LEAVES FROM OUR CHURCH BOOKS.

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shadows. There is no bright side to the picture. We forgot; there is just one. The men who make this army get rich. Their children are robed in purple and fine linen, and live upon dainties. Some of them are regarded as respectable members of society, and they hold conventions to protect their interest! Still the tramp, tramp, tramp, goes on; and before this article can see the light, five thousand more of our poisoned army will have hidden their shame and disgrace in the grave. DR. HOLLAND, in Scribner's Monthly.

Leaves from our Church Books.

WE are glad to know that these "leaves" are not the least interesting or useful of those inserted in our Magazine. Tidings reach us again and again, expressive of gratitude for the hints they contain. Church Manuals also have been forwarded to us from St. Mary's Gate, Derby; Commercial Road, London; West Vale, near Halifax, etc., from which we hope, by and bye, to derive some aid; but our first duty is to print a "leaf" concerning

V. A BROTHERLY HELP ASSOCIATION,

Sent to us by JONB, and which contains the following:

"We have formed a society in connection with our church that is proving a great benefit to us all. For years we, as a church, have suffered from a lack of interest in each other, and from a want of the desire to bring others into the circle of the church who are outside, but who are already Christians.

"The great need of something was much felt by us all. We called a meeting of the male members of the church, and the following rules were drawn up :"I. That it be called 'The Brotherly Help Association.'

"II. That its objects be as follows:-1. To observe and show friendly interest in members of the congregation, and especially to strangers.

"2. To look out for and encourage those who are religiously disposed and inquiring.

"3. To notice absentees from public worship, or any decline of interest in members of the church and congregation, and endeavour, by friendly solicitation and inquiry, to win them to regularity of attendance and renewed interest in the services and work of the church.

"4. To seek, by all legitimate means, the salvation of sinners.

"III. To further the objects of this Association the methods shall be, meetings for prayer, mutual consultation and advice, and reports from members of work done; also by individual efforts to bring people to Jesus Christ.

"IV. That the Officers consist of President, Vice-President, and Secretary, to be elected annually.

"We hold our meetings monthly. We open by prayer, after which reports are given of work done during the month. Work is then allotted to each member for the next month. Of course it is each member's duty to be on the look out for fresh cases and bring them forward at the monthly meeting. I am happy to say that good has already been the result, for we are gradually losing a character we have borne for a long time of stiff, proud, cold, etc., a warmer feeling pervades the hearts of the people, and souls are being saved.

"I feel, sir, that we want more of this in our churches, more interest in each other, and a greater desire for the salvation of sinners; and I quite believe such an Association will, in a great measure, help us in gaining this."

That, certainly, goes in the right direction, and in the right spirit. It aims at the "outsider," but it will do untold good to the "insider"; and we hope our readers will set their "wits" to work to accomplish the same ends by some means or other. Get the best means if you can; but if you can't, then get some, and get to work at once with a warm heart and a seeing eye, and you will not fail of reward. JOHN CLIFFORD.

Boys, look at this!

FOR THE YOUNG.

SOME months ago, Rev. Washington Gladden, of Springfield, Mass., believing that if he could find out how the active and prominent men of his own city spent their boyhood, it would help to solve the problem of what is the best training for boys, prepared the following circular, which was sent to the one hundred men who could fairly be said to stand at the head of the financial, commercial, professional, and educational interests of the city:

"MY DEAR SIR:-I desire to find out, for the benefit of the boys, how the leading men of this city spent their boyhood. Will you be kind enough to tell me,

"1. Whether your home during the first fifteen years of your life was on a farm, in a village, or in a city, and,

"2. Whether you were accustomed, during any part of that period, to engage in any kind of work when you were not in school?

"I should be glad, of course, to have you go into particulars as fully as you are disposed to do; but I do not wish to tax your patience, and I shall be greatly obliged for a simple answer to these two questions."

No less than eighty-eight of the busy gentlemen who received this circular were kind enough to answer the questions-some of them briefly, most of them quite fully, and it turned out that few had been brought up like most of the boys who crowd the ball-grounds and fill the streets of our cities in these later days. Here is a brief summary of the returns:-Of these eighty-eight men, twelve spent the first fifteen years of their life in the city, twelve in villages, and sixty-four were farmers' boys.

But of the twenty-four who lived in villages and cities, six were practically farmers' boys, for they lived in small villages, or on the outskirts of cities, and had the same kind of work to do that farmers' boys have. One of these village boys said: "I learned to hoe, dig, and mow; in fact, I was obliged to work, whether I liked it or no. In winter I went to school, and worked nights and mornings for my board."

Another said: I used to work away from home on a farm in the summer and fall. In the winter, when going to school, we three boys used to work up the wood for winter use."

Four others told substantially the same story. As these were about the same as farmers' boys, we may add them to that list, so that seventy out of eighty-eightalmost four-fifths of all these men-had the training of farm life.

Now how was it with the eighteen city and village boys on the list? Did they have an easy time of it? Five of them did, as they testify; five of them had no work in particular to do, but one of the five says that he studied law when out of school, and that was not exactly play. The rest of the eighteen were poor boysnot paupers, by any means, but children of the humbler classes, many of them in narrow and needy circumstances-and though they lived in cities or villages, they were accustomed from their earliest years to hard work.

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"Was generally employed," says one, 'during the summer months, and in vacations, in doing any kind of work that offered."

Four of the city boys were newsboys. One of them says: "The last year I was connected with the press, I earned one hundred dollars before breakfast."

Another: "I have paid my own way since eight years of age, without any assistance, except my board, from my eighth to my eleventh year."

Of all these eighty-eight boys, five only had nothing particular to do. While these boys were growing and working, a great many others-sons of merchants and lawyers were growing up in Springfield, going to school and amusing themselves, as boys of their class are apt to do. Where are they? Only five of this class are heard from among the eighty-eight solid men of that city. Some of them, perhaps, are prosperous men in other cities, but the number cannot be large, for in Springfield only five men out of eighty-eight came from this class. Ninety-four and a half per cent. were either farmers' boys or poor and hard-working town-boys.

Scraps from the Editor's Waste-Basket.

I. THE ASSOCIATION FOR 1880 "IN THE AIR."-Already our vigorous Nottingham friends are preparing for the ANNUAL GATHERING. Meetings have been held, plans discussed, and Mr. THOMAS GOODLIFFE, BRIDLESMITH GATE, NOTTINGHAM, has accepted the post of Secretary to the Local Committee. To Mr. Goodliffe all letters concerning the visit of "tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep," during the Association week, should be addressed. The Association will begin Monday, June 21st. Rev. J. Fletcher, 322, Commercial Road, London, E., is the Secretary of the Association, and all applications for personal membership, and letters about Association business, should be sent to him.

II. MR. GLADSTONE ON NONCONFORMISTS AND THE GENERAL ELECTION.-In a speech at Marylebone, our late Prime Minister said, "These sectional opinions which every man is putting forward are fatal to the general issue. There is a noble example, however, to the contrary in the largest section of the Liberal party -the Nonconformists. If there is any section of the Liberal party which is entitled to urge and to force its own peculiar opinions, irrespective of times and circumstances, that section is the Nonconformists. What is their peculiar opinion? Their special and distinctive opinion relates to disestablishment. They have in their own minds and consciences, not merely a political idea, but a religious conviction on that question. And yet what is their conduct? What an example, what a model are they placing before us! They are putting their own views into the shade in order that they may not interfere with the success of the cause in which their particular idea is included and absorbed." This is no more than our duty. Let every Nonconformist amongst us see that it is faithfully and energetically done! It will be an unpardonable wrong to risk a LIBERAL VICTORY at the next election for any opinion whatever.

III. THE ST. GOTHARD TUNNEL, connecting the valleys of Switzerland and the plains of Italy, is at last completed. It is a boring through the Alps of nine miles 377 yards length, and has taken eight years to execute. Human skill and industry have triumphed over every obstacle. Switzerland and Italy have a new bond of union, and a fresh source of commercial and social progress. It is a step onward, though it is through a mountain.

IV. THE LAST DEMON.-"Everywhere," says Mr. Gladstone, "East and West, North and South, is the demon of militarism." Europe is at peace, forsooth; yet France has 500,000 soldiers, Germany 400,000, Russia 800,000, and the lamentation is heard, "all Europe is weighed down by its military burdens," and irritated, imbruted, and debased by this military demon. Now Jesus Christ came that he might destroy all demons; and He must and will assuredly put an end to this one. We have no doubt that Christianity distinctly, and with the mightiest emphasis, forbids war. That is its spirit. Alas! it is not yet the spirit of the Church of Christianity; but when we know Christ more fully, and have closer fellowship with the Prince of Peace, we shall give this deadly foe of progress and of humanity no quarter. May He help us!

V. ECCLESIASTICAL HOSPITALITY.— "Can the business of the kingdom of heaven be carried on without the aid of intoxicants" is a problem which looks very easy of solution. There was a day when the "King's Head" and the "Rose and Crown" were necessary appendages to the apparatus for ministerial conferences, and gatherings of the representatives of the churches. That day has passed: and we read the records of the time with a feeling strongly akin to amusement. No doubt our successors will be surprised when they read that the London Baptist Association, eagerly discussed a question so profound, and so vital to the liberties of men, and to the welfare of the world, as to whether it should ask the churches to contribute towards a dinner to be given to the Baptist Union, with wine and beer and kindred beverages, or without: and that the knot had to be cut with the sword of compromise because it could not be untied. To us, wholly irrespective of total abstinence, and merely on the ground that the Church of Christ is at war with all evil, in its causes, adjuncts, and consequences; and that these drinks are confessedly, to put it in the mildest way, tainted by an alliance with some of the most fearful perils of our age and nation, the Church of Christ, as a church, should be separate, and touch not the unclean thing. Let individuals do as they judge right: but the Church of Christ, acting in its public and corporate capacity, ought to follow those lines of procedure, which in reality and seeming, carry it the furthest from all possible complicity,

Reviews.