nine thousand seven hundred and fifty-eight teachers and scholars are reported as having professed religion during their connexion with the Sunday schools belonging to that society; and this is supposed by the Managers not to be one half of the whole number who have been taught by the Holy Spirit, and have publicly professed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, since their connexion with this institution.

"In the Report of the New York Sunday School Union, auxiliary to the American Sunday School Union, for the year 1828, it is stated that eighty-six of those who were once connected with the schools belonging to that Union are now either in the ministry, or preparing to enter it.

"It is stated that a large part of the devoted ministers of the Gos

pel and friends of religion in England, under forty years of age, and nineteen twentieths of the missionaries who have gone from that country to the heathen, are the fruits of Sunday Schools. Morrison and Paterson and Henderson became pious at Sunday schools."

At the last anniversary of the London Sunday School Union, held on the 12th of May, the following striking testimonies were borne to the influence of Sunday schools upon missions. The Rev. Dr Philip, a distinguished missionary in South Africa, said in his speech, that "he commenced his labours in the cause of Christ as a Sunday school teacher. The first prayer that he offered up in the presence of others was in a Sunday school. The first attempt he ever made to speak from the Holy Scriptures was in a Sunday school. And he was fully persuaded that had it not been for his humble exercises in the capacity of a Sunday school teacher, and the advantages which he there acquired, he should never have had the confidence to become a minister of the gospel, or a missionary of Jesus Christ." He was a teacher in the Sunday school in Dundee. During the period that he laboured there, twelve or fourteen young men went out into the field of ministerial labour, many of whom became missionaries. One of them was the lamented Dr Milne; another was the amiable Keith."

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The Rev. Mr Hands, late missionary in India, said that "like the Rev. gentleman who had already addressed them, he might say that he owed every thing to the Sunday schools; for it was there that the heavenly spark had first caught his soul. It was there that he had first lifted up his voice for the purpose of imparting Christian instruction to others. If it had not been for that opportunity he should probably never have offered himself to the Missionary Society. Therefore he had every reason to bless God that he had begun by being a Sunday school teacher."

The Rev. Mr Mundy, also a late missionary in India, said, "he had been for some years a labourer in India, and he might safely say that if he had never been a Sunday school teacher he should never have been a missionary."

And what must be the influence, on the minds of our youth, of the examples of such men as Schwartz and Buchanan and Martyn and Brainerd and Obookiah and Mills and Parsons and Fisk and Pearce exhibited in the books contained in the Sunday school libraries? Will they not elevate, among the rising generation, the standard of piety, benevo

lence, and Christian enterprise, and enlist deep sympathy in behalf of "men benighted?" We can add nothing on the necessity of Sunday schools to prepare multitudes to read the tracts and Bibles which are now distributing, and even to hear the preaching of the gospel in a profitable manner, as our limits forbid it.

V. The respective duties of those who are concerned in Sabbath schools.

1. Duties of teachers. To them is committed a most responsible work. The great object which their office contemplates is the formation of the characters of the children for "eternal life." And since they undertake to teach God's Word, what labour should they bestow upon their preparation for the serious task! Every help should be diligently employed, and the teaching of the Holy Spirit earnestly invoked. What exemplary conduct should be exhibited! What pains taken to give the children clear and definite ideas of what they learn! What ingenuity ought to be exercised in the choice of suitable and familiar illustrations, and simple modes of enforcing truth! It is a great thing to be a good Sunday school teacher. And the teacher that would win the hearts of his pupils to Christ should have strong longings of soul for their conversion, which will lead to much wrestling in prayer, and to faithful instruction. But we can do no more than glance at this important topic.

2. Duties of Parents. Dr Chalmers has rightly remarked in his "Christian and Civic Economy of Large Towns," that "family religion is not superseded by these schools so as to make Christianity less the topic of mutual exercise and conversation between parents and children, than before the period of their institution." If any father supposes that because his children go to the Sunday school he is relieved in any measure from the duty of instructing them himself, he has greatly and grievously erred in his notions of his duty as a father. Not only should parents co-operate with the school, so far as to send their children constantly, but they are bound to follow up the instruction there given, by their own faithful inculcation and holy example at home.

Nor should parents ever be absent from the monthly concert for Sabbath schools. This we regret to know is very greatly the case. Whom should we expect to be at such a meeting to pray for the conversion of children, if not their parents? Do parents mean to consign not only the instruc