standing, elevate the affections, and purify the heart-then let me exhort you to search the Scriptures, to sink deep the shaft into the inexhaustible mine, and to draw forth its hidden treasures. Happy are those among you who, from early days, were taught to read the book of God-to become familiar with its general histories with its biographical sketches of patriarchs, and prophets, and kings to trace the gradual unfolding of Jehovah's gracious purposes by symbol, by type, and by prediction-till at last Jesus himself appears to take away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And if you have thus stored, in the cells of memory, the narratives and promises and precepts of the sacred page-if the sweet psalms which you learned at a mother's knee, or helped to swell in the chorus of domestic praise-if these songs of Zion often rush, unbidden, to your lips-bring all these peculiar and blessed advantages, I beseech you, to bear upon your present work. It is essential, then, that you should obtain a holy familiarity with the Book of God. In connexion with this, let me impress on you the importance of becoming acquainted with Sacred Geography, with Eastern manners and customs, and with the rites and ceremonies of the Jewish Ritual. Let every lesson, also, be accurately prepared; study the greatest possible simplicity in your mode of teaching, and, in the management of your class; let firmness, cheerfulness, patience, and affectionate tenderness, be all combined. Above all, accustom yourselves to dwell on those scenes of surpassing interest and beauty, which have been emphatically called "the pictures of the Bible." Lead your children thus through Eden's happy bowers, and stand with them beneath the "Tree of Knowledge" and the "Tree of Life." Mark with them how Noah builds the ark, and listen, as every blow of his hammer preaches a sermon to a mocking unbelieving world. Look on him again as he rears the altar at Ararat's base, and, as the pledge and symbol of the covenant, the beauteous bow spans the heavens. Take them to the banks of the Nile, and as Pharaoh's daughter opens the basket of bulrushes, see, in that weeping babe, the future avenger of Israel. Go with them to Sinai, and as the earth shakes, the thunder rolls, and the trumpet sounds, tremble with them at the presence of the righteous Lawgiver. Carry them up to Shiloh, that they may be introduced to young Samuel, and see him in "the little coat which his mother brought him, and in which, as a blessed model for them, he has "begun to serve the Lord betimes." Go, then, over Jordan's bed, as Elijah's mantle divides the flood, and look up as the chariots of fire bear him to heaven. And then pass on to the plains of Dura, and the golden image; and next approach the burning fiery furnace, and see, amid the three children walking unhurt amid its fierceness, the form of a fourth like unto the SON OF GOD. Nay, moving onward through this divine gallery, come down to a later period still. Join the wise men from the East, and follow" the Star of Bethlehem " -trace the Redeemer to the banks of the Jordan, to the shore of Galilee, to the top of Tabor, to the Temple in Jerusalem, to the gate of Nain, to the grave of Lazarus, to the Mount of Olives, to the "Upper Room," and "the Last Supper," to the Garden of Gethsemane and the CROSS OF CALVARY-and around that bloody tree gather your children every Sabbath, that the sight may melt them into pity, admiration, and love; and that the scene may be graven on their hearts as with an iron pen, and as in the rock for ever! V. The cherishing of a missionary spirit is essential to right preparation for your work. Without this ever glowing in your hearts the young will feel no interest in the cause of God; but, possessing this, the flame will be so communicated to them as to rouse them to missionary zeal. We have heard what the children of the Free Church of Scotland have done, in raising large sums for the furtherance of her noble cause. We know, that, as the purchase of the children of England, the missionary ship, the John Williams, is now bearing the ambassadors of the Cross through the lovely islands of the Southern Ocean, and spreading, wide and far, the blessed Gospel for which Williams lived and died. Come to your work, then, I beseech you, resolved to give a prominent place, in the eyes of your pupils, to the noble theme of Missions. Teach them to give, and labour, and pray, for the dark places of the earth which are full of the habitations of cruelty, for the lost sheep of the house of Israel,-and urge them to look, with the compassion of a holy patriotism, on the multitudes at home who are perishing for lack of knowledge. VI. It is absolutely necessary to right preparation that every teacher should give himself continually to prayer. The great Robert Hall was once asked, What he considered was that aid of the Spirit which ministers in the present day might expect? He replied, "A preparation of heart." And how, I ask you, shall ministers obtain this but by earnest, believing prayer? And, oh! when the minister selects his text, studies his sermons, and enters the pulpit in a spirit of earnest wrestling with God, when he practically realizes what Luther said, that "to pray devoutly was to study well," what love in the heart-what liberty to plead for Christ-what pity for the perishing-what "grace poured into his lips," does he at such favoured and precious seasons enjoy! Sabbath-school teachers, I doubt not it has been sometimes thus with you. When you had nearest access to the throne of grace, when you filled your mouths with arguments on behalf of your charge, when you asked for life from the Lord and Giver of Life, when you asked for light from "the Great Teacher," was not that the precursor of a happy day in your work? And while you spoke to the children, with power and success, did you not know, in answer to prayer, that "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty?" Let the prayer of the closet, then, be continually offered with thanksgivings for all that the Lord hath already bestowed, and with importunate entreaties that, by saving every one of these little ones (especially named and remembered before Him), he may, through your instrumentality, bring many sons and daughters to glory. I cannot but add, that the very existence of every "Sabbath-school Teachers' Union demands that it shall be a "Union specially for prayer. We need a revival in Sabbath-schools; and there was never a season of revival yet in the Church of God that was not preceded by united prayer. It is one of the most encouraging signs of the times that a Sabbath-school Prayer Union ” has been held at stated periods for several years; and I cannot doubt that if you are moved "together with one accord in one place"-to seek for "times of refreshing" from "the presence of the Lord," that the blessing will certainly come. In the great revival in Scotland, in the seventeenth century, many children, from six to twelve years of age, were brought to Christ; and at one place the revival commenced with the young. In the revival in America, in the time of President Edwards, many children were converted; and he records an instance of one child, only four years of age, who was brought evidently both to understand the Gospel, and to rejoice in the hope of glory. Continue in prayer, then, dear friends, for the salvation of souls is at stake; pray on, and in this strength you will assuredly conquer. "In converting one child, you perform a greater work than he who saves a city from the plague, or a country from an invading foe. True, at such an event there is no flourishing of trumpets, no ringing of bells, no firing of cannon; nor is any medal struck to commemorate the glorious achievement. And yet, among the angels of God, it excites a deeper interest than all the exploits of the battle-field, that throw a nation into an ecstacy of joy; and here, upon earth, it communicates an impulse which may at last appear in ten thousand happy spirits before the throne." Sabbath-school teachers, continue in prayer, lest, after all your toil, on your dying bed you should each cry out, in the mournful words of a departing minister of Christ, when reviewing his want of success, "I HAVE PRAYED TOO LITTLE. And now, beloved friends, farewell! I know well that very many of you are continually harassed by the care and anxieties of a busy life; but if you seek for such preparation for your work as I have attempted to describe in this address, then the blessed engagements and enjoyments of the Sabbath will re-act with a purifying and preserving power upon you amid the temptations and trials of the week. You will thus have your citizenship in heaven-you will "endure, as seeing Him who is invisible"—and in your own happy experience, you will know and thankfully confess that it is no picture of the fancy, but a sublime and glorious reality, when a sacred poet assures us that "There are in this low stunning tide Through dusky lane and wrangling marts, Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat." May this rich reward be yours in all its fulness, and to Jehovah's name be everlasting praise! Amen. THE ENGLISH PRESBYTERIAN MESSENGER. A LECTURE ADDRESSED TO MEN OF BUSINESS. HAVING SO lately attempted to apply people flowed as water would flow through a conduit of crystal-as unadhesive and as unsullied,— -so far as he is a trustee for others, the high-minded Christian is superior to all self-preference and self-aggrandizement, and finds a rich recompense in being thus enabled to conquer the unrighteous Mammon. And rather than let his good be evil spoken of, he will forego those gains which others may deem perfectly fair, but at which his more tender or enlightened conscience demurs. When Mr. BONNELL was Ac 1. The great mercantile virtue is Integrity. Zeal is not more essential to a missionary, nor benevolence to a phy-countant-General of Ireland, it was the sician, nor courage to a soldier, than uprightness to a man of business. It is his primary grace, his cardinal virtue; and whatever he may possess,-acuteness, intelligence, information, address, it profiteth nothing so long as he lacks integrity. And though some derive from education a high sense of honour, there is no principle so potent as the sense of duty which the Christian derives from grace. According as he is more or less devout, he realizes the eye of God as the constant Inspector of his conduct, and God's tribunal as the last court of review, before which his intromissions and transactions must pass. And filled, as it is, with lofty motives and elevated feelings, and the consciousness of a high relation, his nature has neither aptitude nor liking for the doubtful gains, the evasive shifts, and paltry stratagems, to which meaner natures stoop. Like the great HENRY THORNTON, through whose immaculate hands the wealth of other No. 8.-New Series. reign of Charles II., and it was still common for public officers to accept gratuities for special services; and though he announced his purpose to refuse them, people could not understand such highpitched purity. Accordingly, when one public creditor left on his table three broad pieces of gold, and another a guinea or two, he distributed them among some worn-out servants of the CustomHouse, and by a few such acts of resolute disinterestedness, saved himself from future temptation. And though bribery is now a branded crime, and it needs less effort to withstand it, there still are many questionable profits which it needs much faith or fortitude to forego. We are taught to admire the military heroism which makes a man contemptuous of his life at the very period when life is richest in promise and most prodigal of joy; but when I remember that almost as deepseated and desperate an instinct as the love of life, is the love of money, and R VOL. I. "None though he might have lived his remain- when I remember that the trader's very calling is to earn a fortune, I own myself an equal admirer of that mercantile heroism, which makes a man contemptuous of filthy lucre. The soldier may lose his life, but he is more likely to survive; and he has every impulse to risk it which fury or ambition or fellow-combatants can supply; and then-the glory, should he fall! But the trader who is accosted by some sinister temptation; who has it for this morning in his offer to become suddenly or excessively rich, and that by a slight deviation from duty, by | one little subterfuge, or by a single compromise, which need never be repeated, and who, perhaps, has pressing liabilities or a rising family, as so many reasons for compliance, but who puts aside the proposal without a single sigh; the man who, knowing so well the worth of money, is so little moved by the un-pended, was the means of providing righteous Mammon-the man who can stand on a pinnacle and view the world and its glory, and hear a voice, "All these will I give thee," but trample the temptation and turn sharp on the tempter -the man who can fight this battle, not amid flushed comrades and on a resounding field, but in the silence of his parlour or the obscurity of his counting-room, and not even a partner or a clerk to praise the victory,-in such a man and such a triumph of Christian principle, we recognise every element of genuine heroism, and that self-sacrifice which is the real spirit of martyrdom. 2. Another blessing which real religion confers on its mercantile possessor is, moderation in prosperity. "He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent." "But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth." "If rich, be not too joyful in having, too solicitous in keeping, too anxious in increasing, nor too sorrowful in losing." These golden sentences were inscribed on the accountbooks of a London merchant,* who, not content with writing them in his books, embodied them in the consistent practice of fifty years. The Lord gave him power to get wealth, and just when he was on the way to get a great deal more, he said, "It is enough," and retiring from a prosperous trade, devoted his remaining years to doing good. His income was not great, but he had once been happy with a great deal less; and *Thomas Wilson, Esq., of Highbury. more places of Evangelic worship in this metropolis and raising up more faithful ministers, than any single income ever did since the days of Lady Huntingdon. The horse-leech hath seven daughters, saying, Give, give, and the love of money hath as many, saying, Get, get, and the only antidote to this self-feeding rapacity is the Gospel. The only man who ever found a competency is the man who has found in godliness with contentment great gain. When business prospers, he can still live on little, and give a large amount away; and he can even achieve the prodigy, at which so many marvel,— retire from a thriving business, and bid adieu to boundless prospects, in order to live on a limited or lessened revenue. 3. Another benefit of true piety is the support which it affords its possessor in a season of commercial calamity. We have few more delightful biographies than that of JOSEPH WILLIAMS. He was a carpet manufacturer at Kidderminster, a hundred years ago; and in a letter to Mr. Walker of Truro, he says, "I am an old man; a tradesman also of no small account in this neighbourhood; but I trust my more beloved, because more gainful, traffic lies in a far country. Grace unknown, though not unfelt, put me in this way forty-four years ago. I was then inclined to seek goodly pearls, and having found one pearl of great price, I was willing to sell all and buy it. And now my traffic is to the country beyond Jordan, and my chief correspondence with the King of Zion, a good friend to merchantmen. He first condescended to traffic with me, furnished me with the stock, made me many India Company's commercial resident at valuable remittances, and hath firmly Malta, the profits of his office were so assured me of a great and good inhe- great that after a few years he sent his ritance to which I am to sail and take books to Bengal to be examined, stating possession, as soon as I shall be ready that he was making money so fast that he for it, and our mutual interest will be feared it could not all be correct, though thereby best promoted. And I have so he himself could not find out the mistake. high an opinion of Zion's King, and can But the Governor-General instantly reso firmly rely on his promises, that I turned them unopened, bidding him keep look on my said possession as a done his mind quite easy, and telling him that thing, for, indeed, he hath confirmed his nobody except himself was troubled with promises by many undeniable pledges." | such nervousness. And it would be easy This happy old Christian was tried at his to quote abundant instances where upoutset by heavy losses which nearly over-rightness and integrity have made the whelmed him; but his heart was fixed, Christian stand out in bright relief, and and in the midst of all his anxieties and have wrung even from a reluctant world, disasters, we find him saying, "Surely a moment's plaudit or the more solid I find my soul growing in submission to tribute of lasting respect and confidence. God's will, and in delight in God and in And this is the best service which any duty. Surely I am enabled to love God man can render to the Gospel, the most more, not only by means of this trial, but precious and welcome of all contributions for it." And the steady hand with which the contribution of a consistent chahe carried the cup of prosperity when racter. And perhaps there is no class full, and the serene countenance with of society from which that contribution which he drank the cup when embittered, has oftener come, than the class which I the meekness and modesty with which he am now honoured to address. Amongst sustained success, and the perfect peace the lay members of the Church of Engwhich he enjoyed when in danger of land, the elders and deacons of our losing all, were the result of the self- city Churches in either kingdom, the same thing. He had commenced his office bearers of our Dissenting congrebusiness with God, and with God in gations, and the committees of our reliprayer and consultation he carried it on. gious Societies, will be found a band of Or as he himself expressed it, "he traded men who exemplify in noble combinafor Christ." There was in partnership tion, "not slothful in business, fervent with him a Wonderful Counsellor, to whom in spirit, serving the Lord; men who, he could resort in every dilemma, and comparatively free from professional prewho could send him supplies in the most judice, and looking round them with an wonderful ways;-a friend as wise as eye of practical beneficence, are forward he was kind, who kept him from losing to each good work and friendly to all courage in the most threatening conjunc- good men :-men who do not keep their tures, and who kept his heart from break-religion for cloisters and closets, nor ing in the most crushing disasters. And so, dear Sirs, if you would secure a blessing on your business, let it be your first concern to consecrate that business. Let each dedicate his traffic even as he dedicates himself and his household to the Lord. Associate in your schemes and undertakings the Most High, and see that there be in them nothing which one so truthful and holy would condemn. Devote to his service a fit proportion of your gains; and let the straightforwardness and simplicity, the good faith and good feeling in which your transactions are conducted betoken a trader of the Bible school, a merchantman who has borrowed his system and his rules from the business of a better country. When Mr. CHARLES GRANT was the East give it dyspeptic airings in shady groves or over gravelled walks, but who must carry it with them into the streets, and docks, and warehouses, and let it ride in cabs and omnibuses, and other secular vehicles, where medieval piety would feel itself a culprit or a convict; or men who with little taste time for logomachies and wordy strifes, have a simple and loving hold of the truth as it is in Jesus, and who if not always sensitively alive to the denominational interests, are perhaps the more anxious that Christ should increase; men whose warm devotion hails casual opportunities of worship, but who to do good and communicate never forget. From such examples religion is seen to be not a mere theory read in printed books, but a |