of fighting and killing other people; she never expects to swing a trumpet on shipboard, nor to be a great traveler; and as she has never thought much about it, she answers, "I don't know, Sir; but I hope I shall be good!"

"DON'T KNOW!" That is the answer of most of the boys and girls. They hardly know what they are best fitted for, and so they wait to find out. But many might know were they to take the time to think what they like best, and make up their minds what they would like to do. A little boy of nine years old once saw his father getting ready to go to the battle-field, and he said, "I want to go with you, father." But the answer was, "You are too young, my son!" The little boy begged to go to the battle-field, and at last his father said to him, "If you will go to the altar of the gods, and swear eternal hatred to the Romans, you may go!" The little boy went to the temple, and on the altar of Jupiter swore eternal hatred to the people of Rome. That little boy never forgot his oath. grew up to be a man, and his name was Hannibal, the great Carthaginian. Those were the teachings of a heathen father, and such were the vows made to a heathen god. Why should not christian children make their vows of love on the altar of christian temples, where they learn of Him who is the Prince of Peace? Why should they not be as faithful in keeping their vows as was the great heathen general of Carthage?

He

“ I

"And what will you be?" said I one day to a little fellow in one of our schools. don't know, Sir; but I am going to get an education, and then I shall know what I am best qualified for!" A noble answer, was it not?

He is determined to be fitted for something useful in the world, and so he starts by getting an education; and if he lives, I have no doubt he will have it. Boys and girls do not seem to know how much an education is worth. There is no knowing what the possession of knowledge will do for a man or woman, if they are thereby prepared to take a useful place in the world. Many young scholars do not see "what good it is going to be." But @hould they all act on the plan of little Reuben, the men and women of the next age will be better than any that have gone before them.

A gentleman once had a little fellow in his employ who came to him one morning

and said, "I wish you would pay me the rest of my wages, Sir!"

"Why, Thomas, what now? What do you want to do?"

"I am going away, Sir !"

Thomas was an orphan. His father and mother were both dead, and he felt as though he had no home, for his stepmother had married again, and he did not feel that he had a parent or friend to care for him, and he was resolved to seek his fortune for himself.

"Where are you going, Thomas?"

"I am going a long way, Sir; but I do not wish to tell you!"

"But you must tell me. I cannot let you go without knowing where you are going;" and after some persuasion, Thomas replied, "I AM GOING TO BE A BRITISH ADMIRAL!"

"An admiral, Thomas! the British navy !"*

"Yes, Sir!"

An admiral in

"But how will you get there ?"

'Oh, I shall go from here to an English city, and get on board of a ship somehow." "But two shillings is a small sum to take so long a journey with. You will soon run out of change."

"There are plenty of people who will help a little boy on his road. Give me my money, Sir, I want to start!"

"Don't be in too much hurry; a few minutes will not make much difference in a journey of so many hundreds of miles. Tell me why you want to be an admiral."

"Oh, I want to be a great man, and fight great battles for the country, and have a large fleet of ships to command!"

"Yes, that sounds very grand, Thomas; but are you sure you will, after all, get to be an admiral? There are but few such men in any navy, and the chances are not so great but that you may be disappointed. You may be an officer of high rank, but to be an admiral is a difficult thing."

"Well, I am ready to try what I can do!"

"Did you ever think what an admiral is for?"

"Why, to go out with his ships and fight battles on the sea!"

"Have you thought what a sailor in the navy and a soldier in the army are for? Do you think it is a fine thing to kill men, and make tens of thousands of boys like you orphans, and leave them without any father, and make widows of the mothers,

and burn cities, and blow up noble ships with hundreds of men on board?"

If

"No, it is not fine to do that, but then to be a great admiral, that's what I want. I have to fight, I shall have to!"

"But, Thomas, consider what a bloody, cruel business it is! Do you want to say when you die, that you have killed a hundred men whom you never spoke to, who never hurt you, who never did any thing to injure you, and whom you ought to love? for you know we are told to love our neighbour, as ourselves. Do you think that killing people is a good trade?"

"Neither do I. I am glad to see you have so much courage and so much decision. But you must not go. I shall not let you go to be the head man-killer in any navy. By and bye, the people who live after us will think us worse than tigers to spend so much money on navies and armies, only to kill each other, and seldom gain anything after all. The world is about the same to day as it was hundreds of years ago, so far as the countries are concerned. England is England,-France is France,Spain is Spain, and so of the others. The great difference is that these countries have butchered millions of people, and spent thousands of millions of money to destroy their own peace and happiness; and still these nations talk the same languages, and are about the same as before.

I

"You have a stout heart, Thomas! know if you will only make up your mind to be a statesman, or a minister, or the best workman in the country, you may do it with the same resolution you shew that you will be an admiral. Be a peace man, Thomas! Instead of going to make war, and kill men, and make thousands wretched and miserable, resolve that you will do something to make them wise, prosperous, and happy. Go on with your business. Work away, and by and bye you may make your fortune. Along with your fortune you may make a noble and honourable name in the world, and though we may never hear of Admiral Thompson, we shall hear of one who is loved, and not hated, wherever his name is known. Look up and see what a lovely world we have, and be determined that you will not do anything to make it dark or dreary, but that you will do all you can to make it holy and happy. And then, if the people do not call you Admiral, they will call you blessed. Is not that the best?"

"But I have no money, Sir!" "Oh, never mind that now. Make yourself a thorough master of your trade. Be diligent. Learn all you can. Save your pennies, and you will find money in your pockets by and bye. Be honest. Be determined to take a high place. Be a christian; and never fear!

Thomas did not go to be an admiral. What he is now must be told at another time.

It is well that young people should think what they are to be, and try to excel in the thing they choose. But, young reader, boy or girl, resolve to be something good and useful. To be a useless man or woman is to be a very bad thing in the world. Useless people are great nuisances, if no worse. There are some boys and girls who grow up to be men and women, who seem to think the world was made for them to live in and enjoy, while every one else must wait upon them. Expect them to do anything! That would be a sad mistake! So they live without enjoying the world, and die without having let the world enjoy any of their good works, and they are missed only because they are not where they used to be. When Cardinal Gonsalvi was sick, he asked his doctors how long he could live if he did nothing? They told him six years. "And if I labour?" said the Cardinal. "Only three !" replied the physicians. "Then I prefer to live three years in doing good, to living six years in idleness!" was the Cardinal's answer. How great is the difference between such a life and that of the Egyptian king, who, when told that he had only three years to live, said, "I will prove the oracle false!" To gain his end, he had his palace lighted all night, scarcely allowed himself any sleep, and by keeping up his entertainments and his dissipation night and day, he spent his whole time in revelry and luxurious feasting. This was what he called living six years in three! Whose life was the wisest, and whose death do you think was the happiest ?

"What are you going to be?" said I one day to a little girl of nine years old, as I was talking to her of things beautiful and happy in this world, and in another of which we are told, where there is light and joy for ever. "Oh, I don't know. But I hope I shall be pretty!" What a strange answer for a little girl! But the reason was stranger still! What do the young readers think it was? They can scarcely guess right, if they guess twenty times. Let us

She

see how the whole answer will read: "Oh, I don't know. But I hope I shall be pretty, so that the gentlemen will love me!" Now, this child had been more or less in the habit of reading books which are the ruin of thousands of bright and innocent minds and hearts; and many a one, were they to tell the truth, would say the same. This little girl was a novel-reader. had been allowed to read many novels and romances-books in which vanity, and folly, and fashionable sins are held up as though they were virtues to be admired and practised. In these books she had learned that to be gay, and handsome, and what is called beautiful, is the way to win the love of others. She thought it must be a fine thing to have a circle of friends by whom she would be admired and loved, and to have the gentlemen all praising her; while she no doubt thought she would be happy to have every one say, "How beautiful Helen is!"

"Why, Helen! What has put that into your head? If you want to be loved, and truly loved, you must have a beauty of a different kind. It is well enough to have a pretty face; but it is often a very dangerous thing to be pretty or beautiful.

Strive

after moral beauty-the beauty of the heart and spirit. A beautiful person and an ugly and unlovely heart are not fitting companions. But if you are not beautifuleven if you are very plain in your person→→ the beauty of the spirit, the love, the sweetness, the piety, the gentleness, which make up a beautiful soul, will win you more, and better, and truer admirers than a pretty face. Will you not ask God to make you as lovely as the Saviour in your spirit and your mind?"

Helen saw no beauty in these things. Her only answer was that she wanted to "be pretty." What a sad choice for a little girl! The beauty of the face and of the person soon fades. Sickness and death quickly change all our beauty into deformity and decay. But the mind and soul, dressed in a spiritual beauty like the holiness, and love, and purity of the angels, shall live for ever. The soul, robed in Christ's righteousness, filled with love and peace, and joy which is "full of glory," has a far, far better loveliness than all the things of the world can give. Will not the young reader seek for such beauty as this? Then it will not be hard to answer the question, WHAT WILL YOU BE?

GOD'S WORK MUST BE DONE.-The following circumstance is related in a letter from the Rev. E. Davies, of New Amsterdam:-"There has been," Mr. Davies says, "a considerable increase in the income of the Station during the year. That increase has been owing chiefly to a great effort which the people are now making towards a large chapel. One incident occurred which I shall never forget. In calling over the names to ascertain how much they could give. I happened to call the name of Fitzgerald Mathew. 'I am here, Sir,' he instantly replied, and, at the same time, I saw him hobbling with his wooden leg out of the crowd, to come up to the table-pew, where I was standing. I wondered what he meant, for the others answered to their names without moving from their places. On coming up, he put his hand into one pocket, and took out a handful of silver wrapped in paper, and said, 'That's for me, Massa.' Oh,' I said, 'keep your money at present, I don't want it now; I only wanted to know how much you could afford to give; I will come for the money another time.' 'Ah, Massa,' he replied, 'GOD'S WORK MUST BE DONE, AND I MAY BE DEAD;' and with that he plunged his hand into another pocket, and took out another hand

ful of silver, and said, 'That's for my wife, Massa.' Then he put his hand into a third pocket, and took out a somewhat smaller parcel, and said, 'That's for my child, Massa;' at the same time giving me a slip of paper which somebody had written for him, to say how much the whole was. It was, altogether, near three pounds,-a large sum for a poor field negro with a wooden leg! But his expression was to me worth more than all the money in the world. I have heard eloquent preachers in England, and felt deeply under their ministrations, but never have I been so impressed with anything they have said, as with the simple expression of this poor negro. Let me

never forget it; let it be engraved upon my heart; let it be my motto in all that I take in hand for the cause of Christ:- GOD'S WORK MUST BE DONE, AND I MAY BE DEAD.'"

A WARNING AGAINST COVETOUSNESS.—If we would be faithful to our solemn trust, we must give good heed to the admonition of Jesus-"TAKS HEED AND BEWARK GP COVETOUSNESS." Never was there a time when it was more necessary to reiterate these solemn words than now; for never did such reponsibility attach to the possession of money; never did God more loudly claim it; never did man more earnestly

seek to get and keep it. The love of money and concern for souls, never yet dwelt in the same heart. Judas could have no fellowship with Jesus, nor Demas with the apostle Paul. It is as true as ever that "no man can redeem his brother," and, "that we are not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold;" but it is equally true, that God makes use of the property that his church gives to his cause, in order to manifest his own glory in the salvation of souls. Who can deny this, with the results of home and foreign missionary efforts before him? Who, that believes it, but must feel the amazing responsibility attached to the possession of property in the present day? Look at that professor on his dying bed! He is leaving behind him

tens of thousands to those who little need it, and who will make little good use of it. He has heard of Home Missions, Foreign Missions, City Missions, and he has given his mite towards these objects; but he has done nothing great, nothing worthy of the cause, nothing corresponding with what God gave to him. Now he thinks, "I could have supported a missionary at home or abroad, and have been none the poorer. I might have given away ten times what I have done, and not have abridged myself of a single comfort. I could have made many more hearts glad, and have cheered the widow and the fatherless in many more instances, and not have injured my family. Alas!" says he, "what have I been doing, and whither am I going ?"

THE MONTH.

Children of the Dangerous Class are at last to be taken in hand by the State. The most thorough Voluntary in Religion and Education must rejoice in this. However

are

it may be debated whether the better classes, both of poor and rich, will see to their own education, none can doubt that children whose parents send them out daily to beg or pilfer, ought to be taken from parents who are training them only for the prison, the convict colony, or the gallows. Not only in mercy to the poor children, but in mercy to itself, society may surely stop the growth of such a crop of vice and crime. In no workhouse or reformatory school to which the young unfortunates transferred, could they be worse treated than by their own parents; the moral certainty being that they will be placed in the hands of kind and wise instructors, and receive a good education, and industrial training also. The country owes much to the Earl of Shaftesbury for introducing and pushing through his Juvenile Mendicancy Bill in the face of some technical opposition: no one being able to deny its substantial merits. Its operation will be confined for the present to London, to conciliate some opponents; but it will be sure to become soon of general application. Among the middle and higher classes already, if parents are bringing up their children in gross inconsistency with their duties, the Lord Chancellor can, and does if applied to, take them from them, and place them under proper guardians. This Bill will enable magistrates to take the children of the poorer classes also under the care of the State, when their parents are manifestly bringing them up to ruin. And most righteously will it make their parents, if able, contribute to their maintenance too. It would be of most evil consequence if dissolute parents could relieve themselves of the charge of their own children by the worst of wickedness; it would, of course,

be a direct premium on parental neglect. We regard Lord Shaftesbury's Bill, therefore, as the most valuable Education Bill which has yet been laid before Parliament. It takes up the class which all parties agree needs most of all to be cared for, which no education scheme as yet has included, and by making the reckless parents pay, it encourages rather than supersedes voluntary effort. Penal reformatory schools on a national scale are also in contemplation, for children under sixteen who have been actually convicted of crime. Ragged schools are also doing a blessed work amongst the most neglected classes; and we rejoice to notice the opening. under the best auspices, of a " Boys' Ragged Refuge" also, for homeless and neglected boys. Government and society are at last looking in the right direction for the prevention of crime. trust the time is rapidly coming when parents bringing up their children wickedly will be too marked a spectacle to render their own existence bearable to themselves.

We

Episcopal Rapacity, of course, knows no slumber; having "gone to press " alone compelled us to defer noticing last month a most sordid job, which we hope is nearly defeated by the vigilance of the Anti-State- Church Association. In brief, a bill was quietly getting on, providing for closing overcrowded burial grounds, and enabling Town Councils, by rate, to provide new ones. Part of the new ground was to undergo the silly and superstitious rite of Episcopal consecration; the other part, well marked off, to be left unholy for Infidels, Dissenters, &c., &c. ; yet the Town Councils were not to allow the Dissenters and others to be buried in the profane part of the ground till the Bishop had consecrated the Churchman's part! The Bishop again was empowered to fix compensation to clergymen for the full burying grounds, and the fees for burials, and to approve a chapel built on the ground for Churchmen only, at the cost of all the ratepayers. And until the Bishop

had filched heavy compensation for used-up grounds, and heavy fees for the new ones, he would stand at the cemetery gates and (worse than the dog in the manger) forbid the Dissenter to use the ground his own money had bought, useless though it were We to the Right Reverend Fee-hunter. cannot conceive any thing meaner, more degrading and disgusting, than this traffic, in the name of the christian religion, in the dust and ashes of the departed. Fees for religious rites are bad enough, popish enough, in any case; but when they are paid for the last offices of religion, they are revolting indeed to any mind which thinks on the subject. Fees for funeral services are altogether as bad as fees for masses. They originated in belief in the magic powers of priestly incantation, and they are upheld for filthy lucre's sake. Our readers must pardon us if we seem too indignant. We express, in truth, but little of what we feel. This we do know, that priestly avarice is a fountain of irreligion.

Slavery, we are sorry to learn, still exists in what is virtually British Dominion. In Travancore, governed by a native ruler, but in thorough subordination to the Governor General of India, there are 168,874 slaves. The conditions of their slavery, though not equal in severity to those of our professedly christian brethren in America, are yet very hard; and sale and purchase of human beings is very common. A word from the Indian Minister in England, or the Governor General in India, could abolish the whole thing. Mr. J. O. Whitehouse, of the London Missionary Society, has brought the subject before the public; we hope the House of Commons will soon hear of it.

In the

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, after suffering three defeats on the Advertisement duty, has at last given it up. course of the debates, Mr. Bright exhibited to the House a copy of a New York newspaper, described its varied contents in an impressive manner, and stated that for one penny this excellent first-class newspaper was laid on the breakfast-table, daily, of the New York mechanic! He then justly appealed to the House, whether the English workman had a fair chance by the side of his well-informed brother mechanic in New York. The House evidently felt deeply the gravity of the subject. We must think that a Free Press for England cannot be now long withheld. By next session, working men should have numerous petitions, with millions of signatures, ready for the House of Commons. It must hearken to working men on such a topic.

War seems, we hope, less likely than ever. The Emperor of Russia has indeed issued two most disgraceful circulars, and has sent troops into provinces tributary to Turkey; but his insatiable ambition is plainly held in check by fear of France and England; and, probably, by fear of restoring Mazzini and Kossuth to power. The question will, however, soon be decided-possibly before this comes into our readers' hands.

CHELTENHAM.

The foundation-stone of a new Chapel for the use of the Baptist Church now meeting in Ebenezer Chapel, King Street, to be called, Cambray Chapel, was laid in the presence of a few friends, on July 9th, 1853, prayer being offered by the pastor, the Rev. James Smith: it being ten years on that day from the commencement of the cause. The size of the chapel is to be fiftynine feet by forty-nine, in the clear, exclusive of lobbies, &c.; and it is intended to seat one thousand persons. The style is modern. Readers of "The Church," who intend to assist in this important undertaking, are requested to send their contributions, as early as convenient, to the Rev. James Smith, 7, Selkirk Parade, Cheltenham; and the prayers of the Lord's people for his blessing on the undertaking are earnestly solicited.

PRINCES STREET CHAPEL, WESTMINSTER.

It will be remembered that about eighteen months since, on the Rev. H. J. Betts leaving Romney Street Chapel, some of his members left with him, and were afterwards formed into a church, and have since been meeting in a school-room in Smith-Street. A more eligible place for their_meeting having been found the Rev. C. Geary having offered to preach for the people-the place was opened with a tea and public meeting on Tuesday, April 26th, 1853. After the tea, the Rev. C. Geary, presiding, gave out a hymn, the Rev. H. J. Betts engaged in prayer, and the meeting was afterwards addressed by Mr. Crocker, of the British Reformation Society, Mr. Cox, the district Secretary of the Sunday School Union, Mr. Dunt, the Rev. C. Woollicot, the Rev. H. J. Betts, and the Rev. J. Pearce. the following Friday, the Rev. G. Hall, of Ipswich, preached; and on the following Lord s-day, the services were conducted by the Rev. J. Pearce, the Rev. C. Woollicot, and the Rev. C. Geary. These services were well attended. Each Lord's-day has increased upon the preceding.

PUDSEY, YORKSHIRE.

On

On Wednesday evening, June 22nd, a social tea meeting was held in the Baptist Chapel, Pudsey, for the purpose of recognizing and giving a cordial welcome to the Rev. J. Hillyard, who has recently accepted the pastorate of the church. Mr. J. Marshall, of Farsley, occupied the chair; and, after a paper detailing the history of the church and of Mr. Hillyard's acceptance of the pastorate had been read by Mr. J. Sutcliffe, appropriate addresses were delivered by the Revs. J. Foster, of Farsley, and W. Jackson, of Horsforth, and by Messrs. W. Heaton and J. Parkin, of Leeds. The Rev. A. M. Stalker, of Leeds, gave an excellent address to the minister. The proceeds of the tea party, which amounted to several pounds, were devoted to defraying the expenses incurred in erecting several new pews. Mr. Hillyard enters on his labours with highly encouraging prospects of suc

cess.