of the Saviour, and of his salvation; and that 'the word of Christ may dwell in you richly in all wisdom.' passions of the soul, shall be fully consecrated to your Lord! Let then, the year 1847 witness that, in the sabbath school, you were never more devotional, Are you going to pray fervently more active, more single-minded, to the Lord Jesus this year, that more persuasive and affectionate he would enlighten your minds in your appeals to the young, by his Spirit, renew your hearts more assiduous and untiring in by his efficacious grace, prepare your efforts, more determined to you for all the duties of life, for prove blessings to some, if not all its temptations and changes to all. Such a spirit God will and, above all, fit you for the approve, Christ will honour,- article of death, and the overheaven will crown with its un-powering scenes of eternity? fading glory, and its unceasing bliss. 'Thus will your classes richly bear Children, dear children, in our Sabbath schools, a kind word to you. You have entered on New Year's Day; 1847 has opened on you; will you allow an old friend, one who is devotedly attached to you, who is increasingly anxious for your spiritual welfare, and who hopes to meet multitudes of you in heaven, to inquire, 'What are you going to do this year?' This year may be your last. Before the year closes, your spirits may be with God; your eternal destiny may be sealed. What then, dear children are you going to do this year? Are you going to begin this year well? Are you going to encourage your teachers this year, by their witnessing your greater docility, your warmer love to the Bible, your greater deference to their counsels, your deeper humility, and your stronger desires that God would bless their labours to you, and render them more extensive blessings to others? Are you going to do something for Christ this year, by which his name may be magnified, his grace may be exalted, his gospel may be honoured, his kingdom may be enlarged? Children, remember you can all do something with which Christ will be pleased-which he will graciously accept, and which he will abundantly honour. A penny given to his cause; a tract given to the ignorant; a visit paid to the poor; a prayer presented for the unconverted; a blessing sought for your minister and teacher, as an expression of love from a Sunday school child; the Saviour will always acknowledge, and al Are you going to be uniform in your attendance at the Sabbath school? Are you determined to miss no opportunity, unless illness prevent; but to embrace every service with gratitude and plea-ways reward. He is waiting to bless sure, since, perhaps, it may be the last allotted you? Are you going to acquire all the religious knowledge which you can this year? Are you determined to read the Scriptures more attentively, to examine them more frequently and earnestly, to compare one part with another more closely, in order that you may form clearer views of the gospel, you, on this, the first day of the year. He is saying to every child, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?' Go, at once, and tell him-' Lord, bless me with thy grace, and then, make me a blessing to others.' And thus, at last, Each from his Lord, And sit down on my throne!' SUNDAY SCHOOL BROTHER HOOD. A SPLENDID tea meeting was held cational means was such, that all of the next generation would have come through the hands of the Sunday school teacher. It was the same at the present time in America. He would ask both of these classes of teachers, what was there to prevent their fusing these two generations into a brotherhood inseparable, which could never be dissolved? He could not conceive that they could rely on any other nation of men doing the work of evangelising the world. What other nation did they see, except England and America, carrying the gospel to all nations? God evidently had set apart these two great nations as the pioneers of civilisation, and as co-workers with him in the evangelisation of the world, And if both sides of the Atlantic could be brought together, as the Sunday school teachers on both sides can bring about, they would have a power that would be irresistible. What could resist this power, if England and America were united, and sustained to each other the same relation that the heart and the right arm sustained in the human system! He alluded to the pro Mr. Burritt, addressing them as Christian friends, said it gave him great pleasure to meet them on that occasion, and he was happy to have the opportunity of suggesting a few reflections to their minds, on the importance of infusing into the education of the young the principles and spirit of peace. The great and important doctrine to be inculcated in the minds of the Sunday scholars of the present day was this, that love is power. The disposition to forgive enemies was the greatest demonstration of moral power. There was no gift which Christ had given to men which he did not prove the value of by his own example. But it certainly was a hard command-gress of the Anglo-saxon race. ment-the hardest given to men to love their enemies, and pray for them that despitefully used them. It was the crowning illustration of the evidence of his love when he prayed for his murderers. All we could do for men we must do by the same power of love, if we would raise the degraded, or overcome evil, and evil systems. This doctrine of forgiveness of enemies ought to be a primary doctrine in the education of the young. He related an anecdote to show the power of kindness in subduing the most obdurate, and referred to the fact, that our future armies must be levied from the Sunday scholars. The extension of edu Only sixty years ago there were about four millions of that race on the American Continent; now there were as many or more than in this hemisphere, speaking the same language, reading the same Bible, and every sabbath singing out of the same psalm book. If the children of both nations are all in the hands of Sunday school teachers, why should there be any fear of war between them? Why should there be such tremendous levies for the ministry of Mars? There is more expended in preparations for war in one year in this country, than would put the scriptures into the hands of four hundred millions of human beings. One year's expenditure for the war with Mexico, would cost the United States as much money as would build thirty thousand chapels; on the other hand, only dribblets were spent in the work of God. After some remarks of the same kind, showing the great contrast between the expenditure on war, and that for carrying the message of peace and mercy to an ignorant world, he submitted the proposition for which he had met them that evening, that every Sunday school in Britain should maintain a systematic communication and correspondence with a Sunday school in America. The project was one that could be stated in very few words, and it could be carried out without any circumstance or ceremony. The penny postage system, would lend an agency which might thus connect two kindred nations. Then the children will be taught that the great Atlantic Ocean unites and not divides the two countries of England and America. This correspondence would be an easy matter indeed. For an expense which could not at the most exceed one shilling a month, the two branches of the race might in this way be brought together in one beautiful brotherhood. Would it not be a matter of great interest to read periodically these letters to the children from their friends across the water? He believed that by the first of May next, it was possible thus to unite every school in this country in a system of friendly communication with another in America. Its effects might afterwards appear -that no recruits to the soldiers' ranks would be drawn from the Sunday scholars, to degrade themselves to be the instruments of destroying their fellow men. He pledged himself to find one school in the United States for every one in this country prepared to act on this suggestion. Would it not repay their efforts? Was it either a laborious or an expensive labour? As one of the easiest possible efforts of philanthrophy, he hoped it would receive their earliest consideration. Mr. Burritt sat down amidst very cordial applause. A free and friendly conversation followed, and an address was adopted to the Sunday school at Worcester, Massachusetts, United States, and signed by all present. I list of American schools anxious to exchange correspondence with English schools will soon arrive, and be published in this Magazine. Our arrangements with the Stamp Office will enable us to forward by every month's steamer to New York a copy of this Magazine, for a postage of twopence. What school will omit this chance of a monthly communication with some sister school in the States of America. Five shillings a year will do it. Let the address of the school be sent with the cash to Messrs. Gillett and Moore, Manchester; and let our readers depend upon our co-operation in this good cause. We have the ear, the heart, the hand of Elihu Burritt. Between him and us, a close influential and lasting intimacy is forming.-EDITORS. BEAUTIFUL INCIDENT.-At a recent meeting of the Evangelical Alliance, held in Manchester, the following remarkable incident occurred:-Just as dinner was over, the attention of those present was drawn, by a sudden clapping of hands at the upper part of the room, to an open window, whereon a beautiful dove had at that instant alighted. The assembly was requested to desist from clapping, and to express their joy by joining in singing, 'Oh for a closer walk with God! The hymn was sung accordingly by the whole company, of between two hundred and three hundred persons standing, the fearless bird still retaining its position at the window, regardless of the noise, and appearing, by the movements of its head, to participate in the pleasure of the sacred song. But what was the astonishment of all, as soon as the fourth verse was commenced, 'Return, O holy dove, return, to see the little visitor actually fly into the room, and take its seat on the top of a cupboard overlooking the assembly, where it remained stationary until the hymn was concluded, after which it quietly took its departure. Emblematic may it prove of the peace and purity of the Alliance. Over the Alliance may the heavenly Dove hover. May the Alliance be as the ark, with its olive branch of love, amid all the angry storms of this world. SUNDAY SCHOOLS & ANARCHY. When a mob, in the last general insurrection among the manufacturing districts wished to visit Leeds, no, said their ringleaders, there are too many Sunday schools there for us! SUNDAY SCHOOLS & ATHEISM. -They learn things there which they never forget.' So said an Atheistical father when requested by a faithful teacher to send his child to a Sunday school. A day or two after the child was drowned. But what an argument in favour of schools! Oh, that all may learn what they will never forget and never regret, namely, repentance towards God and faith in Christ. SUNDAY SCHOOLS AND INFIDELITY. Through the influence of schools in Wales, there is not a single infidel publication in the Welsh language, either original or translated. Ragged Schools. WE stop the press to announce, that, in future we shall be prepared to give prominence to these important institutions. Friends who take a deep interest in them will frequently communicate with us. We invite communications from all the friends of such schools, and promise them our best cooperation. Here is a new field of labour. It must be well worked. We cheerfully lend both hands. This periodical will henceforth be the willing organ of the 'Ragged School Union.'-Eds. THE GRAND STAND!-Glorious news for teachers and the friends of Christ ! Orders have been given for the removal of all the posts, rails, and buildings belonging to the Kersal Moor Race course at Manchester, but the grand stand is to remain as a Sunday school. Thus it has been used for some time. For no other purpose may it ever be used. May it prove a 'grand stand' for truth, for Christ, for souls!! THE DYING PEASANT GIRL. A Chapter for the Young. by the 'Rev. J. O. JACKSON, Author of The Gardener's Wife.' My dear Young Readers,—I dare say you are accustomed to think and, therefore, when you first that dying is a very gloomy thing, read the title of this chapter, you were ready to pass it by as but a melancholy subject. But I wish read on, I think you will begin to show you-and, if you will to believe that the time of dying that death itself need not be may be a very happy time, and dreaded. There is something you may know that takes away the fear of death. It was my great privilege, some time ago, to be very often at the bed-side of a dear dying girl; and I assure you it was one of the most happy places I ever visited, and this young person was in the most happy state of mind that can almost be imagined. The peasant girl lived in one of the villages of the beautiful county in which I reside; her father and mother were poor people, and lived in a small cottage on the side of the village street, opposite the school-house in which Sarah (for that was her name) used to spend her sabbath days with so much delight. She had been a Christian-that is, a converted person, for many months before she left this world; and, though very delicate for a long time before her death, yet we were not distressed, because our sorrows could not flow when we believed that she had something in her mind which would make her triumph even in death. She continued to attend school until within two sabbaths of her decease but I shall pass over all other matters, and bring you at once to those eight or nine days that she lay upon her dying bed. And what I wish to show you is this: First-that she was most unspeakably happy in dying; Secondly-that she was so happy, because she was believing a happy truth; and, thirdly-that if you will only believe the same truth, you may enjoy the same happiness just now, and when you die. One Sabbath morning, in the spring of the year, we, her teachers, went to the school, as usual; but, on looking round upon the children, I saw that young Sarah was not there. The lady, who was the teacher of Sarah's class, therefore called to see her in the afternoon, and found her very poorly, but not yet dangerously ill. On the Tuesday after she sent to tell us how much worse she had grown, and said she longed to see us. Her teacher went immediately, and thought that a great change had taken place in her appearance, and that she was in a rapid decline. But her mind was happy, very happy. On asking if the Bible should be read to her, she said, 'Oh yes, if you please, read that part of 1 Cor. chapter xv. where it is said, ‘O grave, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?' When her teacher asked her why ? she said, 'Because it was a sermon preached from those words, nearly two years ago, that first made me anxious about my soul; and I never can forget them.' When this portion had been read to her, she asked-' Now will you read to me about the dying thief?" And as the portion was read, she applied it to herself, and prayed -'Lord, remember me!' Soon after, she added-'I've been thinking of that passage, All things work together for good to them that love God:' adding, 'I feel that I'm in God's hands; and let his will be done.' On saying this, she began, in a sweet tone of voice, and with a happy smile on her face, to express her feelings in the following hymn : 'Tis religion that can give,' etc. When she had finished, she said, There is another very nice one she uttered the lines which on the same subject;' and then follow: 'Religion is the chief concern,' &c. And then, with great emphasis, she added: 'Religion should our thoughts engage Thus happy was Sarah herself in prospect of an 'early tomb.' The next day, Wednesday, I called upon her myself. I found her propped up with pillows, and seemingly in deep decline. She was evidently sinking fast. Her cough was very painful to herself, and distressing to others. said, as I entered. 'I'm sorry, I |