storm. Let us appropriate the popular song, therefore, to our more exalted agency. Hark! hark the hoarse murmur rolls on from afar; The rocks of the martyrs now quake at the storm Sunday schools, Sunday schools, Sunday schools-form. Form schools where there are none, make them perfect that be; Be your refuge and strength made secure from the storm Form solid, in phalanx supporting the throne, CHAS. STOVEL. A PRAYING GENERAL. "No time for the business of religion”—I am afraid many people excuse themselves from God's service on this plea. The apprentice does; the school-boy in the hurry of term-time does; the man at his workshop; the mother with her large family around her. General Havelock, that distinguished general in India, whose wisdom and bravery have done so much to put a stop to the cruel and bloody mutiny of the Sepoys, never made this excuse to get rid of the service of his heavenly Father. He had time, among all the hurry and worry of camp life, to make the business of religion his first business. He found time. He did not believe God ever put men in posts where they could not serve him. He was a man of prayer, and he found time to pray-not only to pray by himself, but with his men. Among his camp baggage was a praying tent, the biggest one he had, and this he used to pitch at the stations, and hold prayer-meetings in it, and read the precious word of God to his soldiers. He well knew if there was a class of men in the world that needed the comforts and the help of the Lord Jesus Christ, it was soldiers. And many a poor soldier found how superior was a heavenly service over anything the Queen of England could offer. In the hurried and awful marches which General Havelock and his regiments were forced to make in the present war, he arose two hours before his men, in order to have time to pray. If they were to begin their march at six o'clock in the morning, he was up at four. If the camp were to break up at four, he was up at two. He believed there was time for the business of religion. And the papers tell us there were no soldiers so prompt and faithful in duty, so reliable in those dreadful times, as General Havelock and his praying regiments. A TEACHER'S MUSINGS. "And looking on Jesus as He walked, he said, 'Behold the Lamb of God.' ” John i. 36. IN the three verses of which this is the middle one, we have a picture representing a very simple incident, yet fraught with interesting and practical lessons. In the foreground is a little group-master and disciples engaged in high and holy discourse. As we study the central figure, and mark the rough garments and deeply-lined countenance, telling of contest with hardships and a life of stern asceticism, we at once recognise the "prophet of the wilderness." But how changed is his aspect since we saw him beside Jordan, denouncing "wrath to come" on the unrepenting multitude around! Whence that gentle smile lighting up the rugged features ?-the slight bending of that majestic head, as if in acknowledgment of a superior Presence?—the general expression of rest that gives its tone to his whole figure? For an answer, we seek the eye-that index of the soul: it is turned from us-from the eager listeners at his side, who, like ourselves, are seeking its direction. Following its course, we observe another object in the picture. Slowly passing along, at no great distance, is a man with nothing particularly distinctive about him, yet on whom having once looked our eyes desire to rest. No peculiar robe notes him as a prophet; neither does he bear the stamp of earth's nobility; yet instinctively we bow to his wisdom, and recognise Divinity in that countenance "fairer than the children of men." And now we want to know Him more intimately--to follow Him, to walk in His company, to see where He lives, to sup with Him, and He with us. "Our eye affecteth our heart." And thus the two disciples of John, hearing him say, "Behold the Lamb of God," and seeing their master's eye gazing joyfully on the Saviour, turned and looked too. And with what result?—No longer satisfied with the moral teaching, or even the spiritual lessons newly acquired by the Baptist, they resolve henceforth to seek instruction from the "Wisdom of God" Himself; and from this day we shall constantly meet them in His society. Dear fellow-teachers, are we imitating John's example in word and deed? Have we "looked on Jesus as He walked," studying His character-noting His comportment in the varying scenes and acts of that life which was spent entirely for our instruction? If we have, has the "look" wrought in us conformity to the same image? (2 Cor. iii. 18). Can our children see in us excellent graces which commend to them the religion we inculcate? Is our eye still directed towards Christ, so that while we invite them to "behold" Him as the "Lamb of God," our words may go to their young hearts with double impetus, because "Teacher trusts in the Saviour, and it makes him happy?" Oh, the eye and the lip must share equally in this our service of love! The kindled heart alone can send forth kindling words, and for success in bringing little ones to Jesus we must Norwich. "Behold the Lamb of God !" P. S. S. THOUGHT AND FEELING. THOUGHT is deep, feeling is deeper. The plummet with which the student takes the lowermost soundings of the mind, touches only the surface of the heart. That is fathomless. It heaves and swells with innumerable under-currents-some from Time, some from Eternity; and, moreover, its uppermost surges are constantly affected by the changes of the surrounding world. Seasons of the year, fluctuations of trade, the state of the funds, turns of fortune, changes of government, the collision of classes, the position of the nations of the earth in relation to our country and of our country in relation to them; aye, and the events of a narrower circle-health and sickness, births and deaths, meetings and partings in our own homes: all the outer scenes of this ever-shifting life-drama move and colour the sea-like waves of the deep heart within us. Even Newton, who could show us the mechanism of the remote heavens, could not explore the life-mechanism of the humblest traveller that crossed his path. There was a world there, which no astronomic instrument can weigh or measure -a human heart which will throb with unknown thoughts and emotions, when skies are dissolved. As our worst, so also our best emotions surge up from this fathomless heart. We cannot therefore trace them to their origin, nor can we define them, as it is possible for us to define many of our ideas. They cannot be printed in superficial books. Like other holy and deep things, they love solitude and silence. What words, for example, can utter forth the newborn feelings which sometimes rise within us, when walking amid the glory of a Spring morning? When, having left the city, with its dim Babel-like confusion-its hard biting selfishness, in which man preys upon man-we have gone forth, in the old freedom of our boyhood, to roam once more over the green hills and valleys, have we not ere now been arrested, almost spell-bound, by the scenes and sounds of the magic Spring? And while we have stood still, either to feast our eye upon the rich verdure, streaked with the white blossom of flowering hedgerows and fruittrees; or to watch the motion of the clouds, and the play of the lights and shadows disappearing in the blue hills which skirt the far-off horizon; or to listen to the bleating of distant flocks, the hum of insect life waking up from its winter sleep, the rippling of streams blended with the songs of birds, and the more thrilling music of children at play around their hillside cottages-all melted into one current of soul-like melody by the breath of the soft spring gales, laden with the odours they had stolen from the gardens, the orchards, the meadows, and forests over which they had swept while we have thus stood, with our soul open to the vernal scene, has it not sometimes been as if a spirit, emerging from it, had rushed into our bosom? Have not the fountains of the great deep-the deep of our emotional nature-been broken up and, upborne as upon an ocean of feeling, has not our mind been swept forward into the presence of nature's God? It has been; but the moment we turned our logical faculty upon that tide-swell of emotion which bore us Godward, to analyse it and to trace it to its origin, it ebbed away. The Divine influences which touch and move our hearts cannot be scanned by reason. Of the Divinest influence of all-that which makes us new creatures in Christ-is it not said, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit ?"-Sermon on the Spring, by the Rev. W. T. Rosevear. TEACH GOD'S WORDS. Teach my words." Never forget that God's words make worlds; God's words fill heaven with bliss; God's words shake the earth; God's words, uttered by His Spirit, renew men's souls. Oh! my hearers, what prattle of men and women, what scandal and song-singing, and play-writing, and speech-making, and endless chatter we have, all listened to by multitudes, with their ears open for it; applauded, retailed, moving men's souls backward and forward like the waves of the sea; but God's words, that the angels listen to with bliss, that the devils hear and tremble at ; creating, renewing, preserving, exalting words; Omnipotent words of love and grace, that might raise us to hold converse with heaven, and deliver us into the spirit of its company whilst still on earth; these words are neglected and uncared for by thousands. They are drawled out, or forced out by some, they are joked with by others, they are heedlessly hearkened to, and never remembered by how many more. Oh! my fellow-workers about to receive them and deliver them to your children. May they be words of life to you, eliciting the warmest affections of your hearts, ennobling the passions of your souls, enlightening your understandings, and raising the whole powers of your being. May you hear them as the voice of the seven thunders of His power; the rushing of the many waters of his influence; the still small voice of His love! Then when under the influence of these words, you come to your classes with your countenances lit up, with your souls possessed, and they make your tones tremulous with their own unutterable importance, then will you stand as the messengers of God indeed, as very angels, commissioned with the words of the Most High, and the sweet messages of a Saviour's love.-" Teach the Children;" a Sermon by Rev. P. Colborne, of Norwich. ANNUAL CONFERENCE. THURSDAY, MAY 5. THE Committee of the Parent Society, with the representatives of the London Auxiliaries and the Country Unions, met as usual for prayer at seven o'clock this morning, in the library of the Jubilee Memorial Building. After the prayer meeting, breakfast was provided in the Lecture Hall, to which about a hundred gentlemen sat down. The Conference that followed was presided over by Mr. Watson, who gave out the following hymn, composed by Mr. W. H. Groser for the occasion: On Egypt's waters, waste and wide, So we, by sin's dark waters, Lord, Ye rolling seasons, speed your flight, Shall bear our sheaves in triumph home! After singing, Mr. Groser read the names of the representatives who were present, in addition to the members of the Committee of the Parent and Metropolitan Auxiliary Unions. Representatives:-Abingdon, Mr. Coxeter ; Cambridge, Rev. J. Keed, Mr. Wittenhall, and Mr. Cooper; Dewsbury, Mr. Ramsden; Staplehurst, Mr. Jull; Windsor, Mr. Moyes and Mr. Elliott; Leicester, Mr. Leigh; Woolwich, Mr. White and Mr. Dinmore; Gravesend, Mr. Blanchard and Mr. Harris; Kettering, Mr. Clarke and Mr. Falkner; Thrapston, Rev. J. Lord; Buckingham, Mr. Morgan; Birmingham, Mr. Cooper and Mr. Wright; Brighton, Mr. Cornish and Mr. Hooper; Bristol, Mr. Gould; Gloucester, Rev. W. Collings; Bury, Mr. Butcher; Edinburgh, Mr. Inglis; Manchester, Mr. McCallam; Portsea, Mr. Dorey; Halifax, Mr. Oates; Harlow, Mr. Deards and Mr. Matthews. Visitors: Jamaica, Rev. W. Clarke; London, Rev. J. F. Serjeant and Rev. S. Green; Manchester, Mr. Swallow. The CHAIRMAN then said he could only repeat this morning what he had frequently said on former occasions,-that it afforded the Committee of the Parent Society the greatest satisfaction and pleasure to see so many friends from the country unions present. When the Committee visited the country unions, they always received the kindest attentions, and they were therefore very happy if they could, in any little way, show their appreciation of that kindness. As on former occasions, it had been thought desirable to select a topic for conversation to-day, and the Committee had fixed upon one, respecting the importance of which he thought there could be no doubt in the minds of the friends present ;-it was— "The Means by which the Religious Influence of the Sunday School may be made more Practical, Extensive, and Continuous. To his mind, there had always been one difficulty in respect to the vexed question of Government education, which had made him look with considerable anxiety to the progress which was being made to bring our daily schools under Government control. The influence of money was so great, that where it was used with any degree of energy on the part of those who had the administration of it, it was almost certain to secure their object. They could not fail to have observed how steadily men who, doubtless, were influenced by right motives, were seeking to bring the general education of the country under a system of public management, in some form or other: and the difficulty which struck him in relation to this matter was, that whenever our schools came to be generally supported by funds raised from all classes of the community, it would be almost impos |