Whisper Songs for July. (Tune, "Jesus Loves Me.") FIRST LESSON. JESUS, wilt thou bid me rise, SECOND LESSON. Tender Shepherd of the sheep, THIRD LESSON. In the hour of pain and grief, Thou wilt all our sorrows share.-Cho. FOURTH LESSON. Jesus, we shall never die If we on thy love rely, But on wings of faith shall rise, To be with thee in the skies.-Cho. THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL JOURNAL Is published Monthly by Phillips & Hunt, at New York, and Cranston & Stowe, at Cincinnati. TERMS: SIXTY-FIVE CENTS a year for single subscribers, and FIFTY-FIVE CENTS each for clubs of six or over sent to one address. This includes the postage, which the publishers are obliged to prepay. If the names are to be written on each copy they will be charged at same rate as for a single copy. Subscriptions may commence at any time, but must expire with March, June, September, or December. Subscribers will please send their orders at least one month in advance. Orders may be directed to PHILLIPS & HUNT, New York and Detroit; CRANSTON & STOWE, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis; J. B. HILL, San Francisco, Cal.; J. P. MAGEE, Boston; J. HORNER, Pittsburg; H. H. OTIS, Buffalo; PERKINPINE & HIGGINS, or F. B. CLEGG, Philadelphia; D. H. CARROLL, Baltimore. J. M. FREEMAN and J. L. HURLBUT, Associates. [Entered at the Post-office at New York, N. Y., as second-class mail matter.] NEW SERIES. TEACHERS YOUNG PEOPLE AUGUST, 1886. What May Be. BY RENA M. HURD. WHAT seems so dark What seems so dull What seems so bright To shroud and bier. What easy seems Thou hast begun. What seems so small Which hardened thee. What seems so strange May be explained, When, faithful, thou Hast heaven gained. VOL. XVIII.-8 VOL. XVIII, No. 8. What seems quite plain May, suddenly, Assume an air Of mystery. What seems so wrong May prove the right, When love shall rule Instead of might. What, to thy view, Seems good and just, Since naught is sure, An August-Bridge. WHAT to do with August is a serious problem in some congregations. With diminished numbers, how keep up services on Sunday, the Sundayschool, all meetings during the week? This is not a difficult question in country congregations where the minister looks down on heads thick as the clover-blossoms in the fragrant fields. In the city, though, August is often approached as that troublesome stream which it is specially difficult to bridge. How get over the stream? In some congregationswe hope they are not Methodist-August has no such terrors, for the Sunday-school is dropped, and even the church-sexton may have a vacation. No need of any bridge, not even a board for foot travelers. But when the big August tide of emigration sets toward mountain-slopes and sea-side, if there be also a sensitive conscience about the remnant left in the lanes and alleys, the avenues sometimes, then some kind of an August-bridge by way of church and school activity must be devised and will be maintained. What If the regular Sunday-school classes cannot be continued, then mass the scholars into one big class for a general exercise. Let the officer in charge attract as many little feet as possible to this Augustbridge by some special inducement. Contrive to give new interest by way of new tunes to the service of song. Coax somebody with a gift into the making of a bright little speech to the stay-athome folks. Why not hold back some of the new library books to serve as August-magnets? about an August-walk or an August-ride? Do what you can, though, to make August attractive, and not strip and denude it till it is as bare of enticements as an old pasture-ledge is of flowers. If you cannot do every thing, do something. If you cannot have a whole bridge, you had better have a couple of planks than nothing at all. The maintenance of a good degree of August activity in the school will bear a threefold fruit. It will have a healthy influence throughout the church. Other things will be kept up. Then a good August will make a better September. An August-bridge will quicken September-travel. The school in autumn will not be started like a new road, not beaten down and well settled, and rather avoided by travelers. September will come without friction, just the old path hardened to the foot and preferred by the people. Then, also, some young pilgrim-soul will be helped toward heaven by the August-bridge. Keep it up therefore. "Take a Pupil." Two men once met, and A. said to B.: "I am going to pursue still further the fascinating study of political economy and wish to engage a teacher." Engage a teacher!" said B. to A., nonsense! Take a pupil." An imaginary conversation this, but just as much to the purpose as if it were a true one. A. was right, as all the world must say, but even B. had some large-sized grains of sense, and we must write a few words in his vindication. Suppose then A. takes a scholar whose mind is bright like a sunbeam, and just as inquiring as an interrogation point. The instant he tries to tell him, for example, what socialism is, he finds to his surprise that he has no very clear idea of it himself. He sees it as the boy sees the ugly upturned root of a tree through the fog-it is surely a hobgoblin! A. then finds that he must come nearer the object than he ever was before, and give his eyes an extra rub to clear his imperfect vision. Then A. returns to his hopeful scholar and tells him of his new discovery. Young Hopeful listens, and then--how annoying!-gently murmurs: "I do not understand you, for though you know what you saw you do not tell it plainly." A. thus finds that a clear eye and a near view are not enough, but he must teach his tongue to use plain words. Up to this time he thought that he could utter truth in clear sentences, but now he finds that this can only be done by great effort, and so, anxious to teach, he has a strong motive first to know and then to tell, and thus he becomes himself a rapid learner. Bible student! take a scholar or a class, and you will find how many truths you know but dimly. Then, anxious to do good, you will aim as never before after these two things-first, clearness of mental vision, and second, great plainness of speech. Go Down to the Bed-Rock. THE end of right chamcter is not honesty alone, but in honesty all right character begins. There must be a bed-rock of sincerity that any superstructure may be reared. Apply it in the direction of any good quality, and what hope for improvement is there unless a person means what he says, You and positively purposes to accomplish it? might as well build an ocean pier upon the shifting sands of a river-bar as to rear the structure of worthy character upon insincerity. The better purposes of such persons are only like the constantly changing waves above the constantly changing sands. Emphasize, then, the value of honesty. "Truth before all things" was the demand of Thoreau, and we must appreciate the fundamental importance of it. Emphasize its worth in the home, in society, in government. In the Church, the apex of the pyramid we are building-no, its base rather, for the home, society, government, all rest upon the Church, and civilization, unless it be Christian, is very lacking-emphasize the vital necessity of honesty. A defect in the foundation, the Church, will be felt all through the superstructIf there be this poor underpinning, the walls above will crack, and a collapse follow. If we err at all, let us be extravagant on the safe side, and be overscrupulous as to right and justice. Our children may think their parents too sensitive in their ideas of honesty, but we can stand the strain of any such charge. If we may seem to lean too far back, there is not so much danger of falling as when we lean Whether honesty may be extravagantly forward. profitable or not, our duty is to encourage honesty in the young first of all as a principle. ure. "To comfort and to bless, |