offerings as God may incline His people to make. The Roman Catholic Church has a hundred young men in training for that American field. Will the Protestant Church train thosem illions for Christ? Will you share in that blessed work? For this I am deputed by American Christians to make an appeal to our British brethren.

The principal religious bodies of Scotland have commended our mission, and individuals have made generous contributions. As your Sabbath schools are looking for Providential mission fields, let me ask you to remember benighted Africa.

£5 will pay the tuition of a student for a single year; £10 will supply him with plain food; and £15 will pay all his expenses. £50 will educate a missionary.

If unable to give neither of these amounts at once, can you not pledge it in instalments, or solicit it from friends? One home missionary has pledged a-fifth of his salary; and a young girl of sixteen, dependent upon her own earnings, has promised five pounds a-year. Will you do something, in this hour of crisis, for Ethiopia, whose cry has long ascended to heaven, and whose hands are now outstretched to the Christian Church? "Inasmuch as ye have done these things unto the least of these, ye have done it unto me."

Funds sent to John M‘Callum, office of the Sabbath School Magazine, 75 St. George's Place, Glasgow, will be promptly forwarded, and sacredly devoted, as you shall direct.—I remain yours, for the benighted,

J. W. HEALY.

AUTHOR OF "OH, THAT WILL BE JOYFUL!”

AMONG the deaths recorded recently was that of Mr. Thomas Bilby, aged seventy-eight, who had been for twenty-eight years parish clerk of Islington. Mr. Bilby was the author of that familiar hymn, with its cheery tune, the most popular of all hymns with children,—

"Here we suffer grief and pain,
Here we meet to part again,
In heaven we part no more.
Oh, that will be joyful!"

Thomas Bilby was a native of Southampton. In 1809 he enlisted as a soldier, and remained eight years in the army. He always took much interest in juvenile education, and studied the "Infant School System" under Mr. Buchanan, whose seminary on Brewer's Green, Westminster, is said to have been the first infant school in England. In 1825, Mr. Bilby obtained charge of a training school at Chelsea, where upwards of five hundred male and female teachers were instructed under his superintendence. In 1835 he went to the West Indies as inspector of schools, and introduced the new method of juvenile teaching into several of the islands. From his labours, in connection with the Rev. James Reynolds, the "Home and Colonial Infant School Society" took its origin. Jointly with Mr. R. B. Ridgway he published several works, which have been largely useful in Schools; "The Nursery Book,” the "Book of Quadrupeds," and "The Infant-Teacher's Assistant." The well-known hymn,

"Oh, that will be joyful!" was first printed in 1832. It has long been taken as public property, and in looking through more than a dozen collections in common use we find in none of them the name of the author mentioned. The last we heard of Mr. Bilby before the notice of his death, and of his burial at Finchley, was the gift sent of a copy of the hymn "Joyful," with music arranged (by Mr. J. Tilleard) for four voices, with accompaniment for pianoforte or harmonium. It is inscribed, "With the author's kind respects.-Thomas Bilby." To have written this one hymn is an honour many poets of lofty pretension might envy. This tribute of respect we are glad to lay on the veteran teacher's grave. -Leisure Hour.

THE GOLDEN RULE VIOLATED.

"I

THE correspondent of a religious journal says:-"I passed an American eagle and a Spanish doubloon to a countryman, for value received, as I had given full value for them. True, I had heard from a gentleman broker that they were of suspicious character, and probably base metal merely coated with gold. But as I did not certainly know that they were base coins, ought I to have offered them to persons who were not judges of them, without any intimation of the report? I also passed in silence a 50-dollar bank note of doubtful character to a farmer, which I had unsuspectingly received in a fair sale of the necessaries of life; but not knowing it to be a counterfeit, I did not altogether condemn myself, as I had said nothing in commendation of it. But on reading some of your remarks I fear I have done wrong. Pray what is your opinion?" The editor promptly replies, "My opinion is that you did a moral wrong. You have not done to another what you would have done to you." Take another instance of the violation of the same precept. heard," says a Western preacher, a conversation between a father and a son, both members of the same church, in the presence of both their families. My son,' said he, 'you got cheated in that horse; he stumbles wretchedly, and will certainly go blind. You ought to sell him the first opportunity. Yes, father, I was deceived; but he is a good-looking horse, and I think, by putting him into the hands of your auctioneer, I can sell him for cost.' 'You ought, then, to do it soon,' replied his father, or perhaps you will lose by the transaction.' 'I will send him to town to-morrow, and let the bidder do as I did-trust to his own eyes and judgment—for I will not warrant him.' 'You ought not to warrant him, for two reasons-first, because the thing is wrong in itself; and in the next place, you might be made to pay the damages. Honesty is the best policy, my son. Remember that.' Strange that professed Christians should talk and act in this manner!"

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THE POWER OF THE CHILD.-It happened that a son of Themistocles had great influence over his mother; so one day Themistocles observed, "This child is the greatest man in Greece: for the Athenians command the Greeks, I command the Athenians, his mother commands me, and he commands his mother."

RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS EFFACED BY A PREACHER.

THERE was a young minister once preaching very earnestly in a certain chapel, and he had to walk some four or five miles to his home, along a country road, after service. A young man, who had been deeply impressed under the sermon, requested the privilege of walking with the minister, with an earnest hope that he might get an opportunity of telling his feelings to him, and obtaining some word of guidance and comfort. Instead of that, the young minister, all the way along, told the most singular tales to those who were with him, causing loud laughter. He stopped at a certain house, and this young man with him, and the whole evening was spent in frivolity and foolish talking.

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Some years after, when the minister had grown old, he was sent for to the bedside of a dying man. He hastened thither with a heart desirous to do good. He was requested to sit down at the bedside, and the dying man, looking at him and regarding him most closely, said to him, "Do you remember preaching in such and such a village, and on such an occasion?"-"I do," said the minister. "I was one of your hearers,” said the man, "and was deeply impressed by the sermon."-" Thank God for that!" said the minister. Stop!" said the man, don't thank God until you have heard the whole story; you will have reason to alter your tone before I have done." The minister changed countenance, but he little guessed what would be the full extent of that man's testimony. Said he: "Sir, do you remember after you had finished that earnest sermon that I, with some others, walked home with you? I was sincerely desirous of being led in the right path that night, but I heard you speak in such a strain of levity, and with so much coarseness, too, that I went outside the house while you were sitting down to your evening meal; I stamped my foot upon the ground; I said that you were a liar; that Christianity was a falsehood; that if you could pretend to be so earnest in the pulpit, and then come down and talk like that, the whole thing must be a sham; and I have been an infidel,” said he, a confirmed infidel, from that day to this. But I am not an infidel at this moment; I know better. I am dying, and about to be damned, and at the bar of God I will lay my damnation to your charge. My blood is upon your head." And with a dreadful shriek, and one demoniacal glance at the trembling minister, he shut his eyes and died.

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ADROIT REBUKE.-A presiding elder of the United Brethren Church, while preaching, was much annoyed by persons talking and laughing. He paused, looked at the disturbers, and said, "I am always afraid to reprove those who misbehave in church. In the early part of my ministry I made a great mistake. As I was preaching, a young man who sat just before me was constantly laughing, talking, and making uncouth grimaces. I paused and administered a severe rebuke. After the close of the service one of the official members came and said to me, 'You made a great mistake; that young man whom you reproved is an idiot.' Since then I have always been afraid to reprove those who misbehave in church, lest I should repeat that mistake, and reprove another idiot." During the rest of that service at least there was good order.

TRANSLATIONS OF THE BIBLE.

THE following table shews the manner and order of time in which the Bible was translated into English:

THE SHORTER CATECHISM.-We invite the attention of our readers to the 87th Question in the Shorter Catechism as we have printed it in our Lesson Paper this month. As we print it, it reads, that "Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of true sense of his sin,” &c. In leaving out the article a that invariably occurs in the copies of the Shorter Catechism in common use, we are going back to the reading of the first edition of the Catechism, published in London in 1658, during the sitting of the Westminster Assembly itself. Such an authority we think to be a sufficient reason for the change we make, while the theological benefits of the omission are important and self-evident. “A true sense," suggests the idea that there may be several true senses of sin, any one of which will suit the anxious soul. To say, as some do," the true sense, is to lay emphasis on the character of the sense, its trueness; and then the perplexed inquirer is often in greater distress in determining whether he have this particular sense, than in ascertaining whether he has any sense of sin at all. The Assembly of Divines steer clear of both difficulties, and, by the language they use, give us another proof of their extraordinary ability and theological learning.-New York Christian Worker.

REPEAT THE IMPRESSION.- -"Children are so unstable." How often do teachers say this as a reason for discouragement! But children are children. Their purposes are not fixed. Most children act impulsively. If you work with children, you must not expect that a religious experience will change them to premature men and women. If you have made a deep impression on a child, do not think that you can come and find it as fresh as ever after a week's excitement. Continuity is what a child lacks. If you have made an impression on a child's mind in any direction, repeat it. Keep repeating it until it is habitual. Do not be disheartened. Above all, do not dishearten your pupils.

SABBATH SCHOOL TEACHERS IN MONTREAL.

IN our July number there appeared a notice of the Young Men's Christian Association of Montreal, conveying a lively impression of the prosperity and usefulness of that institution. We now present to our readers an illustration of the systematic manner and the devoted Christian spirit in which Sabbath school work is prosecuted by the teachers of the "Russell Hall Sunday School, Montreal." The "engagements" of the teachers are well deserving of imitation by all who are engaged in Sabbath school teaching, and we have pleasure in giving them a place in our pages:—

OUR ENGAGEMENTS.

Solemnly impressed with the nature of the work we have undertaken for the LORD JESUS, and the great faithfulness and patient perseverance required in the performance of it, we, the Teachers and Officers of this School, will, as in God's sight, endeavour

1. To be in our Classes not later than five minutes before three o'clock, so that the School may be commenced punctually:

2. To see that our Classes are supplied with Bibles and Hymn Books before Three o'clock, that there may be no confusion during the opening service:

3. To receive each one of our scholars with a pleasant welcome, so that each may feel that his presence pleases, and his absence would have disappointed us:

4. To see that our scholars lay aside in a proper place their caps and clothing that should be taken off:

5. To urge upon each scholar the propriety of having perfectly the verses to be recited, and no other verses:

6. To make one visit every week at the home of one of our scholars, with the object of interesting the parents in the religious instruction of their child:

7. Never to allow more than a fortnight to elapse without visiting an absentee from our class:

8. To give the Superintendent or Secretary a memorandum on the slips provided of any new scholar:

9. As the conversion of our scholars ought to be our constant aim, to make it a habit to spend a portion of each Saturday evening in prayer for each one of our scholars by name, and for the blessing of God's Holy Spirit upon all the school labours of the following day:

10. To see that the Bibles and Hymn Books are collected and placed at the end of the seat before the dismission of the school:

11. To make it a matter of conscience to attend the school every Lord's day, unless prevented by circumstances beyond our control. When we know we must be absent, to provide a competent substitute, or give the Superintendent sufficient notice, so that he may provide one:

12. To go about all our duties with that gravity, earnestness, and prayerfulness which become those who are "co-workers with God" in the salvation of the lost-believing that all our scholars are lost and con