for Christ. The Divine Master does not establish the erring pupil restored by many exhortations, but by giving him work to do for Him corresponding to the grace he had just received. It will be your strength and security also, dear friend, to set about serving the Lord, that you may the better live worthily of Him in your private life. There is no greater security than this; nothing so educative as this; and while you still wait on senior class teaching yourself, you may perhaps find profitable exercise in junior class-work, either congregational or mission. I have always found my best young teachers in my senior Sabbath school classes; and often a phase of character much wanting in the scholar has, by God's blessing, been developed in the teacher. There are many things the young teacher learns which are profitable life-lessons, and which are never learned in any class as a pupil. I have thus tried, fellow-labourers, to outline a Bible lesson on a Divine model. There are many more models of His than that which I have chosen; but this one is singularly rich and singularly telling, and withal, one which I think could be, to a considerable degree, followed by a wise, and earnest, loving teacher. Its value is not more, you will remember, in its manner than in the loving spirit which pervades its rebukes, and the wise reticence which runs suggestively all through it. That the Lord may make you all, and all our fellow-labourers, more like himself, and more wise to win souls, is my earnest prayer, and the spiritual necessity of tens of thousands of immortal souls among whom our lot is cast. It is a promise for our work specially which is uttered by the Prophet Daniel, (xii. 3,) "They that be teachers shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." WHAT I SAW AT STOCKPORT. STOCKPORT is a manufacturing town, some eight miles south of Manchester, having a population of some forty thousand inhabitants. I should imagine that I have passed it, by rail or road, a hundred times or more without observing, upon the left hand, standing upon the hillside, as one enters the town, an imposing building—imposing in the sense that nine out of every ten who look at it are imposed upon to take it for a cotton mill! Certainly I must have seen this Institution four or five times a-year for the last twenty years or so, without having had the discrimination to observe that it had no chimney stalk;" but even if I had noticed this fact, I think it would be expecting too much of the intuitive faculty to suppose that it would have occurred to me, that that noble erection was one of the first-fruits of the philanthropic work to which Pounds and Raikes gave the initial motion in England; in other words, that it was the celebrated Stockport Sunday School. 66 Now, I confess that, years ago, I had heard that at Stockport there was a large Sunday school, carried on by the united efforts of all denominations of Christians in an old cotton mill; but I trust that my good friends, the Sunday school teachers of Stockport, will bear with me when I admit, that I had pictured in my mind an old, rickety, second-hand cotton mill, with bits of rag stuck into small broken panes of glass, and that sort of thing; and I never had either the grace or wisdom, during my many visits, to inquire where that traditional cotton mill was located, or if it had more than a traditional existence. How long I might have remained in that state of ignorance it is impossible to say, if I had not had the good fortune, some months since, to be riding in the train with an old scholar of the school, who was evidently proud-as old scholars should be-of the institution; and as we drew near to the town, pointing to the building upon the hill-side, he asked me if I had "ever seen our Sunday school?"-the emphasis on the our manifestly identifying my fellow-traveller with the institution itself; and as it would hardly have done to have pleaded ignorance of an edifice of such magnitude as the one he pointed at, I fell back at once upon the cotton mill hypothesis as an evidence of my previous information. But this I discovered to be unfortunate. I had evidently trodden upon a moral corn. "Cotton mill! It's astonishing how many people say that. Cotton mill! why, it was built, every brick of it, from bottom to top, for a Sunday school, and for nothing else but a school." And my companion was quite right. Well, after all, there is some little excuse for me. "Man is the creature of circumstance," so says my book of familiar quotations; and I suppose inanimate objects are subject to a similar law. Here we have a plain, unpretending building, giving no special indication outwardly of its functions, planted in a town utterly given up to cotton. Chimney, or no chimney, what else could you possibly suppose it to be, if it was not a cotton mill? Just look at it again. Could you imagine that in 1805 there existed in Stockport men with sufficient faith in God to put up a building like that for anything else but cotton? Consider the circumstances of the time, seventy-five years ago, and then look at that building, and then think of the men with sufficient confidence in themselves, and sufficient love for other people's children, to invest their time and money in such an undertaking! Think of the state of religion in England, especially in these manufacturing centres, at that time, and then picture those men digging out the foundation on that hill-side with prayer, and putting on the top-stone with praise to God-to whom they dedicated it-and sanctified secular education therein, by teaching it upon the Lord's day; as some atonement for the disgraceful national apathy which existed in England upon the subject of education; then read the local history of the period; consider all the circumstances, and admit that man is not necessarily the creature of circumstance; and, at the same time, admit that "there were giants in the land in those days." "Would I like to see the school?"-"Oh! yes, certainly; that's just what I would like,” I replied to my friend's inquiry; and we went direct from the station. The street by which we approached the building being much below the level of the building itself, we have to ascend by a broad stone stair, which brings us up into a large paved yard. On our right hand stands the main building; opposite to us is a large iron gate and carriage entrance from another street; and to our left a slope, planted with trees, down to the street passing in front of the institution. The original erection is an oblong square, five stories high, being of what might be called the "cotton-othic," i. e., economic, right angle, utilitarian order of architecture,-a sort of practical man's workshop, whatever his vocation was. The front of the building is slightly relieved by the last three windows projecting at either end, thus forming bow windows on each floor from bottom to top. Near to each of these, on the ground floor, there is a door, by one of which the girls enter, and by the other the boys; and, in case of accident, there are special means of exit at the back. In 1835, a considerable addition was made to the main buildings by adding a triangular wing to one end of it at the back. Thus the building now forms three sides of a quadrangle, the centre being occupied by the offices necessary to so large a building. The interior is a model of substantial simplicity. There are in all eighty-three apartments,—forming halls, school rooms of many classes, school rooms of few classes, class rooms, writing rooms, committee rooms, tract rooms, and libraries,—every room exactly where it ought to be, and all lighted as carefully as if for spinning the finest yarn ever spun into the web of life. But how about secular education on the Lord's day? You know I am from Scotland, and they may inquire. Well, there is not much of that now; the times are changed; but the friends in Stockport think, after seventy-five years' experience, that the result condones the offence. They appear to think that, to have cultivated one faculty and neglected the rest, (under the circumstances in which they were placed,) would have been a piece of solemn mockery, of the same order as leaving your neighbour's ox or ass to perish in the ditch, for fear of breaking the Sabbath day. They point you to hundreds of good Christians, and opulent citizens, whose wooden clogs in childhood rattled upon those same stone stairs on the Sabbath day, as they went to get the only education they ever got, or could have got. The only hope they had of escaping from the land of bondage in which their fathers were chained, was in this place; it was here they were led out from the serfdom of ignorance, and that without being demoralized in the process. It is not easy to depict the varied feelings which pass through one's mind, walking through all these silent vestibules, lobbies, galleries, corridors, passages, and stairs; amidst empty counters, desks, tables, chairs, stools, and forms; all in order; all clean-very clean-but not one bit of flesh or blood anywhere. It is like exploring the fossil remains of some vast mammoth; it is only a huge skeleton without life after all. Where is the flesh and blood? where is the sinew and muscle? where is the life? where is the motive power? what does the machinery produce? how does it go? does it move like a sloth, or go like a whale? A highlydeveloped organ-ism in the west gallery of the large hall would seem to indicate that it, at least, is gifted with vocal powers. But here my meditations, if they would have led to anything, are interrupted by an ejaculation from my cicerone, "Oh! sir, you should just see this place when it's full of boys and girls!" 66 "Just so; anything short of that is only idle speculation. I will shortly pay you another visit." K. CHURCH ATTENDANCE OF SABBATH SCHOOL PUPILS. In the schedule of queries sent out annually to Societies by the Glasgow Sabbath School Union, there are two,-viz., "How many Scholars attend Church?" and, "How many attend other religious services?" Of the 266 Societies comprising this Union, 213 answer these queries-with the following results:-Number of pupils on roll, 69,056; average, 52,478. Reported as attending Church or other services, 35,290; deficiency, 33,966. This shews 49% as not professing to attend. If these returns are questioned, let the doubters try them thus,-take the number present at an ordinary Sabbath school any evening, and the number of them who were at Church that day, and we fear the result will be found to confirm the subjoined returns. We commend this matter to the earnest consideration of ministers, elders, superintendents, and teachers. If we are even to hold our place as a Church-going and Sabbath-keeping people, the young must not be allowed to fall away from ordinances. Something ought to be done, and done soon, to amend this. What is the something? Who is to do it? Lord, is it I? "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" "It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." "Open the door for the children, In from the hedges and highways, Church attendance of Sabbath School Pupils, as reported to Glasgow Sabbath School Union, and detailed in the General Report submitted at the Annual Meeting, held in the Merchants' Hall, on 15th April, 1879. WHAT CAN A YOUNG MAN DO? * WHAT can a young man do? Do! he has immense power for evil and for good. He can ruin his health; he can debase his intellect; he can murder his conscience-he can deaden and destroy it; he can deteriorate his moral taste and his moral feelings: he can fill his mind with gross and debasing imagery, and his mouth with impurity and lust; he can become sensual and disgusting in his habits; he can lose the confidence of society; he can lose his situation; he can be cast off upon the world as a thing that cannot be trusted; he can become contemptible; he can break his father's heart; he can make anguish come down like a dark cloud, and press upon the brow of his mother, and upon the countenances of his sisters. A young man can do all this-can act so that his very friends shall never wish to hear his name, and shall only secretly in their hearts follow him with their anxieties and their prayers. What can a young man do? Do! he can "cleanse his way according to God's Word." He can seek to understand the Scriptures; to love the Saviour; to love God's Word; to save his soul alive. He can flee to the fountain of reconciliation; he can become a holy man; he can be a virtuous citizen; he may be the pride of his family; he can take his young brothers, and lead them forward in life; he can extend the influence of a Christian pastor; he can be his right hand in efforts to do good; he can take an interest in all the great movements of the day; he may die a happy man, with his children and his grandchildren around his bed; and pass from a dissolution of the tabernacle upon earth, to an inheritance on high. He can do all that; a young man can do it all. Only let him "take heed to his way according to God's Word." Let him begin to meditate upon this Word as the rule of the Divine government; he will soon see the necessity of that mediatorial and restorative process which is brought to light in the Lord Jesus-"the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness." Let him then go on from time to time, putting away everything that he feels to be wrong, trying to conquer every bad habit, and to regulate his conduct by God's Word; and he will be led to rejoice in the sanctifying Spirit, who shall carry on this work. But it is no use your pretending to desire the pardon of sin and reconciliation by the blood of Christ, if you do not put away every evil thing, and seek to "cleanse your way according to God's Word." The two things must advance together, the putting away everything practically wrong, and the seeking after that truth which is according to God's Word. Pray to God daily and fervently for wisdom and strength that you may resist all temptation, and that you may do all His will. He promises to "give His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him;" and He will give Him to you. Then may you confidently hope to live a safe and happy and useful life on earth, and, when life is done, to receive from the hand of Christ an unfading crown. "Ah!" some one perhaps says, "it is too late! If I had only known all this, and acted on it, ten or twenty years ago, I should have been a * Copies of this appeal to Young Men may be had in the form of a leaflet,-6d. per 100, post free,-from MR, H. S. NEWMAN, Leominster. |