OBJECT OF SABBATH SCHOOL INSTRUCTION.

THIS may be stated in a single sentence,the salvation of the souls of the children providentially committed to your charge, and of whom you have voluntarily assumed the oversight. I am well aware of the many temporal advantages, direct and indirect, immediate and remote, which you may instrumentally confer upon your youthful flock, even although you may fail or seem to fail of securing the ultimate object of your sanctified ambition. Who can estimate the amount of counteraction which, in the case of many of the children, your instructions may supply against that evil influence to which from infancy they are exposed, and which, if unchecked and unresisted, might give such virulence to their depravity as to render them the worst members of society! How much of crime and moral wretchedness you may thus prevent cannot even be imagined; though, that much is prevented, is obvious from the single fact that so few comparatively of those juvenile delinquents, whose names continually crowd the criminal calendars of our country, have been trained up within the precincts of a Sabbath-school. Much, too, of positive good has unquestionably resulted, and will still result, from such labours as those in which you are engaged, even when your best and highest hopes have, in appearance, or even in reality, been frustrated. In children, as in adults, a familiar acquaintance with divine truth, even in the absence of any other influence than its own, has a natural and direct tendency to expand the mind, to invigorate its powers, and which is of much more consequence to the welfare of individuals and of society-to refine the sensibilities of the heart, and to render the conscience more susceptible of such impressions as may qualify it for faithful remonstrance, when it would otherwise have been paralyzed and powerless. There is a sacredness in the very letter of the word of God; and this, when imprinted on the memory of a child, must, in early life, and even in riper years, be greatly instrumental in restraining the evil passions of the mind, and multiplying almost indefinitely those obstacles which must be overcome, before at any period of his life, even

the most remote, he can be 'at ease in his transgressions.' Memory will never suffer him to be so. It will present him again and again with those vivid pictures of the evil nature and awful consequences of sin, which will turn its sweetest indulgences into wormwood. To trace out, however, the effects of Sabbath-school instruction on even the temporal well-being of individuals and of society, is not my present intention.

I entreat you, to keep constantly before you the ultimate object of your benevolent exertions. These exertions-as to this object-may be successful or otherwise; but success or failure here will not, as in other departments of benevolent effort, be of merely temporary moment. You labour for eternity, Eternity is the date and the duration of that misery which you seek to avert, of that happiness you desire to promote. Keep then eternity in view. When you enter on and prosecute the self-denying duties of each successive sabbath, endeavor to realize the bearing which they must have on the never-ending destiny of the dear children committed to your care. This, more than any other consideration, will serve to keep alive in your own minds, that deep and devout solemnity with which, whether addressing children or adults on the concerns of the soul, we should ever be imbued. It will perpetually and beneficially remind you of the moral dignity of the occupation in which you are engaged, and lead you to attach an importance to the minutest details of Sabbath-school instruction that will greatly diminish the irksomeness and relieve the laboriousness of your reiterated attempts to inform and impress the youthful mind. It will, besides, by inducing and keeping up a lively sense of personal weakness and inadequacy, proportionally tend to strengthen the feeling of entire dependence on an agency far superior to your own for the realization of your most ardent hopes. Thus labouring as for eternity, you will feel it to be your highest privilege habitually to solicit and expect the 'unction of the Holy One' to countenance and crown your labours with that kind and measure of success, which alone can satisfy a mind that overlooks as secondary the fleeting interests of time, and dwells in solemn anticipation on the reallties of endless blessedness or woe.

MEANS BY WHICH YOUR OBJECT

MAY BE ATTAINED.

As to the nature of these means, we are not left to surmise or to speculation. They are distinctly specified in the book of God. They are of divine appointment; and, as no human authority can, without presumption, so no human wisdom can, without the certainty of failure, attempt to supersede or to improve them. The truth as it is in Jesus,' comprising the declaration of our natural impurity, our practical criminality and guilt, our consequent exposure to divine wrath, our need of salvation through a Divine and Almighty Mediator, our equal need of sanctification and moral fitness for the society of heaven and the service of God, together with all those practical conclusions to which these doctrines naturally and necessarily lead,—this truth, as it constitutes the appointed theme of gospel ministration, so ought it, I conceive, to be the constant topic of Sabbath-school instruction. Through whatever medium instruction may be conveyed-be it by hymns or psalms or catechisms, or directly by the word of God, or by the oral communications of the teacher-it is by this truth alone that we can legitimately expect the conversion of the soul to God

Bear with me, my friends, if I especially beseech you to endeavour habitually, not only to impress divine truth upon the memory, but to enforce it on the consciences of your beloved pupils. Let them see and feel that, however retentive their memory may be, and however copious its stores, your 'heart's desire and prayer for them' will remain unaccomplished, until they are brought to repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ.' It is observable, in almost every instance of genuine conversion, whether in early or in

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later years, that it has been instrumentally effected by the vivid and powerful impression of some one great truth upon the conscience and the heart. The Spirit of God, in his saving operations, acts thus in harmony with the natural constitution of the human mind, the impressions and emotions of which are strong or weak, lively or languid, according as its thoughts are directed to one object, or divided amongst many. The varied reiteration of one distinct and definite idea, accompanied by every practicable method of illustration and enforcement, will ever be found the most efficient method of address. Especially must it be so in the case of children, to whom simplicity is beauty, and complexity confusion; and who will always be found most attentive and most deeply interested when their minds are least encumbered.

It is the glory of Christianity that its essential truths are suited to the capacity, and level to the comprehension, of even a little child. Though supplying matter for admiring and adoring contemplation to the highest orders of created being, a child may understand their meaning, feel their power, and exemplify their influence, But, in order to this effect, it is essential that the truth, in its passage to the heart, be not obscured by the medium of conveyance. The language used in addressing children should be, as much as possible, natural and simple,-free from all artificial, forced, and complex modes of expression,—and, whilst in keeping with the sacredness and solemnity of the subject, adapted to convey, without any apparent effort, information and instruction to the mind. You will pardon this allusion to a subject which deserves all the attention that can be given to it, and which is very closely connected with the efficiency of Sabbath-school in

struction.

A NOBLE MISER.

Lord Braco was remarkable for practising the rule "Get all you can, and keep all you get." One day he saw a farthing lying at his feet, which he took up and carefully cleaned. A beggar entreated his lordship would give him the farthing, saying, "it was not worth a nobleman's attention." Fin' afarthing to yoursel' "puir body"

replied his lordship. In addition to being his own farthing-finder, his lordship was his own factor and rent collector. A tenant, who called upon him to pay his rent happened to be deficient a farthing, and had to seek the coin. When the business was adjusted the countryman said to his lordship, Now Braco, I would gie ye a shillin' for a sight o' a' the goud an' siller ye hae." "Weel, mon,” replied Braco, "it's

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no cost ye ony mair;" and accordingly, for a shilling paid down, the nobleman exhibited several iron boxes filled with gold and silver coin. "Now," said the farmer, "I'm as rich as yoursel'. Braco." "Aye, mon !' rejoined his lordship, "how can that be? "Because I've seen it-an' ye can do nae mair."

MARRIAGE.

Marriage. The well-spring of all sensible communion is the natural delight and need which undepraved man hath to transfuse from himself into others, and to receive from others into himself, those things wherein the excellency of his kind doth most consist; and the eminence of love or marriage communion is, that this mutual transfusion can take place more perfectly and totally in this than in any other mode. Prefer person before money, good temper with good sense before person; and let all, wealth, easy temper, strong understanding and beauty, be as nothing to thee, unless accompanied by virtue in principle and habit. Suppose competence, health, and honesty; then a happy marriage depends on four things 1. An understanding proportionate to thine, that is a recipiency at least of thine -2. Natural sensibility and lively sympathy in general :-3. Steadiness in attaching and retaining sensibility to its proper objects in its proper proportions :4. Mutal liking; including person, and all the thousand obscure sympathies that determine conjugal liking, that is love and desire to A rather than to B.

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A MOTHER'S INSTRUCTIONS. ALTHOUGH I am a man of gray hairs, I well remember the instructions I received from my mother. She dedicated me, as she believed, to God in baptism; but she did not stop there, as thinking she had no more to do she was faithful in striving to instil into my mind the first principles of religion. Among the severely tried, I think my mother was one. As I grew in years, instead of leaving me to think of what she had said, she followed me, as determined not to give me up; till her reproof and instruction became so burdensome to me, that I even dreaded to be found where she

could have an opportunity to say anything to me. It was more than eight years after she took me by the hand, in hopes of leading me to her Saviour, before she could see anything in me to encourage her. At length, a sentence from her lips was an arrow to my heart. I trust I was deeply wounded; I had no peace. The wormwood and the gall were very bitter. The sweet waters of life I had never tasted : they that have no eyes, cannot behold the light. Thus I wandered in darkness, till, as I humbly hope, Jesus opened my eyes; and then, oh then, the light I discovered, the joy I felt, no mortal knows but those who have felt the same! If ever a real change has taken place in me, my mother in the hands of God, was the instrument. I feel that I have cause to bless God, and if I am one of the redeemed, I shall through all eternity, bless him that I had a pious mother. I do not write this for the sake of telling the world my experience, but with an earnest desire that those who have the care of children, may teach them the fear of the Lord.

PROOF OF DESIGN IN THE MECHANISM OF AN EGG.

When a bird's egg is examined, it is found to consist of three parts; the chick, the yolk in which the chick is placed, and the white in which the yolk swims. The yolk is lighter than the white; and it is attached to it at two points, joined by a line, or rather plane, below the centre of gravity of the yolk. From this arrangement it must follow that the chick is always uppermost, roll the egg how you will; consequently the chick is always kept nearest to the breast or belly of the mother while she is sitting. Suppose, then, that any one acquainted with the laws of motion, had to contrive things so as to secure this position for the little speck or sac in question, in order to its receiving the necssary heat from the hen-could he proceed otherwise than by placing it in the lighter liquid, and suspending that liquid in the heavier, so that its centre of gravity should be above the line or plane of suspension ? Assuredly not; for in no other way could his purpose be accomplished. This position is attained by a strict induction; it is supported by the same kind of evidence on which all physical truths rest. But it leads by a single step to another truth in Natural Theology; that the egg must have been formed by some hand skilful in mechanism, and acting under the knowledge of dynamics.-Lord Brougham's Natural Theology.

BRIDGET LARKINS.

BY MRS. S. C. HALL.

Some ten years ago, Bridget Larkins, or Mrs. Bridget, as she was called in courtesy, exercised imperial sway, not only over all the fishwives of the maritime town of Wexford, but over the gentry who frequented the market. Bridget was a large and singularly handsome woman, vigorous in body and mind; sometimes-always indeed when not under the influence of ardent spirits a kind and generous person, fair and honest in her dealings, and ready to assist the poor to the utmost of her power; but unfortunately, I never met any one who could call to mind the time when Bridget did not drink. In the early morning she was always sufficiently sober to bargain with the boats, and so good a judge of fish, that she was certain to have the "pick of the market;" but as the day advanced, poor Bridget's infirmity increased, glass upon glass of whiskey was swallowed until she became half maniac, half demon. She would stand at her stall,

which was covered with the finest fish, inviting her customers in a thickened voice; and if they refused to purchase, or attempted to buy from any one else, she would utter the most violent imprecations, and hurl fish after fish against any who interfered with her business.

Many would visit the market on purpose (and a sinful purpose it was) "to get a rise" out of Biddy. She was frequently committed for acts of violence; so frequently, that that it was suggested to her that continuing business at all was useless, for she was no sooner out of jail than she was in again. Bridget would certainly have been more severely punished for several of her assaults, had she not, despite this one most abandoned habit, maintained a hold over her companions as well as over the upper classes, by her frank, brave, and generous nature. She had plunged off the quay several times to save the lives of persons who had fallen into the water; and once, when more than half tipsy, and encumbered by her clothes, she swam several yards, tossing in the waves like a porpoise, and at last diving after the child of a rival

fish-wife, who, more intoxicated than herself, had suffered her infant to fall from her bosom into the sea. She saved it, however, and the remembrance of this heroic deed frequently got Bridget "only a week," when any one else would have had a "month."

When in prison, she was a perfect treasure to the turnkeys and prisoners; there she could not obtain whiskey; and her energy and kindness found an ample field for exercise. Bridget, humble as she was in her sober moments, had one cause of exultation.

"Well!" she would say, "I know I'm bad enough-sorra a worse you'd find when the drop's in me, in all Wexford, and that's a bould word; for I've heard say that in all Ireland, Wexford's the greatest place for drink; high and low, rich and poor, ever and always fond of the drop. It was the whiskey, God help us! drove them all mad in the time of their troubles: I'm not going to deny it-it was the drink! And I'm not going to give it a good word-there's no one hates it worse than myself when it is out of my sight; and yet it's my life, my comfort;-it has turned off my best friends-left me without a cloak to my shoulders-a shoe to my foot -a dacent roof to cover me-a bit of fish

on my stall-a friend to my back-often taken the blessing from my door-and turned my hand against my neighbour!and yet," she would add, while a bitter smile played on her lips, "and yet, as I've nothing left but the glass, why I must keep to it. I could not do without it-I never want to eat a bit while I've the whiskey; and (as I've lived, so I'll die. So here goes my last penny for half a naggin; sure the publicans wont give me credit any longer.'

Poor Bridget! the very boys who used to tremble at the shake of her finger, now taunted and insulted her as she staggered along the streets.

"I've done wicked things in my time," she said, "but though greatly provoked, I never riz my hand to a child" Even this solitary congratulation, this remnant of self-respect, was destroyed; for, in a fit of intoxication, she hurled a stone at one of her tormentors, which nearly deprived him of life. When consciousness returned, the unfortunate woman's agony was fearful to witness; she flew again to the source of her misery, and became more degraded than ever, even amid a congregation of drunkards.

About this time Father Matthew visited

Wexford. At first Bridget shook her aching head, and said, "it was too late;" but those who felt it never could be too late to reform, urged her to take "THE PLEDGE." Others said, "do not, for you will never keep it." Bridget, however, knew herself better, for she declared, "if I take it, I will keep it." And she did so. In a week she had resumed her old post in the market place. Worn and tattered she looked; and her stall, instead of the display of turbot and lobster of former times, only boasted "fine haddock and black sole." But these were quickly disposed of; and in less than three months old customers crowded round her; her eyes regained some portion of her bright ness; her dress improved her appearance; she looked the gentry in the face; and the medal Father Mathew had given her was hung round her neck.

"What! Bridget still true to the pledge?" was the frequent question. And Bridget's reply was, "Yes, thank God, your honour, till death."

And so she was; each year increased her prosperity—each year added to her wealth. The temperance movement overcame its defamers even in Wexford; and Bridget flourished in a sort of shop, where she was principally assisted by a youth, whose halting walk proved that he suffered from an injury inflictedall but Bridget had forgotten by whom. Much of this rescued woman's energy was devoted to the promotion of the cause to which she owed all she possessed. She was not like too many persons similarly circumstanced, content to reap the advantage without extending the blessings of temperance to others. She was instant in season and out of season; and when she died, she left several hundred pounds to various persons and various charities-a singular and most valuable proof of what temperance, unconditional and perfect, can effect.

Her funeral might be considered a triumph over old prejudices for neither whiskey and tobacco appeared there, and numbers took the pledge at its conclusion. This is one instance out of many, where persons reclaimed at the eleventh hour have redeemed their characters, and whose latter days have been blessings to all within their sphere.

Printed by JOHN KENNEDY, at his Printing Office, 35, Portman Place, Maida Hill, in the County of Middlesex, London.-March, 1851.