Page images
PDF
EPUB

THOUGHTS FOR PARENTS ON SABBATH-READING.

BY MRS. M. E. DOUBLEDAY.

IF, for the last half-century, there has been an increasing interest in whatever was designed for the youthful mind, the establishment of Sunday-school Libraries has greatly accelerated the movement, and given it power and energy.

These form an era in the history of fuvenile literature. They have both increased the demand and provided for the supply, while they have imparted to these works a higher tone of religious principle and moral sentiment.

of much delicacy, and of some difficulty, to provide works suitable for the day and the place, and yet not disappoint the wishes of the expectants. A child always desires a story; the young delight in narrative; nothing else interests them. All ages, all nations have embodied truths in the forms presented by the imagination, and made fiction the vehicle of instruction; and it has been found that in no way can a child be so much interested in a principle, as when that principle is Through their influence a more health-exemplified by characters, although the ful feeling, a purer morality is now dif- personages may be imaginary. fused through a large proportion of works for the young; and carried by the children into the family, they are read by the older members of the circle, for the simplicity and plainness which make them useful to the child render them attractive to minds unaccustomed to the long train of metaphysical reasoning, or the nice distinctions of speculative theology, and they are thus diffusing their influence over a wide field, and interesting many who would reject graver publications.

The great object of the Sunday-school in this land is to communicate religious instruction, the knowledge of the way of salvation, the law of God, the precepts and the promises of the gospel; to deeply imbue the mind in the first days of life with that truth which by the Holy Spirit is to be made effectual to the sanctification of the soul. And the Sabbath school book is always supposed to second these efforts, to be of a character suited to the nature of the day, and to harmonize with all the other exercises of holy time.

Yet while it has been intended to make the book the vehicle of religious truth, it has been found that it must be made attractive, as well as instructive. Mere sermons, religious essays, and works of a highly devotional and spiritual character, are seldom attractive to the young, unless under the immediate influence of strong religious emotion. Biographies have been resorted to; the religious movements of the past and present days have been presented in a great variety of forms, but all do not meet the large demand of the thousands and hundreds of thousands who all wish for a new book each Sabbath of the year. It has thus become a task

These considerations have led to the admission into many Sunday-school libraries of works which were merely works of the imagination, but works which were designed to expose or illustrate some great moral principle or religious truth. Yet many who would allow a latitude to the youthful reader which would startle our Puritan ancestors, could they, through their iron-rimmed spectacles, pass our libraries under review, have still scrupled at the introduction of mere works of fiction into the library which places them in the hands of the young on the Sabbath, and thus seems to sanction their being read on that day. However beautifully the tale may be written, it is merely a religious novel, and the emotion excited may be far from the nature of a religious feeling. A careful observation might prove that the wide dissemination of works of sentiment and romance has created and fostered that unhealthy excitement which is so unfavourable to all mental and moral discipline, so entirely destructive to that spiritual-mindedness which each follower of the Redeemer should maintain; and the sickly sentiment thus cherished and excited, is the canker which eats out the root of godliness in many young hearts; thus it would be a peculiar aggravation of the evil should the Sunday-school furnish food for this morbid appetite, or by her productions excite it; while it is very difficult to exclude the kind of reading they most love from libraries pressly intended for the young, or to find any order of works which will furnish an adequate substitute.

ex

Another evil has seemed to have arisen from the multiplication of books, and of

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

books mexceptionable in their character Yet of the Bible be neglected on the yet attractive and aving, pro mo the Sacbath. I vill be fund that is will be han is of the trung on the boars of the same reai torna the week. The Sal bath If der re of a tracer - siltitest personal servance, the frowsy, tiralo sanable to the fan i den andre stre Alenton will satisfy. It will ami LATE no Man, 10 interest. The abund IVALEN 20 Szori i Vrh can in are the ance of lift and sutive reading pre201 Induences sents so any temptations, even to the strid unspot, dhe në still more the minds of the more deeply devotional We feel that the Saccath should be peeniarly onsecrated to the study ff de wri f God inring the inter als of the varied services of the holy lay Yat ve iu fear that other claims have so mainpiled, that beyond the study the lesson, and the reading of the acusencia for family devotion, it is often mlerdei inopenei In many famides le read, us newspaper occupies the leisure Sabbath hours of the facier, while the child is allowed to choose from the 500 uiten so-called religions miscellany of the lar mi the habit early formed of ruding away holy time continues inring life. Lowering the one of the piety, and proinding a deplorable laxity in regard to the distance of the Sabbath.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

JI that habimai.
with the sacred page, and that large ac-
quaintance with it in all its fulness thus
dered from reading The whole
character of those who thus ink of the
fulness of the xuntain. Deermes saturated
with the Divine inanence, and the” are
marked and known as 3 we Muristans.
And where a leerer spiral, a hider
Seil-
WH

Infering these remarks, it is not our intention to cast any ensure either upon the Sac ath-check, r he manner m which it is conducted. In this imperfect state no god is mixed with evil. If ire tendencies which are to be varied against, we do not feel that the uniteters and teachers of these insti iening plety marks he Character. tutions are to be made responsible for spak mu this close attention to the word them, nor is we look to them to address of Gou the remedy.-Y. F. Evang.

3 more

[blocks in formation]

ABERDEEN. GEORGE STREET CONGRE
GAZIONAL SAFFATH-SCHOOL. — Cn

senglars,

evening of Tuesday. 3rd July, the 3. In the duty of the teacher regardteachers of George-Street Congressing the behaviour of his class during the gational Sabbath-school met in the large exercises of the school. servoi-mom adiining the hare, for the ретече of HENLY conversation and mutual enegurag-ment.

After tea, the superintendent requested He teuerers of the senior me and temale senciars to give a sport aceoumt ɔf

"Leir reSPECTIVE Classes Their statements Tere rief ut nte "sung and «NCOTging, uu were “ruAV APPROVED t V the ower teachers, after when a frien y conversation ensued on the foi lowing suffects, viz.

4. CII Lessons of memory.

During the evening the secretary in the name of the other teachers, presented the supermuendent with a handsomely bound zerY ot Kitto's Biblical Cyclo"ædis, dearing the following suitable inseription: Presented to Mr. Hugh Ross. in the teachers of George Street Congregational Saorath-school, as a mark of their respect for him as their superintendent, and of their high estimation 1 is services in promoting the general

1. Un the propriety of giving rewards. weitare of the school.

A RAGGED SCHOOL RE-UNION.-Such is the designation which has been given to what is certainly a novelty, even in these times, when every day is expected to present something new to the world. As an illustration of a Ragged-school Re-union, we have been supplied with the following statement:

In Charles-street, Lisson-grove-one of the most degraded neighbourhoods of London-there are several schools in connection with the congregation under the charge of the Rev. R. H. Herschell. It was determined that the children and their parents should have a holiday in the country, together with such of the poorer members of the congregation as chose to join the party. Early on the appointed morning, twenty-one vans, filled with teachers, children, parents, city missionaries, and others, to the number of about 700 persons, besides several parties

in private vehicles, started from the chapel for Hampton Court, where the day was spent in a joyous and satisfactory manner, not the slightest inconvenience being experienced from this intermingling in social intercourse of those whom the "conventionalities" of society keep too much aloof from each other.

CITY OF LONDON NATIONAL SCHOOLS. The Archbishop of Canterbury, on Sunday, June 17, preached in the church of St. Dunstan-in-the-East, on behalf of the City of London National Schools. The annual income derived from subscriptions does not exceed £300, and the charity depends greatly for its support on occasional collections. The sum contributed after his grace's sermon amounted to £101 14s. 8d. The sheriffs were present. The Lord Mayor was prevented by indisposition from attending.

Reviews.

Scripture Sites and Scenes, from actual Sur- ductory Essay, will not be found unworthy vey, in Egypt, Arabia, and Palestine: of the name, under the shadow of which chiefly for the use of Sunday schools. Lon- the author is willing to conceal his own: don: A. Hall and Co. and yet surely he need not have been SINCE everything is dear or cheap only by afraid to risk the credit of it, on such a comparison, we call this one of the cheap-venture, and with such a theme; for est five shilling books we have ever met with, because its contents, both in matter and illustrations, are so valuable. It is written evidently by one well acquainted with his subject throughout, and bringing a great deal of knowledge to bear upon it; and it is illustrated by no less than twenty engravings on steel, very originally, truthfully, and beautifully designed and executed, besides thirty-seven exceedingly interesting and instructive wood-cuts. The author deserves well of all connected with Sunday-schools, for he has supplied them in this volume with a large amount of matter in a most agreeable shape, all of which, in the hands of a prudent and thoughtful student of Scripture, must be of incalculable advantage.

[blocks in formation]

what a host of thoughts, and what inexhaustible treasures of interest and delight are included in that magic word Egypt!— opening up the history of the very earliest of Noah's descendants, bringing us down to the ages of Abraham, Joseph, and Moses, and thus leading us along the full course of time, until from the Pharaohs we descend to Mahomet Ali, who still lives and breathes, though in a state of imbecility, fully realizing the words of the Psalmist," Though men be so strong that they come to fourscore years, yet is their strength then but labour and sorrow, so soon passeth it away, and we are gone." A more fearful despot never lived, as his cold-blooded massacre of the Mamelukes awfully proclaims; and thus, even in our itself a land of terrors, as of old. The day, this "clime of the sun" has proved work treats fully of the several topics into which it is divided, consisting of the Country, the People, and the Produce and Natural History. A Chronological Table in the Appendix supplies the place of a more complete record of events.

The Idol-Child, addressed to Mothers. Lon- | and instructive that we have met with for don: Ward and Co.

a long time. Mammas and children will be equally delighted and assisted by it.

How faithful was the admonition of the apostle John, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols!" How needful is it to Read and you will Know; or, The Young parents! For the wisest and most benefi- Christian directed and encouraged in the cent of purposes did the Creator implant Pursuit of Knowledge. By JAMES CLARK. in us his creatures our natural affections London: B. L. Green, Paternoster-row. for our offspring. He gave them not Ir this little book should serve no other merely that we might enjoy them, but that by them we might be impelled to purpose than to show what has been done, what is doing, what can be done, and bring up our children to his glory. If then, instead of thus faithfully using and therefore what should be attempted in behalf of our young men, it would have enjoying them, we indulge them vainly to our own gratification, and make idols to accomplished no unworthy mission. We ourselves of those whom we ought to train trust, however, that it is designed for even up for heaven, we may find too late that more than this, and that it will serve to we have but deceived them, and earned for guide and stimulate many an ardent and ourselves the wages of our sin. It is the aspiring mind that aims at self-improve purport of this work to guard against such ment, but yet wanting a friend to direct him, runs the risk of falling into those a sin, by showing how, but for the providence and grace of God combined, all this many snares that beset the paths of those might have ensued under the circum-minded, these pages, the substance of who seek for knowledge. To any thus stances detailed, and from the midst of which there is, as it were, a voice proclaiming, "Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not.”

Mamma's Lessons on the History and Geography of Palestine. By A. M. SARGENT. London: J. Snow.

Of all the improvements that have taken place in children's books, since our own childhood's days, none is more striking than the engaging and attractive manner in which subjects, whose very names af frighted with their dryness, now appear. Geography, which is a most useful means, in the hands of a judicious teacher, for opening the minds of his scholars, was at one time the dull and heavy task of accumu lating in the memory names of places, that presented no idea beyond the mere names themselves. Now, however, the system is diferent; and, as in the instance of this very pleasing little volume, historical facts and interesting narratives are blended with descriptions of the country, the names of cities and towns, and the study is thus made an attractive engagement, instead of a dull, heavy, and too often unprofitable task. The conversational form of the work, its map of Palestine, and its twenty-five engravings, that figure what words cannot always describe, make this little book one of the most pleasing

delivered to, a company of young men, three lectures expressly written for, and cannot fail to prove a useful and encou raging manual.

[blocks in formation]

THE

SUNDAY-SCHOOL MAGAZINE.

SUCCESS OF TEACHERS.

SUCCESS, in any undertaking, is truly delightful. The idea conveyed by the term produces an indescribable charm in the minds of all enterprising persons. Its exciting and impelling power is felt, like a new faculty of nature, in sacred as well as in secular affairs. The minister of the Gospel, and the Sunday-school teacher, under its cheering influence, are alike animated to diligence and zeal in their arduous work, until they can say with the apostle, "Now thanks be unto God, who always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place,” 2 Cor. ii. 14.

Labour, the most toilsome and dangerous, is lightened by the hope of this reward. The naval traveller, ploughing remote seas, to him at least unknown before, is filled with hope of success in relation to maritime discovery. How admirably was this seen in the conduct of the great Columbus, in contemplating success in his perilous expedition,-when he held on according to his purpose, though surrounded by a dissatisfied and mutinous crew! He was confident that he should succeed in his splendid enterprise to demonstrate the existence of " a new world ;" and his determined perseverance was rewarded with the possession of the vast regions of America. In like manner, the ingenious mechanics of our country, during the last century, laboured with incessant diligence and energy in their various schemes and experiments, till at length they succeeded in bringing to perfection the steam-engine, the spinningjenny, the power-loom, and numerous other wonderful inventions, which have multiplied tenfold our manufacturing ability, and vastly increased the wealth of Great Britain!

Success, in a marvellous degree, is made to attend the labours of Sunday-school teachers. The most manifest evidences of this are visible in every district of the kingdom. But this may not immediately be apparent to individuals as teachers. They may continue their faithful labours for years, without being aware of the conversion of so much as one single scholar. Such is frequently the case: but it does not by any means follow that their prayerful endeavours are in vain, and their services fruitless. This cannot possibly be the case: for "God is faithful" to his promise. Their efforts are noticed by Omniscience, and registered in heaven. Their prayers are heard, and recorded, as their NEW SERIES, VOL. II.] SEPTEMBER, 1849.

« PreviousContinue »