JUDGE HOWE.

Obituary. Died in Boston, January 20th, the Hon. Samuel Howe, of Northampton, one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas.

The highest testimony has set its seal to Judge Howe's professional talents and acquisitions, while the community, as with one voice, has expressed its sense of his eminent usefulness and pure integrity in his official station. His virtues as a man, and a friend, have received a tribute the most tender and fervent, from all who knew him. We record his name here, as a noble witness to our holy religion, which he exemplified in some of its most exalted traits, during a life marked by much personal suffering, but devoted unweariedly to the best ends; and to whose truth and efficacy he attested in the most affecting manner, at the hour of death.

It is believed that Judge Howe was a Unitarian, and that he held his principles as the fruit of thorough and serious inquiry, and not of education. But we wish rather to dwell upon his religious character as it stands apart from all sectarian alliances. He was no partizan. His attachment was to the gospel, to Christ, and to all good men. To the study of the Bible he brought a mind singularly clear from all prejudice, cool, deliberate and powerful. He rose from that study with the deepest conviction of the divine origin and authority of our religion. He gave his testimony to it as a lawyer and judge, versed in human nature, and skilled in analyzing human evidence, never wedded by a blind partiality to ancient opinions, and open to the light of truth, from whatever quarter it

might come. In perfect consistency with this testimony, he modelled his whole character and plan of life, all his pursuits and engagements, with a single eye to religious responsibility. He was a pious and benevolent man in every relation he sustained. Most esteemed and even revered, where he was most intimately known, he has left his example as a precious legacy to all who "would live godly in Christ Jesus."

At all times it becomes us to speak with humility and awe of the death-scene of a holy man. We dread boasting on such a subject. But it has pleased God to give us in the death of Judge Howe, a theme for the most consoling and instructive meditations. Exhausted by a sudden and severe disease, he lay for some days in almost complete unconsciousness apparently. But about an hour before his departure, his mental and bodily powers were awakened to such a degree that he was able to converse in his usual firm and clear manner, for a length of time, to his surrounding friends. Having fervently implored of God a continuance of strength and reason, he spoke on all the subjects then most interesting, with an eloquent solemnity, but with entire composure. His dying testimony was given to the efficacy of religion, the comfort of a christian hope, and the importance of a christian life. He gratefully acknowledged the great goodness of God to him in the past period of his existence, and tranquilly commended himself to that mercy which is promised through Jesus Christ, for that eternity which was opening upon him.

[For the Unitarian Advocate.]

EVENING HYMN.

Father, thy mercies never fail;

Again the evening shades prevail,
And soothed I hear the still small voice,
That bids me in thy care rejoice.

Beneath thy sun's all-cheering ray
I've plied my task another day,

And thrice my strength refresh'd has been
With food and converse sweet between.

Thy works, all-beautiful and good,
I've scann'd and partly understood;
Clothed in their livery of light

All speak thy wisdom, love and might.

When darkness veils the earth and skies,
New worlds and wonders o'er me rise,
That tell in words of flame from far
How vast, how bright thy glories are.
Kept by thy all-sustaining power,
I welcome now the solemn hour,
That comes my weary lids to close,
And lay me down to sweet repose.

Wrapt in the soft embrace of sleep,
Let angel guards their vigils keep
About my bed, and be my rest
With holy dreams and visions blest.

While my tired frame in mimic death
Lies motionless, save pulse and breath,

Let my free spirit heavenward fly,
And without dying learn to die.

J. F. S.

150

SUNDAY SCHOOLS.

SUNDAY SCHOOL INSTRUCTION.

In the instruction given in Sunday schools great care should be taken to avoid a narrow and mechanical routine of exercises, as injurious to the mind. Lessons should be drawn from as wide a range of subjects as the teacher finds conducive to mental activity and earnest attention, on the part of the scholars, as well as to the natural freedom and strength of their thoughts. Too great a variety of objects is, no doubt, unfavorable to steadiness of attention and closeness of thinking, and therefore to vigor of character; and this is a point which ought never to be forgotten in teaching. There is a salutary medium here as in other things. The common error, however, is evidently that of confining children's minds to a very limited number of subjects.

To restrict the understanding in this way, not only enfeebles it, but interferes with its ability to derive religious light and happiness from a free and natural intercourse with the objects of daily observation or experience. The evil complained of is, that children are too commonly taught to look for religious instruction and improvement as proceeding solely and directly from the services of the sanctuary, or the exercises of the Sunday school-from thoughts of an invisible Being, the constant and perhaps jealous witness of our actions-from imaginations of heavenly happiness and glory-from reading or reciting texts of scripture or pieces of devotional poetry. In this way the practical and useful part of religion is

too much neglected, while the speculative, and contemplative, and the ceremonial are made to absorb the attention. Religion should be presented to the young, especially, as a living and active principle, which they have or have not, just as they respect and practise all their duties. That child is truly religious who thinks and acts rightly towards his parents, and brothers, and sisters his teachers and his companions. Children cannot be too often reminded that religion does not consist in going regularly to church and to Sunday school, or even in being attentive when there-that it does not consist in getting or saying lessons well, or in possessing deep thoughts and intense feelings about God and heaven, or about death and eternity--but in observing truth, in being kind, patient, gentle, and forgiving; in being disinterested, and in being diligent and constant in duty of every kind.

Happiness should not be held up as a prize for great efforts, or for a future state, so much as the natural consequence of doing right, of keeping the mind free from conscious blame-as a regular part of the arrangements of our Creator, if we do not deprive ourselves of it by neglect or by wilfulness. Religious improvement, in a word, should be spoken of as a thing natural to a thinking and reflecting mind, and should in this way become a part of the history of individual life.

It is difficult to produce religious impressions, chiefly because we think it is so, and above all that we make it so by telling children that it is so, or by taking formal and unnatural measures to effect our object. Religious instruction has usually too much of mere arbitrary inculcation in it, Children are commanded to be good, obe