are manifestly children of God, then your "patience of hope" on their behalf is no longer exercised, as to their salvation. But it is not the purpose of God, that we should walk by sight in this present evil world. Our encouragement to persevere in our labour of love for his name, should not depend so much on anecdotes, which prove to sight that they do not lose their reward, as on the broad, true, and faithful promises of a God that cannot lie! "Blessed is the man whose hope THE LORD IS!" "And we desire that every one of you

shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the Lord.”

"OH, HOW LOVE I THY LAW."

Thou book of God! in thee alone I find,
Fair mirrored forth, Jehovah's awful mind;
Love, wisdom, truth and holiness combined.
A cooling rill of Paradise art thou

To the soul's fevered thirst, or burning brow-
Where flow thy limpid waters all is green;
Where they flow not, drear, desert is the scene.
Thy vast depths sparkle with rich veins of ore,
Bright, boundless, such as God alone could store-
Yet free as air to all whose patient toil
Digs deep beneath the surface of the soil.

While murky gloom o'erspreads the slumbering world,
Who holds thy lamp, sees the thick mist upcurled-
Sees a straight path, which, as it upwards wends,
On Sion's hill in heavenly radiance ends.
Viewed by thy light, all nature wears a dress

Of grace unknown-of tenfold loveliness.
Without thine aid-without thy piercing rays,
Man looks bewildered on an hopeless maze.
Thine only key can turn those portals vast,
Whose broad dark shadows over earth are cast-
Can to the harassed, weary soul disclose
Sin as the only source of all its woes-
And how its time is fixed in the decree,
Framed in the counsels of eternity.
How, by the blood on Calvary outpoured,
All man had lost, by man shall be restored-
And a new heaven, and a new earth be made,
With higher glories, fairer charms arrayed.

H. H. M.

ON THE BENEFITS DERIVED BY THE TEACHER

FROM THE EXERCISE OF HIS OFFICE.

HOWEVER valuable in its results to the scholar be the office of the Teacher, it is not less important in its bearing upon the individual who fulfils it; of him is required a previous adaptation for its peculiar functions; he may hope for success as the fruit of his toil, and trust more confidently that his labour of love is not forgotten of his God, but his special blessings are not limited to preparatory endowments, and a future reward. His duties bring with them, in the very act of performance, a rich supply of instruction and discipline, of experience and comfort, which will repay, many fold, whatever amount of exertion or sacrifice they may involve.

The teacher, on first undertaking the charge of a class, is necessarily in a great measure unacquainted with his new position, uninitiated in the feelings, considerations, and duties which are proper to it, and ignorant of the precise character of the materials with which he has to deal; possibly also, he is little accustomed to the use of the instruments to be employed in his work, and lastly, in common with his fellow Christians and fellow men, he has ever much to learn of the realities existing in his own heart, or in the temporal and spiritual worlds around him. The course of his Sunday school teaching will render apparent to himself these several deficiencies, while it will suggest and aid the pursuit of those various branches of wisdom, by which ignorance may be supplanted and defects supplied.

It will assist the teacher in maintaining a just sense of his own position, to consider it as partaking, as it truly does, both of the parental and the ministerial character: as assistant to the parental duty and subsidiary to the ministerial office of instructing the young in the words of truth, and training them to live according to its dictates. This view will at once suggest the feelings of unselfish interest and affectionate earnestness that should animate the teacher, and the system of judicious assiduity and watchful control with which he should seek the object proposed, Ps. ciii. 13, 14; 1 Cor. iv. 14; 2 Cor. xii. 14, 15; 1 Thess. ii. 7, 8; Deut. vi. 7, 20-25; Prov. ii. 1-5; xxii. 6; 2 Tim. iv. 2, 5; ii. 24-26. The feelings which in the parent spring from natural instinct and are nurtured by habitual companionship, must in him whose connection is purely official and spiritual, arise from a distinct consciousness of his relative position, and be cherished and confirmed in the continual exercise of its duties; and being thus produced, they are less likely to interfere with the maintenance of due authority, but will afford an antidoto

to the coldness, indifference, impatience, and want of sympathy which often render its exercise burdensome, both to teacher and scholar. And while they thus render the work of education more grateful to both parties, they conduce also to its fuller accomplishment; for the imparting of knowledge and the restraining of open transgressions do not constitute the whole of religious training. Even considered as a human instrumentality, it should include the cultivation of respect and confidence, and love; of generosity, honour and honesty, which cannot be adequately inculcated by words alone; but should also be drawn forth by the previous developement in the teacher of characteristics and sentiments calculated to excite and encourage these feelings. It is highly important, not only that the teacher should be animated by right impulses, to seek desirable objects, but also that to this end his aim should be well directed, his means judiciously employed; for this purpose, he should possess, or endeavour to acquire and improve the powers of discernment, discrimination, and adaptation, which would enable him to understand and duly appreciate the various characters of his scholars, and regulate the matter and the mode of his instructions, to suit their capacities and dispositions. No small measure of skill may be required to maintain the common routine of school discipline, without apparent favour or distinction, yet, with a due regard to wide diversities, which may exist between the characters and circumstances of pupils, classed together on account of similarity in attainments; and in many cases, private admonition or encouragement may be wisely employed to compensate the unavoidable discrepancies of collective teaching. And when the preliminaries are thus settled, and the chief features of the field of action marked out, as it were, in the teacher's mind, the work of instruction will demand the full use of every mental qualification he may possess, sustained by previous study and exercised in humble dependence on the God of all grace, to give wisdom to the teacher and to the scholar, that each may speak or hear aright and to edification.

The points which have been thus briefly touched upon, might afford each an ample scope for more detailed consideration; but I would confine myself to an endeavour to indicate the benefits which the teacher derives immediately to himself in the exercise of his office, besides those acquisitions of intellectual improvement, experience and practice, which enable him to carry on the work of teaching with more advantage to his class. These benefits appear chiefly to consist in humiliation, an increased knowledge of human nature, and of the deep deceitfulness of sin, a more intimate acquaintance with Divine truth, the constant requisition of self-discipline, and the cultivation of the Christian graces.

That an institution to the office of teacher may prove a temptation to unseemly pride, especially in the young, we may directly infer from the caution of St. Paul, 1 Tim. iii. 6; but the right exercise of that office, will tend to humiliation, for he who labours for a certain end, will find in the imperfect result of his toil, a call to rigid selfexamination, also a test of his own deficiency, and an index to his infirmities, as among the causes of failure. Not that his want of success can be attributed entirely to these; for he tills an unkindly soil; and in the moral and intellectual world, not less than in the physical, the thorn and the thistle present themselves naturally and abundantly; they impede the task of cultivation, and mingle their evil growth with that of a better seed; in such fruits, the curse of a fallen world is apparent, and the teacher not less than the husbandman, while in toil he plants and cultivates, or mourns his choked and stunted harvest, must recognize the token and the penalty of a general corruption, in the guilt and defilement of which he shares. Furthermore, the study of individual characters, the enquiry into faults, and the investigation of their nature and origin, will lead to a fuller understanding of the evil root of sin, and of its several ramifications, which will prove of great service to the teacher, not only in his work of correcting the faults of others, but in that of self-examination, and the purging and amelioration of his own character. The sins of the scholars unchecked by even the secondary restraints which affect the teacher, are developed in broader characters of guilt; yet in many cases, it may be, not more contrary to the law of God, not more deleterious to the Christian life, than the more disguised or refined forms of self-indulgence, or wilfulness, to which the teacher is himself tempted: and much instruction may be derived from tracing the counterpart of his own natural character in some young erring brother, in beholding his own faults mirrored, or magnified in those of his scholars. A sense of the intolerable burden of a sin, kindred to that he would correct in another, will give earnestness as well as tenderness to his reproof, and while the position of superiority and the office of control must be adequately employed by the elder, for the edification and correction of the younger, surely, the spirit inculcated in St. Paul's admonition, Gal. vi. 1, should not be limited exclusively to the admonition of the adult, but should in due degree pervade all the ministrations of reproof, by those who have been themselves graciously dealt with by the heavenly Father, in whose sight they have often sinned.

The work of imparting Scriptural and religious instruction to others, must necessarily familiarise the mind of the teacher with the subjects he brings before them, and in adapting these to the comprehension of his scholars, he must not only consider the extent of their

capacities, but also study the several elements of the lesson he would. impart, in order that each may be learned, understood, and applied, as far as the efforts of the teacher may avail, for the purpose. The sense of such a definite design in some portion of his Scripture studies, will afford the teacher a valuable stimulus to patient research, intellectual activity, and earnest prayer for a spirit of understanding; the endeavour to express with perspicuity, will induce accuracy of conception, and a distinctness of perception will be increased in the effort to furnish clear explanations.

Some degree of self-denial the duties of a teacher necessarily demand in the sacrifice of time or convenience, and in maintaining that concentration of energies and previous study, which are conducive to his efficiency; and if his heart be in the work, it will occupy his thoughts in many hours beyond those actually engaged in it; no portion of his week-day life should be inconsistent with the character he bears on the Sunday, for he will find by experience, how important are the habits of unremitting self-discipline to him who would maintain a profitable control over others, and will feel how essential it is to his entering on his work in an effective attitude of mind, that his thoughts should not only be specially attuned to it in the hours immediately preceding, but should be kept constantly in a frame not unsuited to it. Frequent recollection of the individuals of his class, with prayer for God's blessing upon each, a consideration of their several characters, and of the means of improvement adapted to them, will assist the teacher in maintaining a course of life continuously consistent with his office; leisure, or choice of occupation, are not necessary to his so doing, for the daily routine of an active and industrious life will afford opportunities for self discipline, and the progressive subjugation of an evil nature, not less salutary and probably more effective than any which an individual could provide for himself. When the teacher comes week by week to assail the strongholds of Satan in the hearts of his scholars, he should come from the foughten field of his own private experience, not as a yielding coward, or a weak and inefficient combatant thereon; but with some such experience of success through the help of God, as may strengthen his hands and stimulate his energies to the external conflict with the power of evil in others and to this wider sphere of strife, he must come still endued with the whole armour of God, and the full investiture of Christian graces; and the more determined his efforts, the more earnest his endeavours, the more will every weapon of attack and defence be called into requisition. If he would here wield with success the sword of the Spirit, he must have tried its piercing power in his own spiritual warfare; if he would effectually proclaim salvation to others, the hope of it must rest