one child through your instrumentality should be turned from the path of evil-if one heart should be comforted by you-if one truth should be called to mind in after years, which you had imparted, and affect the life-if one solitary being should have sunk to rest in peace by your advice and consolation, say, would it not be a glorious reward? Ob, yes it would. If then to do good, to improve the talents given you by imparting them to others, is your desire, become a Sunday school teacher, and strive to perform every duty. If encouragement is needed, consider how much you have received, of which many of your fellow men are deprived. Carry back your mind to the days of your childhood and youth, when your infant tongue was first taught to lisp with all the care of maternal affection, the simple truths of our religion; when you were first taught to bend your infant knee in prayer, and direct your aspirations to a Being all perfect and benevolent; when with assiduous care was first sown in your tender mind those seeds of virtue which have been the source of such rich blessings to yourself and usefulness to others; to the time when your years of helplessness were watched with anxiety; when you were assisted to develope your infant faculties with untiring patience, and your welfare was consulted with unequalled solicitude. Carry back your mind to more advanced periods,-to those, which you have often enjoyed and are still frequently enjoying, when in retirement and meditation on the Word of truth, you have found that assistance which enabled you to go forth into the world, better prepared to overcome its temptations ; when, like the Psalmist of old, you longed for the wings of a dove, that you might flee away and be at rest.

Carry back your mind to these periods of your life, and meditate upon them again, and then come forth with the glorious sun on the morning of that day of sacred rest, and pour forth your gratitude, impart your pious feelings into the hearts of some of these little ones in the Sunday school, who through your instrumentality perhaps, may be trained not only for happiness here, but for never ending felicity beyond the grave. G.

SUNDAY SCHOOL ANECDOTE.

A PART of Dr Channing's Sermon, on "the Duties of Children," was read some time since in one of the Sunday schools in this city. The children generally seemed much impressed, and listened to it with attention. A short time after, a teacher in a visit to the parents of the children under her care, was informed by the mother of one of them that a very great change had been effected, as she trusted, in the character of her daughter. The girl had not formerly been strictly obedient to her parents. But, a few days after the reading of the sermon mentioned above, the mother remarked that she had been very dutiful, very prompt to perform all that she was desired to do, that she had not once disobliged her for several days. She inquired the reason of this change. The girl replied,-" O, mother, last Sunday Mr read to us a sermon that told us how good our parents have been to us, how much they have done and are constantly doing for us; how they took care of us when we could not take care of ourselves,-and what we owed them in return for all this kindness and love, for all their

endeavors to teach us to be good and to make us happy. And I determined, when I thought it over, after I got home, that I would never again grieve you by my ill conduct, that I would always try to obey you in all that you wished me to do, or not to do; for Mr told us, also, that our parents knew better what was right for us than we possibly could know ourselves."

I of course have not given a very exact relation of this circumstance; but it is correct in its general features; and is an encouragement to teachers to go on in their "labor of love."

Boston, Jan. 8th, 1828.

M.

MODE OF INSTRUCTION.

[From the Rev. Dr. Parker's Address.]

WITH respect to the manner of administering instruction, permit me to remind you, that you have a most perfect pattern in the example of Christ. You have also in his practical character a most lovely exhibition of the nature of that goodness, which the gospel would produce. You behold him seizing every incident in life, and every object of nature, which could be advantageously employed, to give interest and impression to his teachings. He likewise employs in his inimitable parables a mode of instruction, which brings religious truth before men, clothed in a visible form. It is worthy of inquiry, whether the modes of preaching, adopted by the most exalted minds, are not defective, considered as the means of giving impression to religious truth. The truth may be stated, and this may be done plainly and forcibly; but is

it not often done in a manner too purely intellectual ? Do not individuals often fall into the same error in their modes of representing religious subjects to their own minds? I feel a strong persuasion, that we are so earthly in our nature, that in order to render the instructions of religion moving, we must give to them a form which will connect them with our senses and affections, as well as with our intellect. If we wish to represent impressively the character of God, we draw a picture of a parent, and contemplate the picture, rather than the abstract attributes of the Deity. The imagination and the affections are operated upon, and stimulate the understanding. The springs of moral action are touched. The same may be said of almost every subject of religious instruction. If this consideration be neglected, though our speculations may be very accurate and refined, our hearts will be cold and our lives barren. These remarks, if they have any force, apply particularly to instructions, given to children, whose habits are very intimately connected with their sensations, and whose minds are with difficulty made to receive truth in an unembodied form. Imitate, therefore, the impressive manner of the Teacher from heaven. Make the incidents of life, and the objects of nature administer assistance in impressing the truths of the gospel. Condescend to collect and occasionally to tell such incidents, as may have the same kind of effect, as had the Saviour's parables. You will thus not only give interest to your instructions; but you will connect religious impressions on the minds of the children with objects, and incidents most familiar to them; and make christian truth their daily bread, rather than a medicine occasionally to be administered.

ORIGINAL MORAL TALES. Vols. I and II. Bowles & Dearborn. 1828.

In the popular system of education the understanding is constantly employed while the heart is left vacant and the hands idle. This is particularly the case in the instruction of girls. There are too many young ladies among us who have been taught the common and even the higher branches of learning, and furnished with expensive and useless accomplishments, who enter upon the arduous duties of domestic life without a knowledge of the first principles of christian duty or even those elements of household management which are so essential to the happiness of the fireside.

Young men generally find the means of physical developement in active sports of their own, but they are too frequently brought up in the almost total neglect of moral education.

The series of tales before us is intended to furnish a means of remedying this important defect, and we know of none so admirably suited for the purpose. The writers appear to keep constantly in view the importance of preparing children for a faithful discharge of the active duties of life with a continual sense of their dependence on the Divine care and responsibility to the Divine Arbiter.

The shorter stories are told with the view of impressing some single important truth, or showing the propriety of some particular line of conduct. The longer ones inculcate the benefit of a good, or the rain resulting from an evil course of behaviour. They are generally enough diversified with incidents to keep up a lively interest, and the style is characterized by that clearness and simplicity