remembered the example of uniform patience and piety which she exhibited, and the saint-like manner in which she sustained her burdens, and cherished their sympathies, they felt as if a tutelary spirit had departed from among them.

In the home of her brother, she educated her daughter in industry, and that contentment which virtue teaches. Restored to those friends with whom the morning of life had passed, she shared with humble cheerfulness the comforts that earth had yet in store for her; but in the cherished sadness of her perpetual widowhood, in the bursting sighs of her nightly orison, might be traced a sacred and deep-rooted sorrow-the memory of her erring husband, and the miseries of unreclaimed intemperance. Hartford, Conn.

POPERY ILLUSTRATED.

L. H. S.

On the entry of the French into Toledo during the late Peninsular war, General La Salle visited the Palace of the Inquisition. One of the instruments of torture there found deserves a particular description. In a subterraneous vault, adjoining to the audience chamber, stood in a recess in the wall a wooden statue, made by the hands of Monks, representing the Virgin Mary. A gilded glory beamed round her head, and she held a standard in her right hand. Notwithstanding the ample folds of the silk garment which fell from her shoulders on both sides, it appeared that she wore a breastplate; and, upon a closer examination, it was found that the whole front of the body was covered with extremely sharp nails and small daggers, or blades of knives, with the points projecting outwards. The arms and hands had joints, and their motions were directed by machinery, placed behind the partition. One of the servants of the Inquisition was ordered to make the machine manoeuvre. As the statue extended its arms and gradually drew them back, as if she would affectionately embrace, and press some one to her heart, the well-filled knapsack of a Polish grenadier supplied for this time the place of the poor victim. The statue pressed it closer and closer; and when the directors of the machinery made it open its arms and return to its first position, the knapsack was pierced two or three inches deep, and remained hanging upon the nails and daggers of the murderous instrument.

This statue is a fair representation of Romanism. It has, to the eye of the careless observer, a beauteous form. It has a countenance of much simplicity, and quiet devotion. It is arrayed in rich and flowing robes; but beneath, them are "daggers." It has joints in its arms and hands, which enable it to make what motions its Ministers please. These motions are regulated by an unseen machinery. It extends its arms, with great deliberation, and apparent affection,-and, with a smiling face, presses its deluded victim to its heart, and the pressure is, wounds and death! Dick.

85

THE ADVANTAGES OF SABBATH-SCHOOLS.

WE come to a consideration of this subject, fully convinced that its importance has never yet been sufficiently felt, and that the experience of one or two generations will prove Sabbath-Schools to be one of the most powerful means of benefitting the human race.

In the present exhibition of the advantages of SabbathSchools, we will follow the light of prospective reasoning, without reference to any facts which experience may have shown. These advantages may be set forth, 1st, in the character of the Sabbath-School pupils; 2d, in the character of Sabbath School teachers; and 3d, in the nature of the truths taught in these schools, and the circumstances under which those truths are communicated.

I. The character of Sabbath scholars. Both religion and philosophy show us the advantages resulting from the youthful age of the pupils in Sabbath Schools. It is a rule of our holy religion, laid upon parents, to train up their children in the way wherein they ought to walk through life. The obligation of this rule is not only felt in the heart which has been sanctified, but it is an element of the natural heart, placed there at creation, by the same God who afterwards inspired the wise man by whom it was written in Scripture. But while the duty is felt, few place sufficient reliance on the positive promise, connected with its performance. There are reasons to be found in all human hearts for this want of reliance upon the truth of this declaration. Were it to be felt as sensibly, and believed as strongly, as our present existence, what a tremendous weight of responsibility would it bring upon every parent! How would it make every one concerned in the business of education, sensible, that on his efforts. hung, inevitably, the future character of his pupil! How would it teach us all to gather good and holy influences around the child to remove from him all precepts and examples of evil, and to watch over him with unslumbering anxiety, as a pledge committed to us, and to be accounted for by us, in the great day of the Lord! From this accumulation of care, labour, and responsibility, our evil natures lead us to shrink, and we become exceedingly ingenious in removing from our shoulders the burden. Now Sabbath-Schools, in view of this Scripture, possess vast advantages for moulding the youthful character into forms of good, and sending their pupils forward in the way they should go in this life, to the life that is to come.

H

In the light of philosophy these advantages may be seen as clearly as in the light of Scripture. In childhood the conscience possesses great sensibility and power. Its office is to report impressions of right and wrong, and thus to act as a check on our passions and appetites. It is vastly affected, how-. ever, by the training and education it receives; and if neglected or abused, becomes weaker and weaker, and nearly loses, at last, both its excitability, and its power of warning. If early nurtured and cultivated, its strength is increased. Habitual obedience to its dictates not only keeps it alive, but increases its guiding power. As by being often violated, it

becomes blunted and deadened; so the oftener it is awakened and obeyed, the more susceptible are we to its impressions, and the more confirmed in our habits of obedience.

Of these facts relating to conscience, Sabbath-Schools avail themselves, and they ought to be appreciated as of inestimable value.

Again. In childhood the mind is not hardened by longformed habits of evil thinking or acting. We cannot sufficiently bless God for the powerful auxiliary to the performance. of duty, which he has given us in the force of habit. Nor can we guard, with too great caution and zeal, from perversion to evil purposes, this instrument which our heavenly Parent has given us for good. A habit of any kind is with difficulty overcome;-it is a new-formed nature. But when made coincident with our original, carnal, and perverse natures, its energy is tremendously augmented. Sabbath-Schools possess the advantage of anticipating this good or evil, and of turning this principle to great account in education. They avail themselves of the early disposition to imitate, and to form habits, and give such direction to these tendencies as may make them truly blessed. In this respect, they may be said to snatch from the author of evil, the instrument which he purloined from the armory of heaven, and turned against our race. Solomon had seen the force of this acquired nature, and calculated wisely on its power over human action, when he made the declaration before alluded to. He saw the need of giving a very early bent to the mind, even in its leaf and twig, so that the branch and tree might be inclined to good. He had experienced the iron obstinacy of our wicked natures, when cased in the invulnerable armor of habit. Experience is now, every day, showing in domestic circles, the truth of his assertion, and enforcing it by examples of both gladness and

sorrow.

And thirdly, philosophy coincides with religion, in exhibiting the advantages of Sunday-Schools, by showing us, that in childhood the heart is filled with warm affections, reaching out for objergs on which to fix themselves, and which, by the blessing of the Holy Spirit, education may turn to pure and holy things. It is delightful to contemplate the affections of the young; their rich abundance; their unsuspectingness; how warmly they gush out; how guilelessly they centre on an object;-how tenaciously and fondly they cling to it. But the fact that they so rapidly assume the complexion of those objects, on which they are allowed to pour themselves out, shows the infinite importance of securing them in behalf of truth and virtue; and the advantages of Sabbath-Schools in accomplishing this object, are most manifest. We do not pretend to say that aught but the Holy Spirit can sanctify the heart. But we do say that his customary operations are by means, and that this principle of human nature may, by Sabbath-School instruction, be made one of the most efficient means used by that blessed Spirit.

II. The character of the teachers of Sabbath-Schools shows us that great advantages must result from these institutions.

What are the teachers, and who are they? Are they hirelings, performing a task for selfish purposes? No. Theirs are unbought labors in the field of benevolence. They are the disciples of Jesus Christ, coming to their work in the spirit of love, love to God, and love to men. Their purpose is to benefit, to the greatest possible amount, their pupils. They act under the impulse of motives which are gathered from both time and eternity. They know and feel that they are forming brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, and parents and citizens, for this world, and fixing the destiny of souls that can never die in the world to come; and can their zeal be cold, their efforts small, their success doubtful? Does not reason teach us even on mere human principles, that they who act from such motives, and under such responsibilities, will advance vastly farther on the road to success, than they who are carried forward by the mere efforts of cold and calculating self-interest? The Bible declares this also. Nor is this coincidence between the light of nature and revelation a solitary In every case where human reason acts unrestrained by prejudice and passion, coincidence exists so far as reason can reach. The Bible goes, however, far beyond human sagacity, in all cases; and in the present instance, it assures us

one.

that efforts made under such circumstances, are certain to secure God's blessings, not only for those who labour, but for the object of their exertions. It tells us that our Father in heaven, from whom cometh every good gift, is deli cited to behold the creatures of his hands engaged in the same nevolent work, in which he is himself engaged; and that his hand is extended to aid their efforts, and bless them to their full desire. Can the advantages of such teaching be doubted ?

The instruction is given with many prayers, which, like sweet incense, come up before the Lord, and find favour. So that by a triple cord-the three-fold cord of untiring zeal, disinterested exertion, and believing prayer, are temporal and immortal benefits secured to this teaching. And this glorious combination of encouraging circumstances ought to give us full faith in the expected advantages of these institutions.

III. We now pass to a consideration of the advantages which may be expected from the nature of the truths taught in Sabbath-Schools, and some further circumstances under which they are inculcated.

The instructions of the Sabbath-School are wonderfully fitted to affect the youthful heart They are from the word of God, and teaching from the word of God comes home to the feelings of a child like no other instruction. It excites his interest, and wins his affections beyond every thing else. In all story or song, there is nothing found like the Bible,-so simpie in pathos, so engrossing in interest, so elevating in influence. The whole relation of God's doings towards the children of men; the creation of the world; the entrance of sin into paradise; the patriarchal history; the wanderings, settlement, elevation to power, and the decline of God's chosen people; the coming of Messiah, and his character and life, are listened to as no human production ever was; while they impress themselves 'most deeply on the memory, and enter more completely into the heart of the child than any thing else ever does or can. The influence upon conduct, exercised by the heart, is very powerful, whether it be in deterring from evil, or encouraging to good;--and we can readily calculate the advantages to character, both individual and general, that must be produced by a system of education which engages the affections in behalf of virtue.

But not only is that Scripture truth which forms the principal part of Sabbath-School instruction, engaging in manner and pleasing in incident; it is also important in principle, and advantages must follow from its inculcation in this respect. It