long be remembered by him, for it was on the day of the anniversary. He was very much pleased with the behaviour of the children, and the orderly manner the people and children amused themselves in the park. Before the meeting separated, it was resolved to have quarterly united teachers' tea meetings. Poetry. DISCOURAGED, BECAUSE OF THE WAY. While yet far from the goal! This strengthening word of cheerA sunbeam, gladdening Earth's lone desert waste"He who believes on me shall not make haste," sent. The chapel was full in every part. connected with Sunday schools. One of The children and teachers left the chapel the speakers (a stranger to the place), in the following order :- -Wesleyan remarked that the impressions he first schools, 4; Independents, 4; Presbyte-received on visiting Hobart Town would rians, 2; Free Church of Scotland, 2; Free Wesleyans, 1; Ragged schools, 2. Each school was headed by its banner or flag, with the name of the school, or other device, upon it. The streets through which the procession passed were lined with spectators, many of them parents of the children. On arriving at the Queen's park, the schools separated; some went among the trees, others to the open ground, where they amused themselves by playing at different games, cricket, swinging, skipping, &c., &c. Cake, buns, milk, lemonade, fruit, &c., were provided for them. After amusing themselves between two and three hours, the schools returned to their several places of worship, where the children were supplied with tea, cake, and buns. About five o'clock the children returned home, many of them tired with their day's holiday. At six o'clock the teachers and friends sat down to tea, many of them fatigued with their day's work (for it is now about the middle of summer). After tea, persons are called upon to speak, when some topic connected with Sunday schools is discussed. Between the speeches some pieces are sung. The meeting was concluded about nine o'clock, and thus ends one of the happy days which children and teachers spend together upon earth. Formerly, in connection with the anniversary, the teachers took breakfast together on Christmas morning, which was very well attended at first. It was found that many persons went out of town on that day, and it was thought desirable by the teachers to have a tea meeting in the month of January in lieu Falls on thy listening car. Earth's laborers may repine, But, oh, my soul, not thine! Such gloom upon thy brow? Thy wistful glances trace Who ran the martyr's race. What! Couldst thou, fearless, drink Would flesh nor spirit shrink? And couldst thou walk serone through Death's dark vale? Would not thy footstep falter, and thy spirit fail, of it. The meeting was held on 3rd The earnest care, to walk as he hath shown, With heaven-directed eyes. "REDEEMING THE TIME." AN ADDRESS TO CHILDREN. DURING the dark days of the winter we were longing for the bright days of spring, and made some very good resolutions to improve our time more, when the light peeped in at our chamberwindow earlier, and the evenings were a little longer! Well, the time has come, the leaves are upon the trees, the blossoms sparkle upon the branches-all nature is cheerful! "For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth ; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land." We did not know that we should have these sunny days! Many dwell in the dark grave who hoped to see them too. Serious thought! the past has been ours! the future may not be! Yesterday and to-day we have had-to-morrow we may not have. But, however many bright years may be in store for you, forget not this little motto of life,-" Redeeming the time." That we may fully understand this, let us try and make plain the meaning of this word redeem, because it is used in different senses. One meaning is to re-purchase-to buy back again. You know that poor Uncle Tom had to be sold, and came into the hands of the cruel Legree, who treated him so brutally that he died. Master George went to buy him back-to redeem him. It was too late. His young master was obliged to return without him; he told Aunt Chloe that he would have given all his fortune to have brought him back, but he had gone to a better country. Lost time is like a dead Uncle Tom,—no money can redeem it. Another meaning of the word is to save. It is in this sense that Jesus Christ redeems us. "He came to seek and to save that which was lost." He bought us with a price-but a price more valuable than any amount of money-with his life. But this is not the meaning of the word with regard to time. If once lost we cannot bring it back again. Suppose any of you had lost a valuable diamond. You might offer a large reward, and the diamond might be restored to you. But let any one who has lost only a minute of time offer a reward to any one who can return it! No matter how many bills he may have printed about it-no matter how large the amount he may be willing to give for it he cannot redeem it. It is said that a queen exclaimed, when dying, "Millions of money for one inch of time!" It was of no use. A million of millions would not have bought it! "Lost time is never found again." Improving is a word that might be used instead of the word "redeeming." If our time has been lost by any means, we can only redeem it by improving what remains. This is the only way in which time may be said to be redeemed or regained. Think of the value of time! It is made up of very small parts. When you look upon the beautiful sea, spreading so far in the distance, do you call to mind that the vast ocean is composed of drops? It is just so with time. From the creation of the world to the present time-all those long ages have been made up of small moments. We talk of a second very carelessly, yet our life is made up of these little particles of time. Oh then! "Gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost." The young may forget the value of time;-it is in youth that we are most likely to forget the lesson which St. Paul would have us learn. And yet this is the very best season in which to redeem it. When the sower goes forth to cast his seed into the ground, he would go early in the morning, when the dew is on the grass, and the sun is shining brilliantly above his head. He would not lose his morning. And shall we? No! "in the morning sow thy seed," and in the autumn time will be seen the flowers and the fruit. And when we speak of the value of time we might just as well speak of the value of life-for time is life! "The bell strikes one. We take no note of time, But from its loss: to give it then a tongue Is wise in man. As if an angel spoke, I feel the solemn sound. If heard aright, It is the knell of my departed hours. Where are they? With the years beyond the flood. How much is to be done? My hopes and fears Look down-on what? A fathomless abyss; A dread eternity! how surely mine! And can eternity belong to me, Poor pensioner on the bounties of an hour!" Can time be lost? Yes! its use may. If unimproved it has been lost by us; we are none the better for having had it. If a child should spend it in evil it would be doubly lost. Those who may not use their time in doing what is bad, may be said to lose it, if they do not improve it. A man who commits murder certainly makes a bad use of his hand; but he who never uses his hand might almost as well have none to use. One makes a bad use, the other none. Just so with time. It is lost in either case. Time is lost by Wickedness and Idleness. These are like two thieves,-they rob us of a very rich treasure. It is of no use our crying Stop thief! none can catch time when it has gone past us! Still there is one way left. Just as a man may be robbed of a large sum of money. He might think, Well, I cannot catch the thief, but I will use well what money I have left, and in that way get back-redeem-what I have lost. So it is with time. We cannot recover what is lost. We cannot make the two thieves give up what they have taken; but we have some time yet left to us. Holiness and Effort, like two angels, come to our help, and by their aid we may make the best use of our time, and so redeem it. When our characters are pure, when we live under the very smile of God, when we can approach his throne and call Him our Father; when we look to Jesus as our example, and pray that we may be made like Him, and thus by his grace are able to obey his commandments, we need have no fear that we are losing our time. But this great matter requires thought. We do not redeem our time by merely knowing and feeling that it is important to do so. It is necessary that we should strive to make the best use of it. Not that children are to be ever reading, writing and ciphering. There is no better use of time than at the proper season to run through the fields, and let your shouts of gladness echo your gratitude. The very learning of this lesson will fit you for the enjoyments of life. While you redeem the time, you will be able better to perform the duties of this world, and be the more prepared for that day when the angel shall declare that "time shall be no longer." ON THE TICKET SYSTEM. MR. EDITOR,-From the different views expressed by some of your correspondents, as to the usefulness or otherwise of the ticket system, I am led to address a few words on the subject to my fellow-labourers. Some of them appear to me to be wasting much virtuous indignation to very little purpose; and with the views expressed on either side I am sorry to say that I cannot coincide. It is my impression that the system in many schools is the best that can be adopted, but in others the very reverse. I should be the last to recommend it in such schools as are in immediate connection with a place of worship, as then the majority of the scholars would have impressed on their minds the value of the instruction sought to be imparted, home influence being favourably exerted upon them; but where this is absent, as is usually the case in low neighbourhoods where branch schools are established, it seems to me of great value in securing punctuality and order. In this latter case it is far from being obnoxious to the offensive charges made of "buying" attendance, &c. Our friends who deprecate the giving of rewards seem to lose sight of the fact that ours is not a perfect world, of course, were our scholars so, our occupation would be gone, and the work might be given up at once,-they have no sense of need, and, consequently, cannot feel such an interest in the Saviour's work as to induce them (in the absence of parental influence) to make any very great effort to secure what is so needful, unless, at least at first, there is some tangible benefit to be obtained. As to the objection raised in an illustration given by "A Working Teacher," in the last number (p. 191), I must confess I cannot see its force. If he be a working man as well as a teacher, and possessed of an extraordinary amount of skill in his daily occupation, he would consider it rather unreasonable that those who did not possess his talents should be valued in the market at his own price; and with regard to what a Country Superintendent advances (in the March number) as to "reasoning backwards," it is, as an argument, defective, because it presupposes what the "Cambridgeshire Secretary," to whom he is replying, does not find to exist in children; viz., a high motive to appeal to, resulting from the operation of the Holy Spirit on their hearts. No, sir; this higher motive does not exist naturally; and, with your February correspondent, I say, not that attendance at a Sunday school may induce the higher motive, and a love of things divine, but that it certainly will do so,-daily experience proves it. I certainly trust that teachers in such schools and neighbourhoods as I am more particularly alluding to, may not be induced to refrain from trying the system because of the hard words it has received: at the same time I have no wish to see it introduced in such as are more favourably situated. In conclusion, I may state, that in the school over which I am placed, the introduction of tickets has had the effect of reducing the number of absentees at the opening hymn and prayer, from 25 to 5 or 6 per cent. ; a result, I need hardly say, that tends much to the maintenance of order; and the large number of absentees formerly at the opening was not owing to neglect of visitation, or of the urging the necessity of punctuality both upon parents and scholars, but solely to general indifference to the value of religious training in the neighbourhood. I am not prepared to assert that there are no attendant evils; but this I can and do say,-that they will bear no comparison with the good gained. Leeds, April 11th, 1859. Yours truly, A SUPERINTENDENT. |