will not find a dozen different pieces of paper that he has used for trying or wiping his pens with. Whatever is of no farther use, he destroys immediately, instead of allowing such things to accumulate. - Now, who has the least trouble with his desk, Sam Heedless, or Arthur Careful? Arthur, as anybody will say. And anybody could tell, too, which of the two boys took the most pleasure in being at their desk. Nobody would like to live in a house where everything was in disorder. However handsome the house, or however elegant the furniture, nothing looks pleasant, unless things are kept neat, and in their proper places. Imagine a parlor, with the chairs about in the middle of the room, or whereever persons happened to be sitting, the bellows lying upon the hearth, -a tumbler, which somebody has used, remaining upon the table,books and papers and work, scattered about upon the sofa and chairs. Who could feel easy to sit down in such a room? Who would not prefer to be in the plainest apartment, with the most ordinary furniture, if things were but in their places and neatly arranged? Everybody finds it pleasant, as we have said before, to see things in order about him. Every person can have this pleasure by attending to only one or two simple directions:- these are, to have a place for everything, and then, to put everything into its place, as soon as it is done with. If a pen is thrown down just for one minute, and a book for another, and a cloak or hat or glove for another, there will come to be quite an untidy accumulation before many minutes. The disorder will be very unpleasant in itself, and then, the task of restoring order will be a tedious one. It would be much less trouble to put each thing in its proper place, as soon as it is done with." PREACHING FOR CHILDREN. Listening to an Unknown Tongue." "Only he that has listened for an hour or two, to an address or exercise in an unknown language, when everything around him was quiet, can appreciate the insupportable weariness of the task. And yet our children are, to a great extent, subjected to it, at every period of public worship. The almost universal consent of the community requires that children should attend on public religious instruction; and yet, by a consent almost as universal, that instruction is given in terms which are generally as unintelligible to them as Arabic. We must confess that our heart often sickens to see intelligent beings, shut up, as 'The Father's Book' describes it, between high walls, on a high seat, incapable of seeing, and unable to understand what they hear; and nothing but the security from evil influences, and the privilege thus gained for the parent, would justify in our view so irksome an imprisonment, on the day of sacred rest- the festival of Christian lands. We have looked around with astonishment, to think that the same collection of people who would rise in indignation, if the attempt were made to force upon them the Latin Liturgy, and who pour upon it ridicule and reproach without measure, never think of providing intelligible prayers and discourses for their children. On no subject have we been more anxious to raise a voice of remonstrance; but we have stopped in despair, when we have thought again, how few were to be found who could speak the language of children, or who would condescend to its weakness Happily, our Infant and Sunday Schools have compelled some, and induced others, to attempt it; and the attention of entire congregations has been called to the subject. An effort was made to establish a public service for children in Philadelphia, but we are not acquainted with the final results. We are happy to hear, however, of a few clergymen disposed to devote themselves to this arduous part of their profession; and some who are ready to sustain them. We cordially wish success to the plan." We quote the foregoing passage from the last number of the Annals of Education, a work which is steadily increasing in the variety and interest of its contents. The question of the best mode of supplying relig ious instruction to children we con sider not yet solved. We have been accustomed to think that there are great objections to any plans for a general separation of the young into distinct assemblies. We have three or four paragraphs in mind on this subject, which we have not now time nor space for in full. We can only give the leading idea of each. 1. The Philadelphia experiment and some others we have heard of, were, after a time, discontinued. We will not say they failed, because that is a term which it is not customary to apply to religious enterprises what ever may have been their result. 2. Good preaching, - by which we mean that which is distinct, and unaffected, and which comes from the heart, is as interesting to boys and girls as to men. We could name several preachers, of various denominations, whose sermons were as eagerly listened to by the one class as the other. The boys would crowd upon the pulpit stairs, and be wholly absorbed in attention to the preacher. 3. The difference between the degree in which grown persons and children understand and are interested in preaching, is more apparent than real. A man can assume a countenance of respectful attention, or at least of simple vacancy, when in fact he is planning a bargain for the next week. Children, under similar circumstances, are restless, and evidently inattentive. A lady can doze in her pew, and dexterously conceal even the closed eye; while if a girl or a boy is asleep, he stretches himself out upon the seat of the pew, with his head perhaps in his mother's lap, an unconcealed, and even a conspicuous picture of slumber. Thus in the case of children, we see and know the whole; in the case of the mature we know but little; and we imagine that Christian ministers would be sadly discouraged, many a summer afternoon, if they could look into their hearers' hearts, and see how very few of them are really following the train of thought which they have taken so much pains to prepare. We need a general improvement in the mode of preaching, so as to give it a stronger hold upon all classes. 4. Children can learn the language of men in no other way than by listening to it. If ministers would bring forward matter of a character adapted really to take hold of the community, it would take hold of children too, and they would gradually become accustomed to the diction common among mankind. There is such a thing as bringing things down too much, for children, especially in language. What we want is to bring children up. One way to do it is to keep always somewhat above them, and yet so near as to encourage them to reach forward. -we 5. We like Mr. Todd's plan, call it his, for we are acquainted with it only through his preface to his Lectures to Children, of giving a leeture to children occasionally after the afternoon service; this in connection with a habit of clear and distinct preaching, at all times, using short, simple sentences and distinct, Saxon language, without any affectation of childish language, is perhaps the best mode for ministers generally to adopt, in bringing the gospel to the minds and hearts of the young. the attention of children more effectually to the public preaching? We wish some of our readers who have thought on this great subject, would send us their views. THE HOUSE I LIVE IN. Part I, THE FRAME. For the Use of Fam ilies and Schools. By WILLIAM A. ALCOTT. Boston: Lily, Wait & Co. 144 pp. 24mo. Price 7 cents. This little work is an allegorical and amusing description of the human frame, considered as the dwelling of the soul. The plan is conceived and executed with much ingenuity. The work is illustrated with cuts. The following description of the Cupola, (the head) will give the reader an idea of the nature of the work. "If you ask why the builder took so much pains with the cupola, I can only say, that, as some of my most valuable goods are kept there, and as they are things, too, which are easily injured by the least touching or handling, it was necessary that the frame should be thus tight and strong. Indeed, it thus answers the purpose of frame and covering both, at the same time. It happens, also, that should robbers or murderers attack the house, they are almost sure to make their first attempts upon the cupola. Now he who built the house, knew all this, and therefore contrived it so that it will bear pretty heavy blows, before it can be broken in, especially those parts of it which are most exposed. On coming to this place, as I was reading this chapter over to Charles, he started and said: Then it seems you did not build the house yourself. I thought people usually built their own houses. Sometimes they do and sometimes they do not; I said. Nobody ever built such a sort of a house for himself, as I am describing. THE AMERICAN SCHOOL SOCIETY. There has recently been established in Boston a Society for the im provement and extension of common schools. We make the following extract from a circular which it has recently issued. "From the best estimates which can be made, not less than one million of children, in the states south and west of New York, (exclusive of the colored population) are destitute of common school instruction. Great numbers of schools in the Northern States are taught by incompetent teachers, in an imperfect manner; moral education_is neglected; the Bible is, to a sad extent, excluded; and they are pronounced by many intelligent parents, to be nurseries of vice. It is believed, in short, that a mass of ignorance and evil exists among the rising generation of our country, which impedes the progress of every effort for moral improvement, which threatens the very existence of our institutions, and which Christian benevolence ought no longer to neglect. Should this society gain the public confidence, a wide field opens before it. To secure a supply of competent teachers, to establish circulating and model schools, to diffuse a knowledge of improved methods of instruction, to assist the Philanthropist of South America, and the missionaries of pagan lands, in providing teachers and books, for millions of destitute children, are great and noble objects, which call for the efforts of Christian philanthropy. But the society is not pledged to any specific course, and the Directers are left under the guidance of Providence, to determine, from time to time, what measures it may be expedient to take. The only point hitherto decided is, that it is our duty to begin, without delay, in the work of providing the best means of education for the rising generation of our own country." There can be but one opinion in respect to the importance of the field which the society thus proposes to occupy. As to its success and usefulness, everything of course depends upon the measures it may adopt, and the efficiency with which it may pursue them. THE RELIGIOUS MAGAZINE. No. XII. SEPTEMBER, 1834. AN ACTIVE IMMORTALITY. THE future state of man is to be one not of idleness and rest, but of activity and enterprise. There are many considerations which combine to establish this position. 1. There is a strong presumption in favor of it in the very constitution of the human mind. The Creator has most evidently designed it for exertion. It has powers which qualify it for activity. In this activity, under favorable circumstances, it finds its greatest enjoyment; and without it, it is and must be wretched. Its whole structure must be changed, its present intellectual powers and characteristics must wither away; in fine, it must be completely revolutionized, and become an entirely different creation, before it can enjoy itself permanently in any state excepting one of active effort. Now there is no reason to suppose that such a change in the intellectual structure of the soul will be effected; the Bible speaks only of moral renewal, of giving a new direction to powers which are themselves to remain unchanged, and therefore the fact that God has created man with powers which qualify him for activity, and a taste which leads him to love it, is a strong presumption that he designs him for activity, through the whole of his existence. 2. Besides the indications of God's design, which we can see in the construction of the mind itself, there is perhaps still VOL. I. 46 greater proof in the circumstances in which he has placed man, in the present state of his existence. They are circumstances exactly calculated to bring into exercise, and thus to strengthen his active powers. And these circumstances have been chosen, when there was no necessity for choosing them, unless this development itself is an object of importance. There was no necessity that this world should have been so constituted, that almost unceasing effort is requisite on our part to acquire subsistence, and to secure enjoyment. The earth might just as easily have been so formed, that its fields should spontaneously have produced fruits adapted to our nourishment, and pleasant to the taste. The groves might easily have been made to entwine themselves into a natural shelter; and the whole globe might have been pervaded by a climate which should not force us to exertion to avoid the inconvenience and injury of its extremes. But it is not so. Whatever system the Almighty may adopt in other worlds, it is plain that a system of constant enployment for his creatures, is the one which he has adopted for this. The pain, and the weariness, and the fruitlessness of human efforts, may be the consequence of the curse under which the earth is lying; but this curse has not occasioned the necessity of effort itself. Even the inmates of Paradise, when admitted to their happy residence, received it in charge to dress and to keep it. 3. There is some evidence that God will make use of the efforts of his servants in the accomplishment of his purposes in the future world, to be seen in the manner in which his great plans of benevolence are carried forward in this. The work of evangelizing the human race might just as rapidly and just as easily be carried on by the immediate agency of the Spirit of God, while every follower of Jesus should lie immured in a monastery or a hermitage. But this is not God's system of government. Christians must come forth; they must devise various and ingenious plans to bring God's truth before the minds of men; they must translate the Scriptures, — educate and send forth the publishers of peace, and engage with all the zeal and earnestness, in devising and executing their schemes, which would be necessary if there was no other being in the universe who was interested in the promulgation of the gospel. Now can it be that a method the very reverse of this will be adopted in other parts of God's empire? that while on this earth, God leaves his work in the hands of his servants, and that so completely, that unless they go forward and do it, it is not done at all, he will in another part of his |