are lovely; whatsoever things are of good report." Then, to use the beautiful imagery of the prophet, "instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree."

Pleasing and important as such an object really is; delightful as it is to produce in the breast of a poor man a taste for reading, together with a habit of thinking, and thus teach him to find entertainment at home, without being tempted to repair to the ale-house; de-lightful as it is to bring him into communion with the world of reason, and help him, by the joys of intellect, to soften the rigours of corporeal toil; delightful as it is to teach him to respect himself, and secure the respect of others, by industrious, frugal, and peaceful habits; to assist him to become the instructor of his own domestic circle, and thus to raise him in their estimation; in short, delightful as it is to strip poverty of its most disgusting appearances, and to supply its more distressing privations of a temporal nature,-this of itself, and alone, is far below the ultimate object of your exertions. Higher even than this you must look for the summit of your hopes. A man may be all that I have represented; he may be industrious, orderly, moral, and useful in his habits, and still be destitute of that faith and "holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord."

Addressing you as believers in all that revelation teaches concerning the nature, condition, and destiny of man, I must point your attention to an object which stands on higher ground than any we have yet contemplated. It is for you to consider, that each of the children, which are every Sabbath beneath your care, carries in his bosom a SOUL as valuable, and as durable

as that which the Creator has lodged in your own. Neither poverty, ignorance, nor vice, can sever the tie which binds man to immortality. Every human body is the residence of an immortal spirit, and however diminutive by childhood, or mean by poverty, or filthy by neglect, the hovel might appear, a deathless inhabitant will be found within. Every child that passes the threshold of your school on a Sunday morning brings to your care, and confides to your ability, a soul, compared with whose worth the sun is a bauble; and with whose existence, time itself is but the twinkling of an eye.

And as these poor children partake with you in the dignity of immortality, so do they also in the degradation and ruin of the fall. The common taint of human depravity has polluted their hearts as well as yours. They, like you, in consequence of sin, are under the curse, and stand equally exposed to everlasting misery. To them, however, the gracious scheme of redeeming mercy extends its blessings, and indeed by the express provisions of the gospel charter, they stand first among the objects to whom salvation is to be presented: "for the poor have the gospel preached to them." Denied neither the privileges of immortality, nor the opportunity of eternal happiness, so neither are they exempt from the obligations of religion. Without the duties required in your own case, in order to eternal life, they will never possess it. Faith, repentance, and holiness; or in other words, regeneration, justification, and sanctification, are as indispensable in their case as in yours. Their danger of losing all the rich blessings of salvation, unless great exertions be made to instruct and in

terest their minds, is imminent, and obvious. Dwelling in those walks of life, where sin, in its most naked and polluting form, spreads destruction around;-corrupted by their neighbours; nursed and nurtured in vice, in many cases by the example of their parents;-in manufacturing districts inhaling the moral contamination with which the atmosphere of almost every workshop is laden; how rapid is the growth of original corruption; how luxuriant the harvest of actual transgressions which springs from it; how little likely, without extraordinary efforts, are these unhappy youths, to enter "the narrow path that leadeth to eternal life!"

Such are the children, and such their situation, which flock every Sabbath to the schools where you are carrying on the business of instruction. Look round upon the crowd of little immortals, by whom you are encircled every week; view them in the light which the rays of inspired truth diffuse over their circumstances; follow them in imagination not only into the ranks of society, to act their humble part in the great drama of human life; but follow them down into that valley, gloomy with the shadows of death, and from which they must come forth, "they that have done well to everlasting life; but they that have done ill, to everlasting shame and contempt;" and while you see them plunging into the bottomless pit, or soaring away to the celestial city, say, what should be the ultimate object of a Sunday School Teacher's exertions ?

You are now quite prepared to assent to my opinion on this subject, when I thus state it. The ultimate object of a Sunday School teacher should be, in humble dependance upon divine grace, To impart that reli

gious knowledge; to produce those religious impressions; and to form those religious habits, in the minds of the children, which shall be crowned with the SALVATION Or, in other words, to

OF THEIR IMMORTAL SOULS.

be instrumental in producing that conviction of sin; that repentance towards God; that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; that habitual subjection in heart and life, to the authority of the scriptures, which constitute at once the form and power of GENUINE GODLINESS.

Here then you see your object, and you perceive that it includes every other in itself. To aim at any thing lower than this, as your last and largest purpose; to be content with only some general improvement of character, when you are encouraged to hope for an entire renovation of the heart-or merely with the formation of moral habits, when such as are truly pious may be expected, is to conduct the objects of your benevolence with decency down into the grave, without attempting to provide them with the means of a glorious resurrection out of it. To train them up in the way of sincere and undefiled religion, is an object of such immense importance, that, compared with this, an ability to read and write, or even all the refinements of life, have not the weight of a feather in their destiny. And the truth must be told, that wherever religious education is neglected, the mere tendency of knowledge to the production of moral good, is in most cases very lamentably and successfully counteracted, by the dreadful power of human depravity.

Sunday Schools, to be contemplated in their true light, should be viewed as nurseries for the church of God; as bearing an intimate connexion with the un

seen world; and as ultimately intended to people the realms of glory with "the spirits of just men made perfect," To judge of their value by any lower estimate; to view them merely as adapted to the perishing interests of mortality, is to cast them into the balances of atheism; to weigh them upon the sepulchre ; and to pronounce upon their value, without throwing eternity into the scale.

THE SALVATION OF THE IMMORTAL SOUL, a phrase than which one more sublime or more interesting can never drop from the lips or the pen of man, describes your last and noblest purpose.

In what way this object is most likely to be effected, remains now to be considered.

1. Labour to impart to the children, as speedily as possible, a very correct method of reading.

This is the first thing to be attended to, and as it is the basis of all which is to follow, it should be done well. Considering an ability to read, as I do every other part of Sunday School tuition, as a means for the production of spiritual and moral good, I view it as of immense importance, that the children should be rendered as perfect as possible in the initiatory art. Reading is a powerful auxiliary to the progress of piety and virtue, but it is attractive only when it is performed with facility; and therefore to allure the children to the pages of revelation, or the perusal of good books, it is necessary to render their access as smooth as possible. If they have often to spell a word, and still oftener to pass by a word which they cannot spell, they will either be much impeded in their instruction, or perhaps give up the matter in utter despair. If they