counsel of good will not be heeded, your remarks on heaven will not be regarded, the child is too sensitive to reality; as we would be, were we advised to abstain by a drunkard, or counselled to give up amusement, by the reckless worldling.

Brothers and sisters, do we yearn to do good? Let our word at class be our way at home. Let us live at home what we live in the class. The religion that is fit to teach the child is the religion for us. Did not the Lord say, "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven"? Yes: the religion of the child is the religion of the man; so if the child is to live it, we must live it too; if the child is to love, we must love too; if the child is to pray, we must pray too; to be gentle, we must be gentle too. Oh! teach not the thing you live not; advise not the thing you value not; or it loses all its charms, and its loveliness is hid. That which you do teach, let it be, every word of it, genuine, heart-felt and true; for then your life shall apply it, your life shall recommend it, and your children will say, "He's in earnest, he means it, he believes it, he feels it, he lives it at home, I will follow with him, come let us mark his words." So shall your labours be eminently blest, your words applied by your ways shall never be lost. The ripples of time shall not wear away, nor the waves of eternity ever obscure their impress.

CIRSO.

"MEN WHO HAVE RISEN."

AT a social temperance gathering, George Lomax told the following story:-"Henry Hetherington published the Poor Man's Guardian, which struck the first practical blow at the obnoxious stamp duties. The vendors used to sell a straw and give a paper. One day there came to the rendezvous, at New Cross-street, a youth, one of a class known in those days as a 'big piecer.' He told them that two of the newsvendors had just been taken to the New Bailey, and added to this effect-'If I had something to start with, I would go out and sell them; for if they put me in prison they would have to keep me.' Lomax took round his hat, half-a-crown was raised; the lad was furnished with a supply of papers, went out, sold them, took care of the profits; and so on from little to more, by dint of industry, steadiness, and an aptitude for business, he achieved a position in society. That lad's name was Abel Heywood; and he is at the present moment the Mayor of Manchester."-Southport Visitor.

SUNDAY SCHOOL ADDRESS.

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock."

LET us take each word separately.

I. Behold! We all know what that means. When we are asked to behold anything, it is to look at it. How often do we see persons beholding many things that are not worth noticing. Here we are told to behold! But what? Is it worth our attention? We shall see as we proceed.

Let us

II. I! This is whom we have to behold. Who is it? enquire into the matter, and see if we can find, whether or not, the subject is worth our notice. Undoubtedly, it means Christ. He who was born at Bethlehem, in a manger, and to whom we find wise men of the East doing homage. Look into His life a little. We behold him at twelve years old in the Temple, hearing and asking the doctors questions, who were surprised at him and his answers, as well they might be. He, whom we find at the grave of Lazarus, and bidding him arise from the silent tomb. He, who as he passes by the city of Nain, beholds the widow, and makes her heart leap for joy by bringing her son back again to life. We find Him also, in his daily life, healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, making the dumb to speak, and the lame to walk. Then, after all, we behold Him enduring the wrath and malice of His enemies, who thirst for His blood, and are crying out,-"Away with Him! away with Him." "Crucify Him! crucify Him." Then we behold Him nailed to the accursed tree-the rocks rending-the dead risingand darkness over all the land for three hours: and after this, "the third, the appointed day," we behold Him rising conqueror over death and the tomb. Thus proving that He was the Son of God, and that the grand scheme of redemption was once and for ever complete. This is He, who stands at the door and knocks for admission.

III. Stand! It does not say, "Behold, I sit at the door and knock," but stand! This implies that He will not always be there. Standing is not an attitude of rest. Whenever you see a person standing, you make up your mind that he will shortly remove from the spot. So here Christ is represented, or rather represents Himself, as standing, as though He would not always be found there. IV. At! A little word, but an important one. Christ does not say, "I stand in the door," but at the door; implying, waiting for an entrance,-not thrusting himself in, but leaving it to the person to admit him. Just like a friend going to the house of another and waiting at the door for admission.

V. The! Another little word, but of more importance perhaps,

than the former. It does not say, at a door, but the door; your door, my door; at each individual sinner's heart. Religion is a personal thing, and as such Christ treats it, and comes to every sinner's heart and asks for admission.

VI. Door! If a person is going on a visit to a friend, at what part of the house does he knock for admission? Does he go to the wall or window and knock? Certainly not. Common sense tells him to go to the door and knock. Why? Just because that is the entrance to the house. So Christ knocks at the door, as that is the entrance to the heart of man.

VII. And! Very little words are often very important in a sentence. Undoubtedly this "and" is. Christ here represents himself as doing something else besides standing. You see a person standing at yonder door. If he was merely to stand there, do you think he would gain admission? How would the people inside know that there was anyone waiting at the door? No; common sense tells him he must do something besides standing. What! we shall see under our next head.

VIII. Knock! This is what a person does besides standing at the door. He knocks. Then he gains admission. So Christ does the same thing. He stands at the door and knocks. How? In various ways-by His word, works and ways. By all these, He knocks for admission into our hearts. Sometimes he lays affliction upon us, and thus reminds us that this is not our rest. Sometimes He takes away our dearest relatives, and thus says, "Prepare to meet thy God." In His works we can learn many a useful lesson : see in Autumn, the leaves falling to the ground, an emblem of the frailty of human life. Look into His word and there read the warnings and encouragement it contains. He knocks also, by our privileges; the means of grace by which we are favoured from time to time; and by a thousand different ways He is seeking to draw our hearts to himself, so that we may be happy, both in this life and that which is to come. Then ponder over the subject; seek to have "Christ in you-the hope of glory; and then, after feeling the debt of gratitude you owe to Him, go and do good to those around you. We are put into this world to get good and to do good. "Then let us buckle on the whole armour of God, fight the good fight of faith, and lay hold on eternal life."

There, right before our Saviour,

So glorious and so bright;
We'll wake the sweetest music,
And praise Him day and night.

BOOKS.

From "THE ROCK."

Books have prodigious power. I had a young friend once, whose early years were passed under decided religious influences, he was endowed with unusual strength of mind, and at a very early period of his life, became distinguished as a public man. Few memorials in the quiet seclusion of Mount Auburn, mark the resting place of one more respected for learning and integrity. He had been an observer of the devoted piety, and triumphant death of a Christian friend, whose hope of salvation had no basis but the blood and righteousness of Christ, and his own views until he reached maturity were settled, (at least speculatively), upon the same foundation. But a printed sermon by a distinguished preacher of a radically different faith, was put into his hands, and with the help of peculiar personal associations, changed at once the whole current of his views, and persuaded him to adopt a system of belief, in which Christ and his cross occupy a very subordinate place, if recognised at all. I do not cite this case to encourage a blind adherence to one set of opinions, however hoary with age, and fortified by venerable names, or by the authority of powerful sects, but to illustrate the influence of a book over a strong mind, and long settled convictions. If we could trace the means which have contributed to form our present views to three principal external sources, viz.: what we have seen, what we have heard, and what we have read, we should probably find the last by no means the least active or fertile. A book is a silent but most intimate companion; it does not ask attention, nor take offence at neglect; its name and dress give us no certain clue to its character; the opinions of others as to its value may be the result of prejudice or ignorance. We are told that to know what it is, we must read it, and to read it is to subject ourselves to its influence for better or worse. Prudent travellers in public conveyances, or sojourners at hotels, are very careful what intercourse they encourage, or allow strangers to have with them, for a pickpocket is not always distinguishable by dress or manners from an honest gentleman; but how much more vigilant should we be to preserve the mind and heart from contact with what may pollute or pervert, than to protect our purse or watch from light-fingers! When you take up a book to read, of the character of which you are wholly unapprised, is your presumption less than when you admit to your confidence one to whose principles and motives you are a stranger? It might indeed, be easier to throw

the book aside than to discard the treacherous friend; but on the other hand, the former may conceal the poisonous fang till the fatal wound is made; while the latter by his tone and manner will be very likely to betray his character in season to defeat his evil purpose. The art of introducing false or equivocal principle into the public lecture, the newspaper paragraph, or the book, in company with incontrovertible truths, has been brought to great perfection in our day; it is not always, perhaps not generally, an intentional fraud upon the hearer or reader. The author's or lecturer's mind may have been perverted; or truth and error may be so uncertainly comprehended as to be mistaken the one for the other; but however ample such an apology may be for writing a bad book, it does not cover our imprudence, not to say folly, in reading it. Magazines, pamphlets, and newspapers, are the sluices through which every production of the human brain, that can be shaped in type metal, passes into the reading world. There is no principle so corrupt, no sentiment so false, no ribaldry so base, no jest so profane or obscene, that it has been denied an imprint. And what is particularly to be noted, the brighest wit, and the most sparkling popular style, are found in close alliance with some of the grossest forms of error. If marriage, the most sacred of all human relations, on which the chief interest of civilization and social virtue and progress rest, and to which woman owes her elevation above the condition of abject slaves; if marriage is to be assailed as a factitious rite, to be modified or entirely dispensed with as the parties concerned may choose, some glib romancer is at hand to prepare a flashy tale, or magazine story in which the sacred bond which the hand of God hath woven is rejected as a superfluous obligation, or an impertinent imposition on natural liberty, and a hundred thousand copies are afloat in a week, and largely in the hands of those who are least on their guard, and most easily deluded by meretricious reasoning.

Direct and open assaults on the Christian faith are rare in our day. Its principles commend themselves so generally to the wise and good, and are so obviously necessary to the well-being of society, that it requires no little boldness to impugn them; and besides, there is a way of sapping their foundations which has become quite common, and while it is much more effective, it excites no odium and very little resistance. Those who are unaware of the Protean shapes assumed by the subtle supplanters of our faith, are very likely to find themselves in the midst of a plausible argument against some cardinal doctrine of the Bible, before they suspect their proximity to danger.