your souls. We come to the school in good time-we begin and end with prayer-we arrange you in classes -we keep you in order—we give you out your lessons -we carefully train you up to be faithful members of Christ's Church-for the sake of your souls. If you wanted it, we would do all in our power to comfort your bodies, but because when the poor frail body dies, the soul, which never dies, returns to God who gave it, your eternal state gives us most concern. We know very well that if you are suffered to go about with bad companions, and to grow up ignorant and wicked, and die in that state, your souls will be kept away from God and all the joys of heaven, and will for ever dwell in that dark and dismal place where there is " a worm that never dieth, and a fire that is never quenched.” Because we are quite sure of all this, for God has told us so, that so it must and will be, we open our Sunday Schools, we invite your parents to send you to us, we take you to Church, we try by all means in our power to teach you to love and serve Jesus Christ, in a word, our heart's sole desire is that " You may so pass through things temporal as finally not to loose the things eternal." These are the reasons why we take such pains with you: and surely they are good and solemn reasons. Now comes the great question: if we love you so much and labour so hard for you, is it not your duty and your interest to do all we tell you, to love in return your clergyman and teachers, and to strive to walk humbly with Jesus Christ your Saviour and your God. Only think how many thousands there are of your age who know nothing of the Cross, have no Sunday School to go to, no Clergyman to guide them, no christian friends to teach them: they have a christian name and christian privileges, but being wanderers from the good Shepherd's fold, they never hear the warning voice bidding them flee from the wrath to come; they are never kindly told of the love of Jesus in dying to save sinners; never are they taught how they ought to walk as faithful members of

His Church. Alas! too often their parents are as ignorant as they are, or have no care whatever about the souls of their children. Now all this is very dreadful, for the wages of sin is death. But remember dear children if God has in his mercy freely given you a good school to go to, he expects from you a proper return: "Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required.” "The servant who knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither dia according to His will, shall be beaten with many stripes." If a tree bear no fruit, God's word has gone forth "Cut it down." If a garden which has been well taken care of, bring forth weeds, those weeds will be torn up and cast into the fire. What then will become

of you dear children if you will not profit by our care and instruction? Be full of prayer then, we beseech you, lest, after all that is done for you, you turn out ill, and "receive the grace of God in vain." Pray that the watchfulness of the Church may not be lost upon you: pray, that as you grow older, your devotion to your Saviour may wax warmer: pray that the Holy Spirit may ever be with you to sanctify you wholly. To God we commend you and to the word of His grace may He never cease to "put His spirit within you, and cause you to walk in His statutes, that ye may keep His judgments and do them." Protected and nourished by His unceasing care, may you "have your fruit unto holiness, and your end be everlasting life."

LIFE A JOURNEY.

Each true Christian is a right traveller; his life his walk, Christ his way, and heaven his home. His walk peaceful, his way perfect, his home pleasing. I will not loiter lest I come short of home. I will not wander lest I come wide of home, but be content to travel hard and be sure I walk right: so shall my safe way find its end at home, and my painful walk make my home welcome.'

Warwick.

PIETY AND PROSPERITY.

A TALE.

CHAPTER I.

WHEN I first knew George Smart, he was ten years old. Not old enough to know a great deal, but yet old enough to have duties to perform, both towards God and towards his Neighbour; for all children, even the youngest, have some duties. Let me show you how.The duty of very young children, is to obey their Parents, to love God and one another, and to say their Prayers. When they get a little older, they are to go to Church and to School, and to learn to read their Bible and Prayer Book. When they grow older still, they have to work and help their Parents; here they have new duties. They are to obey their Master, and study his interest, and to be at work in good time, and to avoid bad company, and to come straight home after work; besides all this, they have to read their Bible and to come to Church just as they did before. So you see, as I have already said, all children have duties. George did not at this time know all his duties, but he knew that there was a great difference between right and wrong; and also, that he ought to love and practice the one, and hate and avoid the other. And it is due to George, to say that he loved what was right, and, as far as he knew, he did it. His parents were religious people, they loved God and served him humbly and earnestly day by day. And they found the comfort of so doing, for they had seen a deal of trouble, and had always found God their best friend. At one time, George's Father lost all his money as he was coming from market; it was not a great deal, but

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it was all they had, and so it was a great loss to them. The young people wept very much over this loss, and George's Mother looked very sad; but, "never mind' said his Father, "they are but earthly riches," and now I know what that Scripture means Riches certainly make to themselves wings, they fly away as an eagle towards Heaven "* But thank God," he added, and laid his hand upon his heart, our real treasure is in heaven, “moth and rust cannot corrupt there, and there no thieves break through and steal." After this he said a silent prayer to God, and went about his work again as if nothing had happened. At another time one of George's brothers died. This was

a heavy trial to both father and mother, yet the comforted one another, and thought of the Forty-sixt Psalm, and how it says that "God is our hope and strength, a very present help in trouble." And then they thought of Job, and his trials, and they learned. that "the Lord was very pitiful and of tender mercy"§ and that he was better to them than ten sons, so they said "The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord" ||

With such good parents, it is no wonder that George's learning was well looked after. He was early sent to school, where, under the teaching of a good master, and the constant care of a kind Clergyman, he soon learned a great deal, for his age. I must give you some account of George's school. It was a CHURCH SCHOOL that is, it was built by church people, solely for the use of the Church, and that it might never fall into bad hands, it was made over to the Church and its Ministers for ever. The Clergyman took the charge of it, and the principles of the Church were taught in it, so that the Scholars, having been already baptized into the Church, daily learnt to become "lively members of the same." I mention all these things that you may clearly see what a CHURCH School really is; for it is not every School that pretends to be a Church School that *Prov. xxiii. 5. + Matt. vi. 20. ? James, v. 11.

|| Job, i. 21.
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really is one, any more than a 'Chapel' is a Church, because they sometimes read the Church prayers in it. If the Clergyman of the Church were not consulted in the building of it, or if it were built out of opposition to him, or against his wish, you may be quite sure that, even though the teachers and scholars sometimes go to Church, yet for all that it is not a CHURCH School. Or again, if you find that the teaching and authority of the Clergyman are cast off-that he is not allowed to visit the School-or to catechise the Children, depend upon it, whatever people may say, there is something wrong; it is not a CHURCH School.

But, as I said before, George's was strictly a Church School. Every thing proclaimed it a Church School. It stood close by the Church yard, it had neat pointed windows like the windows in the Church, at one corner was a small turret, and in that turret a bell. The end of the School-room had a neat window of stained glass, at the other end was a small organ, raised a few steps above the floor. Half-way down one side of the room stood the Master's desk, and against the opposite wall was the clock. By the side of the organ was a door which led into a smaller room, where stood several book-cases, holding about two thousand books belonging to the Church Library, a pair of Globes, and a black board. This room was used as a class-room for the Scholars in the day time, and in the evening as a Reading-room for the parishioners. The grown-up people paid one penny per week for the use of the Library, and the School-children subscribed one penny per month. In this room were one or two newspapers, and several magazines, and a great number of persons regularly spent their evenings there in profitable reading, who otherwise might have sought amusement in the alehouse or theatre, or some other equally dangerous and expensive place.*

*Parochial Reading-rooms, like that described above, exist in several parishes in England, and are found to support themselves very efficiently on the terms above stated. Their utility is obvious.