from being done, his reprover ran out of her door, and used a very excellent mode of bringing home to his mind a sense of the cruelty he had exercised. She was crying out to him in this manner when my friend passed: "You little mischief, how would you like to have your house pulled down about your ears?" Very miserable, no doubt, that little urchin would have been if his own home had been destroyed as thoroughly as the nest of the bird was by his hand: but he never thought of that; he never remembered that the bird had feelings as well as he; he thought of his own pleasure and amusement, and nothing else. The next thing would be that he would learn not to care for the feelings of another boy; then not for the feelings of his own mother, and father, and brothers; and, perhaps, he might at last learn to do them all great injuries, just for want of thinking that they feel. Cruelty to animals leads, I am sure, very often to cruelty to every thing. From laughing at the cry of a bird, it is easy to go on to laughing at the cry of one's own kith and kin; just as the Roman people, in ancient times, after being accustomed to delight in the dying roar and struggle of wild beasts in their theatres, learned to take the same savage pleasure in the death of men and women and Christian martyrs, tormented in the same place by wild beasts for their amusement. And they called this a "holiday." There is a wide difference, own, between this and the schoolboy's holiday, when he goes out rifling nests and destroying young birds; but still there is too much of an unfeeling heart in the amusement which can be found in giving pain to the least and lowest of the animals. A Christian child ought to be still further from a heathen crowd than in merely the selection he makes of the objects of his cruelty.

I

A WARNING ABOUT THE CHILDREN.

D.

THE principal thing to be taught in school is obedience, according to God's Law, to prepare them for obeying Him when they come to know Him: and in this how sadly the errors of the parents and the neglect of their duty mars and hinders the best endeavours that are used!

It is the time of hope with these poor dear little ones, and therefore it is the Scripture time for chastening to bend them into the right way. How often the necessary but moderate and calm correction at school is rendered of no effect by the interference of an injudicious parent! at home the punished child is pitied and encouraged; his foolish and often false tales are listened to; he is kept away for a day or two, and thus the correction that was necessary for his good, is made by the parent a snare to confirm him in evil. The cunning with which children work upon those parents who give way to them is very striking. Children who submit very quietly to the correction at school, which they know is calmly but steadily given, have cried aloud, without any cause, upon the appearance of a hasty mother to endeavour to interfere. What will such parents feel when they find that their own conduct has hindered the good effect of that correction, which might have been the means of saving their children from destruction?

But there is another way in which parents undo at home the benefit of the best endeavours at school to train up their children in the way in which they should go. At school the children are taught the wickedness of swearing, and they are corrected whenever they are heard to swear: they are also taught to honour their father and mother. But when these children go home, how often do they hear that father or that mother, whom they are taught to honour, commit that sin which they are told is so very offensive to God! If a swearing child, who is corrected at school, goes home and hears his father or mother swear, what good can the correction be expected to produce? The same may be said of evilspeaking of every kind, of deceit, and of many other things, where the example at home renders the instruction at school almost useless. What a fearful account will such parents have to give for the effect of their evil example upon their children! It is quite shocking to find the early age at which some little children make use of the most dreadful oaths, as if they were common words. This, however, arises in some cases because parents, who do not swear themselves, permit their children to run

about the streets, and to hear the language made use of by men and lads: for such carelessness they will have to account.

One great source of evil to the children is the differences between their fathers and mothers concerning their faults; and the quarrels of which they are sometimes witnesses. Children cannot honour their parents when they see them quarrel and if, when the father corrects, the mother will fondle the child, or the reverse, the child will have his way, and is sure to repeat his fault. Many a child's soul will rise up in judgment against its parent on this account. Wherever there is a difference, God has given the authority to the husband, and the wife must not let the child see her oppose that authority. All differences must be privately settled: the worry of a wife taking part with her child against the father's authority is referred to in Prov. xix. 13. (See also 1 Peter iii. 1, 2; Eph. v. 22-24; Col. iii. 18.)

is no

Children, when at school, begin and end the day with prayer; and they are taught, that without prayer there blessing. If they grow up to neglect prayer, what will those parents have to answer, whose children are never called, when at home, to the family prayer in the morning, nor to the family prayer in the evening? Upon this score a great load of sin lies with many parents. May God speedily set these matters right!

The very love which is in the parents' hearts will become the source of distress and agony to those who may live to see the evil harvest of their own evil sowing

the future wicked courses and disgrace of these indulged and headstrong children. But this agony, great as it is, will be as nothing, compared with what those will suffer, who, at the judgment of Christ, shall stand to hear the curse passed upon their children, when they reflect that there was a time when they might have "chastened their children while there was hope." In that day there will be no hope. The Word of God commands, "Withhold not correction from the child;" and adds this promise, "Thou shalt deliver his soul from

hell." Can hell itself have a pang more piercing than what a parent's heart must feel at the thought of such a scene? Yes, it can. It can have this aggravation added to it: Christ died to save your child, but you stood in the way of his salvation. Christ sent you THIS WARNING while there was yet time, but you would not be warned. O let not this aggravation of agony come upon you; but to-day, while it is called to-day, love your children so well as to "chasten them while there is hope." -Rev. Alex. Dallas.

EXTRACTS FROM PUBLIC NEWSPAPERS.

A Sabbath in New Zealand.-A small bell was struck outside the building, and it was an interesting sight to watch the effect it had upon the dwellers of the pah; one by one they came out of their houses, or crossed the little stiles dividing one court-yard from another, and wrapping their mats and blankets around them, slowly and silently wended their way to the place of worship. On entering, each individual squatted upon the ground, which was strewn with reeds; and, with their faces buried in their blankets, they appeared to he engaged in prayer: they then opened their Testaments, and a native preacher commenced the sacred service. It would have been a lesson to some of our thoughtless and fashionable congregations to witness the devout and serious aspect and demeanour of those tattooed men, who, without the assistance of a European, were performing Christian worship with decorous simplicity and reverential feeling.Angus's Savage Life and Scenes.

Further he

At a dinner annually given by Mr. Pemberton Leigh to his work people at Hindley, near Wigan, Mr. Leigh has announced a plan by which he shall endeavour to instil a prudent spirit of saving into the minds of his dependents:-"On the Monday following he should place to the credit of every one of his workmen, in the Wigan Savings' Bank, 2l.; and when he had done so, they would have perfect control over that sum. should not interfere, as every man had a perfect right to do what he pleased with his own. They might draw it out and spend it, if they thought proper; for, after he had given it to them, it was their own, and he wished no further control over it. But he advised them to add to it; and as an encouragement to do so, for all sums deposited by the people during the first year he would add double the amount as a gift. He said he should interfere no further in the matter, but leave his agent to carry out the plan he had described."

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We have received the communications of L. M. W.; S. B. ; M. B. ; V. P.; F. A.; and a Layman.

4 Prov. xxxiii. 13, 14.

WE read, in Scripture, that God visits the sins of the fathers upon the children. But we are not to suppose that God is against a faithful and godly man because his father was a wicked man. This is plainly told to us in Ezekiel, (chap. xviii.) where we read that "the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father." The truth is, that the sins of a father are often imitated by his children ;as the Jews, one generation after another, forsook the true worship of God, and followed after vain gods, idols, the work of men's hands, wood and stone; and having sinned in imitation of their fathers, were punished in like manner as their fathers. And we see the same con

sequences every day. A drunken, careless father is likely to have a son who imitates him, and so it goes down from one generation to another; and thus many generations suffer from the sin of one; and many an estate is ruined by the profligacy of one; and many a father makes his sons beggars long after his own time; and many a wicked man leaves a wicked race to come after him. But a good man leaves an inheritance to his

VOL. XXVIII.

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