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stitution essential to the happiness of society, that it was actually an evil; that it interrupted the occupations of the honest and industrious, disturbed the regularity of their habits, and dissipated their minds; and all this without furnishing any corresponding advantages to compensate for the injury thus done to the community. Can this be so? Can it even be so to the extent to make the inutility of the Sabbath even a plausible theory, and shall we not be startled by the fact? Let not the exertions of teachers be wanting to render it otherwise; let it be their earnest wish; let it be viewed as a worthy object of their labors, to inculcate that reverence for this day, which may continue with unabated strength to the latest period of life.

2. Another, and not unimportant effect, which Sunday school teachers should have in view, is the formation of habits of order and discipline. In many, and fortunately the majority of instances, these are in some degree already formed in the children under their care. Most of them attend school during the week, and are there subjected to a certain routine of duty which is invariably followed up, and become accustomed to the imposition of certain tasks, the due performance of which is regularly required. Where this is not the case, the labor of instruction is exceedingly enhanced; and perhaps few enterprises are more laborious and more discouraging than to attempt to bring under a certain system, children who have never been accustomed to system of any kind; to impress rules of conduct and principles of religion on minds, to whom rules and principles are equally unknown. This may well be compared to casting pearls before swine; and success in such a task is scarcely to be hoped for. This branch of the subject however suggests an impor

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tant reflection. If teachers cannot build up habits of régularity in their children, let them not destroy or impair them. Let it not be their reproach that their conduct and example are in this respect worse than useless. Let it not be said that the motives which induce their attendance at the school are not strong enough to ensure their constant and punctual attendance. Let children learn from the conduct of their teachers that punctuality and attention to engagements are virtues which they practise, as well as inculcate, and the example thus set them will not be wholly without its use.

3. A third object of Sunday school instruction is to impart to children a knowledge of the scriptures-knowledge which is to be immensely more important to them than all other, and with which are connected the best satisfactions and enjoyments of their after life. It is the duty of the teacher to point out to his pupils the history contained in this book, the precepts it inculcates, and the hopes which it offers-he must explain to them the language in which it is written, a language in some respects different from that of the present day, and requiring much verbal explanation-he must explain too the customs to which it refers, on the right understanding of which so much of its usefulness and attractiveness depends. He must impress on their minds the nature of its divine origin, how and in what sense it proceeds from God-and by this, as well as other considerations, must endeavor to add sanction and force to its moral requirements; he must imbue the children as it were, with the principles inculcated in the New Testament, by impressing on them their high origin, and their preeminent -authority-he must make the Testament the guide of

their youth and the companion of their age, and by rendering its beauty and excellence obvious to their minds, make it appear as it really is, the best and most valuable of all friends. It must be his object to introduce the scriptures to them, so that the acquaintance may never be dissolved; so that the Bible may be valued and loved by them through life-not to be read now and then with reluctance, as a task, but to be referred to and consulted on the means of obtaining the highest satisfaction in this life, and endless felicity in another.

4. Another object of Sunday school instruction is to inculcate those moral virtues, from which spring attentions to decency, propriety, and correctness of conduct. When we visit among the families of the poor, and witness the moral degradation which prevails in many of them; the idleness, the profanity, the brutality of parents, and the selfish, wilful, obstinate character of the children; when we see families without moral discipline of any kind; parents indulging their children from mere indolence, till indulgence no longer satisfies, and then punishing with passion the very temper which they have lent their aid to foster and encourage; when we see even the decencies of life utterly neglected, and children brought up without an idea of their nature or a wish for their cultivation; when we see dishonesty winked at, if not encouraged as one of the sources of subsistence, and regard for individual interest inculcated as the first principle of conduct-when we see in fact, children exposed to the worst examples, and with no check imposed on their imitation, should not these things make us wish to do something to cultivate these neglected soils; to give an edge to these blunted perceptions, and to restore these now sleeping consciences

to a sense of the danger of those citadels which they are so sluggishly guarding? They must do so-something can be done, and something ought to be effected by teachers, even in the short time that these children remain under their care. Accustomed to brutal severity or unrestrained indulgence at home, they feel at once the difference in the discipline of their teachers. Their gentleness and kindness of manner, though so new as by its novelty and strangeness to alarm them at first, soon gains their confidence; while their regularity, and quiet but unyielding authority, ensures their respect. Is it necessary then to urge how essential this mildness and steadiness of authority are to effecting the objects of Sunday school teaching? Of violence and passion they see more than a sufficiency. They have it at home, where their parents and others think only of effecting by force what they know not how to obtain by persuasion. They have it at school, where their instructers are obliged by the number under their care, and by the very circumstance of their irregular management at home, to enforce a rigorous discipline. Let them if possible find a different system here. Let the Sunday school teacher be firm, but by all means affectionate and mild. Let him exhibit some of that forbearance which he inculcates-let not any occurrence ruffle the evenness of his temper, or excite to harsh and angry crimination. This is equally pernicious and unnecessary. The teacher need not appear to his pupil except as the most affectionate of friends-and let him not rudely destroy an association on which so much of his influence and success will depend. Let restraint be carried so far as is absolutely necessary for the mainte nance of order and decorum-to urge it farther can only

be productive of mischief. He who cannot acquire such an influence over the minds of children, as to control them for a few hours in the week without having re course to violence or harshness, however estimable he may be in other respects, wants an essential qualification for the duties of a Sunday school teacher. E.

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TRANSLATION FROM THE ITALIAN.

[Selected from the Christian Observer.]

WHAT dost thou, O wandering dove,

From thy home in the rock's riven breast? 'Tis fair, but the falcon is wheeling above, Ah, fly to thy sheltering nest!

To thy nest!-wand'ring dove-to thy nest!

Frail bark, on that bright summer sea

That the breezes now curl but in sport-
Spread cheerly thy sail, nor, though pleasant it be,
E'er linger till safe in the port.

For the port!-little bark-for the port!

Tired roe, who the hunter dost flee,

While his arrow e'en now's on the wing,

In yon deep green recess there's a fountain for thee;

Go, rest by that clear secret spring ho

To the spring!-panting roe-to the spring!

My spirit, still hovering, half blest,

'Mid shadows so fleeting and dim,

Ah, know'st thou thy rock, and thy haven of rest,
And thy pure spring of joy ?-Then to Him!
Then to Him!-flutt'ring spirit-to Him!

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