efforts deserve the highest commendation and lasting gratitude of the teachers and scholars of Lancashire. And the hearty response which that appeal called forth from the teachers and scholars of England is sufficient to stir the depth The benevolent income of the Union, including £454. transferred by the Sunday School Society, being the residue of the funds of that Institution, amounted to £2,465. 18s. 3d., and the expenditure to £2,139. 4s. 11d., leaving a balance in hand of £326. 13s. 5d. cially surprised and gratified them. Union in London, to secure funds for the Thus, the 100 scholars of Newton Sun- alleviation of the distress existing in day School, Auckland, New Zealand,-a the Lancashire Sunday schools. Those school not two years old, and unattached to any church,-having had their attention called to the circular issued by the Committee, collected and gave £17. which has been duly remitted. The Committee of the Calcutta Sunday School Union have also remitted £56. of the soul. Many noble sacrifices have raised amongst their schools. Since been made by teachers and scholars of then, a letter has been received from our land in order to help us in our time Hobart Town, Tasmania, enclosing a of need. All honour to such self-sacrifice draught for £200., being the proceeds of for such an object! May a full reward be collections made by the Sunday school given them for such sympathy and love."" children of Tasmania on behalf of the It appears that the Committee exhidestitute children of Lancashire. It ap-bited the publications of the Union at pears that these collections had been the International Exhibition, and have made before the appeal of the Committee received a medal" for superiority in the had arrived. An address was issued to compilation and publication of educaevery school in Tasmania, and one week tional works and apparatus." was allowed for making the collection, which resulted in an aggregate of £200., in addition to which it was thought there would be a small further remittance from some schools which had not then sent their contributions. The secretary says, The amount has been collected and subscribed by the children of Sunday schools of every Protestant religious | the teachers to the necessity for greater denomination, embracing Episcopalians, Wesleyans, Independents, Free and Primitive Methodists, Baptists, &c.; and our Committee, knowing that the Committee of the Sunday School Union of London includes the names of gentlemen of all denominations, have forwarded it to them in the hope that they will undertake the duty of distributing in such a way as may best serve the object in view.' By a postscript, it appears that the mail had arrived since the writing of the letter, bringing the appeal of the Committee, which had thus been answered by anticipation. The assistance thus the advantages which Sunday school afforded has been received with much instruction has been found to yield. thankfulness. The following is quoted This matter has occupied much of the from the report of the Preston Union:- attention of the Committee, and depu'Your committee would desire grate- tations have visited the committees of fully to recognize the large efforts put the various auxiliaries to lay the subject forth by the Committee of the Parent before them. The experience of every The report directed the attention of exertion in the following terms: "The last report contained a statement of the number of schools, teachers, and scholars within the metropolitan district. That return had been prepared with great labour and care, and is believed to be substantially correct. The result is, that the Sunday scholars of the metropolis do not amount to 200,000, or 1 in 15 of the population, while in some parts of the country 1 in 5 of the population are Sunday scholars; or, to put the case in another form, two-thirds of the youthful population of London are destitute of 372 dence to the existence of the evil. The only question was as to the means by which it could be remedied. Various suggestions were made; in some cases there appeared to be school-rooms not fully occupied, and the most obvious thought was, that immediate measures should be adopted to fill them; in the majority of instances, however, it appeared that the school-rooms were filled to overflowing, while large districts existed without either school or place of public worship. Here the remedy also seemed plain,-the opening of a school in the locality. But how could funds be obtained, and where could teachers be procured? Both these must be sought from the nearest Christian church, and the co-operation of the minister and the members of that church should be secured. The committees of the auxiliaries have since had the subject under their consideration, and it will be one of the most important duties of the Committee of the ensuing year, to see that these efforts are carried out to a practical result." member of those committees bore evi- character too, that is of immense importance in the teacher of the young, namely, that he is a man of sanctified I need not gladsomeness of spirit. remind you how this is shown, for perhaps there is no other feature of his character that is more manifest and striking than this. It was gladsomeness which came down from heaven, and returned to heaven again; it found its consummation there as well as its source; but in the meantime, while it was upon earth, it was not content to be gladsome and joyous itself, but called upon all within the sound of its voice to be joyous and gladsome too. And this is a characteristic eminently desirable in a teacher of the young, and a Christian teacher above all. There may be piety, where this is wanting in some measure, which in such a work is always to be regretted, because, while we may be thankful that the children will be sure to be pointed to heaven, yet we can only fear that it will be a dark and cloudy heaven, that the desires of the child will not be drawn out after, while this gladsomeness is like a living beam poured from the divine throne into the teacher's heart, and makes, as it were, a bright and blessed pathway, up which the children's thoughts may travel to the glory that is beyond. Dr. Watts felt this, and hence, when he would give utterance to the thought of worship, he sang: The report was adopted and ordered to be printed, and the officers and Committee appointed. THE ANNUAL SERMON 'Lord, how delightful 'tis to see Was preached on Tuesday, May 5th, at the Poultry Chapel, by the Rev. J. P. Chown, of Bradford. The attendance of the members of the Union was large. The preacher selected Psalm xxxiv. 11 for his text, and spoke of the teacherthe taught, and the lesson. On the first division of his sermon, he noticed that the teacher was a man-a man of Goda king—an eminently gifted man—a man of sanctified gladsomeness of spirit. We in which they found delight that no cannot forbear quoting at length, the description of this last feature in the character. "There is one other feature of David's And this is a matter of far more importance than we are sometimes apt to think; for while I have known old and eminent Christians turn back to the associations linked with these first impressions made upon their minds, whose joyousness had never passed away, and subsequent experiences could be compared with; how many have been repelled in early life from the ways of piety, in which they might have walked, because they have contracted the idea but the most blissful and rapturous scene that they were ways of moroseness and of that kind I have ever witnessed, was melancholy, such as youth could not that of a scholar whose only religious endure, instead of being shown that they instruction had been found in the Sunwere ways of pleasantness and peace, in day school. When you entered the which youth should find its noblest dwelling where he lay, it was actually satisfaction and purest delight. Not, of and literally, as I never saw and felt it course, that there should be anything | before or since, as though the atmoslike levity, any more than moroseness, phere were influenced by the brightness -the one is the bubble on the surface of his countenance; and if an angel of the stream, the other the dark sedi- from heaven had been there, it could ment at the bottom; what we want is scarcely have been more so. I rethe pure crystal stream itself, pouring member standing dumb and spellbound, joy and gladsomeness wherever it goes, in a measure, before that dying child, and making all that is bright and as he poured out the rapture of his soul pleasant spring up around. And there in the midst of the most intense suffermay be all this, entirely independent of ing that he never seemed to feel, with any ordinary distinctions, for a sunny the soberness of age giving weight to soul will ever make a sunny face, and the ecstasies of youth, and furnishing an that will ever pour its blessing upon instance of what, under God's blessing, all within the reach of its power; and may be done by the religious instruction there stands the teacher before us, then, of the young, such as will never be a man, a man of God, a man of God in | forgotten, I know, by those who looked exalted station, a man of God in exalted upon it, and can never be fully destation eminently gifted in many ways, scribed." and a man of God with all this crowned with a sanctified gladsomeness of spirit that enriches all besides, and makes him a blessing to all he comes near. Let us have, as far as practicable, such teachers, and the results of Sunday school instruction, beyond anything we have known, shall be such as thought can scarcely conceive, as tongue can never tell, as eternity itself can never fully make manifest." Under the second division of the sermon, the preacher shewed that the taught were children . whom the teacher had invited-for whom he had prepared-whom he deemed capable of learning divine things-and whom he addressed specifically and personally. In referring to the taught as children, the preacher said "It has been my privilege to stand by many death-beds, and look upon the departing spirit, just entering the valley of the shadow of death, but fearing no evil, with 'A mortal paleness in the cheek, On the lesson taught, "the fear of the Lord," it was observed that this lesson shewed that our instruction must be spiritual-must be experimental-it must be purely and simply what pertains to man's salvation-"the fear of the Lord." The sermon thus concluded: "Let the teacher be one whose spirit and character shall answer to what has been mentioned, and who shall thus look upon his precious charge, and seek to lead them thus to the things pertaining to their salvation, and then the little one should indeed become a thousand, and the small one a great nation. The generation rising up to fill our places should be such a royal priesthood, and chosen generation, and peculiar people to show forth the Redeemer's praise as, as yet, this world has never been blessed with. Our Sabbath school classes should become little congregations, and then churches, that, as they should all become united and poured into the world, they would be such a power, be fore which enemies and opposition should vanish, like shadows before the rising sun, like evil spirits before the Lord of glory. Arise then, fellow-helpers in the work of the Lord, to the full conception and glory of your holy enterprise, and then shall the church look upon the multitudes of the young brought into her fold with wondering delight, and say, 'Who hath begotten me these?' and the answer shall be, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people : and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord; for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.'" So when Devotion's mount we climb, Where kindred hearts unite in prayer, We lose the scenes of sense and time, And feel how sweet to linger there! But not for dreams of raptured joy, To see His face, the bliss of heaven. So we, where duty's pathway lies, Than lonely Tabor ever knew. The subject for Conference, "The extension of Sunday schools among the upper and lower classes of society," was opened by a paper read by Mr. Smither. The discussion not only occupied the morning, but was resumed after dinner, and was sustained with the interest its importance deserved by thirty members of the Conference. The following suggestions were made,-That ladies in the upper classes might be induced on a Sabbath afternoon to take charge of the children of families in the same position of life as themselves, for the study with them of the Word of God; that appliThe delegates from the country met cation, systematic and repeated, should the Committee to Breakfast in the Lib- be made to the churches for the help, rary, at eight o'clock on Thursday not of the young men and women, but morning; after which a Prayer Meet- rather of Christian fathers and mothers; ing was held to seek the Divine bless-that efforts should be made in the existing on the engagements of the day. Although it did not occupy more than fifty-five minutes, yet, during that time, four hymns were sung, four portions of Scripture were read, and seven members of the Conference, including four ministers, engaged in prayer, CONFERENCE. At 10 o'clock, SAMUEL MORLEY, Esq., took the Chair, when the following hymn, composed for the occasion by Mr. W. H. Groser, was sung. Jesus, when once on Tabor's height Thy form with radiant glories shone, Bright as the unclouded source of light, And white as snows on Lebanon ;Far from the world's tumultuous noise, Thy favour'd servants gathered near, Drank of the stream of heavenly joys, And cried, ""Tis good to tarry here!" ing schools to form classes for training teachers, the want of suitable teachers being the great hindrance to the extension of Sunday schools; that Christian people should introduce their own children into the Sunday school; that a separate service would be preferable to a morning school; that Sabbath evening schools were desirable. We regret our inability to find space for Mr. Smither's very excellent paper, or for a full report of the comments made upon it, but we subjoin a few extracts from the latter. Mr. LEE, of Salford, said that the evils referred to in the paper could only be met by a new work which teachers must take up, viz., that of providing a suitable religious service, on a syste matic plan, for the children of the members of our congregations. He would suggest the erection, in an appropriate locality, of a large children's chapel, and in the conducting the service in it, he would have 150 children trained to sing well. He had no hesitation in saying, that they could fill such a chapel in Manchester, two or three times a day, with a congregation of 2,000 children, of ages from eight to fourteen. Mr. Armitage, the son of Sir Elkanah Armitage, had built an institution and opened it for separate services in that city, and the place was filled every Sunday night with children. One of the results was, that the neighbourhood, which formerly was a very noisy one, was now quiet; and so great was the interest taken by the children in the service, that some of them were there an hour beforehand, so as to get their places. This was an indication of the want which existed, and he had no doubt that success would generally attend such an effort. His own children had begged to be allowed to attend this service, because they could understand the address given. Mr. Armitage's children, and others in the same station of life, were taken there, and, judging from their countenances, they were quite delighted with the proceedings. taken, and soon filled to overflowing, and a few young people were sent from the congregation to teach. A joiner's shop in the locality, which would hold three or four times as many, was next obtained, and being fitted with proper appliances, that also was filled. The result of the whole was, that a schoolhouse had been erected by the congregation of which he was minister, at an expense of £700.; that there was a school at the present time of between 400 and 500 children, besides an infant class of 120 meeting in a separate room, and a select class meeting in their own room, which had been carpeted and papered like a drawing-room, by themselves. Out of that school it had been his pleasure to receive several into the church of Christ; and he believed the school would become the nucleus of a church itself. The Rev. J. P. Cook, of Paris, said, he had known some of the most active teachers and superintendents, whose own children did not go to the Sunday school. And why? Because they had formed the idea that the school was only for the instruction of the children of the poor. For his own part, while doing all he could at home for the instruction of his little boy, he had made it a rule that, to whatever Sunday school he belonged, that boy should be his first scholar, and he was himself trained to this by his own father. The Rev. J. P. CHOWN, of Bradford, mentioned one case as an illustration of what might be done to gather the poorer classes into the Sunday school. He knew a poor woman, a member of a church, whose family detaining her from the means of grace, she took the opportunity of telling them of divine things on the Sabbath day. There were other families living around her, the children of which were not brought under religious instruction; so she gathered them together to teach them with her This went on for some time, and she then invited the parents to attend, and asked her minister to come and say a kind word to them. Afterwards a cellar kitchen in the same street was complex. If teachers felt more solemnly own. He had been accosted sometimes, in going to the Sunday school, with the remark, "You are going to teach your poor children;" to which he replied, "No, I am not; I am going as a minister to take part of my pastoral charge. I shall teach you at half-past eleven in the chapel, and I am now going to teach the young of my charge the same truths." It was only by cherishing this view of the case that the prejudices referred to would be removed. He was afraid that the organization of the school was frequently too |