With energy, and chiefly Staccato. I.G.J. Oh! Cap-tain of God's host, whose dreadful might, Led forth to War the arm-ed Oh captain of God's host, whose dreadful might And from the starry height, Cast down that ancient dragon, dark and grim! Thine angels, Christ! we laud in solemn lays, Who, 'mid Thy glory's blaze The ceaseless anthem raise, And gird Thy throne in faithful ministry! But Thee, the First and Last, we glorify; Who, when Thy world was sunk in death and sin, Not with Thine hierarchy, The armies of the sky, But didst with Thine own arm the battle win. SUNDAY SCHOOL ANECDOTES. WHILST reading, lately, the concluding Chapter of the Book of Job, with my class, and coming to the verses which relate how Job's substance after his restoration was double what it had been before his calamities, I enquired of the boys why they supposed God only gave Job as many children as he had before, not twice as many. The question is not recommended as an important one, but it was intended to lead to the truth that whilst Job's cattle were absolutely lost, his dead children were not, in that sense lost to him, but (as we may hope) only gone before him to another world. The question, however, elicited two replies, which struck me as very symptomatic of the personal affairs of each boy. One, a member of a large family, said that "they would have been too great a trouble to him to manage;" the other, whose mother is a poor widow, in very reduced circumstances, thought that "he would not have had enough to feed them." How often we colour everything with the peculiar light of our own minds! Reading with my boys the Cure of the Palsy, and coming to our Saviour's enquiry, "Whether is easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say Arise and walk?" I put the question to the class, "Which was easiest ?" "Ne'er a one," was the reply, "they could'nt do neither." "Yes, they could," interposed another lad, "they could say either, but it would'nt be done." The meaning of the word Creation, being the subject of my remarks one Sunday, I endeavoured to shew the essential difference between creating and making anything; as a carpenter, for instance, can make a chair, but not the wood of which he makes it. I was saved much dwelling on the point, by one of the boys interposing his own version of the matter; "he can make the chair, but he couldn't make the stuff." I. G. F. "IN DUE SEASON WE SHALL REAP, IF WE FAINT NOT." GALATIANS VI. 9. Ye who think the Truth ye sow Reap we not the noble thought "As soon as man was created," observes Bishop Horne, “Nature was his book, and God his preceptor." The good Bishop is of opinion, that God's bringing all the beasts before Adam, "To see what he would call them," was intended to test his proficiency in the school of nature, and that his calling them by names descriptive of their characters, shewed that he had profited under this mode of instruction. But be this as it may, it is certain, that had we fewer books, and so were forced to meditate more on things, there would be more originality, perhaps more truth, in our knowledge. Another of our Bishops has vindicated, beyond all appeal, the use and importance of the language of nature, in confirmation of the voice of inspiration, by writing that unrivalled book in its way, "the Analogy." The working out Emblems is nothing else but the shewing what are the true analogies between natural objects and Divine truth. To use an Emblem for the purpose of instruction, there are three things to be attended to, First, its elucidation-that is to say, the following out and explaining its application according to the use made of it in holy Scripture. Secondly, its adaptation, or the casting it into the form of a lesson; interrogative, or otherwise, as may be preferred. Thirdly, its delivery, or the way of communicating it to the children. Our Emblem for this occasion, is one of frequent use in the Holy Scripture, and its right application of great importance. THE LIVING WATER. 1.-ITS ELUCIDATION. (1.) What is usually signified by water? Doubtless the Holy Spirit. But then other Emblems also set forth the same blessed gift, the air for instance; and because the one is necessary to natural, the other to spiritual life, the same word in both Hebrew and Greek, signifies either. Fire, too, is sometimes the chosen Emblem of the Holy Spirit, for example:-the cloven tongues of fire at the Pentecostal effusion. In a case like this we must discriminate, and discover and point out what special quality, or operation of the agent, or thing illustrated is signified by the Emblem under consideration. (2.) Water exists either in the state of motion, or of repose. The term "living" is primarily applied to spring water, or to water flowing as a river, to distinguish it from that which is stagnant, or at rest. "And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of living water." Gen. xxvi. 19. So, again, in Zech. xiv. 8. Hence is derived its application to the active persistent operation of the Holy Ghost, in our dry, and barren, lifeless, and joyless, hearts. "Thou wouldst have asked of Him, and He would have given thee LIVING WATER." John iv. 10. So, before the diseased were healed at the Pool of Bethesda, an angel, visibly or invisibly, came down and "troubled the Waters." John v. 4. (3.) Motion is the common indication of life; and it is this quality in water by which it imparts to dry and dead, or dying things, renewed life. It is taken up by the roots of parched and withered herbs; it ascends in their sap-vessels; presses upward to the extremities, and being stopt in its progress there, it bursts forth with their swollen and now germinating buds. How graphic is the description of this activity and energy of water, by Job. "There is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again; though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and though the stock die in the ground, yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs as a plant." ch. xiv. 7, 8, 9. Oh! what a lesson does this teach us! Blessed be God, it is nothing more or less important than this, that we should never despair of our own hearts, or of the hearts of others who wait for mercy, however dry they may be, or however long the season of drought may have lain on us, but try to trust; for, "the just shall live by his faith; though it tarry, wait for it, because (to such expectants) it will surely come, it will not tarry." Hab. iii. 4. I have a juniper-a tree difficult to remove-a species of fir, in sight of my eyes at this moment, planted the 4th of December, 1849, which has not grown in the least since that time, and this is the 29th of November 1851. Yet, I can see it will grow next spring; for the buds are swollen and pullulant at last. Procure, dear children, this attainable blessing, this "Living Water," as distinguished from that, which, when "spilt upon the ground, cannot be gathered up again." Remember, it is written, "Whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely," Rev. xxii. 17. Ask, that it may come down flowing from heaven, and gushing up again in your heart; only, don't delay; for the stock that is not watered, by every day's neglect, advances a stage nearer to irrevocable decay. How earnestly some have asked and obtained at last, will never be known till the day of eternity. There are some sweet examples of importunity for this blessing in our sacred poets. "The dew doth every morning fall: "Not as the thirsty soil desires soft showers, But as the wounded hart, embost, doth fly To th' streams extremely longed for, so do I HERBERT. Pant after Thee, my God, whom I must find or die!" QUARLES. (4.) This life-giving quality it is, which fits water to be the sign of our regeneration. Our Lord discoursing with Nicodemus, John iii. teaches him the necessity of all undergoing that saving change which restores spiritual life and purity to the soul. And again, in our baptism, water is the Sacrament, or outward sign. The outward sign token, or pledge of anything, is properly and strictly speaking, the Sacrament of it: not inclusive of the inward and spiritual grace. So the Catechism teaches. "What meanest thou by this word sacrament? I mean the outward and visible sign, of an inward and spiritual grace." St. Peter teaches the importance of this distinction, when he reminds us that the baptism which saves us is not that which washes away the filth of the flesh, or the mere effect of the water; but the inward baptism of the heart, "in the spirit and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God." 1 Pet. iii. 21; Rom. ii. 28, 29. (5.) Blended with the reviving, life-restoring operation of the Holy Spirit, is his sanctifying grace in the Emblem of water. Thus, in Heb. x. 22, we are charged to have "our bodies washed with pure water," that is to say, to put away all defilement from our life and conversation. So again, Rev. xxii. 1; St. John says, “a pure river of WATER OF LIFE, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." In accordance with which we |