two classes numbering ten pupils each. In the one, the scholars are perfectly still, and listen with eagerness to the remarks made by their teacher; and in the other, the boys sport with one another, or fight, or do some other such thing, which is equally annoying to their own teacher, as well as to others who may be near them. Now, what, it may be asked, is the real cause of the difference in these two classes? It is simply this: the one teacher comes prepared, and instructs his scholars; while the other comes unprepared, and having nothing to communicate to his scholars, fails to secure their attention. I am quite confident, that were a "Normal College for Teachers" inaugurated in Glasgow, we would hear of no such thing as unprepared teachers, and the work would be carried on much more successfully. "The advantage to teachers," says one writer, "would be immense. It would give them a greater intelligence, higher culture, and better adaptation. The advantage to scholars would be correspondingly great, and would improve their knowledge of Christian truth, and their ability to read the Bible to advantage, and also to think on holy themes. The advantage to the whole Church would be great. It would promote a higher Christian thought and life, and raise up a nobler race to be witnesses and workers for Christ, in a future so big with hope, and so bright with the promises of God." 155 ST. GEORGE'S ROAD, GLASGOW, February, 1870. COME TO JESUS. (By J. Coltart.) Oh come to Jesus now, Ye in the joyful spring-time of your days, Seek Him to guide you through earth's devious ways. And come to Jesus, come, Ye heavy-laden with the world's cares, Nor longer from Him roam, He'll yield protection from the tempter's snares. And come to Jesus, come, Ye with the hoary head and heart opprest, Repose on Him alone, And in His bosom find eternal rest. Thus all may freely come, Spread far and wide the story of His love; To reign with Him in endless joy above. NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS. W. I. H. The matter for each Number of the Magazine requires to be in the hands of the printers not later than the middle of the month before publication. The insertion of communications sent later cannot be guaranteed. SHAKING HANDS. (By John Hall, D.D.) I MAINTAIN that shaking of hands, rightly administered, is a means of grace. You, my dear sir, are established, and every one knows you to be a solid man. There is a man beside you, just fighting his battle, and making his way. You know him, and nod to him. Take him by the hand, my dear sir; it will do him good; and if he was cast down a little, as men will sometimes be, it may encourage him. "Our minister shook hands with me." What made that hulking fellow, too big to be a boy, too raw to be a man, announce that fact so loudly when he went home? The truth is, for sensible effect on him it was more than the sermon. John Smith has been a hard drinker; but is trying fairly to get out of it. Going down the village street, he meets Mr. Brown, who is "boss" at "the works above." Mr. Brown shakes hands with "Mr. Smith," in sight of the entire village. Does that do Smith any good? I tell you it is as good to him as one of Mr. Gough's admirable lectures. It says as plainly as if Mr. Brown had written it: "Mr. Smith, you have only to take care of yourself, and you will be a respectable man in spite of all." That makes Smith stronger; and when he goes to church next Sabbath, and looks over at Mr. Brown, he will find it easier to believe God's most loving Word, "Their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more.' So shake hands and be friends," at market, on the street, and, above all, at church. I presume the apostle meant something when he said, "Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss." Some people quit church for want of this means of grace.-New York Observer. DO YOU? DEAR fellow-teacher, suffer a few kindly meant questions and words of counsel: Do you preach to your scholars? Do you deliver long, learned, and studied lectures to your class? Do you ask very profound and intricate questions? Do you appear to know everything, and your scholars nothing, about the lesson? Do you make it a point to answer all your own questions? Do you find fault with your class, that they know so little about the lesson? Do you appear stiff and reserved in your conversations with your scholars? Do you, in all your illustrations, bring proof from authors whose names your scholars never heard? Do you make it appear that it is condescending in a teacher to visit a scholar at his home? Do you speak as seldom as possible of Christ, of His kingdom, and of those that serve Him day and night? Do you? PREPARATION FOR THE LESSON. THE temerity of undertaking to give a lesson to a class without making preparation for it, is amazing. It is only equalled by the man who undertakes to preach without preparation. Teachers complain that they have such a hard class, that they have not the natural talents and gifts for the work which God has given to others; that they cannot keep the attention of their scholars; and so on through the whole catalogue of complaints, while the real difficulty half the time is, that they are unwilling to bestow the labour needed for suitable preparation. There is a preparation of a general kind, which every teacher needs. It is important that every teacher should be a person of general information and culture; that he should have a good address and pleasant manners, which come much more from care and painstaking than from nature; above all, that he should have that preparation of the heart which comes from earnest, devoted piety. But it is not this general preparation which we have now in view. What we recommend to the teacher is, that he makes specific preparation for every lesson to his class. The lesson to his class. The phraseology is not an inadvertence. The lesson of the class, is that which the class are expected to learn. But teachers who mean to be good for anything, must learn as soon as possible to get rid of the idea that teaching is merely hearing recitations. In this interview between the teacher and the class, called a recitation, not only the scholars must be prepared to bring something to the teacher, but the teacher must be prepared to bring something to the scholars. Scholars come to learn, as well as to say what they have learned. Scholars who have a good teacher always come to the class in a spirit of expectancy. See to it that this expectant spirit never goes away unrewarded. See that you know the lesson more minutely and exhaustively than any of your scholars do. A teacher may conclude that he has reached the right idea on this subject, if, when speaking of his work, he unconsciously talks of giving a lesson to his class, instead of saying, that he is going to hear the lesson.—Sunday School Times. 66 BISHOP Butler, upon his death-bed, sank into despondency under a sense of his sinfulness. My lord," said his chaplain, "you forget that Jesus Christ is a Saviour."- _66 True," replied the bishop; "but how shall I know that He is a Saviour for me?". My lord, it is written, 'Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.""- 'True," said the bishop; “and I have read that Scripture a thousand times, but I never felt its full value till this moment; stop there! for now I die happy." 66 "For all I have preached or written," said Mr. James Durham, "there is but one Scripture I can remember or dare grip to. Tell me if I dare lay the weight of my salvation upon it: Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." " His friend replied, "You may indeed depend upon it, though you had a thousand salvations at hazard." A glance of joy lighted up the soul of the dying saint, under the radiance of which he was ushered into the glory and brightness of eternity. ETERNAL. (By Josephine Pollard.) One solemn thought appals me with affright, For what I do in weakness or in might, I dream of rivers flowing with delight, But out of pain and penury, one ray From these rude rocks my vessel breaks away, Thy love alone, O Father, can avail My fears and my shortcomings I bewail, THE celebrated Philip de Morney, prime minister of Henry IV. of France, one of the greatest statesmen, and the most exemplary Christian of his age, being asked a little before his death if he still retained the same assured hope of future bliss which he had so comfortably enjoyed during his illness, he made this memorable reply: "I am as confident of it, from the incontestable evidence of the Spirit of God, as I ever was of any mathematical truth from all the demonstrations of Euclid." LITTLE BY LITTLE.-We are not made ourselves by great events, nor do we make others by separate events and determinations. It was the glory and beauty of the great and good Dr. Arnold of Rugby, that, whether he bathed with his scholars at evening, or walked with them at noonday, or preached to them on Sunday, they felt at all seasons the gentle influence of a good and true Christian man. There was no trying to be a power. He let his life-work speak, and the result is known. "Little by little" is the law of nature's influence. It is the motto of the dew, the lesson of the light; and in the manifold quickenings of the spring, and the glorious unfoldings of the summer, you cannot watch the steps of progress-it is "here a little and there a little." Thus we influence others, and are influenced by them. So the son becomes like his father, and the schoolboy like his classmate, and the daughter like her mother. Seek for some great thing to do; and where will you discover it? Set to work at a great reading, a great visiting, a great writing; and what have you achieved? Yet try silent and steady working, and then how vast the achievement!-Sunday School Teacher. THE LONG-BOAT. WHITFIELD, preaching before a crowd of seamen in New York, said: "Well, my boys, we have a cloudless sky, and are making fine headway over a smooth sea before a light breeze. We shall soon lose sight of land. But what means, now, this sudden lowering of the heavens, and that dark cloud rising in the western horizon? Hark! Don't you hear the distant thunder? There is a storm gathering. Every man to his duty. Now the air is dark. The tempest rages. Our masts are gone. What next?" Struck by the power of those eloquent words, several unsuspecting tars arose and cried : "Take to the long-boat! sir." Thus is it with poor sinners sailing on the voyage of life. When the sky is serene, and prosperous gales waft us along, we think not of danger; but when the storms of misfortune, or sickness, or sorrow break forth, and threaten to cast us upon the rocks of ruin, then we call aloud for shelter. Then we sometimes look to Jesus. But if in fair weather we provide no long-boat for our frail ship, if we keep not the life-boat ready by our side, what shall we do when the storms arise? IS THIS ALL OF LIFE? "Is this all of life?" So said a man of wealth, as, lying upon a sick-bed, he looked back over fifty years-fifty years of pleasure and ease. He had loved dear friends, and they were dead. He had cherished great hopes, and they were not all realized; still his life had seemed happier than most of his fellows. But he had lived for self, not for Christ; he had laid up his treasure on earth, not in heaven; and now, as he looked back on fifty years, they seemed a blank; and as he looked forward, a darker unknown blank obscured his vision. An aged Christian, just as he was passing away, said: "I am just beginning to live. This life is not all of life, it is only the first step." Dear friend, how will your life look to you, as you cast your eye backward from its closing hours? If you employ life in loving Christ and serving Him, then may the retrospect be sweet, and your joyful song, when earth's fleeting years are over, shall be," Just beginning to live." THE SHADY SIDE OF THE SABBATH SCHOOL CAUSE IN AMERICA.-In recent statistics, compiled, we believe, by the Rev. H. Clay Trumbull, and published in "The Congregationalist," we find a statement of the comparative snms expended by wealthy churches in Boston and New England upon their Sunday schools, and upon the mere adornment of their churches and support of church services. The comparison is humiliating in the extreme. In one church in Boston more is expended upon the music in one year than is expended by fourteen other churches for the support of the Sunday school in the same length of time. And this state of things is not peculiar to any one section of our country.— Sunday School Times. |