MR. EDITOR,

In the Sunday school with which I am connected, viz., Park Chapel, Chelsea, there is a practice adopted, which, if more generally followed, greater blessings would attend (as might be expected) the instruction given in Sunday Schools.

It is simply this:-After the scholars are dismissed in the afternoon, the teachers remain in the school-room, and then the superintendent either asks one of the teachers to offer up a prayer for a blessing upon the instruction which has been given, or does so himself.

I am aware that it is usual for teachers of Sunday schools to assemble

for the purpose of prayer, before the school is opened; but I think that in practice the former plan will be found preferable to the latter, where both one and the other cannot be carried out.

I am sure that many more teachers will be found to attend the one than the other, and that alone would be a sufficient reason to adopt it. Having myself experienced the blessing attendant upon this practice, I make it known to you, that you may commend it to all other Sunday school teachers. I am, Sir,

Your obedient Servant,
George L. Byer, R.N.

Immediately on the arrival at Sierra Leone of our three Missionaries from England, the Rev. Messrs. Townsend, Gollmer, and Crowther, who had been appointed to undertake the Abbeokuta Mission, preparations were made for their further voyage to Badagry. An American vessel was at that time lying in the harbour of Freetown, and as she possessed suitable accommodation, she was engaged to convey the Missionaries to their destination, and on the 18th of December, 1844, commended to the Divine protection and blessing, by the Missionaries in Sierra Leone, and the whole body of Christian negroes in the colony, who continued to take the deepest interest in the enterprize, the "Adario" weighed anchor, and proceeded out to sea. The voyage was a safe and prosperous one, and after calling at Monrovia, Cape Palmas, and Cape Coastcastle

anchor was dropped off Badagry, 17th January, 1845. The violence of the surf on that coast is so great, that it is usually very difficult, and sometimes dangerous, to land. On this day, however, it was more moderate than usual, and our Missionaries, with their wives, and four native teachers, reached the shore without inconvenience, although on subsequent days several canoes were upset, and some property injured and lost.

But melancholy news reached them soon after their arrival, for on the 25th of January a rumour was circulated in Badagry that Sodeke, the chief of Abbeokuta, at whose urgent request the mission had been undertaken, was dead! The following day the report was confirmed. This painful intelligence threw a deep gloom over the prospects of the mission. What, under these unlooked

for circumstances, were the Missionaries to do?

In order to keep open the road between Badagry and Abbeokuta, and to protect travellers from the hands of the slave dealers, an encampment had been formed on the way nearly six years previously, by Sodeke, and the Yoruba chiefs. Here many of the Abbeokuta chiefs were sojourning, and on the 30th of January the Missionaries left Badagry in order to visit and consult with them. They spent a clear day at the encampment, where they were kindly and hospitably received. The chiefs advised them to dwell for a short time at Badagry, because (they said), there was no head at Abbeokuta since Sodeke's death, to whom they could look for protection; besides, war was in the road between the encampment and Abbeokuta, so that they could not pass safely.

These circumstances, though appa rently adverse, have tended rather to the furtherance of the Gospel: for the Missionaries being thus for the present precluded from proceeding into the interior, began to turn their attention to the spiritual wants of the population of Badagry. A temporary Church was commenced, and an umbrella tree, standing between two market places in the native town, was fixed upon, under the deep and welcome shade of which, the truths of the Gospel have been proclaimed to the people. A native-built house, too was soon erected, and the frame house, which one of the Missionaries had brought with him from Sierra Leone, was put up for their accommodation.

Under the umbrella tree large congregations were frequently addressed. Soon after his arrival, the African Clergyman, Mr. Crowther, speaking of this service, says, "the children seemed to be peculiarly delighted, and were heard distinctly joining in the Confession, the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Responses, to the Ten Commandments, in the Yoruba language. Last Lord's

day I sighed that we could not as yet get any of these children to school; but to-day I brought with me a few letters of the alphabet, thinking they might amuse them. The simple-hearted children were quite pleased, and soon blocked me up in their midst, to see me point to the moon-like O, and the serpent-like S. Although the men and women were at liberty to go away after service, yet they remained to see these wonderful letters. When I was about to return home, some of the poor children fell on their faces to thank me for teaching them the white man's book." Since then Mr. Crowther has been removed to Abbeokuta, but Mr. W. Marsh, the native teacher, still preaches every Sunday under the umbrella tree. On some occasions the attendance of the people is very encouraging. He addresses his countrymen with great solemnity and force. One Sunday he preached upon the text, Luke xiii. 3, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish;" and some of his auditors frequently cried out during his discourse, "God have mercy upon us." Badagry has now its Church and Sunday and day schools, and the mission has recently been strengthened by the arrival of an additional Missionary. It is also very gratifying to add that the Missionary, Mr. Smith, on the 30th of September last, was enabled to baptize four of the natives. They are all of the Yoruba nation, and believed to be sincere Christians; one was a Yoruba man, and the other three women. The man, on being asked if he understood the nature of Baptism, replied, "it seems to me like an agreement between God and myself, which binds me to Him and his service as long as I live." One of the women, on being asked if she intended to give herself up to God fully, replied, "I have done so; and now I pray to God rather to let me die than turn again to sin." This woman, as well as the man, has lately mastered the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the

Ten Commandments, in the native language; and they are both progressing in the Sunday school. The man was formerly a worshipper of Ifa the god of palm-nuts; but Ifa, not being able to preserve his abode from fire, was left by him to be destroyed. Another rescued the god, and offered him to his owner, but he was rejected, as unable to take care of himself, much less to do any service to others.

lying bleaching on the sand. There is a spot in front of the Priest's dwelling, where all the unhappy individuals who happen to fall under the condemnation of the god Shesho, as guilty of witchcraft, are put to death. The bodies are placed on a scaffold, and left to decay, and their bones to lie bleaching in the wind and sun."

A great impediment to missionary labour in this part of Africa is, the constant excitement and sense of insecurity prevalent on the incursions of neighbouring slave-hunting monarchs. The king of Dahomey, in conjunction with the slave dealers at Lagos, keeps Badagry and a great part of Yoruba in constant vigilance and fear. A few weeks after the Missionaries commenced their residence at Badagry, the

Idolatry exercises over the people of Badagry extraordinary powers. As in Christian lands children are dedicated to God by baptism, so amongst these heathen almost all the children are devoted to various idols. Thus intercourse with the young is much hindered and peculiar caution rendered necessary in communication with them. Every year about 500 young men and women are shut up in different idol temples,some for nine, twelve, or fifteen months When these come out into public they make much of themselves through life, as spiritual beings; and any one who touches their heads or treads on their feet, must be fined a great sum of money; and if unable to pay, must be either sold or put to death. The missionaries add:"There have been instances of fining, selling, and putting to death, since we have been here."

Our Missionary, Mr. Smith, thus describes the Golgotha, where the poor victims of their cruel superstitions are put to death, "In crossing from one part of the town to the other, I passed over a parcel of ground literally strewed with human bones of all descriptions,

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destroyed the Yoruban encampment they had so recently visited, and great fear was justly entertained he would in like manner have destroyed Badagry. His purpose in this expedition was to open the Slave-trade road from Dahomey to Lagos; and, as his annual festival was approaching, (on which occasion he wanted 600 persons for sacrifice,) to replenish his stock of victims. In the early part of 1847 the neighbouring town of Abaka, containing a population of about 6,000 inhabitants, after a siege of nine months, was, like the Yoruban encampment, totally destroyed, and those of its inhabitants who survived were reduced to slavery. Relating this sad and awful occurrence, Mr. Townsend remarks:-"Another town is now swept off the face of the earth! a place once full of busy inhabitants is given up to solitude! And why? That a few merchants of Brazil may more speedily fill their coffers with gold, and that the war-chiefs of this country and their rabble trains may gratify their love of display and applause! The whole of this country is filled with the sighs and tears of the helpless, and the land is well moistened with the blood

of the slain, to supply Brazil and Cuba with slaves!" Nor must the fate of Okeodan be forgotten. This is a large town, lying somewhat to the west of the usual road between Badagry and Abbeokuta, and about thirty miles distant from Badagry. Its population is said to have numbered full 30,000. About Christmas, 1848, the Dahomians, as they generally do, marched by night in parts of the country where no human being could perceive them, skulking and lurking until they reached Okeodan at dark. They then blocked up all the passable parts of the town, and early in the morning marched into it, and fell to kill and capture. Some few hardy men only made their escape. All the other people fell into the hands of the Dahomians. Eight days they remained in Okeodan to kill their prisoners. They spared neither age nor sex. 10,000 men and 10,000 women-soldiers, went to the Okeodan war. Their captives numbered 19,600, and they carried home with them a vast number of skulls which are given to the king, and are regarded as trophies of victory.

These are no unusual instances of the horrors attendant on the slave-trade. How Africa groans beneath that iron yoke! Well might the Abbeokuta chiefs petition our beloved Queen, as in touching terms, a short time ago they did, to shield them from the aggressions of the slave-dealers and those slave-hunting monarchs who are in their accursed employ; and never did our most gracious Sovereign, and her Royal Consort Prince Albert, sanction a letter more worthy of Royalty, nor perform a more gracious action, than when in reply to the chiefs' memorial, Lord Chichester, at their command, indited the following letter to the head men of Abbeokuta, and accompanied the letter with copies of the Sacred

Scriptures, a steel corn-mill, and other valuable presents! We must conclude the present notice with this highly interesting and important document :

Letter to Sagbua, written by command of her Majesty, Queen Victoria, by Thomas, Earl of Chichester.

"I have had the honour of presenting to the Queen the letter of Sagbua, and other chiefs of Abbeokuta, and also their present of a piece of cloth.

The Queen has commanded me to convey her thanks to Sagbua and the chiefs, and her best wishes for their true and lasting happiness, and for the peace and prosperity of the Yaruba nation.

The Queen hopes that arrangements may be made, for affording to the Yoruba nation the free use of the river Ossa, so as to give them opportunities for commerce with this and other countries.

The commerce between nations in exchang ing the fruits of the earth and of each others' industry, is blessed by God.

Not so the commerce in slaves, which makes poor and miserable the nation which sells them, and brings neither wealth nor the blessing of God to the nation that buys them; but the contrary.

The Queen and people of England, are very glad to know that Sagbua and the chiefs think as they do upon the subject of commerce.

But commerce alone will not make a nation great and happy like England. England has become great and happy by the knowledge of the true God and Jesus Christ.

The Queen is therefore very glad to hear, that Sagbua and the chiefs have so kindly received the Missionaries, who carry with them the Word of God, and that so many of the people are willing to hear it.

In order to shew how much the Queen values God's Word, she sends with this, as a present to Sagbua, a copy of God's Word in two languages; one the Arabic and the other English.

The Church Missionary Society, wish all happiness and the blessing of eternal life to Sagbus and all the people of Abbeokuta.

They are very thankful to the chiefs for the kindness and protection afforded to the Missionaries, and they will not cease to pray for the spread of God's truth, and of all other blessings in Abbeokuta and throughout Africa, in the name and for the sake of our only Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.-CHICHESTER.

I TRUST you will pardon me troubling you with this, but the reason I do so, is because your correspondent, under the title of "How to Get Answers," says, that if his plan is approved of, and wished to be continued, that wish may be communicated to the Editors. I am a Sunday school teacher, in a quiet country village, in the county of Leicester, and a constant reader of your valuable Magazine; and I sometimes think you little imagine, how many teachers your labours reach and influence, even in the remote corners of the world; for as regards myself, I can assure you, that I often find how useful, edifying, and refreshing, are the many valuable articles found in your Quarterly Periodical.

I wish to record my humble testimony to the value and usefulness of the skeletons of lessons, in the article above named; for I find that the boys in my class, like your correspondent's, have that inaptitude to answer, of which he complains; and what is worse, want of interest in the lesson; for in bringing before my class even the most vital, and important scriptural truths in an abstract manner, I often find them but little interested, and the attention wandering; but when united to something tangible, that the mind can lay hold of, in an illustration from every-day life, either from the wonderful works of our Creator, animate or inanimate or as your correspondent says, "from familiar objects of nature, and their primary associations," I find an interest excited, the wandering eye instantly arrested, and all seem eager to lay hold of every word, as if they

were feeding upon it. When such is the case, how delightful does the teacher's work become, and how encouraging the hope, that the words of eternal life, sown in such prepared ground, will take root and bear fruit. Indeed, I quite agree with the writer, that no object of nature is too simple, as God's creature, to be applied to this purpose, and with Cecil, when she says "to interest and instruct the youthful mind, we must call in illustrations from the four corners of the earth." The skeletons of lessons which your correspondent gives, are calculated to awaken and arouse the attention, but I could wish they were moulded in a different way; in short, prepared ready for the teacher's use in his class. I mean, an appropriate portion of Scripture, chosen for the reading lesson, and suitable and numerous anecdotes and illustrations, to teach and enforce the particular point the teacher is trying to inculcate, with an application of the lesson; and I should like as many of these lessons prepared, as there are truths in the Bible. I do not mean the teacher to take no pains in preparing himself for his duties, but if this mechanical part of his work were done by abler hands, he would have more time to meditate, and receive into his own soul the words of eternal life he was about to teach; and what, in my opinion, makes this so desirable is, that so many of our fellow-labourers in Sunday schools, have not the time, nor talents, to search for illustrations, and arrange the lessons in the way it is very desirable it should be done.

The Scripture Outlines, by the Rev.