BAND OF HOPE RECORD.

FACTS & OPINIONS FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS. By the Rev. G. W. M'CREE.

MY DEAR FRIENDS,-I was once a Sunday Scholar in the Presbyterian Chapel, High Bridge, Newcastle-upon-Tyne; I had the privilege of being a member of the Bible Class.

In course of time I became a Sunday School Teacher. Both as a Sunday School Teacher, and a Minister of Christ, I have seen how much your labours are impeded by intemperance.

I therefore plead for a Band of Hope in connection with every Sunday School in the kingdom.

You do not, perhaps, see the necessity for such an auxiliary to your work. I would therefore ask your attention to the Facts and Opinions which follow, and entreat your candid and prayerful perusal of them.

FACTS.

A SCENE IN EDINBURGH.-"There was another boy, whose name I forget, found lying on straw in a dark cellar, which had literally nothing in it but this one heap of straw. The parents were in the habit of going out for the day, and locking up the child there, without food, or fire, or clothes. He was brought in-a mere bundle of rags-quite paralysed, and lay for a week on one of the hospital beds, without stirring or speaking, till they almost thought he was deaf and dumb. At last he did mutter out one word, and it was 'whisky!' He afterwards tried, in his wretched faint voice, to begin singing a whisky song, and told the nurse he had hardly tasted anything but whisky since he was born. Somehow his wretched mother found him out and came to see him. Immediately after she left, the miserable little creature was caught hiding its wizened face and still half-paralyzed hands under the bed-clothes, trying to undo the cork of a small bottle filled with whisky! But this child also recovered, learned to feed on and enjoy other food than drams, and left the hospital for a future of God knows what! Still, the life had been saved-so far." Miss Muloch in "Good Words."

OLD SUNDAY SCHOLARS IN PRISON.-Mr. Wm. Logan, in a letter to the British Banner, says—“I visited 78 of the 88 prisoners who were tried at the Glasgow Assizes, in September, 1848. Seven of these could neither read nor write; of the remaining 71 not less than 38 males and 24 females-total 62-had been connected with Sabbath Schools. A number of both sexes had been in attendance at Sunday Schools for three, four, five, six, seven, nine, and even ten years. To prevent anything like deception on this point, I cross-questioned them as to the locality of the schools, the names of the teachers, &c. I likewise spent several days in

calling on a number of the parents and relatives, in different parts of the city, and the replies given by these parties to my inquiries fully corroborated the statements of the convicts themselves. Fifty-nine of the sixtytwo criminals admitted that drinking and public-house company had not only been the chief cause of their leaving the Sunday school, but of violating the laws of their country."

RECORDS OF A BIBLE CLASS.-The Rev. James Sherman, formerly minister of Surrey Chapel, at a meeting in Exeter Hall, said, “The question has been asked, what becomes of the senior scholars of these schools? In the schools belonging to my own church the number of scholars is 3,000, with 400 gratuitous teachers; but I am bound to say that few of those children become members of the church after leaving the schools. Where do they go? Many of them would be found, as soon as they arrived at the age of fifteen or sixteen, to become apprentices; and, by the pernicious system which prevailed among the working classes so situate, they grew up, many of them, to be drunkards, and to be a disgrace to themselves and the neighbourhood. A teacher of a class had collected the statistics in respect to that class, consisting of forty-six. He was induced to examine what were their habits with regard to Temperance during the preceding seven years, and the result was-drunkards, thirteen ; occasional drunkards, nine; steady characters, thirteen ; unknown, three." CONFESSION OF A SCHOLAR.-The letter, from which the following are extracts, is from a Sabbath school teacher of Birmingham. He says: “ I know that in the Sunday school of which I was a pupil, that a great number turned out drunkards, myself amongst them. The class I was in consisted of about seventeen or eighteen scholars, and I am sure that twelve of them became sots. Some of them remain so to this day, a pest to the neighbourhood, a disgrace to the borough, and a trouble to their families. It has been unfortunately my lot to sit, at one time or another, in the tap room, with eight or nine of my former fellow-scholars." He adds, "My own intemperate habits were formed during the time I was a teacher in the school." And still farther, "Oh, sir, if Sunday school superintendents and teachers could only see a small portion of the immense amount of their labours which are utterly, and I fear for ever, frustrated by this foe to human improvement (strong drink), I feel satisfied that the same love which induces them to teach the scholar, would induce them to bid an eternal farewell to that article which has so long, and still continues to lay waste so much of their labours."-Essay on Juvenile Depravity, by Thomas Beggs.

INTOXICATING LIQUORS.-From the year 1801 to the year 1846, the people of the United Kingdom spent nearly fifteen hundred million pounds sterling in intoxicating drinks; about £800,000,000. on spirits, £176,455,000. on wines, and £595,904,000. on malt; or equal to about double the amount of the present national debt! The duty alone which we paid on the above articles during these forty-five years, amounted to £644,968,553., or equivalent to about five-sixths of the national debt. Our army costs us about ten millions a-year, which we think a great deal too much; but, then, we voluntarily spend about fifteen millions a year

on whisky, gin, brandy, and their villainous compounds! Our navy costs about eight millions; but our beer, ale, and porter, cost from thirteen to fourteen millions! We pay less than a million for our admirable post-office, and more than four millions for our wines! The taxes we pay for our courts of law and justice amount to a little above a million; the taxes we pay on our tobacco and snuff are above four millions! Financial reform is surely needed, but at home, and in the public-house, as much as anywhere else. Under two millions a-year are spent on Life and Health Assurance; and about forty millions on drink Are not these facts most discreditable to us as a nation ?—

of all kinds.

Eliza Cook's Journal.

MONEY EXPENDED BY WORKMEN.--At a large manufacturing establishment in London, as many as 300 persons are employed. Of these, 100 men receive each on an average £1. 15s. for working five days in the week. They decline coming to labour on Monday, which they habitually make a holiday, and, I was told, thus regularly lose 7s. each weekly. Besides this loss, I was informed that each expends not less than 7s. weekly for beer. The establishment in fact supports a public-house.— Chambers's Employer and Employed.

SELF-IMPOSED BURDENS.-There is something very appalling in the thought, that Britain expends, every year, fifty millions of money on intoxicating drink. We often complain of our high taxation, and we often grow nervous at the thought of our enormous national debt. But here is a tax for which we cannot blame our rulers-a tax self-imposed and self-levied, a tax for which we can only blame ourselves, a tax which would pay the interest of our national debt twice over, and a tax as large as the entire revenue of these United Kingdoms. We thought it a great sum to pay in order to give the slave his freedom—we thought the twenty millions given to the West India proprietors a mighty sacrifice; and certainly it was the noblest tribute any nation ever paid to the cause of philanthropy; but large as it looks, half-a-year of national abstinence would have paid it all. But tremendous as are the fifty millions which as a people we yearly engulph in strong drink, the thought which afflicts and appals us is, that this terrible impost is mainly a tax on the working The lamentation is, that many an industrious man will spend in liquor as much money as, had he saved it, would this year have furnished a room, and next year would have bought a beautiful library; as much money as would secure a splendid education for every child; or in the course of a few years would have made him a landlord instead of a tenant. Why, my friends, it would set our blood a boiling if we heard that the Turkish Sultan taxed his subjects in the style that our British workmen tax themselves. It would bring the days of Wat Tyler back again, nay, it would create another Hampden, and conjure up a second Cromwell, did the exchequer try to raise the impost which our publicans levy, and our labourers and artizans cheerfully pay. But is it not a fearful infatuation? Is it not our national madness, to spend so much wealth in shattering our nerves, and exploding our characters, and ruining our souls ? Many workmen, I rejoice to know, have been reclaimed by teetotalism,

man.

and many have been preserved by timely religion. In whatever way a man is saved from that horrible vice, which is at once the destruction of the body and the damnation of the soul, "therein I do rejoice, and will rejoice."-Rev. James Hamilton, D.D., London.

WHAT THE MONEY WOULD DO. --The Rev. Newman Hall, L.L.B., says: "The money spent in strong drink in Great Britain would every year support 200,000 missionaries (which would be about one to every 3,000 adult heathen) at £200. each, 2,000 superannuated missionary labourers at £100. each, 100,000 schoolmasters at £100. each, build 2,000 churches and chapels at £2,000. each, build 2,000 schools at £500. each, give to 50,000 widows 5s. each per week, issue 50,000 Bibles every day at 1s. 6d. each, and 100,000 tracts every day at 4s. per hundred, and present to 192,815 poor families £10. each on Christmas day. Or, it would, in one year, supply each human being on the globe with a Bible. Or, it would, in one year, provide 200 hospitals at £20,000. each, 12,000 chapels at £2,000. each, 10,000 schools at £600. each, 2,000 mechanics' institutions and lecture halls at £2,000. each, 25,000 alms-houses at £200. each, 1,000 baths at £2,000. each, 2,000 libraries at £500. each, 200 public parks at £5,000. each, give 400,000 poor families £10. each, and present a new Bible to each man, woman, and child in Great Britain. So that the money spent in Great Britain alone, for strong drink, would, as far as outward ministry is concerned, evangelize the world.

OPINIONS.

FERMENTED LIQUORS NOT NECESSARY.-John Forbes, M.D., physician to her Majesty's household, says :-"Some hundreds of medical men, of all grades and degrees, in every part of the British empire, from the Court physicians and leading metropolitan surgeons, who are conversant with the wants of the upper ranks of society, to the humble country practitioner, who is familiar with the requirements of the artizan in his workshop, and the labourer in the field, have given their sanction to the statement, that the maintenance of health is perfectly compatible with entire abstinence from fermented liquors; and that such abstinence, if general, would incalculably promote the improvement of the social condition of mankind."

THE TESTIMONY OF EXPERIENCE.-Mr. Edward Baines, editor of the Leeds Mercury, says :-" Many of my friends thought I needed a little wine. I myself had the prejudice that it helped digestion. Well, I tried the experiment-first for a month, then for another month, till at length I learned to laugh at the prejudices of my self and my friends. I feel it my duty, having abstained for fifteen years, to state that during the whole time I have enjoyed good amd vigorous health, and that I believe I have done more work, have had better spirits, have taken my food with greater relish, and have slept more tranquilly than I should have done if I had habitually taken wine or beer."

TESTIMONY OF MRS. ELLIS.-Four years of total abstinence from everything of an intoxicating nature, it has now been my happy, lot to

experience; and if the improvement in my health and spirits, and the increase of my strength during that time, be any proof in favour of the practice, I am one of those who ought especially to thank God for the present, and take courage for the future. Like many other women, and especially those who are exempt from the necessity of active exertion, 1 was, while in the habit of taking wine for my health, subject to almost constant suffering from a mysterious kind of sinking, which rendered me at times wholly unfit either for mental or bodily effort, but which I always found to be removed by a glass of wine. My spirits, too, partook of the malady, for I was equally subject to fits of depression, which also were relieved, in some degree, by the same remedies. During the four years in which I have now entirely abstained from the use of such remedies, I have been a total stranger to these distressing sensations of sinking and exhaustion and I say this with thankfulness, because I consider such ailments infinitely more trying than absolute pain.-Voice from the Vintage.

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TOTAL ABSTINENCE AIDS RELIGION." The Rev. Dr. Marsh, of Leamington, says,-In this neighbourhood, and in some striking instances, the total abstinence plan has led several from drunkenness and brought them to the house of God." The Rev. John Collinson, A.M., of Hartley, says, "I declare most solemnly as a Christian minister, that so far as my experience goes, teetotalism has invariably tended to improve not merely the moral but religious spirit of those who have adopted it." Mr. H. A. Vivian, superintendent of a Wesleyan Sabbath-school in Cornwall, in a letter addressed to Mr. Joseph Eaton, says,-" In reply to your inquiries respecting our Sabbath schools, I may inform you, that there was but one connected with the Wesleyan Society in this little town (containing a population of 4,000 inhabitants,) when the total abstinence cause was introduced amongst us. The number of scholars at that time was about 380, but in the course of one year and a-half, they increased so rapidly as to render it necessary to build an additional room. We have since erected another chapel, connected with which we have a school, and the number of scholars in both is now about 780; this success I now ascribe to the aid of our good cause."

THE STONE IN THE PATII.—Mr. Vanderkiste says:-"We may build churches and chapels, and multiply schools, but until the drunken habits of the lower orders are changed, we shall never act upon them as we would wish. While the pot-house is their church, gin their sacrament, and the tap-room their school-room for evening classes, how can we adequately act upon them for the conversion of their souls?"-Six Years Mission among the Dens of London.

Such facts and opinions as the foregoing, might be multiplied a thousand-fold. Surely these are enough to induce you to adopt the principles of the Temperance movement, and to form a Band of Hope in connection with your own school. Try to save your scholars from the drunkard's doom. "It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that these little ones should perish."