the order of the one is maintained by the operation of matter upon matter, and the order of the other by the action of mind upon mind. And this action is continually progressive. We are invariably assimilating ourselves to others, and others to ourselves and such is the arrangement of things, that it is not possible to retire from any company exactly in the same state of mind as we were in when we entered it-we shall be either improved or injured. It must, therefore, be at once evident, that much of our personal comfort, because much of our personal piety, depends upon the qualities and characters of our associates and connections. If we select those, as the sharers of our intercourse, in whom is to be found no fixedness of moral principle— if we admit those into the circle of our friends who have set up any other standard of action than the pure and perfect law of the Lord-if we exchange the words and tokens of affection with those who know not God, and obey not the Gospel of his Son-then is it for our moral characters, as it would be for our bodily health, were we to live in an element of contagion, and were to take up our abode amidst the diseases of a lazar-house.

Starting, then, from this point, it is perfectly clear, that the intercourse of teacher with teacher, in order to be beneficial, must be hallowed. And I cannot think of those, who have voluntarily devoted themselves to this holy enterprise, and feel within their hearts a lingering, if not a craving, for association, meeting together with any other object in view, than to consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works; and exhorting one another; and so much the more, as they see the day approaching. (Heb. x. 24—25.) If teachers, likeminded, were thus to meet, then would their assembling be for the better, and not for the worse. Envy, the weed of contracted minds, would be uprooted; confidence, the fruit of enlarged minds, would be cultivated. Unity of sentiment, and unity of action, would be promoted. There would be less of discouragement, as the notes of experience were compared: there would be more of stimulus, as the field of operation was surveyed. Self would be dethroned; mutual edification would be attained. Meeting thus together to talk over matters in which they have a mutual interest, the weak hands would be strengthened, the feeble knees confirmed, the drooping spirits upraised, the chilling doubt dispelled.

Nor would this be all. Not only would their own comfort and edification be advanced, but the solid interests of the schools with which they were connected, would be also strengthened. Errors in their mode of teaching would be quicker detected, and real improvements sooner made. And hints, or suggestions, or even remonstrances, coming from their united and truly fraternizing body-assembled together, as they would be, in love and peace-would be more readily

and cheerfully adopted by their grateful ministers, than if they emanated only from one or few of the many.

I am therefore, an advocate for intercourse of teachers with teachers. I mean not merely the companionship of one teacher with another, because this is ever taking place, as the result of personal attachment; nor the co-assembling of teachers of the same school, because this comes in regular course, as an established rule of management. But I mean the association of teachers of our different schools; and this association ought to be close and frequent. Of course, the spirit of such meetings should be well watched, their tone, their bent, their effects. They would not meet to cavil, nor to dispute, nor to indulge in whims and caprices, nor to pass unjust or unkind reflections, nor to make invidious comparisons, nor to combine for purposes of insubordination; because they would thus proclaim themselves traitors to their principles and their profession. But they would meet for prayer, that God's blessing may rest upon their labors. They would meet for the study of the Bible, that they might become mighty in the Scriptures, and be enabled to give a word in season to each who came to learn. They would meet fairly to consider the doctrines and general teaching of their church, of which they need never be ashamed, so that they might be able to give a reason for their particular preference. They would meet to arm themselves against the giant errors and evils of the days in which their lot is cast. They would meet faithfully and honestly, but meekly and patiently, to consult together as to the best means of carrying on the momentous work which they had in hand.

Ah! if our teachers would meet in such a spirit as this, and for objects such as these-and they will excuse me for saying, that as teachers, they are wrong if they meet in another spirit and for other objects-if they would hold and maintain Christian intercourse the one with the other, the intercourse of enlightened minds, of regenerate hearts, of pious conversation-then do I believe, that teachers, and parents, and children, as they gazed upon assemblies such as these, and traced the moral and spiritual influences that would flow from these sources, as naturally and as certainly as the streams flow from the fountain head, might gratefully and joyously sing-" How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel."

THE TRUE TEACHER.

THE Books are opened. From the Book of God the teacher instructs his flock. He leads them to some touching narrative-some wondrous history or some words of loving teaching. He does not sermonize and weary the ear with dull words and long sentences. But in simple language-telling homely Saxon phrase-he speaks the truth as it is in Jesus, all the while praying that it may fall into the soft soil of some young heart, and bring forth fruit for the Great Husbandman.

THE GREAT LESSON THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL IS TEACHING TO THE CHURCH.

WHAT GREAT LESSON IS THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL ENDEAVORING TO TEACH THE CHURCH OF THIS NATION? It is this: that her future triumph depends greatly on her success in converting the nation's childhood. I will defend this answer with facts.

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And, first, the Sunday-school is making the Church such an offer as was never before made to any living spiritual Church since the foundation of Christianity. What is it? I answer, it is the opportunity of giving a religious education to the mass of this nation's childhood. Were I a painter, I would symbolize this relation of the Sunday-school to the Church in a grand cartoon. On my left foreground I would paint a woman of dignified mien, with a face of majestic sweetness, a crown of stars upon her brow, a sceptre in her hand. She should represent the Church. At her feet I would paint a damsel of modest aspect, clad in the garb of labor, and her feet with sandals shod. She should represent the Sunday-school. Her right arm should point to a crowd of children in the large background of the picture, representing the millions of children between five and fifteen years of age, now living. Her lips should express this sentiment, addressed to the Church: "I, the Sunday-school, bring thee, O Church of Jesus, the children of this nation, to be educated in the doctrines and precepts of the Christian faith." I would justify the imagery of this picture by showing its conformity to existing facts. The formal, fallen Church of the middle age had the religious education of the children of Europe in its hands; but nowhere do I read of the Church possessed of that power when in a quickened spiritual condition. The primitive Church had access to the children of her communion, but could not reach those of the masses around her. The same thing is true of the Waldenses, the Albigenses, the Churches of the Reformation, and the Puritan Churches of Great Britain. We have a living spiritual church, with the opportunity of religiously educating the children, not only of her several communions, but of the whole people. The bulk of the nation's childhood is placed within reach of her educating power by means of the Sunday-school.

This opportunity is invaluable. Its possibilities are incalculable. It brings the nation's childhood within reach of the Church's influence at the moment best fitted to form its character. When is character formed? Is it not during the first third of human life? How is it formed? Is it not by education? This education begins with the life of childhood. Parents are its first educators. "We must begin the education of our child early," said a gentleman to his wife when their first-born was three or four months old. "Its education is already begun," replied the young mother; it commenced with the first days

of its being. During the first three nights of its life a light was kept burning in my chamber. On the fourth it was extinguished, and the child became restless and clamorous for the light." The quick eye of the mother saw that her child noticed, willed, cried to accomplish its desire. The refusal of that mother to relight her lamp began the training of that child's will and the formation of its character. Thus from the first is character formed chiefly by the parent. In due time the teacher also becomes its educator, and plies his formative task with good or ill effect, until the bent of the now grown-up child's life is fixed, and his character determined almost beyond the probability of future change. This educatory power the Sunday-school places in the hands of the Church.

This power is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of known moral forces for the determination of national character. Look, for example, at the four great religious systems outside of the Christian ChurchBuddhism, Hindooism, Mohammedanism, Judaism. What keeps up these systems? It is not aggression; it is not proselytism. They do not make proselytes. The doctrine of caste in Hindooism absolutely prevents proselytism. Yet these maintain their numerical strength. What sustains them? I answer, it is the moral force coiled up in early religious education. Take away that tremendous moral force, and they are defunct. That force the Sunday-school offers to the Church in this nation.

You recollect the legend of the ancient Sibyl, who appeared with nine leaves to the Emperor Tarquin, demanding an immense sum for them. The monarch thought it too much, and refused. She withdrew, cast three of them into the fire, and returned, asking the same sum for the remaining six that she had first demanded for the nine. Again the monarch refused; again she destroyed three leaves, and returned once more, having only three left, but placing upon them the self-same value at which she had held the whole. The king's curiosity was excited; he purchased them; and they contained matter of so much interest and importance that it was a cause of deep and undying regret to the nation that all had not been purchased. So the Sunday-school to the Church is a thing of untold value. Its offer is so large that no figure can name, no mind can comprehend it. If the Church refuse to accept it, it can probably never be made again in all its largeness. Are there not signs already of this result? Is it not a fact that the Sunday-school has lost its prestige in some localities, owing to the indifference of leading men in the Cristian Church to its claims ?

For what purpose has the providence of God given the Church this opportunity to religiously educate the bulk of this nation's childhood? Can it be for any lower purpose than the conversion of the nation through the training of its childhood? Should not the religious educa

tion given in the Sunday-school be so used as to culminate in the conversion of the children?

The possibility of the conversion of children in large numbers, is a thought which God has been forcing into the mind of the Church by means of the Sunday-school, from its origin until now. Yet the thought was not born with the institution. Its founder had no conception of it. All Raikes proposed to do was to teach the children to read, and give them some knowledge of the Catechism. But afterward Mr. Wesley, that sagacious man, saw beyond his compeers, into the possibilities of this new institution.

Yet I think it was his purpose to merely prepare the minds of children for the subsequent reception of religion, for in speaking of one of his schools, he mentions it as a matter of surprise that a young child had been converted. Even his great mind did not fully grasp the idea of saving a nation through the conversion of its childhood. And it was only by the providence of God, causing a converted child to crop out here and there, that the Church learned to regard the thorough conversion of children as a thing to be looked for as an ordinary sequence of religious teaching, and not as an extraordinary event or phenomenon, whose frequent repetition was not to be expected. But this precious lesson the Sunday-school has now effectually taught. Our own branch of the Church demonstrates it.

If then, God has, by means of the Sunday-school, placed the religious education of the bulk of the nation's childhood within the grasp of the Church, and if by the same means he has demonstrated that the sequence of their religious education may be the conversion of the children, is it not clear that God is seeking by the Sunday-school to teach his Church that the time has arrived in which she should seek to evangelize the nation by specific, patient endeavors to convert its childhood? To penetrate this nation with the life of Christianity, the Church must seek to convert its childhood. This is the lesson which the Sunday-school is teaching.

Let the Church learn this lesson well, and her light, instead of declining with the death of this generation, will burn brighter and brighter. It will be like that of the Eddystone light-house, when the wreckers bound the keeper and his wife, carried them away, and rejoiced, with hellish joy, at the thought that on that dark night no friendly light would be there to warn the mariner, and that his bark would be dashed to pieces on the rocks. But they forgot that they had left in the light-house the two little sons of the keepers. These boys knew that the light was a source of much anxiety to their parents, that it should be kindled, at all hazards, when the night came on. So they climbed up the ladder, and performed the duty of their absent parents, and on that dark night the light shone forth beautifully and steadily as ever,