The Bible. [Concluded from page 221.]

THE MACEDONIAN CRY; OR THE WANTS OF THE WORLD.

The apostle Paul, while tarrying at Troas, had a vision in the night. "There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us!" Not that there was in reality any such man there. Not that the people felt in reality the desire here expressed. The meaning is, that the wants of the people were great, and such as nothing but the gospel could relieve. The meaning is, that the wants of the people, if they could be endowed with intelligence, would cry out for help from this source. The man in the vision was the personification of the necessity of a community ready to perish, for lack of that which the gospel alone can supply.

If the wants of the world could be endowed with intelligence, they would now cry out in like manner to those who have the means of relief. The apostle's vision was only the figurative statement of a fact, which exists now as really as then. In every want and every wo which presses upon those destitute of the Bible, there is a voice like that which he heard, calling for this grand remedy of human ills. From every victim crushed beneath the idol's car, as he groans at feeling the rolling wheel, there comes up a voice from heathenism, calling for the Bible. From every widow that burns on the funeral pile, as the drums beat around, and the smoke curls upward in its dense volume towards heaven, there comes also a voice, calling for the Bible. From every child cast into the Ganges, as it cries and writhes in the alligator's jaws, contending for its mangled limbs, there is another voice to Christendom from the dark places of the earth, calling for the Bible. From every instance of self-torture which heathenism teaches; and every form of evil which it produces; from man's debasement, and woman's degradation and sorrow, and childhood's gloom; from the darkness in which its victims live, and the despair in which they die, there comes up another voice still, of fearful agony, calling for the Bible. Could a tongue be supplied to every want which the

Bible is appointed to relieve, what voices would come up from the destitute parts of the world to Christendom! What cries would be heard, filling the whole arch of heaven, like those of the man of Macedonia, Come

over, and help us!"

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Shall these necessities be met? Or shall they be permitted to remain, pressing on the unhappy portions of our fellow-men who now feel them, and leading to the fearful consequences to which they tend? Shall the pardon which God has sent down to men, be detained by those into whose hands it has first fallen? Shall the ring,*-nay, the infinitely richer token of Heaven's love, -the Bible, be hindered by those who have it, from passing on its way? Shall this blessing of blessings,— this great all, as to man's spiritual nature,-committed in trust to those who first received it, for the common benefit, be used by them for themselves alone, and the rest of the world be left to live and die without it? Shall this light of the world never shine upon all lands? Shall the leaves of this tree never be actually applied for the healing of the nations? Shall the streams of this river of life never make glad the waste and desert parts of the earth? Shall the transforming power, and the soothing and ennobling influence, and the bright visions of immortality, contained in the blessed Book, never become the inheritance of those for whom it is designed?

Counsels to Sabbath School Teachers.

[Concluded from page 223.]

8. If you would be a successful teacher, you must study the peculiar temper and character of your pupils. The same motives, and the same treatment, will not be equally adapted to persons of different dispositions. The diffident must be encouraged, and the forward repressed; the vain should be skilfully humbled, and the passionate calmed. Some fail for want of attention, others from real habitude of mind. Try the effect of various motives upon your pupils; but let them all be good. Observe narrowly how their minds are affected with various considerations. Here you will have need of all your

* See last Visiter, p. 220.

wisdom; and here is a school in which you will have much occasion to discipline your own minds.

9. If you can accomplish two things, you cannot but succeed, so far as the communication of knowledge is concerned. The first is, to excite a thirst for learning, and the second, to fix the volatile attention of their minds; and these two things are intimately allied to each other. If you are able to produce the first, the second will follow as a matter of course. It is a true maxim, that the desire of knowledge, with common means, is sure to be successful. No doubt, there is a radical difference in capacity; but the ardent love of knowledge will lead to the best use of the faculties which are possessed. Encourage your pupils to ask pertinent questions; and take pains to set before them the pleasures and advantages of acquiring knowledge.

10. While your instructions are serious, let them not be dull. Beware of producing a feeling of weariness in your pupils. Enliven your remarks by apt illustrations and figures; and lay up a store of biographical anecdotes, to be brought out as occasion may require.

11. Never wound or mortify your pupils for mere childish imbecility; and be sparing in your appeals to their sense of shame. This is a powerful principle, but may easily be rendered obtuse, by being too frequently called into exercise. Be also sparing in availing yourselves of the principle of emulation; I cannot concur in opinion with those who think it should be entirely excluded. It is, undoubtedly, one of the constituent principles, not of fallen, but of human nature as created; and it is always a vain, as it is an injurious cause, to attempt to extinguish any constituent principle. But I agree with those who think that emulation easily degenerates into vicious ambition; and therefore, our use of the principle should be cautious and moderate.

12. But I am afraid that I shall shock the feelings of pious teachers, when I give it as a salutary counsel, not to be too frequent, even in your serious, direct appeals to conscience. The human mind is a wonderful structure; and like a fine, but complicated piece of mechanism, is easily injured by too much or too rude handling.

Appeals to conscience require to be made judiciously, at the proper time, and not to be urged too earnestly or too frequently on the child. The most effectual method of affecting the conscience beneficially, is by indirect application of the truth. The very best impression is often made when we do not address the individual at all, but direct our remarks to another person in his presence. Serious people make greater mistakes here, in education, than any where else. And preachers often harden their hearers awfully, by too constantly making direct appeals to the conscience. They are for ever dwelling on man's responsibility, and pressing, by direct appeals, his moral obligation. And all they say is true; but there are different ways of bringing the truth to bear. Our Saviour, in his public teaching, has set us the proper example. Men soon learn to harden themselves against direct and constant appeals to their conscience.

14. Be not impatient or discouraged, although you see no immediate fruit. The effects of education are gradual, like the growth of a plant, or of the human body. When you plant a seed in the earth, you do not expect to see it spring up in an hour. You wait, and water it, and have "long patience." Much has been said about immediate effects, and much has been done, -many extraordinary means used, to bring children into a state of piety at once; and great has been the boasting of the spiritual empirics, who professed to be able to accomplish this work. But we find that we must go back to the old ways of our fathers, and give precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, and there a little." A.

The Bible in the Closet.

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The Report of the New Hampshire Education Society,-read at the late annual meeting, by Prof, Hadduck,—was listened to with the most absorbing interest. The following extract,―relating to the Bible as a source of true wisdom when consulted in the closet,- -we have obtained permission to publish in the Visiter:

There is no circumstance more characteristic of the Bible, than its peculiar modes of exhibiting truth, and

the models it contains of moral and professional wisdom. To illustrate the peculiarity of Scripture eloquence, would require a good deal of time, and, after all, be but imperfectly done, by the best criticism. It can be well understood only by taking the sacred volume itself into the closet.

We discover here no traces of art. We hear no note of preparation for effect. We seem at ease in the company of men nowise extraordinary, in most respects, and acting their parts in common scenes,-men subject to like passions with ourselves-scenes very like our own homes. And the truths with which we are conversant here, when we gather them up from this and that portion of the record, and place them side by side in a systematic order, seem just like other bodies of divinity.

What

Still, as we give ourselves up to the guidance of the inspired writers, and follow a little minutely the train of events, the development of character, the interviews of men with one another, and with God, which make up these wonderful books, how changed all things appear! What strange impressions are made on us! mysterious objects pass before us, and stand around us! What a life we are living; what an end we are approaching! What a world we dwell in; what a world we hasten to! We feel as if we were penetrated by the eye of God, and surrounded by his presence. We are filled with a mingled feeling of abasement and exaltation; compelled to look on ourselves as, at once, the worst and the most privileged of beings; too mean and too guilty to deserve any thing, and yet solicited to accept of all things; captives, redeemed; enemies, reconciled. We seem to ourselves to be living in vain, with every thing to do; to be striving for nothing, with every thing to gain; and if the heart is yet sensible, in spite of our pride, we weep tears of regret at the ignoble lives we lead, and give ourselves, with earnestness, to the work of our own salvation, and the promotion of the glory of God. Such impressions, and such resolutions, we cannot avoid, but by shutting up the volume, and laying it away out of our sight. A wicked man dreads to be alone with it.