The temptation is great, and is yielded to without reserve, of occupying time previous to the commencement of divine worship in reading and diverting the mind by religious news, or so-called religious tales, which might be fitly employed in petitions for the pastor, and for power to unite the heart to fear God's name. It is very painful to see the paper scarcely thrust aside to make way for the hymn, and the little ones devouring the narrative portion of their book-carefully passing by the "sermonising"-while the man of God is pouring salutary instruction into their unlistening ears.

The question was gravely put in a Southern city, whether, seeing parents are indulged with a portion of worldly matter in the Presbyterian, Observer, and Evangelist, it would not be right to indulge the children in the same way in their Record or Messenger. "Do you refer to a Sunday or religious paper?" was the question in reply. "Yes; of course, pious chil

"But

dren would pass the news by until Monday." you teach them to pray, 'Lead us not into temptation;' would not this method lay a snare before them?" "Those who have any fear will see and shun it." "But those who have not will fall into it, and get the habit of lax employment of sacred time, acquired by means of you who wish to do them good. Believe me, sir, in Scotland, your question would admit of but one answer."

This little colloquy indicates a degree of slightness with respect to the use of sacred time and happy

opportunities, which may lead to painful consequences.

Many solid Christian people feel so deeply that the libraries are flooded with trifling and insipid would-be religious stories, full of vague and unsound theology, that the evil must speedily be corrected.

There is a degree of sensibility in the Americans, in all matters of taste, which often calls forth admiration, and which mingles with occasions of sorrow as well as of joy. At times, perhaps, the tasteful might with advantage be restrained, lest it occupy the room of some more precious thing.

One simple example of what is meant, may be exhibited without a breach of delicacy. A gentleman, past the meridian of life, with manners and countenance beaming with benevolence, enters a room where he is hailed by the children with loving welcomes. But especially the little girl, who is his pupil, places herself on his knee, and twines her fingers through his half hoary hair.

The mother, with grateful expression, relates that he is the teacher, and most beloved by all his class, in school and out. The gentleman mentions how many years he has kept a Sabbath-class of children at the age reckoned most liable to distressing deaths, and how he never had a death amongst them, but kept them on till ready to be promoted to a higher class. It was remarked "that this was happy for him, and for parents; yet, sometimes the removal

of a schoolmate by death, impressed the young mortals with a new and important view of the eternal world." "You would not wish for a death for the purpose of giving the children such a lesson ?" inquired the mother. "Surely not; but, at the moment, I remember a large school in silence, and many in deep emotion, when the children, by their own motion, selected a hymn, and recited it after the death of one of their number, the effect of which remains with some to this day. The poem began thus::

'Death has been here, and borne away

A sister from our side.

Just in the morning of her day

As young as we-she died.'

Well, madam," said the excellent man, with his loving, smiling countenance, "we have not been so many years united, without opportunity to send the lesson of mortality home to the heart. We lost a beloved lady, one of our teachers, some time ago. She was very dear to her own pupils, and they sincerely mourned her; and I led my own little train to the funeral, dressed in white; and when we came up the centre aisle, in a double column, they divided, and passed up each side of the coffin, and each laid a bunch of roses upon it. They then seated themselves on each side of the wide pulpit stairs, which they nearly filled."

It was easy to say, for it is true, that the scene must have been touching and pretty, but there was

a want of fitness. It would have been touching and pretty at a wedding or a baptism. It was not so easy not to say, "Were you not sacrificing the solemn to the picturesque, and diverting thought from the judgment-throne and the world of glory, on behalf of the merely graceful and beautiful?"

IN

CHAPTER V.

THE BOYS' MEETING."

In every crowded community there is a circle which, from profligacy, ignorance, or poverty in the parents, falls below the educational degree; and if that circle is to be taught at all, it must be led and raised by the hand of Christian benevolence. New York has a crowd of such persons who linger about the docks half employed, because intemperate-not to mention the newly-arrived and desolate-looking emigrants; and is quite as able to furnish out a few " ragged schools" as are the Trongate of Glasgow, and the Cowgate of Edinburgh.

I am not sure that, with the exception of that of Mr Pease at the Five Points, any such week-day gathering of forlorn creatures has been made. Several Sabbath ragged-schools, however, have been assembled by means of the energy of individual compassion. Intelligent and spirited young Christian men have permeated the throng, and coaxed them within the sound of instruction. By what ingenious devices they influenced the wild little