the Teachers-there must be great fault somewhere. I can attribute it only to pride; but perhaps some of your readers will explain it? A WELL-WISHER TO CHILDREN AND TEACHERS.

March, 1846.

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HELP TO THE READING OF THE SCRIPTURES. REV. SIR,-In looking through your much-esteemed little work, the Teacher's Visitor," I met with the following inquiry by one of your correspondents, (a fellow-labourer in the Lord,) "What work can you recommend as a help to the reading or study of the Scriptures ?" The inquirer mentions two very good works which he has got; but the work which he seems to be in want of is a kind of "Key," or "Dictionary ;" and, sir, if you will permit the following recommendation of and remarks on the Rev. John Brown's "Dictionary to the Holy Bible," (if you think it worthy,) to appear in the "Visitor," I shall feel obliged. "Brown's Dictionary to the Bible" is a work to which I myself feel very much indebted, and, next to the Bible itself, esteem it as one of the "best," if not the "best" of books. It does not only contain all the different meanings of words, with reference to all the different passages in which their various meanings are conveyed; but it also contains an "Historical and Geographical Account of the Persons and Places" mentioned in the Scriptures. His accounts are lengthy and instructive, especially under such heads as "Christ Jesus," "Abraham,' Moses," " Bible," "6 Church," &c. It is also enriched with commentary; there is one upon the whole of the Song of Solomon, which is very instructive. It also contains tables of all the Gospels and Epistles, with their dates, and places from which they were written, with many other tables of great use to an anxious reader. The work is published at about 15s. There are other works of this kind, but they are so much less that I would not recommend them; and I will take this opportunity of advising your readers to wait till they can procure one of "Brown's," either new or second-hand. I remain, dear sir, in love to you and all my fellow-labourers in the Lord's vineyard, as dressers of tender plants,

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Yours faithfully.

"CHRISTIAN EARNESTNESS."

WM. S.

REV. SIR,-Permit me, as a Sunday-school Teacher, to make a few observations on an article which appeared in your periodical for January last, headed "Christian Earnestness." The paragraph to which I refer is this: "A Sunday-school is languishing for the want of Teachers-and there are such now perhaps in thy own

place❞—or to the same effect. Yes, Mr. Editor, such is the case in the school belonging to the church of my village, of which I was a Teacher in the Sunday-school for a number of years. It is now languishing for want of Teachers. And it is with shame that I own myself guilty of having a careless spirit.

For more than a year I have been careless and negligent in my duty, by not taking my place punctually, as a Teacher ought, in my class, scarcely once during the past twelvemonths. Though knowing our school was languishing greatly for the want of Teachers to instruct the little lambs to read, and the way to heaven, I have forsaken this my former duty, and attended church alone, thinking that I had been a Sunday-school Teacher quite long enough.

But alas! how many there are like myself, puffed up with conceit, that they have had labour and toil enough in their weekly calling, during the past week, without smothering themselves in a Sundayschool upon the Lord's Day. Such were some of the thoughts of the writer. But, alas! many a time did my conscience tell me that I was not using the talents committed to my charge; that I was not following the Scripture command, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might." But did the Redeemer shew such indifference for the souls of perishing sinners while he was in the flesh?

If there should be any reader of the "Teacher's Visitor" who has been a Sunday-school Teacher, and neglected such a sphere of usefulness, like myself, I would recommend him to read the article of which I am speaking, headed, “Christian Earnestness." I think, if such a one will read it diligently, he will return, like myself, as the prodigal son to his father's house. How many ministers, how many Teachers, and how many Sunday-scholars are discouraged, and even languish, for the want of more Teachers!

Mr. Editor, it was reading the above article in the "Teacher's Visitor" which induced me to return to my former office in the Sunday-school. May these few lines be the means of bringing those who have deserted the field to their class again.

SCRIPTURAL DIFFICULTY.

May I enquire, through the medium of your pages, for information respecting Ezekiel xiv. 14., where Daniel is mentioned, in conjunction with Noah and Job, as being of eminent and known piety, although it is stated by those commentators to which I have access, that Ezekiel and Daniel were cotemporaries, which involves a seeming improbability.

C. D. S.

MISSTATEMENT.

[The Editor very readily lays the following letter before his readers.] DEAR SIR,-Reproof, in order to be effectual, should be neither excessive nor erroneous. If the former, the exaggeration of the fault is apt to aggravate the delinquent; if the latter, it is resented as calumnious.

We quote, in page 183, of the "Teacher's Visitor," for the present month, a statement of a Government Commissioner, to the effect that, "the bank-girls in Bilston ride astride upon horses, drink, swear, fight, smoke, whistle, sing, and care for nobody." I contradicted this in Exeter Hall, the year before last; I asserted, what I beg here to repeat, that I have laboured eleven years in Bilston, and never saw or heard of a bank-girl "riding astride”—smoking very rarely, and whistling seldom; but, on the contrary, I have invariable met with civil, modest behaviour from them, and, as a class, they are very far from deserving so severe an animadversion as the Commissioner has inflicted on them.

They may be fairly compared with any other class of females occupying their laborious and humble station in society, and are obviously improving in their general habits.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

JOSH. B. OWEN, Incumbent of St. Mary's, Bilston. Bilston, April 3, 1846.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

"Juvenis" is informed that the Jewish sacrifices undoubtedly received all their real value only so far as they who used them looked through them to the grand sacrifice of Christ.

Received: "S. S." "E. G." "A Country Teacher," and several other communications, which will be noticed next month. Poetry of "W. S. P." not quite good enough.

A correspondent suggests that decidedly the best treatise on the Liturgy is by the Rev. W. W. Champny's, Rector of Whitechapel. He also recommends Gurney's Dictionary of the Bible, (Tegg,) and Robinson's Theological Dictionary.

The Editor is much obliged for the paper on Missions, but it is not quite suitable for his purpose.

'J. C."s paper takes ground which has been already occupied. "R. B."'s poetry not good enough.

A correspondent strongly recommends Green's Biblical Dictionary, published by the Sunday School Union.

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Another correspondent recommends 'Scripture Texts Arranged," published in Dublin. The Editor knows it to be excellent, and has already noticed it.

"J. G. B." recommends the following works as valuable helps to the study of the Scriptures: "Jones' Scripture Directory," (Seeley); "Outlines of Sacred History," published under the

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sanction of the Christian Knowledge Society. On the Liturgy: the Bishop of Peterborough's "Village Conversations;" Brown's "Dictionary of the Bible," (Leigh, Strand); Bishop Tomline's "Study of the Bible," (Rivington); Robinson's "Biblical, &c. Dictionary," (Longman.) Dictionary of the Bible.-"J. W." states that he has found the following work very useful. "A Dictionary of the Holy Bible, containing an historical and geographical account of the persons and places; a literal, critical, and systematical description of other objects, whether natural, artificial, civil, religious, or military; and an explanation of the appellative terms mentioned in the Old and New Testaments." By the Rev. John Brown, late Minister of the Gospel at Haddington, &c. London: Tegg, 1840. It contains about 760 pages 8vo, and can be had at a moderate price. "M. G." recommends Cruden's "Concordance." This book is well known and extensively used as a guide to find out whereabouts in the Bible any text stands; but it also serves the purpose of a dictionary to the Scriptures, by giving a concise and yet complete explanation of the most important terms under their respective words.

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A Teacher" asks for a good work as a key to the Bible. I have Barr's "Scripture Student's Assistant," published by Blackie and Son; and also Gurney's "Dictionary of the Bible;" both of which I find very useful.-T. B.

Answers to "U. S." Children may easily be made to understand that God in saving sinful men who look to him for salvation through his Son, puts all his Son's goodness or merit to their account, and all their sins to Christ's account, who bears their punishment in our stead, for "by his stripes we are healed." God looks upon us through his Son with favour and love. He sees us in his Son. And just as when you look at any object through coloured glass the object is seen in the colour of that glass through which you look, so God looking at us through the medium of his Son sees us with complacency and love because of that medium. We are accepted in the Beloved.

Psalm xxxvii 25. David gives the result of his experience, and no doubt he spake as he found. If we do not find the same, we believe it will be because of some want of faith or some other defect. The Editor does not know of a Magazine that entirely meets the wants of "U. S." The "Christian Mother's Magazine" might perhaps do. The "Youth's Magazine" might be tried; or perhaps the "Church of England Magazine."

All recommendations of books must have the name and address of the writer, as indeed it would be better that all communications should have.

The Editor cannot call to mind the exact work that "A Teacher"

wants.

Received for the Paris Schools, £1, from "A. S. L." whose questions shall be answered, if possible, in the Teacher's Visitor.

FOSTER, PRINTER, KIRKBY LONSDALE.

THE

TEACHER'S VISITOR.

No. 26.

JUNE, 1846.

VOL. IV.

THE REFORMATION VIEWED AS THE RESURRECTION OF SCRIPTURAL TRUTHS.

BY THE REV. THOMAS M'CRIE, EDINBURGH.

To the common taunt of the Papists, "Where was your religion before Luther?" we might reply, It was buried

-buried under the rubbish of Popery-but it was buried alive. For all the blessed purposes which it was designed by its Author to serve, in regard to the world at large, it may be said to have been buried; but the religion itself existed, and was never wholly extinct. It lived in the Bible, "the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever"—it lived in the hearts of the pious few who, in the midst of surrounding death and darkness, had caught a glimpse of its saving light through the institutions which had survived the general wreck of Christianity-it lived in the valleys of the Alps, among the primitive Waldenses —it lived even in depth of the cloister, where occasionally the solitary monk found that its "stolen waters were sweet," and its "bread eaten in secret was pleasant;' and where, ultimately, the vital spark lighted upon the heart of the heroic Luther. Thenceforth the mighty heart of Germany was moved, and its pulsations were felt in the remotest regions of Europe.

It was by the prayerful and persevering study of the Holy Scriptures, a copy of which he found in his convent, that Luther first acquired those views of divine truth which, gradually expanding and unfolding as he advanced into the full-formed Gospel of Christ, made him a new man, and ushered him into a new world. And it is with feelings of no common interest that the reader of his life traces the course of this truly great man, from the moment that the truth dawned upon his mind,