national counsels to prosperity and honour, has also been instrumental, under the same Divine guidance, of conducting many of our youth to learning, religion, and usefulness. We have thus endeavoured to bring before our readers, and we trust without offence to any denomination of Christians, certain incidents which establish an interesting relation between "Washington and the Presbyterians." Bousehold Choughts. SABBATH EVENINGS IN FORMER DAYS. AMONG Our Presbyterian forefathers it was not customary to have public service on Sabbath evenings. That time was usually devoted, in England, and especially in Scotland, to the instruction of the household. In addition to the family worship, which at these seasons was more solemn and more extended, the domestic ordinance of catechizing was observed with great punctuality and zeal. From the very beginning of the Reformation in Scotland, the greatest stress was laid on the religious instruction of the young, and this continues to be characteristic of that favoured country. Not only was there a school in every parish, in which the principles of religion were fully taught, but it was made the duty of Presbyteries to see that the work of catechizing was faithfully carried forward. In their stated domiciliary visits to the congregation, the ministers and elders were accustomed to call the family together, and to examine both parents and children, together with the servants, as to their knowledge of Divine truth. But all these methods would have been incomplete if they had not rested on the broader basis of household instruction. Soon after the production of the two Catechisms by the Westminster Assembly of Divines, these formularies were adopted by an act of the General Assembly of the Kirk, and came at once into universal use among the Presbyterians of Scotland. This place they have maintained ever since. Amidst all the secessions and disruptions of the original body, these venerable manuals have remained unaltered. The consequence has been, that all the Presbyterians of Great Britain, Ireland, the colonies, and the United States, have imbibed their doctrine from the Larger and Shorter Catechisms. After the evening meal of the Sabbath, the whole family was gathered, not excepting the domestics, some of whom were greyheaded servants of Christ, who had grown up under the roof. In our day of restlessness it is thought enough to despatch a few questions and answers; but the Scottish method was to go through the whole Shorter Catechism, without omission or abridgement. The presiding person in this exercise, was the master of the house; and we know families, in which, even now, this service is constantly performed without book. We were lately told by a lady, that, after her father's death, the catechetical examination was faithfully carried on by the mother; and no doubt this has happened in thousands of instances. Though the Larger Catechism was extensively taught, as was the case in a family from which the writer is descended, it was the Shorter Catechism which every youth, without exception, was expected to know. Any one who chooses to try the experiment, may easily satisfy himself how deeply this form of sound words is impressed on the memory of all who have enjoyed a regular Presbyterian training. After attaining a perfect knowledge of the text, children were made to learn a sufficient number of Scripture proofs. This was in itself a theological education. By weekly repetition, it was not merely taught, but inculcated, in the proper sense of that term; so that scarcely any lapse of years could entirely eradicate it from the mind. Whatever may be said about the tediousness of such a discipline, we believe all who have passed through it agree in looking back to those evening exercises as serenely delightful; and in regretting the seeming necessity of denying the same to their own children. In the Presbyterian houses to which reference is now had, Holy Scripture had its place, in the looking out of passages quoted by the preacher, and in repeating psalms and paraphrases. Expositions of a familiar kind were not unfrequently given, which left their impression on the youthful mind. In days when books were scarcer than at present, many an hour was spent in reading aloud from such works as Rutherford's Letters, Boston's Fourfold State and Crook in the Lot, Erskine's Gospel Sonnets, Guthrie's Interest, and the Sermons of Binning and Andrew Gray. Does not the heart of some reader bless God for these golden opportunities? There are many congregations among ourselves, in which the evenings of the Lord's days are vacant. It is a very serious question for parents and householders, how far they may employ this sacred season, statedly, for the benefit of their families. Thorough and effectual catechising, demands at least a weekly exercise; and where there is no other engagement, the best time for these is the Sabbath evening. Religious instruction, at such a season, is sanctified by the hallowed day, and sweetened by the flow of homefeelings. The service need be neither tedious nor burdensome. A little management may render it delightful. Next to the house of God, there is no place so favourable for the conversion of children. as the happy fireside. Let not the subject be laid aside, without some careful recurrence to the past, some candid self-examination, some deliberate planning, some resolved purpose, some self-denying and courageous endeavour, and some prayer to God for his blessing. C. Q. AN INCIDENT AND A LESSON. RETURNING from a pleasant walk, a trifling article took me into a store of ordinary appearance. Behind the counter stood the ladymerchant, with her slate in hands, calculating accounts. Whilst waiting for the article which I wished and had called for, I heard a little voice pronouncing loudly and distinctly-"Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." Turning, I beheld at my side a very small boy, his head scarcely high enough to reach the counter, with his little hands stretched up so as to rest his blue cotton-bound Testament, turned upside down, upon the top. "My little son," I said, “that is a good text, and I hope you will always remember it." "Hush your noise," cried the mother. Turning to her, I said, "My friend, do not rebuke your child, but rather encourage him." "Yes," she replied, "if he will only put things in their right places." "I presume he goes to Sabbath school." "No," said she, "he does not; but his elder brother and sister go to a school during the week, where they are taught to read the Bible: he hears them learning their lessons, and catches all these things, and the whole day he is repeating them." Saying to her, that it was a blessed privilege to have our children's memories stored with the word of God, I bade her good morning, and returned home. This incident, so small and simple in itself, served to strengthen my faith, which has never wavered, in the propriety, the importance, nay, the positive obligation, in a Christian land, of introducing the Holy Scriptures into our common schools, and regulating our whole system of education according to divine teachings. We cannot calculate the importance and value of even this one truth engraven upon the memory and heart of this little immortal being-"follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." Through all his after life, it may be to him a governing principle-regulating his relations and intercourse with his fellow creatures, and awakening him to a sense of his duty and obligations. to that Holy Being who cannot look upon evil with the least allowance. The first sentence which I ever remember to have read in my youth, was from Noah Webster's spelling-book-"No man may put off the law of God;" and here it rests in my memory as fresh as yesterday, undisturbed by the passage of more than twenty years; and often in that period has it echoed and re-echoed in the chambers of my soul, as conscience stood debating whether I should obey God, rather than man. "I will not send my child to a school where the word of God is taught, and religious influences are exerted, for fear that he will become a bigot," is a sad fallacy. Then you would rather place him where no fear of God is set before his eyes, and his unrebuked depravity, and his unoccupied mind will be best prepared to admit the poisonous influences of a lawless infidelity, or a corrupt and perverted faith. You would rather have your child the thorn and thistle of the hedge, the bramble running wild with its own luxuriance, than the pleasant plant of the garden, nurtured by the hand of diligent care, pruned and cultivated for beauty and usefulness here, and if watered by Divine grace, made meet for the Master's service, and prepared for the paradise of God. Give me, for ever give me, that system of education, which from his birth recognizes my child as an immortal being, and through all the period of youthful accountability, is training him to fear God and keep his commandments. This links him to the skies by a chain which is seldom severed in his passage from time to eternity. J. M. KEEPING THE VINEYARDS OF OTHERS. It is too much the fashion and temptation of the day to work in other vineyards than our own. If our ancestors and predecessors were too circumscribed in their views and endeavours, confining their sympathies too closely to their own homes, we are prone to rush into the opposite extreme, and do all our work abroad. Philanthropists labour to cure evils in other lands instead of their own, or in remote corners instead of their own neighbourhood: reformers descant upon the sins of far off people; parents leave the instruction of their children to others, and neglect the comfort of their families, in the exciting and absorbing public labours which surround them. The father it may be is a minister of the gospel, a professor in a literary institution, a teacher of youth, a projector of books and systems for improving educational measures; and in the feeling that he is labouring in an important cause, forgets that he is not doing for his own family what he is striving to do for others-secure their moral and intellectual advancement. The wife and mother has so many societies and calls of benevolence abroad, that her own household receives very little of her serious, calm attention, and her children less of her personal supervision. The daughter prefers the sewing or reading society, to the needful use of the needle at home, or to reading to her weary parents in a quiet evening. These benevolent and public efforts are not to be condemned, nor the diffusive spirit repressed; but they should not precede nor supersede personal and home duties. Good endeavours should not be expended upon other people's vineyards, to the neglect of our own. They should not be as messengers of good perambulating about our homes, but never bestowing their blessings there. Rather should they be benign influences radiating from home, having in its precincts their source, and showing their abiding and most genial effects within its inclosure.-British Mother's Magazine. VOL. I.-No. 2. 11 "THE FIELD IS THE WORLD." is pleasant to look on the broad whelming sea- WO ven you, my dear children may hasten the time Free Church Missionary Record. Review and Criticism. Christ's Second Coming: Will it be pre-millennial? By the Rev. DAVID BROWN, St. James' Free Church, Glasgow, Scotland. R. Carter & Brothers, N. Y. Having imported this acute work a few months ago, and been delighted and edified by its argument, it gave us great satisfaction to find that the Messrs. Carter, with their usual enterprise, had republished it for American circulation. Hitherto, the pre-millennialists, or those who believe that Christ will come before the millennium, have, in this country, had the discussion of these great questions pretty much to themselves. We think that the religious press has failed to enlighten the Church on the important points involved in the controversy. The work before us gives light, like the sun rising in the unoccupied firmament. Mr. Brown's book is divided into two parts. The first part relates more particularly to the second advent, its time and circumstances. The second part discusses the nature of the millennium. The theory which Mr. Brown opposes is thus defined by him: "That the fleshly and sublunary state is not to terminate with the second coming of Christ, but to be then set up in a new form; when, with his glorified saints, the Redeemer will reign in person on the throne of David at Jerusalem for a thousand years, over a world of men yet in the flesh, eating and drinking, planting and building, marrying and giving in marriage, under this mysterious sway." The following is a part of the creed of pre-millennialists. 1. The personal appearance of Christ upon this present earth is at the beginning of * Isaiah xi. 9; Habb. ii. 14. |