con can pass from one carriage to another. Vendors, also, of books, newspapers, sweetmeats, peach pies, and sundry other more or less tempting eatables, avail themselves of similar venience. Iced water is usually placed in every car. "All aboard" is the signal for immediate departure. About 25 miles an hour was the average rate of speed. The stations are not either attractive or substantial in appearance; but when we take into account the immense extent of mileage accomplished, the wonder is that the rails and cars should be as good as they are. The connexion of widely distant places has rightly been the ruling principle in the expenditure incurred. It was late in the evening when we reached Philadelphia. I was greatly pleased with the buildings in the best parts of this beautiful "Quaker City." Some of them are of white marble. A notable orphan and educational establishment, called the "Girard Institution," is thus constructed, and stands in its own grounds. The central portico presents a very imposing effect. A somewhat singular clause is contained in the founder's will. He was a Romanist, and as he had no faith in his own clergy, he was equally distrustful of all others. The clause enacts-"That no minister of religion, of any denomination whatever, is on any pretext to be allowed to visit the Institution, or even cross the threshold." It is almost a pity that this rough and ready way of cutting the gordian knot of the "religious difficulty" in Our own denominational strifes, was not brought under the attention of our legislature when the new education bill was in progress. Of course we visited "Independence Hall," where the Declaration of American Independence was signed a century ago. The building is of red brick, and very unpretentious. Many interesting relics are preserved in it; among them the great bell by which the good people were informed that their freedom was achieved. The law courts and public library adjoin the hall. Philadelphia is an excellent type of all American cities. But the sameness of ground plan became, as one city after another was visited, rather wearisome. Twentieth or Fiftieth street in one place is twin brother to similarly numbered streets elsewhere. These numbered streets are usually intersected at regular distances by "Avenues," or by streets bearing the names of “Trees." The chief advantage of such a monotonous arrangement is the facility with which any particular house may be found. HISTORICAL NOTES ON OUR SUNDAY SCHOOLS.* BY B. BALDWIN. THE Sunday Schools of England have long been regarded as a national institution, worthy of holding a high place in the public esteem, and of sharing very largely in the interest and sympathy of all good men. No form of Christian work has tended more to the general diffusion of the knowledge of the saving truths of the Bible amongst the young. It is impossible for us to say how much the remarkable and unprecedented progress which characterises this nineteenth century is attributable to the beneficial influence which Sunday Schools have exerted upon our British youth, and thus, in the natural sequence of circumstances, upon the manhood and maturity of the people. They are now a necessary and essential element in the grand organizations of the church, materially aiding her in her noble mission of subduing the world to the obedience and faith of Christ. "Their existence and prosperity are not dependent on worldly power, but are the result of voluntary Christian exertion, and they are producing an amount of good which defies calculation." The great religious revivals which took place through the preaching of Whitefield and Wesley, and the good men noted as "the Barton Preachers," did not comprehend, nor do they seem to have suggested the idea of Sunday Schools for the young-they originated out of commiseration and practical pity for the ignorant and semi-civilized state of the children of the poor. It was this that led Robert Raikes to gather together a number of the children of Gloucester. Amazed and grieved at noticing the misery and idleness of the children in a low part of the city where * Printed by request of the Sunday School Conference, held at the Centenary Association. the people were chiefly occupied in the manufacture of pins, and remarking upon their wretched condition to a woman who resided there, she replied, “Ah! sir, could you see this part of the town on Sunday, you would be shocked indeed; for then the street is filled with multitudes of these wretches, who, released on that day from work, spend their time in noise and riot, playing at chuck, and cursing and swearing in a manner so horrid as to give any serious mind an idea of hell rather than any other place." 66 Although Robert Raikes has the high honour of founding the present Sunday School system, yet he was by no means the first to undertake the teaching of the young on the Lord's-day. The originator of Sunday Schools appears to have been St. Charles Borromeo, Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, who died in 1594. He established many useful institutions, some of which still remain, and amongst them Sunday Schools. The Rev. J. Stoughton testifies to this. He was anxious to know whether they did still exist amongst the Milanese, and says, They do; and not only did we see the classes assembled in the churches, but in one or two cases there were school-rooms with forms placed, and the children gathering just after the English fashion, that a Christian friend and Sabbath School teacher who accompanied me said, he could fancy himself at home, about to enter on his accustomed toil." But the example of Borromeo was not followed beyond the immediate circle in which it arose, and was not developed into any general system. Other individuals occasionally have gathered young persons together for religious instruction on the Lord's-day. Amongst these the Rev. Joseph Alleine, in 1688; Theophilus Lindsey, of Catterick, in 1763; Miss Harrison, at Bedale, in 1765; Miss Ball, at High Wycombe, in 1769; the Rev. David Simpson, M.A., minister of Christ Church, Macclesfield, in 1778, for week-day evening instruction, and as some could not attend these schools during the week, he paid teachers to instruct them on the Sunday, and the whole of the scholars were regularly taken to church. He gave up the management of the school in 1786 to a committee, and in 1796 voluntary labourers supplanted those who had hitherto received payment for their services. this period the state of things in England was not only disgraceful but alarming. The high roads leading into London were infested by robbers, who attacked alike both public and private carriages; and by some leading writers of the last century, these desperadoes were regarded as romantic heroes who fed their pens with subjects for mirth and praise. The Bible was a At scarce and disregarded book, for Hannah More declares that in the village of Cheddar, near the Cathedral City of Wells," she saw but one Bible in all the parish, and that was used to prop a flower pot!" It is ours to rejoice with thankfulness that the nation now presents so different an aspect, intellectually, morally, and religiously. As to what may have led to this manifest improvement, Lord Mahon says, Among the principal means which, under Providence, tended to a better spirit in "the coming age, may be ranked the system of Sunday Schools." And here also is the testimony of Adam Smith to their value, "No plan has promised to effect a change of manners with equal ease and simplicity since the days of the Apostles." It should be noticed that the British and Foreign Bible Society, to which the world and the church are under unspeakable obligations, was summoned into existence in consequence of the demand for unprecedently large editions of the Scriptures to supply the pressing need of Sunday Schools. An outcry for more Bibles for the Sunday Schools of Wales, was raised in 1787, but they could not be obtained, yet still the want increased; in 1792, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge was asked to print an edition of ten thou sand Welsh Bibles, security being offered to pay for the first five thousand as soon as they were printed. This proposal, reluctantly accepted, was afterwards declined, on the ground that such a large edition was not wanted. The Rev. T. Jones, then obtained the influence of Dr. Madan, then Bishop of Peterborough ; and in 1796 the Board passed a resolution to print the number required. Three years elapsed before the edition was published,—it was liberally sold at half the cost price, and sold as soon as issued,-but no influence, nor solicitation could induce the Society to accept the order for another edition. The scarcity of the Bible, and the desire to possess it, led the Rev. Thos. Charles, of Bala, to lay the matter before the Committee of the Religious Tract Society in London, urging a Bible Society, on a similar basis; the subject was discussed until the question was asked "if such a society for Wales, why not for the empire and the world!" The result was, that on the 7th March, 1804, the British and Foreign Bible Society was fully established, and we have now the Word of God printed and extensively circulated in nearly every language and dialect of the earth. This great and blessed society, forced into existence by Sunday Schools, has well repaid its debt to them, by being the fountain from which they have long been supplied at a cheap rate with the Holy Scriptures in all their present purity and completeness. But what was the New Connexion of General Baptists doing at this time with regard to Sunday Schools? No connexional action was taken for their formation, but they gradually became established, first in one Church and then another, gaining encouraging countenance in the early conferences, and favourable notice in the pages of some of the early numbers of the General Baptist Magazine. 66 At the Annual Association held at Nottingham in 1807, it was reported that Sunday Schools had been opened at various places during the preceeding year; and village preaching, in not a few instances, had been introduced with encouraging success." Again, when the Association was held at Boston in 1808, it was reported "Religion is advancing in many churches, and reviving in some places where it has long languished,-Sunday Schools are established and vigorously supported; these are encouraging circumstances which call for thankfulness." The Rev. Adam Taylor, in his History of the General Baptists, (p. 465, Vol. 2,) writes thus, "The churches of the New Connexion early and zealously countenanced those useful institutions, Sunday Schools. In 1808, a scheme was proposed to secure the co-operation of the Teachers and friends of the rising generation in the Midland district; and for several years an annual meeting of the delegates from the various institutions was held at Loughborough. In 1811, this assembly was attended by the representatives of thirty seven General Baptist Sunday Schools, in which three thousand seven hundred children were instructed by five hundred and eighty five gratuitous teachers, and fifty assistants. The object continued to be pursued by the churches with increasing assiduity, and the happy effects were highly encouraging. Nor were these exertions confined to the Midland Counties:-in 1815, eight flourishing General Baptist Schools were united to the South Lincolnshire and Isle-of-Ely Sunday School Union. In the Northern district, the same object was pursued with equal alacrity and success. In short, it appears from the accounts which have reached us, that in 1817, there were very few churches in the New Connexion which did not support a Sunday School; and it is probable, that more than seven thousand children then received in. struction under their patronage." It is thus evident, that so soon as the attention of our churches was awakened to this important movement, some of them, as I hope to shew, were very early in the field in adopting them, and notwithstanding their crude notions, and quaint modes of discipline and management, they did great good, and laid the foundation of the position in which we are to-day. The century's work in our Connexion has been signalized by many proofs of personal and united effort and sacrifice for the truth, and our Sunday School history is such as may well fill our hearts with gratitude, for as we look back upon it, we are led to exclaim, "What hath God wrought!" FAMILIAR TALKS WITH OUR YOUNG PEOPLE. I LIKE exceedingly that old family crest, I take the pith of pleasure out of me. shall wince. I shall have to wait. Still I don't mind. I shall be better, stronger, wiser, and more contented when I have mastered you (as indeed I will), than I am now. So here goes. Give me the pickaxe. Verily I can hardly help feeling contempt for the whining cowardice of youths who get out of the way of work as though it were irksome drudgery, and shun the dry details of labour for the useless occupation of building "castles in the air," or what is worse, feasting themselves in the poison-filled rooms of the Castle of Indolence. No, up with the pickaxe, lads! and to work, and "woe to him who is fainthearted." Still the youth with the pickaxe should know where he is going to; the sort of place he is likely to arrive at when he has found or made his way. The steam engine must be kept on the rails; if it is not, the more rapid the speed, the more awful the crash. Good captains keep their vessels out of the reach of whirlpools. It would be a very sorry thing to give stroke upon stroke to the hard rock, and cut a tunnel through the hill difficulty, only to find on the other side a trackless desert, without the light of the sun, or voice of loving friends. We must have a good aim as well as a strong arm, a right purpose as well as an iron will, a true and all-worthy goal to reach as well as a sound tool and a firm grasp. The youth who means to make his way in the world should at once ask himself whether he knows where he is going to. Before a bit of rock is chipped from the hill side, he should have at least a rough plan of the road, and of the end he is to make for. It is not enough to pull away at the oars; you want a chart of the river, so that you may see whether you are rowing towards the ocean of truth, and purity, and God; or only to the Dead Sea of error, and uncleanness, and all ungodliness. Half an hour's thought in the bright morning of youth would save much strength, much time, much sorrow, ay, much more than can be described or imagined. What numberless tons of power are thrown away every year! Many a youth has wasted his strength when it has been at its full tide, because he had not a right aim! Years ago I read the following incident. A number of youths were strolling along near the Rappahannock, in the United States, when they came to the rocky archway of the Natural Bridge, and with that fondness for activity and desire for glory so natural to us, began cutting their names into its sides. Some of them were content to put their names low down, others chose the higher place, but James Vaugh, a youth of great courage, seeing that many visitors had gone beyond him, exclaimed, "Pooh! I won't creep on the ground to cut my name. I am going to put it where the people at the Rappahannock can see it. See, here's away." "You aren't going to venture up there," said one of his companions. "I am though. What's the use of walking this long way, and doing nothing after all." "Don't brag, Jim," said his next neighbour, who was scratching his initialsW. J. B.-upon the softest part of the rock he could find, "don't brag." "Well, you'll see what I can do," was his reply; and away he went, climbing the jutting crag, holding by the bushes and brambles, until he seemed beyond all the names on the side of the rock. "Hurrah! where are you?" He shouted to his comrades, "come on and follow your leader, if you dare." "You are high enough now, Jim,” said Robert Willis, "I'd stop there, if I were you." "Not half way yet," answered the climber, and resuming the ascent, went up, leaving below him the highest trees of the valley; and still upward he went, until his companions were really afraid, and begged him to stop. "You'll break your neck, as sure as your name's Jim Vaugh," shouted Joe Ednor. But at this moment Jim saw a name a short distance above him, and in his pride shouted, "Not a bit of it, I'm not going to let anybody put his name over my head;" and again he went along, cutting notches in the side of the rock with one hand, and holding on by the other. At last he had gained the point where no name could be seen, and there he scratched and cut "James Vaugh" as deeply as he could. The work was done, and now he began to think of getting back, when the idea of his extreme danger seized him, and his head began to grow dizzy. Hard as it was to get up, it was harder to go down. He held on, however, for some time, and his companions, full of alarm, spread the news in the neighbourhood, and Jim's father and mother, sister and brother, besides many people, were soon on the spot. One of the first to arrive shouted aloud, "You can't descend; no use to attempt it; try and gain the top." Poor Jim! what would he now give to be on the ground! Where was now his boasting! A desperate effort must be made, or he would soon lose his hold, and be dashed to pieces. He determined to make the attempt for the summit of the Bridge. Step by step he scraped and cut his way upward. At length his strength was nearly gone, and he clung to the sides of the rock. It was a moment of fearful suspense. In deepest agony of mind the father shouted, "Jim, Jim! do not look down; your mother, and Henry, and Harriet, are all here. We are praying for you. Do not look down. Keep your eye towards the top." The sound of his father's voice roused him, and he grasped his knife again and began to move once more slowly towards the top. Meanwhile ropes were let down, but they failed to reach him, and the blade of his knife was worn to the last half inch; one notch more he cut, and it fell from his hands at his mother's feet. What could be done to save him? At this moment a man lay down at his full length with nearly half of his body hanging over the edge of the bridge, and lowered a looped rope within reach of the fainting youth, who, though nearly exhausted, managed to place it over his head, and then under each arm. Now he swings over the fearful abyss, and those above gently raise him higher and higher. At last he is up, and the cry resounds above and below," He's safe! he's safe!" Oh! how deep was the joy of his parents, how glad the hearts of his companions, and how utterly beyond all description the tumultuous feelings of Jim's heart as gratitude for deliverance, and shame at his pride and folly, mingled with his thoughts of the dangers he had passed. What daring, what fixed determination! We can hardly help admiring the youth as he mounts from step to step, until we awake to his great peril, and then admiration gives place to censure, and what we judged courage appears only as blind folly. For where was the good of all that risk? What was his aim in that venture? Why did he expose limbs and life to such awful ruin? Was it that like Joseph, and Daniel, and the Hebrew youths, he might be faithful to God and to bis conscience? Was it that like our blessed Lord he might save those sunk in suffering and woe? Not at all. His success could not benefit any one, not even himself, and yet to gain it he climbs the beetling rocks, and treats his life, which is God's gift, and the happiness of his home, and of his friends, with utter indifference. James Vaugh is not a whit wiser at fourteen than he was at four, when he ran after the winged and many. coloured butterfly, chased it from cabbage to currant tree, and from currant tree to rose bush, and all round the garden, and several times closed his hand to grasp nothing. Yea, verily, it is not enough to have and to use the pickaxe; we must know WHITHER we are making our way with it. 66 Dear young friends, whatever else you do, take care to get the right aim in life. Climb, and climb high, and cut your name in the rock; but see that the hill you climb is the hill of goodness, and the name you write on its sides is the name Christian." Say, whatever else I am not, I will, by Christ's help, be true to the very core, kind in all my acts, loving towards all. Whether I am rich or not, clever or not, famous or not, I am resolved to be good, to be Christ-like. Never do a dishonest thing. Why did you not pocket some pears, there was nobody there to see you," said one youth to another. "Yes there was," he replied, "I was there to see myself, and I don't intend to see myself do a dishonest act." Dare to die rather than lie. Cling to purity. Resist temptation, and be careful of it. You do not fish with a bare hook. The hook of temptation is never naked. Be watchful. By the grace of God, which is ever helping you, make a good, thorough, complete Christian character. Believe on Jesus. Seek to be like Christ, through the love of Christ- that is the right aim. With such a purpose, you may fitly recall the familiar strain Poetry. Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, Is our destined end or way; But to act that each to-morrow Find us farther than to-day. A SONG OF THE YEAR. O! days and hours, your work is this, To hold me from my proper place, For fuller gain of after bliss.-In Memoriam, cxvi. My heart has a song for my brothers, And true when the spirit can smile, Remembrance that though we grow older The heart may grow younger the while. Is sadness upon you, my brothers, Like night on the way you must go? God's morning shines under the darkness, Far nearer, perhaps, than we know ; Christ's footsteps are falling beside you, Familiar to pathways of pain, And the days of thy mourning once ended The weeping comes never again. Have years made you weary of waiting? Seem promises distant and slow? Bethink you the good is eternal, How brief then its spring-time to grow: Ripley. J. CLIFFORD. O, all the pure joys that have thrilled us, And hot are His luminous axles With whom the millenniums are days, And the Crucified Christ shall be crowned. Then years shall be known as the moments, And ages the days of His hand; All duty, temptation, and trial, A discipline Wisdom hath planned E. H. JACKSON. |