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earnest prayer, and read and helped the whole congregation to sing Dr. Watts' stirring hymn,

'There is a land of pure delight.'

For the first time in my life I felt some sympathy with the doctrine that would reject instrumental music from church worship. There must have been five thousand voices joining in the hymn. The whole building was filled and overflowed with the strong volumn of song. The music made itself felt as a living, throbbing presence that entered your nerves, brain, heart, and filled and swept you away in its resistless current."

After describing Mr. Spurgeon's style as a preacher, and his mode of conducting the service, he goes on to say:-"Every good man ought to be thankful for the work Spurgeon is doing. I could not but contrast this worship with that I saw a few days ago at Westminster Abbey. In that proud old mausoleum of kings, venerable with years and royal pride, the great organ rolled out its deep tones, and sobbed and thundered its grand music, mingled with the intoning of the hired singers. Before the assembly of rich and titled worshippers sat a choir of twenty persons. The choir boys, in their white robes, had been fighting among the tombs and monuments of the nave just before the service began. However devout and effective their worship may be, it is very costly, and must be confined, to a great extent, to the higher classes. I felt that Spurgeon had opened an asylum where the great untitled, the poor and destitute of this great city, could come and find their sorrows met with sympathy; their lowliness and longings for a better life touched by a large heart and an undoubted faith. God bless Spurgeon! He is helping to work out the problem of religious and civil freedom for England in a way that he knows not of."

Gentle Manners.

A SHORT pointed treatise on this subject has just been issued by the Glasgow Sabbath School Union, in the form of a Letter from the President and Directors to the Sabbath Scholars of Glasgow and Suburbs. With the view of forcing attention to the subject upwards of forty thousand copies of it have already been distributed gratuitously in the schools of the Union. But it is a question of general interest, and one which, we fear, should be attended to in other places. In the hope that a perusal of the tract may stimulate our readers everywhere to lend their aid in promoting the reformation so much needed, we have given it a place in our issue of this month; but it may be obtained, in any quantity, for gratis circulation, at a merely nominal charge,* on application to the Union's Secretaries, 70 Bothwell Street, Glasgow. It is printed on tinted paper, bears the title "Ladies and Gentlemen," and consists of 8 pages, Royal 32mo.

* 1/ per 100; or post free, 1/3 per 100.

Letter to the Young

FROM

SIR WILLIAM COLLINS, PRESIDENT, AND THE DIRECTORS OF THE GLASGOW SABBATH SCHOOL UNION.

DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS, -There are two little words which you very likely hear or read as often as any other words in our language; the words are-" -“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN." Will you let us take them as a sort of text to you for our letter?

What do we mean by a "Lady" or a "Gentleman?" Now, some of you will perhaps be ready to answer, "Oh! a lady or a gentleman is one who lives in a large house, has fine clothes, plenty of money, and all that kind of thing." But that would be quite a mistake. A person may have none of these, and yet may be a thorough lady or gentleman. We all know many people who have to work very hard; whose houses are small, and not very well furnished; who have no pictures, and not many books; who have no servants, and never rode in a carriage; and whose clothing is perhaps of the roughest kind, and yet they are quite entitled to what our great poet, Tennyson, calls "The grand old name of gentleman." And, on the other hand, we could find here and there people who possess all those fine things, and still have not the least title to be called ladies or gentlemen.

But we can almost hear some boy or girl say, "Oh! but I'm only a little message-boy, with no more than a penny in my pocket; " or, "I'm only a school-girl; I shall have to work hard for my living; what have I to do with ladies and gentlemen?"

Well, we think you have a great deal to do with the term; we believe that every one of you ought to be, and may really be a lady or a gentleDo you wish to know how? Very good, then, we shall tell you very plainly.

man.

You

The highest pattern of lady or gentleman that which we should wish you to take for your model-is the Christian lady or gentleman. understand, no doubt, what that means. It means the man or woman, the boy or girl, whose whole bearing towards others is regulated and governed according to what some one has termed the "Eleventh Commandment." Do you remember it?" A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another." To do that truly and unselfishly, we must love Christ first and most of all. That is our first condition, and we may call it being right within.

Our second condition we may describe as being right at home. Now, no one can think very highly of that kind of politeness or kindliness which is kept, like one's Sunday clothes, only for special places and special times. Surely if there be one place where, above all others, the step should be lightest and the voice softest, where the face should be brightest and the hand most tender, it is that sacred spot called HOME! Fancy what a terrible place this "Bonnie Scotland" of ours would be if in all its homes the fathers' voices were harsh and stern, and the mothers'

brows wore constant frowns; if all wishes were commands, and all commands were threats. What kind of land would it be for you? Under such treatment, and with such examples, what sort of men and women should you become? Now, will you think of this, and resolve that, with God's help, you shall each do all in your power to make your home the dearest, happiest, kindliest spot upon earth?

In speaking of Home, we cannot help thinking of parents. Sometimes we meet young men who seem to imagine that there is something unmanly in using the words father and mother. They employ other terms, which they perhaps think smart or amusing. We should hope that no scholar in any of our Sabbath schools would speak in this way. Want of respect to parents shews not only an ungrateful heart, but a coarse and vulgar mind. Remember that the young man who uses such expressions is not a gentleman.

66

Our third mark of a lady or gentleman is being right abroad; or, in other words, our conduct and speech in school or street-in workshop or playground. We must respect the feelings, the persons, and the property of others. Was not that a noble certificate of character which the Red Indians gave to General Washington-"The great chief who would not hurt a mosquito!" And right well, too, was the character deserved; for a braver soldier and a gentler man never lived than George Washington. Yet there are boys who think that roughness of conduct, and loud, coarse, and sometimes profane language, or keeping on their caps in school, or when speaking to their teachers, are signs of manliness and independence. There are others who seem to fancy that the use of "Sir" in addressing their seniors and superiors, or 'Please," and "Thank you," in asking or receiving a favour, is likely to injure their self-respect, or lower them in the respect of others. Of course we can only regard such conduct with wonder and pity. Surely any lads who shew so little regard for the comfort and feelings of others, must themselves have feelings of the coarsest kind. Then, in our places of public resort, how much of offensive and profane language we sometimes hear! What shame and disgust we must often feel at much that we are compelled to hear in our streets! In our railway stations, our conveyances, and our public entertainments, is it not sad to think how much coarseness, crushing, and selfishness are shewn-how the weak, and aged, and helpless, are elbowed aside? It is often said by those who have seen a good deal of the out-door life of great Continental cities, that Englishmen and Scotchmen have a great deal yet to learn from the French. On Saturdays and holidays, and wherever large crowds are gathered, in Paris, Brussels, and other places, the quietness and order that prevail, and the mutual respect, courtesy, and kindliness, are wonderful. Well, now, on our Saturdays and holidays, what is it that we too often see We don't require to tell you that. There is much that we must all feel ashamed even to hear of. Boys, will you think of this? Will you resolve to be what a French writer calls, "Gentlemen without fear and without stain?" Will you determine, that at all times you shall be the fearless protectors of the helpless and the weak? Will you resolve, with the help of Almighty God, that no foul or profane word shall ever pollute your lips? Will you be always ready to give to all

women and girls the first and best place; and to treat them in the true spirit of politeness, with all courtesy, respect, and tenderness?

But a further mark of a lady or gentleman is scrupulous respect for the property of others. We sometimes read in the papers how excursionists from the city have misconducted themselves in some peaceful little village where they have gone to enjoy a holiday. We read of gardens entered, flowers rooted up, trees destroyed, fences broken, and general terror spread all through some sweet and beautiful place. Sometimes, too, we learn that an estate, whose owner had generously thrown it open for years to the public, has been strictly closed. Why? "Because people abused the privilege." Then, in our own city, we see on every hand walls scribbled upon, finely painted doorways all scratched with smoking-matches, iron railings broken, unlet property with the windows shattered, and many things done to injure or destroy the property of others. Now, is not all this too bad? Dear Boys and Girls, will you determine that, so far as you are concerned, all this shall be changed? Do you ever think that it rests with you whether this Britain of ours is to continue in the future what, through so many centuries, it has been -the head of the nations, and the leading country of the world? Remember that its greatness depends not on its wealth, its armies, or its fleets, but on the virtuous, gentle, and kindly lives of its sons and its daughters. You are the men and women of the future. Of what sort are you going to be? Simply men and women, and nothing more? Will you not rather make sure, with God's grace, that you shall each be that higher form of man or woman-a Christian lady or gentleman ? and that the grand thought of Tennyson's shall be yours for life,—

"Tis only noble to be good;

Kind hearts are more than coronets,
And simple faith than Norman blood."

With all good wishes, and earnestly asking you to think over what you have read, we remain, in name of the Directors of the Union,

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How to become a Good Sabbath School Teacher.

By the REV. CHARLES I. GRAHAM, B.D., Rector of Celbridge.

(Continued from page 92.)

It remains to notice one other point on which the difference between the Sabbath school teacher and the daily school teacher strikes a note of warning.

In the daily school the programme of subjects to be taught cannot be varied from, else the inspector will soon detect the irregularity—so with

discipline, attendance, &c. Law and order are, and must be, loyally observed. In the Sabbath school the teacher is sometimes tempted to put his own wisdom above the wisdom of the authorities, and to think that he has a right to do as he pleases, just because his service is a voluntary one. Beware of this temptation, for it is a temptation. Loyalty to your calendar, loyalty to your discipline, loyalty to your superintendent, loyalty to your clergyman, and loyalty to your Church, should be regarded as things in which your honour is concerned, and they lie at the bottom of all really successful Sabbath school teaching.. When your are disloyal in any of these respects you are weakening the strength of the corporate teaching of your school; you are destroying that esprit de corps which is so essential to the welfare of every school; and while you may attach your pupils for the time to yourself, when you are gone they will find themselves unconnected with the life of the school; and thus being unattached to the system, what wonder if they drift away on the sea of vague opinions and aimless lives, to be picked up by-and-by as poor starving shipwrecked passengers by the first passing boat. A help to be loyal as Sabbath school teachers I have always found in remembering, that we stand to our pupils not as representatives of their parents, but as representatives of their clergyman. You take, as it were, your pastor's place-see that you fill it as you know he would.

But this paper has been already sufficiently prolonged. Every man, according to an ancient legend, is born into the world with two bags suspended from his neck, a small bag in front full of his neighbours' faults, and a large bag behind full of his own. Hence it is, while we always see our neighbours' faults we are quite blind to our own. I fear it is thus with many of the remarks I have ventured to offer: they, as it were, have gazed a good deal on the bag in front, but have not turned the other round. Yet this paper has been written (let my readers be assured) in a sincere spirit of sympathy with the difficulties and trials which beset the work of the Sabbath school teacher. His is indeed a post of honour in these days in which we live. "The Sabbath school," says the Bishop of Ely, "has before it a more important place in the Church system than it has ever yet possessed since Europe became Christian." Everywhere around us non-religious secular education is making gigantic strides. Men of intellect are devoting to the furtherance of education their best and choicest powers. Our Sabbath school children are feeling the influence of this during six days of the week. Respect and reverence for real knowledge are daily becoming foremost ideas in their minds. The Sabbath school teacher must keep pace in things spiritual with this advance in knowledge in things secular. If not, he will not hold the interest of his class, he will not gain respect for the knowledge which he loves, and he will not do the Master's work as effectually as he otherwise might. His is, indeed, an increasingly difficult task. He needs all the encouragement which the words and sympathy of his fellow-man can give him. needs all the grace and strength which God supplies through His eternal Son.

He

For character has to be influenced in the Sabbath school, as well as lessons carefully to be taught. Though believing firmly that in nine cases out of ten it is the home atmosphere which makes a boy or girl

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