WEEKLY MEETINGS.

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not get this great system fully before the mind till after years of study. Is it any wonder that teachers cannot? The doctrines of the bible, the great foundation-stones of the moral temple, are what they want to measure and examine, to lay their hands upon, to rest their hopes upon, and by which they wish to teach better. The pastor only can thus instruct them.

By meeting the teachers weekly, too, the minister would preach better! And how? Because he would be continually studying to simplify truth, and thought, and language, so that the children may understand what is taught them. In this way he will preach with more simplicity, more nature, more ease, more directness, and more illustration. So great a part of his instructions will not go over the heads of his hearers.

I plead for this close connexion between pastor and school once more, because it will create a strong, a sweet, and a delightful tie between the pastor and his flock. The children will feel that their privileges are great, because the minister of God is so frequently present, and takes so deep an interest in the school. The teachers feel that they labour not in vain; and that, however discouraging their prospects may be, there is one heart that will never grow cold, never lose its sympathy for them. The parents will feel that the piety and the intelligence of the church are enlisted in behalf of their children, and will be encouraged to co-operate. The church will feel that she must go with her leader, and will gather her sympathies around the vineyard of the Lord; and the minister himself will feel, that when no success attends his labours, he has a cohort in his church, who, by experience, have learned what it is to labour in vain, and who will not be backward to sympathise with him. And when the holy man of God dies, there will be tears from the yes of those in the sabbath school room who have looked upon him as their best friend.

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DUTIES OF TEACHERS.

CHAPTER XII.

Duties of Teachers in regard to the Sabbath.

FROM the unbosomed freedom with which I have spoken to teacher in these pages, I am induced to hope they will allow me to introduce one or two other topics which come within their duties to consider; topics, whose importance is such that I should not feel justified in passing over them in silence. One of these is, your duty in regard to the Christian sabbath.

I can imagine that I see the teacher, at a late hour on the sabbath evening, sitting alone in his chamber with his little bible in his hand. His thoughts run something in this way.

Well, another sabbath has come and gone. Here I am exhausted, weary, and discouraged. I arose early this morning, and tried to get my heart in tune for the duties of the day. I thought I prayed with sincerity and earnestness for myself, my friends, for my church, my minister, and especially for my class in the sabbath school. I went to the house of God and to the school-room, and tried to lead my pupils to the bible, to instruct them faithfully and tenderly on the subject of the great salvation. But what good have I done? How listless and stupid was my class! How their eyes wandered, even while I was talking to them; how coldly their hearts responded to any thing that I could say! Was it because I did not exhibit the spirit of Christ? Alas! I fear this day is lost; that not one sin is conquered in my own bosom, or in the bosoms of my class. I fear, not a single conscience is quickened, not a single heart melted in contrition, not a single soul under my care advanced towards heaven. What good has this sabbath done? But hush! A few immortal souls have been with me in the school: a few hundreds have been with me in the house of God. I look out, and seem to see much that is more cheering abroad. What multitudes of men and beasts have rested to-day, and thus prolonged that existence which unceasing toil would soon terminate! What multitudes have had the chain of worldly thoughts and feelings broken, the love of the world checked, the schemes of ambition rebuked, the passions cooled, the temper soothed, the heart softened, the understanding enlightened, the affections cultivated, the faith strengthened, the hopes cheered and elevated, and the soul, hungering and thirsting after something above earth, satisfied! How many ministers of Christ, and how many teachers like me are now sitting down discouraged by the labours and anxieties of the day! But as

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the eye of God has looked down, it has seen many churches communing with him, many knees bent in the closet, many bibles opened, many congregations gathered, and hundreds of thousands of children in the sabbath schools, all learning his word, many praying circles breathing after him, and by his presence strengthened to run the race for the crown of life. How many souls, too, have this day been led to the Lamb of God! Oh! what a blessing is the holy sabbath! What a mighty blessing will it become, when it shall throw its sacred mantle over the earth, and every heart on the face of the globe shall be brought to feel its influences! What a sweet song of praise will rise up from earth, what a cloud of incense will be rolled towards the mercy-seat, what conquests obtained over sin, what a multitude then fitted for heaven and eternal glory by the holy sabbath! Oh! what a store-house of spiritual mercies is the sabbath to fallen man! What a chasm in the happiness of the universe, were this day blotted out! Yes, I have helped to honour it to day, and I will once more fall down and praise God for such a gift, and will rejoice in its privileges even while I lament mine own

unfaithfulness."

I doubt not that my reader has many times had trains of thought on Sabbath evenings pass through his mind more thrilling and burning than my pen can describe.

Probably, too, you and I have the same views in regard to the influences of the sabbath over the destinies of a nation. We have seen a nation crush the sabbath, and, becoming wiser than God, make the experiment of attempting to rear a republic without its sacred influences; and the groans, the blood, the despotism, and the humiliation of that people have shown the result. The rulers from their watch-towers have called for the word of God to be brought into their schools, that they might thus cement the stability of the government. Blood had been tried in vain. And our own political men, who feel strong and at home in that kind of knowledge, aro continually preaching that this nation can be saved only by virtue and religion; and even while the song is in their mouth, they give their own example and influence to trample the sabbath under foot. They thus throw away the only thing that can create national strength. What they say the Christian feels; and he is never further removed from hypocrisy than when he says that the sabbath is the great bulwark of our nation, the last and only citadel of our strength. If that be prostrated, and if the waves of a corrupted sentiment roll over that, we may boast loudly of the freedom of our country, but the death-warrant of our freedom is signed, and the grave of our country is dug. The jarring notes of anarchy will rise from every village, and the wail of disappointed, maddened millions will swell upon every breeze. We have but one power in

THE SABBATH VIOLATED.

this land that can prevent the will of the lawless from doing its worst. There is not strength in the arm of our government. It can neither move quick to prevent evils, nor with power to crush them when commenced. The only possible hope in our case is, that the conscience may be so enlightened and cultivated, that our population can govern themselves. But this cannot be done without a very general sanctification of the sabbath. The man who can question this has studied the human heart and the philosophy of Our government very superficially.

I need not pause and dwell long on the proof that the sabbath is violated most openly and shamefully in every part of our land. All good people acknowledge and most bitterly lament this. And from the very genius of the times it will be increasingly violated, unless some very efficient means be soon devised by which it may be rescued. A few years since, the good of the land went to the doors of Congress and petitioned that the mail might not be opened on the sabbath, and the whole nation rose up in its strength and poured a scorching stream of invective and obloquy upon the heads of those who had the temerity to throw upon noble freemen the shackles of a respect for the God of heaven, and the ruler of nations! The friends of their country and of religion recoiled under the burning torrent, and the courage of too many gave up the ghost. As it is a part of our boasted birthright that every man shall do just what he pleases and when he pleases, public sentiment can and will throw no restraints upon men in regard to the sabbath. Nor is this all. Our land is to be cut up by canals and railroads, and our waters made alive with steam-boats. The number who are on the wing, passing and repassing, is immense, and increasing continually. We have thought it a great evil that stages should disturb the quiet of our villages. But the noise and rattle of these will soon be drowned by the louder noise of the railroad, the canal, and the steam-boat. What will be the state of our country when our contemplated improvements are all finished? How will the sabbath then be driven over?

Not long since, after a stormy night, and a delay of twelve hours not expected, the steam-boat arrived at Lewiston at day-break on sabbath morning. It was crowded with passengers, very many of whom were professors of religion. I was in hopes that they would pause, and used my influence to have them. They all lamented the necessity, but they must, after breakfast, pass on to the falls of Niagara. They were so near then, eight or ten miles, and they could worship God there, and there was no church at Lewiston! With the solitary exception of myself they all passed on. The people were reaping and gathering in the harvests of wheat which Cod had given them. The only place of worship was the missionary

BARRIERS GIVING WAY.

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station among the Tuscarora Indians. I wound my way up through the woods, and soon found the church by the small tinkling bell The missionary was just going into the pulpit. Here I expected to find a hallowed spot. No; crowds of elegantly dressed people came in chartered carriages from the Falls to see the Indian congregation, and to hear them sing and pray in the Indian language It was one of the lions which no fashionable could omit to see. Among these were some who introduced themselves as Christians from New York city; and though they had come directly from a meeting at the Falls, and ridden some ten miles, they wished to shake hands with the missionary, and express their deep interest in the cause of missions. Never did I hear a man deal more faithfully than he did on that occasion.

The barriers which used to surround that sacred day have been yielding and giving way before the tide of worldly feeling and ambition which are sweeping over our land, till they are in danger of being entirely carried away. Should the work of prostration go on for the coming twenty years as it has done for the last twenty, I know not where we should be. And it is going on, unchecked, unrebuked, and almost undeplored. You may be so situated in sorce retired, sweet spot, that you do not feel it. Yours may be the last spot where the work of moral desolation shall be done; but it will reach even that spot.

The

It must be perfectly obvious that legislation and law are impotent on this subject. There have been good laws enacted against the violation of the sabbath. They are now on the statute-books of most of the States, and there they will sleep undisturbed. public opinion is so strong in favour of violating the sabbath, that our magistrates could not, even were they disposed, protect it. And the church of God has not piety enough and courage enough to lift her voice and rebuke it. It is very different, if we are correctly informed, across the waters. In England the sabbath is guarded and supported by law. The whole weight of their government is seen to rest directly on religion; consequently, every violation of the sabbath, or of the precepts of religion, is a violation of law, and a weakening of the government. The sword of the magistrate will therefore punish the violation of the sabbath. Treason against God is, in these circumstances, as it was in the laws of Moses, treason against government. It neither is so, nor can be so here. And, so far from being surprised that Congress did not stretch out the hand and stop the mail on the sabbath, my surprise is, that it could ever have been supposed that they would do it. They would refuse, were it only to show that we have a fabric so strong that it despises the aid of religion in all shapes.

If, then, any thing be done to preserve the sabbath from teal