admitted, there being hundreds outside seeking an entrance. that their work was to instruct the children in order to save them, they would not begin by saying, "We must The meeting was commenced by the have so many classes," but "How singing the following hymn, composed many good teachers can we get? If for the occasion by the Rev. Robert we can only get five, we will have Robinson, and appropriately entitled— five classes; if twenty, we will have twenty." The consequence of the present plan of having so much organization was, that for the sake of preserving so many classes, bad teachers had sometimes to be employed, and the great object of the Sunday school was missed. Mr. GOVER remarked, that, when in Belfast, he witnessed the nearest approach to a solution of the problem he had anywhere met with. There the Presbyterian congregations had two descriptions of schools-a congregational school, and a mission school-the former for the young of the church, and the latter for the poor in the surrounding neighbourhood. To a large extent these schools had answered their design, and he thought some such plan was necessary in London and other places, where, apart from any question of prejudice, parents in the more respectable positions of life naturally feared that the effect of all classes being brought together would not be beneficial to their children. In reference to the great complaint of want of teachers, he observed that, if the practice which prevailed in the Wesleyan body, of requiring all who became members of society to engage in some portion of the work of the church, were more generally followed, this difficulty would be speedily got over. He believed that, if the pastors of our churches could be induced to take this matter up, there was a large amount of agency which might be brought into operation. THE GATHERED WORKERS. We join the choir above, Our Master's name is Love. For blessed work and wages, Allured within the fold, The praise is God's alone. With strong divine assurance, Our vows we now renew; With loving hearts to Thee. After the Report had been read, Mr. E. S. ROGERS, of Manchester, made a statement relative to the effort made by the Union on behalf of the unemployed teachers and scholars in the cotton dis tricts. He said, "little did we think that the sympathy would extend so far, and that the assistance would be so bountiful as it has proved to be. The report which has been read tells This was held as usual in Exeter Hall, you that £3,500. has been raised for at six o'clock, and was as numerously this purpose. Besides that, there have attended as ever. The large assembly been other sums received, making was appealed to, to endeavour to sit the amount up to nearly £4,600., and closer, so as to allow some more to be when we take into consideration the PUBLIC MEETING. 'Never praise and thanksgiving have suppressed the murmur and the sigh. Even the more favoured schools, where the minister and teachers were able to assist their - · In clothing which has come to hand from friends at a distance, I should think the help which has been thus afforded us is not much less than £5,200. It is a noble gift from the Sunday schools of own poor, have received the benefit of the Union at large to their unfortunate your example, and not only have they suffering brethren in Lancashire, for given freely in their immediate circles, which they are profoundly grateful. I but have extended their benevolence to hold in my hand the resolutions which other schools, whose faint cry for help was were passed by our committee, and whispered by the ordinary visitors.' though it will be quite unnecessary that Another gentleman says, speaking of the I should read them, I think I might advantage which his school has obtained give you an extract or two, which will from the fund, and I may add that this show you something of the feeling has been the same, to a great extent, with which has been manifested. The secre- many others, I feel that words are tary of one of the District Union Relief altogether inadequate to convey the Committees writes: can sense of obligation under which the we sufficiently express our deep and Committee's kindness, and that of the heartfelt gratitude for the prompt and many generous and self-denying donors, generous assistance you have extended have placed us. I only wish we could to the suffering schools of the union. bring together the many scholars and By your bounty the naked have been teachers who, by this fund, have been clothed, the hungry fed, the ignorant clothed and fed, and convey them to the instructed, and the little ones practically great city, that, by their united voices, brought to Jesus-the children's friend. they might testify their gratitude at the Several schools which, in all human assembled meeting of the Union. probability, would have sunk beneath the absence of this, we shall feel thankthe combined agency of want and dis- ful to you to convey our grateful achave been sustained in efficiency; knowledgments, first and foremost, to and not only so, but their numbers have the Committee, for organizing and carbeen recruited from the highways and rying out this appeal for aid, and taking hedges of the towns, insomuch that our charge of and reporting the same, from schools, so far from presenting a dimi- time to time; and secondly, to the Comnution of numbers, have actually at- mittee in Manchester, and those friends tained to a higher average than usual. who have, amidst their onerous duties, Not a few of the teachers have been found time to meet together and adminipreserved from the degradation of a pau- ster to our necessities.' This is the spirit per's condition by your benevolence, of all the communications which I hold in and enabled to maintain a respectable my hand. Some of them have come position before their fellow-men, by from schools where we thought that no eking out a scanty income barely suffi- distress prevailed. God had favoured us cient to clothe their little ones. During with great prosperity; He has now these ordeals the ravages of fever have brought us down to a sore time of need, been frightful, in some cases sweeping and though, for the present, our necesaway a whole family in a few days. sities are not so pressing, we fear there Amongst those to whom your bounty has is still before us a more trying season been singularly blest, we have reason to in the coming winter, even supposing believe that many have been brought to that the war should come to an end, a knowledge of the truth, and your and a sufficient supply of cotton should kindness to them has flashed like a ray be obtained to afford work for some of heaven's light over the threshold, and of our operatives. But turning from ease, these collective instances, let me men- though how or by whom I could not tell. tion one which has come under the per- And so it was ;-a neighbour brought in sonal observation of the Committee, a loaf, and the following day I received which will show you something of a portion from the Sunday School Relief the nature and extent of the distress. Fund, which helped me out of the positiI was astonished and pleased to re- on I was in, and for which I desire to tenceive a letter from one individual, who der my sincere and hearty thanks.' Such, thus writes," Permit me, through you, friends, are some of the instances which to thank the numerous young friends your bounty has relieved and satisfied. who have come forward so nobly to as- Let me then, in conclusion, assure you sist us in the present distressing crisis. that their heartfelt prayers are conI have a family of five children, and for tinually ascending for the blessing of a considerable time I have been without God to rest upon you for your liberality. employment. I have travelled scores We still trust in the Lord, who has been of miles in search of it, but every effort our helper, and are persuaded that He has proved entirely fruitless. I have will be so even to the end; and while been in different circumstances to what we acknowledge His goodness, we I am now, but little by little my stock humbly and affectionately ask an inhas been reduced, until, at last, the terest in your prayers, that the season whole has completely gone. To apply of our distress may be speedily removed, either to the parish or to the Relief and that we may come out of the fiery Fund I am ashamed, and yet very often furnace purified seven times, and that I cannot tell where the next meal will by and through us, the name of the Lord come from. One morning we sat down and of His Christ may be abundantly as usual to what should be our break-magnified." fast, but a small portion, sufficient for only one of us, was all we had to divide amongst the members of the family. Mrs. had a heart too full to speak while I was meditating upon what appeared to me a mysterious providence. With body suffering and mind depressed, I laid the matter before the Lord, whose ears are always open to the cries of His children. While thus engaged, my eldest daughter began to sing that heartstirring hymn "Though troubles assail, and dangers affright; We had marked for quotation several passages from the addresses delivered at the meeting, but want of space compels us to postpone them. CHURCH OF ENGLAND SUNDAY SCHOOL INSTITUTE. THE 19th Annual Meeting of this Institution was held on April 12th, at St. James's Hall. The attendance was, notwithstanding very unfavourable weather, considerable, but, owing to the cause mentioned, it was much less than that of last year. The chair was taken From them let us learn to trust for our bread; at seven o'clock by Lord Calthorpe. His saints, what is fitting, will ne'er be denied, When the second verse was sung, it F. NORTON, Esq., Finance Secretary, read the Report. In speaking of the nature of the assistance afforded by the Institute, the report said that in order to secure as far as possible uniformity in the teaching, and to supply the lack of the weekly study class for the teachers, where the clergyman found himself un- of union for metropolitan superintenable to conduct it, each series of lessons dents, periodical meetings being held was accompanied by notes and out- for the discussion of subjects relating to lines of the instruction to be given, with the management of the Sunday school: copious descriptive references. The ad- and it furnishes roll-books, registers, vantage of such a systematic course of class-books, &c., on the most approved instruction over the plan, unhappily plan for maintaining the school in permitted in some schools, of each a state of discipline and good order, teacher selecting his own lessons, could so arranged as to show at a glance not be over-estimated; it secured connected, progressive teaching, adapted to the capacities of each class; it led the children on from the first elements of Christian truth to a general knowledge of the Bible, and the chief doctrines and articles of the Christian faith, as taught in the Scriptural formularies of our Church; it necessitated the due preparation of the subject on the part of the teacher, and it encouraged the scholars (and sometimes their parents also) to the study of the lessons at home during the week. Free grants of the various publications were made to schools in the poor districts, and the Committee regretted that the very limited funds placed at their disposal prevented them from responding much more liberally to many pressing appeals which they received, especially as the whole cost of the school was often borne exclusively by a clergyman | whose income from his living was under £100. per annum. To superintendents the Institute offered many special advantages, which could be obtained by no other kind of agency. By means of its magazines it showed a superintendent the standard to which other schools in like circumstances to his own had attained by judicious management, and gave accounts of the various plans, rules, and regulations which had been tried and adopted; and the success or failure which had attended them. The periodicals also contained papers by writers of experience, on all matters of school management and discipline, and supplied a medium of communication for the interchange of ideas, and for inquiries on any points of doubt or difficulty. The Institute was also a centre the present state and progress of the school. During the past year lectures, conversational meetings, and training classes had been held at the rooms of the Institute as heretofore; but the Committee, finding that the attendance at these meetings was gradually diminishing, owing to the difficulty of inducing teachers, especially ladies, to come any great distance from home in the evening, have held several series of training classes in the outlying districts of the metropolis,-at Holloway, Kilburn, Hoxton, Bermondsey, Paddington, Bloomsbury, Kennington, Islington, Fulham, Shoreditch, Hampstead, &c., and they were glad to say that the attendance of teachers, and the interest evinced in such meetings, had generally been very gratifying. Manchester, Clifton, the Isle of Wight, Boston, Guildford, Ewell, Rochester, and other places, had been visited by deputations during the year. As regarded the magazines, the Committee said that, without wishing to impugn the merits of other kindred periodicals, they would urge upon all Sunday school teachers, and others connected with the Church of England, the duty of giving their heartiest support to those magazines which strive to uphold and maintain the doctrines and formularies of our beloved Church as an important part of the instruction to be given to her youthful members; more especially in times like the present, when foes without and foes within are seeking to draw away the unlearned from their due allegiance by false yet specious arguments. The financial position of the Institute still continued, it was observed, to be a source of great anxiety to the ensuing year. He said that, in his own archdeaconry, he had organized periodical meetings of teachers for conference, which had proved of the most satisfactory character, and that was one of the means by which the Institute sought to improve Sunday schools. He considered teaching in a Sunday school one of the best preparations for the work of the ministry, and had found that young men who had taught in a school usually passed their examination previously to ordination Committee. In the year 1861, they appointment of the Committee for the made a great effort to raise a sufficient fund to pay off the heavy liabilities incurred for the stock in trade of their several publications, which it was found absolutely necessary to keep on hand, but which, never having had any capital with which to commence their publishing operations, they were compelled to obtain on credit, paying off the liabilities incurred in each year, with the moneys received in the year following. This was the utmost they were ever enabled to accomplish, the very low price at in a most satisfactory which they were compelled to issue manner. He was an advocate for their various publications, to meet the dogmatic teaching of the great truths capabilities of Sunday schools, which of our religion in the case of childrenwere proverbially ill supplied with funds, a point in which there was often a great yielding little or no profit. At the time deficiency in the Church of England; mentioned £1,000., was raised for this and he believed that the systematic purpose, the Committee contributing inculcation of those truths would be themselves £200., yet the failure of the the best preservative against the heresies usual income, from donations and col- of the day. Children should not be so lections during the past two years, owing, much taught Christianity as Christ. If in a great measure, to the distress in the teachers wanted to show a child what manufacturing interest, had deprived the sin was, let them take it to Calvary; if Committee of more than half the benefit. they wished to teach a child any duty, In subscriptions from schools and in- or to instil into its mind any virtue, let dividuals, the decline had not been very them point to the example of Christ; considerable. The Committee earnestly if they would fortify it against error, appealed to all the friends of Sunday let them impress on it the words of schools, both amongst the clergy and the laity, to come forward liberally to their assistance in their present necessity, being well assured that, were the Society once placed out of debt, and with The Rev. W. CADMAN, in seconding an available working capital at its dis- the resolution, said the influence of posal, it would be well able to continue this Institute was most valuable to its course with vigour and success. The the Church of England. A teacher sum of one thousand pounds, in addition might have a warm heart without sound to their usual annual income, would knowledge or judgment, and the Instisuffice for that purpose, and the Committee could not but feel that they had a right to claim it of the Christian public. The cash account showed that the receipts of the year from all sources amounted to £3,562. 8s. 2d., and that after the disbursements £188. was over drawn. The Ven. Archdeacon UTTERTON moved the adoption of the Report and the Christ. The words and character of the Saviour constituted, in fact, the strongest argument against every form of error. tute came to the assistance of those who felt their deficiencies, teaching them the best way of conveying instruction, and of winning children for the Saviour. He had no wish to depreciate any other Society formed for a similar purpose; but it was an important fact that this Institute was a Church of England one, and on that account it appeared to him to have |