influence of religious truth, and the power of God, and produces, ultimately, the largest and most valuable results. For this reason, perseverance and long continued labour are invaluable in the Sunday School Teacher.

When God has a great work to accomplish, he calls to it a Moses, or a Nehemiah, or a Luther; but he seldom goes to the palaces of kings, or the glittering mansions of the great. He goes to the field where the slave is at work among his fellows, or to the mines of Germany, where he may find a fit instrument for the performance of his designs. The woman who heard the collier's boy calling out for bread ' in the name of God,' did not suppose she was extending the hand of charity to a Luther! You may expect that out of Sunday schools, bright and shining characters will come, but from whose school, or from whose class, we cannot know. We must not labour because we hope to be the means of leading such a mind out of sin and darkness to eminent usefulness and holiness, but because we love God and love souls.

Follow the child clothed in light, so great that nothing of which we know can afford a comparison, pure and spotless in the robes of Christ's righteousness, and see him winging on his flight for ever nearer and nearer to God. Follow that other child of sin and sorrow, running along his infinite and endless pathway of impurity and woe, hasting like a deer over the mountains of guilt, and who cannot feel what exciting, and transporting, and transcendant interests are at stake-even the eternal salvation of the deathless soul. Who can tell the importance of the duties of that man or that woman who turns the immortal mind from the pursuit of sin and unhallowed pleasures, to behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world!'

The practice of excluding doctrinal teachings from Sunday schools is a great error. Of what use is it to be taught that Adam and Eve sinned, unless we are thereby taught that we are formed of a sinful nature, and are originally and thoroughly unholy? Of what use is it to be taught that the tower of Siloam fell and slew so many beneath its ruins, unless we are thereby taught that God rules in the heavens, and his ways are those of justice and truth. The Providences of God are dark and mysterious, and you may as well be afraid to teach children the character of God, as to be afraid of teaching them the doctrines of the Bible.

Suppose an Angel should come into this house, and bring with him a heaven-wrought mirror, in which should be seen all the characters of God. At one glance we might see the hand that traced the fearful characters of warning upon the wall at Belshazzar's feast-at another we should see him as the pillars of creation, holding and sustaining all things—at another we should see him developed in the form of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God slain from before the foundation of the world. We see all these in the Bible, which is the revealed mirror of God's excellence and glory, and where we may all see him in his majesty and fulness. Then teach children the character of God as seen in the doctrines of the sacred volume.

Whence come the men of dark and dangerous sentiments, who are like the unclean frogs of Egypt coming up out of the corners of the land? Whence come your men of wild and extravagant assumptions? From the dark and unenlightened portions of the land, where the Scriptures are neglected and untaught. Whence come robbers, thieves, and pirates, and the men of blood and crime? From the crowded lanes, and alleys, and by-ways of our thickly populated cities. Here plant Sabbath Schools-here erect the standard of the Cross-here set up a place where youthful voices, though depraved and sin-bound, may learn of God and of Jesus Christ, and teach them the character of God, and the principles of his government as revealed in the doctrines of the Bible.

Men who love to teach the doctrinal portions of Scripture, will generally be the most zealous in teaching the literal portions, just as he who teaches the duties of Missionary labours will be particular to instruct those around him, in the condition, social, moral, and political, of the people of whom he speaks. He will explain the geography, climate, soil, productions, and degree of civilization or barbarism which characterizes the far-off region which he wishes to enlighten. When Felix Neff went into the mountains of his own country, and endeavoured to interest the people in the Missionary enterprise, he found no Missionary spirit there, and could not with all his efforts excite any, until he drew some large maps and pictures representing that portion of the earth where the heathen were situated, the mountains and scenery, the idols and other objects of heathen worship. They became interested, and soon he had succeeded in enlisting their warmest sympathies.

[The lecturer then proceeded to illustrate his positions

by the exhibition of several sketches, made by Sunday school children, representing the Tabernacle, camp of the Israelites, map of Ceylon, and the adjacent islands and continent. The last he said he had used, as he frequently does other things of the same kind, at the monthly Concert, and observed, that if we did not have them in New York, he would remark, "You don't know what's good,' one boy said to another who did not like porridge.]

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The lecturer then proceeded to speak of the great changes and moral revolutions now going on in the world, and illustrated the spread of the spirit of Christianity, by the fact that now the Sabbath mail has been closed in one state, and soon the whole of New England will probably suspend the Sabbath mail. The leaven is at work. Our canals are feeling its spirit, and they too will soon be unrippled by a single Sabbath-breaking vessel upon their surface. The water of life is now flowing along their banks, and soon the Sabbath will be hallowed and kept inviolate.

Temperance is the daughter of Christianity. A few years since, and it was impossible to keep your reputation, unless the hospitalities of the side-board were continually thrust upon your friends; now, even the Irishman can live without a drop of anything that can intoxicate. The leaven is at work.

The time has come when Captain Wilkes of the Exploring Expedition, can report at Washington to the government of this country, and bear noble testimony to the value of Missionary labours. Their importance is becoming more known and appreciated, men in high stations are consulting them in reference to the economy, natural, political, and commercial of hitherto unknown regions, and thus the leaven of Christianity is at work, and will extend until righteousness shall fill the earth as with a sun of glory.

It was thought that peace between this country and England would be disturbed, and the good and great of both nations stopped breathing, with the anxiety of their suspense. But the cloud passed, and the sunlight of peace has shined full upon us with its beams, and love and brotherhood is strengthened and confirmed. The leaven is at work.

Another point of great importance is, that a small field well cultivated, is better than a large field poorly cultivated. I know a minister who has been settled forty years in one parish containing a medium number of families. The consequence is that scarcely a single person leaves the parish

who has not spent probably five years in his Bible class, and all, or nearly all, give decided evidence that they are born again. So with the Sunday School Teacher. Take two of equal zeal, knowledge, and ability, so far as they can be matched; give one twenty, and another five pupils, and soon the difference will be seen. The influence of one will be felt by five, while the same influence in the other will be divided among four times the number. The effectiveness, then, of any influence will be measured by the number of subjects over which it is excited, and will be stronger on each in the ratio of diminution of the subjects.

When a commander gains a victory, he does not order the shots to be fired at random, but directs the whole broadside against the big ship-this done and the victory is obtained.

Mr. Todd proceeded to enforce the thought that the Sunday School Teacher is creating impressions which will be imperishable as the mind itself, and introduced a very pertinent and graphic illustration from the recent destruction of his own house by fire. One of his children, a little girl, had a library of 116 volumes valued at 65 dollars, which was destroyed in the conflagration, and next day while mourning over her loss, she suddenly jumped up, wiped away her tears, and running to her mother, said, 'Mother, I won't be sorry any more; I'm glad I learnt so many hymns.' Thus, said the lecturer, though all things material shall be burnt up, and the earth shall melt with fervent heat, the impressions imprinted on the undying and enduring tablet of the mind will live for ever.

NEW EDUCATION BILL.

With the liveliest emotion of joy we have to record the withdrawal of the educational clauses in this infamous measure. Let us now hope that all angry feelings will be allayed, and that the friends of Scriptural education in the hands of regenerated persons will bestir themselves, and at once bring our youthful population under a sound religious training. One great and immediate object must be the raising up of holy and intelligent teachers. In this work Christian ministers must take the lead. Sabbath schools have now a share of public attention which they never had before. Let them develop their powers, and justify the great efforts recently made to preserve their existence. Let us all thank God and take courage.

Sacred Topography.

MAP 3.

COUNTRIES WHERE THE GOSPEL WAS FIRST

PREACHED.

As the places visited by the Apostle Paul subsequently to his conversion, either on apostolical commissions or previously to his bearing such commissions, comprehend the principal of the places where the gospel was first preached, we shall, in this and the following articles, confine ourselves to his journeys.

JOURNEYS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.

The first journey taken by Paul was from Jerusalem to DAMASCUS. This city lies upon the river Barada, the Chrysorrhoas of the ancients, in an extensive plain, open to the south and east, but on the west and north shut in by mountains, which send forth so many streams as to render the district of Damascus the best watered and most pleasant of all Syria. It is one of the most ancient cities in the world; for it is mentioned, (Gen. xv. 2,) as the birthplace of Eliezer, the steward of Abraham; and throughout the sacred record possesses much historical importance. The Arabs term it one of the four paradises of the east, and relate that Mohammed, as he viewed from an eminence the splendour of the city of which he wished to take possession, hesitated to enter it, because he knew that man can enjoy but one paradise, and he had resolved that his should not be in this earth. Damascus continues to be one of the finest cities of Syria; the population is about eighty thousand, and is chiefly composed of Turks and Arabs, the number of Christians being estimated at little more than fifteen thousand.

From Damascus Paul retired for a season to ARABIA, (Gal. i. 17,) a large country, extending from the Euphrates to Egypt, and lying east and south of the Holy Land. It has usually been divided into three parts. First-Arabia Petræa, so called, either from Petra, its capital, which was built on a rock, or from the rocky character of the whole division. This division contained the land of Edom, the wilderness of Paran, the land of Cushan, &c. In the southwest part of it are the cities of Mecca and Medina, celebrated, the former as the birth-place, and the latter as the