pages of this Magazine. I will not therefore dwell on the inconsideration sometimes manifested on that head, but content myself with simply offering one suggestion in reference to it. A limited income, barely adequate to the ordinary and continual demands of a family, often place a Christian minister in a difficult and embarrassing situation. A severe and expensive illness, the putting out a son in business, or other emergency, may, with every care, occasion distress and injurious solicitude to the pastor's mind for months or even years. And is not this lamentable? Would it not be easy for ten, twenty, or thirty of his attached flock, whom God hath prospered, in the most delicate and unobtrusive. manner, to present the needful sum to the pastor, of whose spiritual things they largely partake, and thus restore the good man's mind to cheerful serenity?

But I proceed to animadvert on the want of consideration in regard to a minister's time and labour.

Many seem to forget that a careful and conscientious preparation for the duties of the sanctuary, requires a considerable portion of the pastor's week, inasmuch as it demands a continual addition to his stores of theological and general information, as well as the direct composition of his pulpit discourses. Nor does it less include the habitual cultivation of a studious, contemplative, and devotional spirit. Such a course of study, however, cannot be successfully prosecuted without the command of a large portion of each morning; and it would be of unspeakable advantage to ministers, if their people would regard the hours before noon as sacred to their pastor, and not, without some good and sufficient reason, endanger the interruption of his studies, and the serenity of his mind, by calling upon him before the hour of twelve.

It is not uncommon for the attached friends of ministers to join heartily in rebuking others in the mass for consuming the pastor's morning by unnecessary calls; while, from self-love, they are themselves making still larger demands upon his time and attention.

Surely, calls upon ministers should never be extended to an unreasonable length. But the want of consideration on the part of many hearers is still more strongly shown in the dissatisfaction not unfrequently expressed at the few and scanty visits which they receive

from the pastor, even where his time and energies are evidently taxed to the utmost extent of safe exertion. Such persons do not sufficiently consider the mental as well as bodily fatigue which a series of pastoral visits induces. In cases of illness, or other urgent affliction, indeed, it is natural and proper to desire the assiduous attention of the spiritual physician; but under ordinary circumstances, a minister should not be expected to pay either long or frequent visits to the healthy members of his flock. Imperfect preparation for the pulpit, and a languid delivery in the pulpit, may be regarded as the almost inevitable results of the exhaustion by excessive pastoral visiting. The same might be said of ministerial labours. There is a point of safety, beyond which hearers ought not to wish their minister to go. It may be sometimes difficult to determine whether the pastor have already reached that precise point; but surely every affectionate member of his flock should anxiously desire that he may not exceed it. And, perhaps, in most instances, an injurious amount of labour might be avoided, if intelligent and qualified laymen did but manifest a willingness to share in those exertions which are not strictly ministerial, and thus allow a greater concentration of pastoral energy in the exercise of duties which cannot be devolved on others.

That there is, however, a certain proportion of time and effort to be devoted to the important and indispensable work of pastoral visiting, cannot for a moment be doubted. How far that due proportion can be maintained by one pastor, in the supervision of a very large congregation, is an inquiry that probably deserves more attention than it usually

receives.

Is it not a question whether it might not be more pleasing to the Great Shepherd, for a minister to exercise a thorough pastoral care over five hundred souls, for example, with the capability of satisfactorily discharging all the duties, direct and collateral, which it may involve, than voluntarily to enlarge the sphere of labour to a thousand or more, under the alternative of either destroying the tone of body and mind, or of becoming chiefly the preacher or Sunday-pastor, to the comparative neglect of other official duties of scarcely inferior importance?

"Let all things be done. . .

I READILY grant that these words were addressed to the members of a Christian church, and not to a class of persons answering to my present auditory. Their adaptation, however, to the young friends before me is not the less obvious on this account. They contain a general sentiment, which will admit of particular application to an endless variety of cases. But to nothing will their application be more obvious than to the process of training the young mind. Order here, is indeed a first law, which, if neglected, will render nugatory every other effort to accomplish the great object of religious instruction.

The work, my beloved friends, in which you are engaged, is one of the most interesting to which mortals can devote themselves on this side eternity. You are supplying the lack of service of thousands of incompetent parents, in the all-important matter of instructing their dear children in the way which conducts to eternal happiness. What a task is that which you have undertaken! What results hang upon your labours! What a cloud of witnesses hovers over your path! Heaven and hell are alike moved and agitated by your anxious toil!

How important is it that you should have counted the cost! that your heart should be fully given to your work; that you should be deeply devoted to Christ; that your souls should glow with an intense benevolence; that one all-pervading motive should possess your spirits, and give tone and energy to all your proceedings.

The motto of Luther, "Work on earth, and rest in heaven," must be the motto of every Sunday-school teacher. That was a beautiful sentiment of Dr. Dwight, "He that makes a little child happier for half-an-hour is a co-worker with God." You, my dear friends, are proposing to make thousands of little children happier for eternity. But how much of your success will depend upon the methods you adopt, and the spirit in which you carry them out! You may have all the labour and anxiety of this work, without any of its blessed rewards. And

. in order."-1 Cor. xiv. 40.

this may be the result of some radical defect in your character, plans, and spirit.

You must be Christians yourselves, if you would effectually teach Christianity, even to a child. Prayer must sanctify all your efforts, if the smile of the Re deemer is to rest upon them. And what can you do without the smile of your Redeemer?

You must love little children, as Christ loved them, when he said, "Suffer them to come unto me," if you would expect that your looks and your words are to tell upon their young and tender minds.

Why are there so few efficient Sundayschool teachers, comparatively, among the thousands who give themselves to this blessed work in our day? Are not many light and trifling? Is it not to be feared, that some have entered on the work without any adequate sense of the infinite value of the immortal soul? Do not very many conceive of the work, as a thing easy of performance, and finding that they are disappointed, are they not speedily tempted to relinquish it? Do not others persevere in it without any powerful impression of its vast responsibility? And is there not a large class, who never think of seeking a growing qualification for their arduous duty, and who, therefore, remain uninteresting teachers to the termination of their engagement?

Rest assured, my friends, no one will be a really interesting and efficient teacher who does not strive to make himself well acquainted with his work, and to adapt his modes of instruction to the various tastes and characters of his youthful charge.

A Sunday-school teacher should be, in one sense, mighty in the Scriptures. Its facts, histories, biographies, leading doctrines and promises, should be familiar to him; and he should be able to talk of them, as one who is at home in this boundless and sacred field of instruction.

But a spirit of deep and pervading piety, is, I presume, the master quality of your fitness for opening the truths of the Gospel on the minds of little chil

dren. This will make your aim uniform. This will give unity of design to all your procedure. This will make you gentle and compassionate. This will infuse tenderness into the very tones of your voice, and sweetness into your very looks, as you survey the world of mind and immortal interest, which spreads itself before you on every returning Sabbath. It will send you to a throne of grace to plead for your little charge, and lead you to determine, in the strength of Divine grace, to be clear of the blood of all that hear you.

But while all this is true, solemnly true, I must not forget to remind you, that the order of your procedure, in connection with other primary qualifieations, is essential to the success of your undertaking. Order must enter into every thing connected with Sundayschool operations, if they are to tell with power and energy upon the mass of infant mind grouped together in our. various schools. Order, in instruction, is like a path to the traveller; and good order is like a well-levelled turnpike, as compared with a rugged and dangerous by-road.

There must be an orderly superintendent.

He must have a plan, and he must keep to it; and every teacher in the school must help him to carry it out. The disorderly will dislike his method; but this he must not regard. He is the main-spring, and if he is lax or disorderly in his operations, the whole machine will be deranged at its heart's core. His attendance must be orderly; if he is always in time at his post he will shame or draw others to their duty. must not be one to be trifled with; yet he must be mild and gentle, "even as a nurse cherisheth her children."

He

What is fixed on as the law of the school, he must administer, if the effect should be, that a whole race of refractory and incompetent teachers should be driven from their post. Never let him fear the result of doing his duty in the spirit of a Christian. If any are disap

pointed, because they cannot be disorderly, he will be well rid of such coadju tors, and others better qualified will rally round him in his arduous enterprise. But he must take no rest to himself till he has got all the teachers and all the children in order, each one at his post, and all performing their movements, like the several wheels of a well-adjusted machine-all obeying the impulse of the central source of action.

The teachers have all an important office to perform in sustaining the superintendent in the proper discharge of his duty. His success is their success; his failure is their failure; his honour is their houour, and his disgrace is their disgrace. Every teacher, with his class, must contribute his quota of service to the general order of the school. One disorderly teacher or class, will derange the whole school, and turn a paradise into a Babel. There must not be one late comer among the teachers; nor one gossip; nor one idler; nor one listless spectator, if the school is to present a spectacle of order.

Let me here say, that noise is a great enemy to order in a Sunday-school. am satisfied that the more quiet children are taught to be in the process of acquiring knowledge, the more successful will be the result. If every teacher, then, will see to the quietude of his own class, the whole school will be hushed into silence. I think there is a great fault in our Sunday-schools here. Make an effort, my dear friends, to alter the system in this matter; that the attention of teachers and children may not be called off from their work by the noise around them.

And oh be sure that there is order among the children during the hours of divine service. There is a great moral and religious lesson thus conveyed to the children of the poor. Let it be regarded as one of the highest offences that a child can commit not to behave itself in the house of God. Chelsea.

J. M.

first place, I ran over in my mind, and noted down the most likely persons in our little church and congregation to take a copy of the work, or a share of one. I then mentioned it to a few, and readily obtained their consent. I next ordered

a couple of extra copies, and sent them in rotation to the said persons, allowing a week to each for reading them. They were also sent to a few other persons who had not been spoken to, accompanied with the following note :-"A few of the friends of our chapel have agreed to take in the Evangelical Magazine, and will be glad for you to join them. In my humble opinion it is an interesting and useful publication, and certainly cheap. Each number contains thirtytwo pages of excellent reading, with a well-executed portrait, all for sixpence. We have therein clearly set forth the principles, constitution, and government of congregational churches, with continuous and pleasing details of their growing extension and influence. We have also affecting and instructive memorials of departed ministers and private Christians, who have served their generation and gone to their fathers; likewise many valuable essays, a rich variety of religious intelligence-together with a faithful report of Missionary operations

in all parts of the world. Besides, this Magazine is a charitable work. Its entire profits being appropriated to the support of the more destitute widows of ministers of various denominations. It being desirable to widen the circulation of the work, you are hereby respectfully requested to assist therein, and should a copy be too much for yourself, you would, perhaps, be willing to unite with a few other friends in subscribing for one."

This simple experiment has, I am glad to say, succeeded beyond my expectations, and were it tried in all our churches, a very increased circulation would, I am persuaded, be realised. Were only a

single copy more thus made way for in the two thousand and upwards of congregational churches in Great Britain-and how very easily this might be done!it would, apart from all other and greater good, make in many cases the "widow's heart to sing for joy." I may add, that some additional copies have thus been disposed of in Sunday schools, and in the villages. In conclusion, I would respectfully recommend to the notice of ministers, deacons, Sunday-school teachers, and other active persons in the church of God, this good work.

A PASTOR.

IN the good providence of God we have again been permitted to witness the revolving seasons. Their gradual and solemn succession was beautiful and instructive. They silently pushed each other along, till at length they were merged and entombed in that common rendezvous and resting place the "grave of the year." And now at this moment we find ourselves placed on the boundaries of two important periods of time. The year just closed, like its predecessors, has passed into eternity, bearing with it a faithful report of our sins, and mercies, and duties, to the great Author of our being, and Maker of our spirits, before whose tribunal we must one day stand, not as idle spectators as we have stood in earthly courts of judicatory, where man judges his offending fellow

MATT. XXV. 13.

man, but where we ourselves must be judged, and that by the Judge of quick and dead, according to the deeds done in the body, whether they be good, or whether they be evil, for "He hath appointed a day when He will judge the world in righteousness." He hath said, and He will bring it to pass, that "we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ;" and were we to look at things around us in a true light, we should regard closing Sabbaths, and departing years, and dying mortals, as all harmonising with the sterner voice of Scripture, in that solemn, and seasonable, and merciful admonition, "Prepare to meet thy God."

With the departed year this adinonition comes to us afresh. To some it comes, who through the grace of God

are prepared, and to many who are not; and, moreover, to not a few it comes for the last time. Oh, solemn thought! many in hailing the new born year, whether in the giddy dance, or sacred song, whether in the house of mirth, or house of prayer, are hailing, though unconsciously, the harbinger of their dissolution, and shall never, never hail again a new born year. And, my dear reader, very possibly, you and I may be of the devoted number of those who shall die this year, for

"Like crowded forest trees we stand,

And some are marked to fall."

Then let it be our fervent prayer, Blessed Lord, "so teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Mark

66

1. The warning voice comes to those who are ready. Such may be said to be in waiting for the coming of their Lord, whose welcome voice shall ere long salute their willing ears, saying, come up hither." Then having obeyed the glad summons, and having done with earth, and time, and death, and sin, they shall enter into rest and be for ever with the Lord. Let then the only rightful expectants of such bliss, true Christians, regard the present season as a fresh memento of their fast concluding probation, and their approaching departure to their heavenly home. Let it induce deep and serious thought, close self-examination, and fervent prayer. Let it lead to a fuller surrender of the heart to God-than which, nothing is more wanting! Let it, we say, lead to a fuller surrender of the heart to God, to more entire devotedness, to weanedness from the world, to greater spirituality of mind, to livelier and stronger faith, to holiness; in a word, to a nearer approximation of character to the blessed Saviour's-and to renewed zeal, and effort, and enterprise in advancing his cause and kingdom. Thus, O Christian, may the dawn of a new year arouse thee to press onward in thy heavenly course, doing the work and will of God, till in his righteous providence that will be accomplished, thy work done, and thy soul at rest.

2. The warning voice comes to those who are not ready. Not ready! How discordant and infelicitous the expression; but how doubly so the idea or import! Not ready! What unhappiness does such a position involve in worldly things! Apply it to a voyage, a journey, or even

66

some pecuniary engagement. Suppose the passage taken, the vessel under weigh, and the passenger ashore. But we need not follow out the comparison in all its bearings, to see the folly and unhappiness of being not ready. And if it be thus in things temporal, what in things spiritual? If so in time, what in eternity? Say, what must it be to die and not be ready-to be summoned to the tribunal of God unprepared? Why, it is to be lost, to perish, and that eternally; for then, grace and mercy will be clean gone for ever, and a 'great ransom cannot deliver us." How good, then, and gracious of Almighty God, to admonish us by his word, and encourage us by his Gospel, as well as call to us by another departed and unimproved year, to be also ready, seeing that we know not how soon death may come. Then, my dear reader, lay this matter to heart, I beseech you. Oh, that you were wise to know this, and consider your latter end! Be thankful that you are still in time, that you are favoured with the means of grace, that all things are now ready, and that the blessed Saviour invites you to approach him, assuring you that whosoever cometh he will in no wise cast out. this year be persuaded to hearken to his Gospel, follow the instructions of his word, bow at his footstool, cast your helpless, guilty soul upon Christ, and cherish in your mind the fact, that He will receive and save you. Thus have you set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, choose ye then this yearyea this day, whom ye will serve—as for me I will serve the Lord.

Then

3. The warning voice comes to some for the last time. Such it addresses as did the midnight cry the virgins:

Behold, the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him." Oh, might we all hear and regard it in this sense, seeing that many of us shall hear it no more! Then, Christian, seek to have thy lamp trimmed and burning. Mount the watch tower of faith, and prayer, and holy expectation, for soon, this very year it may be, the Master will come and call for theeand thou shalt enter into the joy of thy Lord.

And, O, nominal Christian, unrenewed person, though thou mayst have the form of godliness, and bear the lamp of profession, whose heart is yet unchanged, whose sins are unpardoned, and who of necessity must be pronounced a "foolish virgin," take