version and training of youth, there can be no division of interest without loss to both. It is the opinion of the Committee, that these differences have been mainly caused by misunderstanding, for it is impossible for ministers not to value the labour of Sunday-school teachers, as it is for teachers not to desire the co-operation and support of their pastors." The following startling facts, and their necessary consequences, are thus powerfully wrought up in the Report: "The population of the Tower Hamlets, which for all practical purposes answers to the extent of this Auxiliary, was, according to the last census, 428,078. The per centage of increase to the present time added, gives 470,885, and the number between the ages of five and fifteen is 108,304. This is considered the number which ought to be under Sunday-school instruction. The following statement will show how many of that number are under religious training. In these figures minute accuracy is not attempted, but for practical purposes they will be found very useful. "Scholars in Sunday-schools, connected with this Auxiliary Ditto do. in Schools unreported Ditto estimated in Church of England Schools 21,439 2,000 12,000 Ditto do. in Charity Schools 3,000 Ditto do. in Ragged Schools 2,500 Ditto do. in Roman Catholic Schools 2,000 Ditto do. belonging to those classes in Society 12,000 54,939 "Leaving the large number of 53,365 children who do not attend any Sabbath-school. After making due allowance for errors of all kinds, it may be fairly stated that there are 40,000 children unprovided with Sabbath-school instruction; it therefore appears that for every child in the Sabbath-school, there is one out. Vast numbers of these neglected children constitute the crowds that may be met with in the parks and the fields on the Lord's-day, and prowling in the dark alleys of the low neighbourhoods, or concealed in the recess of the railway arch, pass their time in gambling and profanation. In these unfavourable situations they grow up, becoming keen in the pursuit of wrong, and active in the commission of crime. As they advance in life, they become 'filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful.' They are always a fermentable mass, and are only restrained in a state of submission by the superficial crust of an armed authority. Let but some unexpected event remove that restraint, and that aggregation of ignorance and crime would pour down upon society like the lava of destruction, before which order and refinement would perish like the grass of the field. But reverse the case-increase our Sabbath-schools -raise the qualifications of the teachers-make the schools attractivebring in the numbers who ought to be there-bring the prayers and sym pathies of the church to rest upon them, and we should soon have the Knibbs's, Williams's, and Moffats, instead of Red Republicans; and society would find its strongest, faithfulest national guard, in the moral and religious character of its youth." The Report concludes, and is summed up with these just and appropriate reflections: "At present the condition of most of the schools resembles that of a body diseased, but yet possessing that soundness of constitution that will repay the physician's skill; and who is the physician here? The church. To her the schools belong, and the relationship is as close, and should be as endearing, as that of parent and child. Will the parent be indifferent to the wants of the child? We think not. The church will look upon the school as itself in miniature, and seek its prosperity in all suitable ways. The church will hold special meetings for prayer in behalf of the school. A portion of its wealth will be cheerfully dedicated to its service. It will send into the ranks of the teachers its most devoted men-will raise for it suitable rooms, and supply those rooms with the best materials to aid the teachers and, in a word, will say to its schools, 'Ask, and ye shall receive.' This countenance and co-operation, heartily given and judiciously applied, would soon produce its natural results in the improved and healthy action developed in the schools. Differences and complaints would soon subside, and paltry jealousies become extinct. The heart of the school would beat with a vigour as yet not attained, and a generous current flow through all the arteries of the system, diffusing the strength and beauty of health. Its aggressive character would then become conspicuous, and juvenile depravity diminish before its prompt and steady advance, and as it progressed in numbers it would increase in utility. If, in its feeble youth, it gave its hundreds to the church, in its energised manhood it would add its thousands. If in its orphanage it still loved the church, in its adoption it would regard it with its best affections, and serve it with greatest zeal. It would give to the church a host of Samuels and Timothys, trained from their youth to serve the Lord, and the church thus invigorated would become strong in its position at home, and mighty in its achievements abroad." THE BIBLE PICTURE GALLERY. NO. I.-GIVING WATER FROM THE WRIST. THE twenty-fourth chapter of Genesis consists of a beautiful narrative in reference to the marriage of Isaac and Rebecca. While the inspired historian makes but partial and incidental mention of events which were convulsing the then existing nations such, for example, as the battle of the kings in chapter fourteen-he relates minutely the circumstance of a marriage in the family of the patriarch Abraham. The godly solicitude of Abraham as to the marriage of his beloved son Isaac-the covenant between Abraham and the "eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had"—-the simple but earnest prayer of this faithful and pious servant-the arrival of Rebecca at the well, and her kindly and disinterested compliance with the servant's request, "Let me, pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher"-all this is related with an exactness which we may fairly suppose to be almost literal; and while the delicate minuteness of the narrative cannot fail to interest the most superficial reader, and to exhibit the solemn importance and true character of the marriage contract, when viewed in the light of God's word, one or two simple incidents are undesignedly interwoven with the main facts of the narrative, which serve to test and verify the accuracy of the sacred record, and stamp it with the indelible mark of truth. Such is the fact stated in verse 18: "And she [Rebecca] hasted and let down the pitcher upon her hand, and gave him [Abraham's servant] to drink." Similar scenes are to be witnessed in Arabia and some parts of India to this day, where women are exclusively employed to carry water morning and evening from the wells. The very mode described by Moses, of letting down the pitcher on the hand, as illustrated in our engraving, is still practised in the east. giving drink to another person the vessel rests upon the wrist, and is guided by the hand of the female who carries the pitcher, sometimes upon her shoulder, and sometimes upon her head. In India, two or three jars are occasionally carried, one upon another, forming a kind of pillar on the head of the bearer. When We cannot illustrate this subject better than by quoting from a most interesting volume, which should be in the hands of every Sunday-school teacher, "A Visit to my Fatherland, by the Rev. R. H. Herschell." The period of the visit was the year 1843. Our traveller says, on page 109: "We left Nazareth on the morning of the 15th, and as we rode along I gazed on every object with unabated interest. We had still in view Endor and Nain, Jezreel and Shunam, and the mountains of Gilboa. About noon, we stopped at a well to take some refreshment; there was no pleasant shade to shelter us, but a well of good water is even more indispensable to a traveller in a dry and thirsty land than "the shadow of a great rock," acceptable as this is. Soon after we arrived, a number of women came to draw water; and, as usual, a great deal of quarrelling ensued among them as to who was to get first to draw the water. We had a similar scene of squabbling constantly before our eyes at the well of the Virgin at Nazareth, which was close to the place where our tent was pitched. How many Scripture scenes did this recall to mind! The interview of Moses with the daughters of Reuel, where the same contest seems to have taken place; as well as the more ancient ones of Eliezer with Rebecca, and Jacob with Rachel. I was much struck with the appearance of many of the young women, who, though merely clothed with a coarse wrapper, had several bracelets on their arms, and wore ear-rings and nose-jewels. One of them filled the trough for our horses and mules, but not quite with the grace of Rebecca or Rachel, as she evidently expected a backshish (a gift) for so doing. I could understand Eliezer's test of an amiable and generous woman, likely to make his master's son happy." THE SABBATH AND SABBATH-SCHOOLS. THESE delightful institutions are mainly supplied with scholars from the families of the lower ranks of society. There are at the present time, according to a recent calculation,* not fewer than two millions of such * See Edward Baines' Lecture on Education, at Crosby Hall, Feb. 15, 1848. |