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Well, they must do as they please; but of one thing I am sure. The hour is coming, when, however they may now dislike professions, they will like them. They may not now like to confess Christ before men, but they will then like to have Christ confess them before his Father. They may not like to call him now the beloved of their souls, but they will like to have him call them, on that day, the blessed of his Father.

9. Are you a Sabbath School Teacher?

I am a little apprehensive that the title of this ar ticle will be read by some who will give no hearing to the article itself. There are those, who, being professors of religion, or at least well disposed thereto, are not Sabbath School teachers, and yet strongly suspect sometimes that they ought to be. Such are not fond of reading an enumeration of the reasons why they should engage in this benevolent employment, because these reasons are apt to appear more cogent than their objections to it. After such a perusal, they are very prone to feel as if they ought to take hold of this good work, and not being prepared to do that, it is rather more agreeable to them not to have the feeling that they ought. It is uncomforta

ble to carry about with one a sense of obligation which he is not disposed to discharge.

But I hope my apprehensions will be disappointed: so I proceed to the article. Are you a Sabbath School teacher? If you are, you are engaged in a good work. Yes, it is good, both as acceptable to God, and as profitable to men. It is good in its direct operation, and good in its reflex action. It is not merely teaching the young idea how to shoot, but, what is still more important, it is teaching the young and tender affection what to fix upon, and where to entwine itself. Nothing hallows the Sabbath more than the benevolent employment of the Sabbath School teacher. It is more than lawful to do such good on the Sabbath day. It has great reward. Continue to be a Sabbath School teacher. Be not weary in this well-doing. Do not think you have served long enough in the capacity of teacher, until you have served life out, or until there shall be no need of one saying to another, "Know the Lord." What if it be laborious? It is the labor of love, in the very fatigue of which the soul finds refreshment.

But perhaps you are not a Sabbath School teacher. "No, I am not," methinks I hear one say. "I am not a professor of religion. You cannot expect me to be a teacher." You ought to be both, and your not being the first is but a poor apology for declining to be the other. The neglect of one obligation is a slim excuse for the neglect of another. You seem

to adinit that if you professed religion, it would be your duty to teach in the Sabbath School. Now, whose fault is it that you do not profess religion? But I see no valid objection to your teaching a class of boys or girls how to read the word of God, though you be not a professor of religion. I cannot think that any person gets harm by thus doing good. Experience has shown that the business of teaching in the Sabbath School is twice blessed-blessing the teacher as well as the taught.

But 66 you are not good enough," you say. Then you need so much the more the reaction of such an occupation to make you better. The way to get good is to do it. "But I am not a young person." And what if you are not? You need not be very young in order to be a useful Sabbath School teacher. We don't want mere novices in the Sabbath School. If then young, you are not have so much more experience to assist you in the work. Do Sabbath School teachers become superannuated so much earlier in life than any other class of benefactorsso much sooner than ministers and parents? There is a prevailing mistake on this subject.

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are? Because you have married a wife or a husband, is that any reason why you should not come into the Sabbath School? Many people think that as soon as they are married, they are released from the obligation of assisting in the Sabbath School.

But I do not understand this to be one of the immunities of matrimony. As well might they plead that in discharge of the obligation to every species of good-doing. Such might, at least, postpone this apology till the cares of a family have come upon them. And even then, perhaps, the best disposition they could make of their children on the Sabbath, would be to take them to the school. I wonder how many hours of the Sabbath are devoted to the instruction of their children by those parents who make the necessity of attending to the religious culture of their families an apology for not entering the Sabbath School; and I wonder if their children could not be attended to in other hours than those usually occupied in Sabbath School instruction; and thus, while they are not neglected, other children, who have no parents that care for their soul, receive a portion of their attention. I think this not impossible. But perhaps the wife pleads that she is no longer her own, and that her husband's wishes are opposed to her continuing a teacher. But has she ceased to be her Lord's by becoming her husband's? Does the husband step into all the rights of a Savior over his redeemed? If such an objection is made, it is very clear that she has not regarded the direction to marry "only in the Lord."

But perhaps you say, "There are enough others to teach in the Sabbath School.". There would not be enough-there would not be any, if all were like

you. But it is a mistake; there are not enough others. You are wanted. Some five or six children, of whom Christ has said, "Suffer them to come to me," will grow up without either learning or religion, unless you become a teacher. Are all the children in the place where you live gathered into the Sabbath School? Are there none that still wander on the Lord's day, illiterate and irreligious? Is there a competent number of teachers in the existing schools, so that more would rather be in the way than otherwise? I do not know how it is where you live, but where I live, there are boys and girls enough, aye, too many, who go to no Sabbath School. It is only for a teacher to go out on the Sabbath, and he readily collects a class of children willing to attend ; and where I reside, there are not teachers enough for the scholars already collected. Some classes are without a teacher, and presently the children stay away, because, they say, they come to the school, and there is no one to attend to them. He who said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not," knows this; and he knows who of "his sacramental host" might take charge of these children, and do not. They say every communion season, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" and the Lord replies, "Suffer the little children to come to me," and there the matter ends.

I visited recently an interesting school, composed of colored adults and children. It is taught partly

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