post-mark, but neither saying anything of his whereabouts. letter runs as follows: The last (Postmark, Glasgow, 30th Dec., 1884.) “Dear Mother,—I write you a few lines to let you know that I am keeping well, and I hope you are also. I know that you will be saying— "Oh! where is my boy to-night? Oh! where is my boy to-night? My heart overflows, for I love him, he knows; Once he was pure as morning dew, As he knelt at his mother's knee; No face was so bright, no heart more true, And none were so sweet as he.'" But he has broght it on hisself. I do not intend to come home till I am fit to live with the rest of the children. I have wronged you in many ways. But do forgive me. I know you will. "This might have been posted sooner, but I hadn't a penny to get a stamp. Give my compliments to the children. "GOD IS LOVE." Amen. Through a mother in Edinburgh whose son had been restored, this lad's mother heard of the rescuing work carried on in James Morrison Street Hall, and came through to Glasgow in the faint hope of finding her boy. She was taken to the Central Police Office, and there described the lad minutely to a lieutenant, who took down the description, and read it to the force that night. Late next night a police messenger came to the worker's house, saying that the lad had his quarters in the P- Street lodging-house, and that a constable was watching that the lad did not leave. The worker went straight to the lodging-house, though it was midnight, and informed the boy of his mother's anxiety and visit. Next morning saw him off to Edinburgh, the worker telegraphing the mother, who was waiting her boy. She wrote at once expressing her thanks. The police force, from the captain downwards, cannot be thanked sufficiently for the help they give in such cases. Should these facts come under the eye of any father or mother whose lad or girl has left home, they may be helped in their search for the wanderer by putting themselves in communication with those in charge of the Children's Sabbath Dinner, United Evangelistic Hall, James Morrison Street. The Children's Portion in the Sanctuary. IN the preface to his most recently published volume, "The Children's Portion," the Rev. Dr. Alexander Macleod offers the following remarks for the consideration of his brethren in the ministry: "The practice of bringing in a little sermon for the children during the ordinary service is, I am happy to know, extending. But, as yet, it is still the exception; and it will not, I trust, be considered out of place if I use this preface to say a word or two in its commendation. "At least one in every three who come to our churches is a child under twelve years of age. In every congregation of worshippers, therefore, there is a congregation of children. "Sabbath brings to those young hearts a certain stir of expectation. Everything is different from other days. The very preparation announces that it is to some great festival the family are going. The thoughts of the children are set toward a great occasion. Sabbath after Sabbath they go up to it with expectation in their hearts; and Sabbath after Sabbath, in the majority of our churches, this expectation is not recognised, their presence is not felt, and they are not once addressed. The psalms and hymns express experiences at which they have not arrived. The sermon is in a language they do not understand. At length the great occasion has come to an end: the people are faring back to their homes; but not one word has been spoken to the children, concerning whom our Lord left this injunction, 'Feed my lambs.' "Who can think of the immense number of children throughout our churches who come up to the public service, Sabbath after Sabbath, with eager hope of finding some interest for their young souls, with that hope growing smaller and smaller as the brief years of childhood run out, until, at last, the pathetic habit is formed of expecting nothing? Who can think of this and not sympathize with the desire to provide for them also a portion in the service, which they shall look forward to, and by which their spiritual lives shall be fed ? "I use the freedom here of entreating my younger brethren in the ministry to consider these circumstances of the children in their flocks, and whether it is not their duty, in some way or other, to meet their need. It cannot be a satisfactory reflection to any minister that his teaching flows like a river, not through, but past the lives of the children. It could not but be joy to him and a blessing to his own soul, if, at every morning service, for one ten minutes out of the ninety, he were in direct contact with the souls of the children. It seems to me-I say it respectfully-that never a Sabbath should pass in which the preacher does not give wings to some story of God's love, or Christian life. Such a story will go up and down, and in and out, in young hearts throughout the week that follows, doing work for God. In this way he would whet and keep whole the appetite of the children for the services of the sanctuary. Doing this, he would open to their young eyes the windows of heaven, and give them glimpses of the vision of God. And in that golden space, in those so consecrated minutes, he would bring back for them, and it may be for their parents as well, the days when Jesus spoke to the disciples in parables, and taught those children of His love, as they were able to receive His words." The Love of of Children. By the REV. J. H. PATERSON, Dumbarton. (Continued from page 36.) Another inducement to love of the little ones, and painstaking labour in their religious good, is found in God's love and estimate of them. Made in His image and after His likeness, of necessity they are in His thoughts and love above all material things. Suns and moons and stars have His unceasing care; He is ever under them, giving to them reality and determining their movements; but His care of them is that of the mother in her house furniture,-it is for the sake of another. The heavens and the earth were made, and are kept moving in their beauty and order, to minister to men. "All things are for your sakes." Christ, who is God to us, presents us with a convincing picture of the Father's love for little ones. The children whom the fathers and mothers brought to the Saviour, from a true instinct that He would be a lover of such, and that there would be some peculiar value in His benediction, the disciples would have hindered from coming near to Him. But He said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God;" and He took them up in His arms and blessed them. The blessing He gave was not the expression of a new-born love or a new-kindled interest, that had respect only to the little ones then present. This is plain, first, from the feeling of those parents who brought their children; and second, from the Saviour's words, " For of such is the kingdom of God." The conviction that love for their offspring lay in the heart of the tender gentle Shepherd, constrained the parents to lead them hither to Him; and the Master vindicates most emphatically the parents' feeling in the gracious announcement, "For of such is the kingdom of God." All children everywhere are embraced within the compass of His reference. Those near at hand and those afar off. Those born into Christian families, and those born into godless homes. The kingdom of God, on the side of its privileges, honours, and joys, belongs to all the little ones. They are God's. He is their Father, they are His offspring. He entertains for them the most fatherly feeling, and He seeks to guide and lead them, that they might always dwell in the light of His face. After His resurrection, and immediately before He ascended to His Father, the Saviour said to Peter, "Feed my lambs." Now, while I do not suppose that Jesus here referred exclusively to children, I feel sure they were embraced in the injunction. Suppose Him to denote the entire flock, viewed in relation to the individual care and tender painstaking needed by all its members from him who is over them as the representative of the chief Shepherd, the little ones cannot be left out of count. The entire flock of the Lord, the chief Shepherd, has lambs as well as sheep, not simply in respect of strong and weak in the faith, but in respect to those who are young in years and those more advanced in life. The children, to whom belongs the kingdom, are the lambs of the flock; so that the love of the Saviour for the children, as well as for the grown-up persons, shines clearly and fully out in this injunction to Peter, and to all who like Peter can say, "Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee." Now, when children are considered in the light of God's character, who made them, and in the light of His love and gracious regard for them, and of their relation to Him, what should be our feeling for them? Should it be that of indifference or cold neglect, of which we have heard so many and bitter complaints made against even those who aspire to something higher than the common Christian level? Certainly not. To think with God is honouring alike to His will and to our head; and to love whom He loves is at once our duty and our privilege. We cannot know God in His relation to the little ones and not love them. What should be kept in view is the impartiality of the feeling we are now considering. It ought to know nothing of class distinction and social status, but like the rain and sunshine which God sends alike upon the just and the unjust, it should be extended to all children without distinction. It is questionable if that feeling is of God that is alone exercised to secure the moral and spiritual education of the children of the well-to-do classes, who live in a sphere more or less pervaded with Christian influence and Christian teaching, and whose manners and dress are not offensive to good taste. One thing is certain, to be Christ-like the feeling will naturally tend, as the roots of the trees toward the streams, to the less fortunate and happily circumstanced; and the street Arab and the drunkard's child, whose days and years are spent with the base and the vulgar, will have our prayers and self-denying efforts. In their interests whatever we have and whatever we are shall be lovingly devoted. Nothing can atone for the want of this love, nor play the part of a substitute. It is to the Sabbath school teacher, and to all who would help the young and rising generation to true views of life and conduct, the most important of all requisites. Without it knowledge is powerless, and zeal and enthusiasm mere names. "Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away." Love never fails. We come now to consider for a moment another reason or occasion for the growth and practical expression of this principle of love for children. Made in the image and after the likeness of the great Creator, they are lovable. Material wealth and beauty pale and sink into insignificance before that of the child. Its worth is moral and its beauty spiritual. There are wonders wherever we turn, mysteries all around us; but there is no greater mystery than the child. Created for indefinite growth, like the love of Christ, it passeth knowledge. Now we seem to know and comprehend it. We map out its being to our entire satisfaction. We classify, according to their supposed value and operations, and glibly name over the various faculties and powers of its mind. This is will, that is intellect, and that beyond feeling. We speak of the mental, the emotional, the moral, and so fondly dream that we have a pretty correct and comprehensive knowledge of a human mind. One of our great students compared himself, in his researches in the domain of thought, to a little child gathering pebbles along the sea-shore. Here and there he picked up a thought as he traversed the shore of the great sea of truth, across which sea he saw but a short distance. The best of us know but little at the best of the possibilities and capabilities of the children. We know them but in germ, we see them but in promise. Were the spirit of the nature of a vessel that is but to be filled up with all kinds of knowledge and wisdom, or of a block which is to be polished into certain forms of beauty and loveliness, it might be possible to tell the future greatness and grandeur of a child. But such figures are only admissible in popular and figurative representation, not in accurate and metaphysical definition of the soul. We feel sure that no material sign can adequately represent the spirit. True enough, that, like the seed, it possesses in germ all that it will ever become; but unlike the seed, instead of any tendency to exhaust itself in growing, it thereby increases its capacity for growth. The soul that has risen to the highest pitch in knowledge is not only the most youthful, but the best fitted for still further acquisitions. Here lies the value and loveliness of every child. You can fix no bounds to its development, no limits to its increase in wisdom and love. One acquisition but leads to another and another, and still another, on through the ages of eternity. Its path is ever upward and forward, with its range of vision broadening and widening at every step. There is much of mystery here, but more of worth; much to excite wonder, but more to kindle love. If things and persons were valued and loved by us according to their nature, of necessity our love for children, for the purity of their minds and hearts, and their growth in all that is good and true, would exceed in strength and depth all carnal loves. Next to our love for Him in whom we live, move, and have our being, would be our interest in God's lambs that have been committed to our care. For their dear sakes we would "live laborious days, scorning delights; " or rather, we would find our greatest delight in helping them to help themselves in the world of drawbacks. True love is never inactive and never selfcalculating. Its spirit is, "How much can do, and how much can I give?" It lives to minister, and that in the spirit of our Saviour. What the children around us will become here and hereafter depends, to a very large extent, upon the efforts which the Christian will put forth in their interests. Unless we cast around them the arms of a wise and religious education, they shall, in all probability, wander into the paths of folly, sin, and shame. But such Christ-like labours we can only engage in, with honour to ourselves and profit to those for whom they are undertaken, when love moves and fills the heart. Where this divine feeling is possessed, work in behalf of the moral and spiritual good of the children will be positive pleasure. I regret to think that money is too often made to take the place of personal labour in certain spheres of Christian activity. True love for the dear children will give its money; nor will it withhold its personal efforts to teach the young the fear of the Lord, that is the beginning of wisdom. If this divine feeling be in us and abound, we shall neither be barren nor unfruitful. Sabbath School Libraries. By MR. THOMAS MASON, Librarian, Stirling's and Glasgow Public Library. (Continued from page 39.) The books have next to be numbered. Take down the first book on the highest shelf of the first press, and number it 1. Give the next one 3 as a number, the next one 5, and so on. The blanks are for the insertion of additions to the stock of books. If the first book were Adams's "Schoolboy Honour," and sometime after you received another volume |