shall we then any longer neglect the use of a means so likely to effect an end so desirable? If we do, can we be speaking truth when we say we wish well to the sabbath-school cause? But the sweet influence of united prayer will not be confined to the prayerless. Oh no! It will have a most delightful effect on all. Nothing tends so much to promote the spirit of Christian love. How desirable is it that in an institution for teaching a religion of love, the spirit of love should animate its movements, and pervade its operations, bringing every member of it under its hallowing influence! Prayer is just the thing to do this. When we meet to pray, we ask blessings for each other from Him who is the source of love; and can we then arise from our knees with bitter and unkind feelings in our breasts? The nearer we live to God, the nearer we are to each other, and esteem ean other more affectionately. Like the diverging radii of the circle, which, the nearer they are to the centre, the nearer they are to each other; but as they are farther from the centre, so are they farther from each other. And then, too, think of the happy influence these meetings will have on a teacher, who, from the want of encouragement, is almost ready to despair. He will find he has the sympathy and prayers of his fellow labourers, and this will animate him to go on, when he might perhaps give up his work as hopeless. But even when our prayers for the conversion of teachers and children are answered; when all our efforts are abundantly blessed; when true Christian love animates every bosom; the good of Teachers' Prayer-meetings will not stop. Praying in the school-room and in the Church will make us pray more at home. Prayer is the life and soul of religion; without it all is cold and dead; only while we pray we live. Many acts form a habit. The more we pray, the more we shall delight to pray. Such meetings, therefore, must greatly advance our personal piety. By increasing our love to Christ (prayer will always do this), they will make us more zealous for the extension of His kingdom; and this heaven-kindled zeal will lead us to deny and exert ourselves in His cause. This love and zeal is the most powerful motive that can operate in the human heart. This will fetch the idle teacher from his beloved slumbers, and hasten him to his post. This will make the weatherfrightened teacher, who now fears every shower, boldly face the wind and snow of December, or the burning July sunshine. This will warm the cold-hearted teacher, who now finds no pleasure in his work, arouse his sleeping energies, and enlist his frozen affections, till he feels the Sundayschool the happiest place in the world. If it were required, I could give names and places, to prove that such advantages as these are attainable by the use of the means proposed. And now a word to any reader who intends to lay aside this paper, and think no more about it, especially if he be a superintendant. My friend, you have the care of a number of immortal souls. In a measure you are responsible for their salvation. Suppose they perish in their sins, how will you meet them at the judgment-seat, after neglecting to do that without which all else you have done must be vain? A YOUTHFUL TEACHER. Totteridge. The Counsel Chamber. TO THE YOUNG MEN OF ENGLAND. A GENTLEMAN, resident in Bristol, a true and earnest lover of mankind, among various methods which he has adopted to benefit his country, recently announced a prize of a large sum of money, for the "Best Essay on the use of Alcoholic Drinks in Health and Disease." The effect of this announce ment was, to enlist in the competition some of the first Medical Men of the age, and among them Dr. Carpenter, Examiner in Physiology in the University of London, and Professor of Medical Jurisprudence in University College, who obtained the first of the two prizes. Dr. Carpenter has viewed the subject of Alcoholic Drinks in various lights, and has paid special attention to their effects on the duration of human life. The result of his inquiry is thus stated: GENERAL EFFECT OF THE EXCESSIVE USE, OF ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS ON THE DURATION OF LIFE. We shall close this part of the in quiry by examining into the general tendency of the excessive use of alcoholic liquors to shorten life; either by themselves giving rise to the diseases above enumerated, or by increasing the susceptibility of the system to other morbific causes. That such a tendency exists, cannot for a moment be questioned. No Life Insurance Office will accept an insurance on an individual whose habits are known to be intemperate; and if it be discovered after his death that he has been accustomed to the excessive use of alcoholic liquors, contrary to his statement in his proposal for insurance, the Policy is declared void. And it is, doubtless, owing in part to the superior sobriety of the great bulk of insurers over that of the average of the population, that a lower rate of mortality presents itself amongst them, than that which might be expected according to the calculations founded on the entire mortality of the country, to the great profit of the Office. Thus, at the age of forty years, the annual rate of mortality among the whole population of England, is about 13 per 1,000; whilst among the lives insured in Life Offices, it is about 11 per 1,000; and in those insured in Friendly Societies, it is about 10 per 1,000-Now the average mortality for all ages between 15 and 70 years, is about 20 per 1,000; whereas, in the Temperance Provident Institution, after an experience of eight years, and with several lives above 70 years of only 6 per 1,000, up to the present age, the average mortality has been season, in which it has undergone a slight increase from the cholera epidemic. It is worthy of remark, however, that although many of the insurers in this Office are of the poorer class, whose condition and employments expose them much more than the middling classes generally to the endemic causes of cholera, no more than eight have died of this disease, out of the total of about 3,500 insurers. As a means of further comparison, the following table may be subjoined, in which the mortality of the insurers in the Temperance Provident Institution, for the first five years, is compared with the insurers in other Offices du ring the corresponding period of their es istence: During the sixth year of its existence, only two deaths occurred out of the whole number of insurers in the Temperance Provident Institution, by which its annual average of mortality was reduced still lower. Such comparisons, however, must not be regarded as demonstrating that the usual rate of mortality among "mode. rate" or "temperate" men, is reduced to half its amount by "total abstinence;" since other causes have doubtless concurred to keep down the mortality in the Temperance Provident Institution, such as a more healthful condition of the class which has furnished most of the insurers-or a more favourable distribution of ages. But it will be seen to be impossible that either of these separately, or both conjointly, should have occasioned the whole of the difference above pointed out; the annual average, 6 per 1,000, being no higher than that of the age of 15, which is more favourable than that of any other period of life. And we appear fully justified, therefore, in attributing a part of the result to the abstinent system practised by the in The influence of excess in the use surers in the Temperance Provident abstinence, unless for purposes strictly Office. medicinal; in which it is agreed, upon all hands, that such drinks are very seldom required. pre of alcoholic liquors in directly producing sickness and mortality, or in disposing to it, is most remarkable in tropical climates, and especially in such as are otherwise unhealthy. It would seem, indeed, that the more unhealthy the station, the more freely do the residents at it indulge in the use of alcoholic stimulants; either from the mistaken idea that they enable There is no resisting the conclusion to which good sense must lead every reader of the foregoing chapter. THE TWO OCEANS. OUR young readers know that the much larger portion of the globe is constituted of ocean, as they may see by looking at it on the map. Did it never occur to them to think of the depth of these oceans? The subject has extensively occupied the attention of learned men, and a few words will suffice to state the result of their inquiry and experiments. them to withstand the effects of the climate, or from the desire that their life, if short, shall be a merry one. Some years since, the writer, being himself in the Island of St. Vincent, in the West Indies, met with a gentleman resident in Tobago, who informed him that the average annual mortality amongst the Europeans of that island was about one in three. Upon inquiry into the habits of the residents, it was found that intemperance prevailed to a most fearful extent among them; In the neighbourhood of the contifew getting up in the morning without nents the seas are often shallow; thus their glass of sangaree (wine and the Baltic Sea has a depth of only 120 water), and the strength of their be- feet between the coasts of Germany verage gradually increasing during the and those of Sweden. The Adriatic, day, until it arrived at neat brandy at between Venice and Trieste, has a night. He further spoke of it as no depth of only 130 feet. uncommon occurrence for a party of France and England the greatest Between friends, who had met at a drinking-depth does not exceed 300 feet, while bout, to be summoned, within two or south-west of Ireland it suddenly sinks three days, to the funeral of one or two to 2,000 feet. The seas in the South of their number. This gentleman was himself apparently quite indisposed to preceding. The western basin of the of Europe are much deeper than the recognise between these occurrences Mediterranean seems to be very deep. any relation of cause and effect; being In the narrowest parts of the Straits obviously under the belief that, if it of Gibraltar it is not more than 1,000 were not for the protecting influence feet below the surface. A little furof good wine and brandy, his life would ther towards the east, the depth falls be worth a yet shorter purchase. Young men-what say you to these facts? Their truth is beyond questioning, and their importance is surely such as ought to excite very deep at tention upon your part. These facts strongly appeal to your personal interest, and show, that you who are anxious to enjoy health while you live, and to extend your span on earth to the utmost limits, will find your account in to 3,000 feet, and at the south of the On the north-west of Sardinia, bottom coast of Spain, to nearly 6,000 feet. has not been found at the depth of nearly 5,000 feet. With respect to the open seas, their depths are little known. About 250 miles south of Nantucket, the lead has been sunk to 7,800 feet. In north latitude, at 78 deg., Captain Ross has exceeded 6,000 feet in Baffin's Bay. But the most astonishing depths are found in the Southern Atlantic: west of the Cape of Good Hope, 16,000 feet have been found; and the plummet has not found bottom at 27,000 feet west of St. Helena. Dr. Young, relying upon the theory of the tides, considered himself justified in assigning about 15,000 to the Atlantic, and about 20,000 to the Pacific. But did it never occur to our young readers, that there is another ocean, and that men live in it-an ocean of air, as we call it, which goes all round our globe, resting equally upon the sea and upon the dry land, and without which neither man nor beast could live a minute? It is true, men do not see the air, just as fishes do not see the water; and fishes could no more live in the air than men could live in the sea, just because their organs are not adapted to it. Now this upper sea has likewise occupied the attention of philosophers; and the result of their inquiries, as recorded by Mr. Wise, the gentleman who has written about bal. loons, is as follows: ac "In one place he makes us quainted with the still quiet of the heavens, thus: A bee was let off (at 8,000 feet,) which flew away, making a humming noise. At the altitude of 11,000 feet, a great linnet was liberated, which flew away directly, but soon feeling itself abandoned in the midst of an unknown ocean, it returned, and settled on the stays of the balloon; then, mustering fresh courage, it took a second flight, and dashed downwards to the earth, describing a tortuous yet perpendicular track. A pigeon let off under similar circumstances afforded a more curious spectacle. Placed on the edge of the car, it rested awhile, measuring, as it were, the breadth of that unexplored sea which it designed to traverse; now launching into the abyss, it fluttered irregularly, and seemed at first to try its wings on the thin element, till after a few strokes it gained more confidence, and whirling in large circles or spirals, like the bird of prey, it precipitated itself into the mass of extended clouds, where it was lost from sight. In one of his ascents, he held a distinct conversation in the clouds with Mr. Paulin, who ascended with another balloon about the same time." 66 We think that our young readers will see, that, as the Psalmist says, as man is fearfully and wonderfully made," so he is fearfully and wonderfully situated. What a marvellous system this is that he lives in, and how lamentable it is that he should be so unmoved by the tokens of power and wisdom, and goodness, that everywhere surround him! But the Psalmist also tells us, that the "works of God are sought out by all them that fear him." It is therefore clear, that young people ought, as soon as possible, to familiarize themselves with Natural Philosophy. There are many fine, cheap, simple, elementary books, from which, with a moderate degree of attention, they may gather a great deal of knowledge; and we would earnestly recommend them to set about it; for, next to the Word of God, is the examination of the works of God. His works and his Word are both necessary to illustrate his glorious character. The Fragment Basket. THOUGHTS FOR TEACHERS. EVERY child has a heart, as well as a body and a mind. You must remember this, and educate the heart: otherwise you will get only intellect and force, such as were displayed by Byron and Bonaparte. End avour to unite all in one, for then you will be educating a race of Wilberforces Alfreds, and Washingtons. There must be life, love, and power in your teaching; these will reach and affect the heart. Redeem the time. The life-blood of the soul runs out in wasted moments. "All they whom truth and wisdom lead Can gather honey from a weed." Keep your armour tight, and keep it bright. If we do not care for our own souls, the care of others will not avail us. Heaven is your home, therefore often think about it. Jesus lived for you, and requires in turn that you should live for him. A Christian in worldly company should be like a traveller in a stormmaking haste out of it. THOUGHTS FOR PARENTS. REALISE that your children are immortal beings, hastening to eternity. Think of their frailty; they may die at any moment. Think of their sinfulness -how early they begin to do that which is wrong. Think of their peril -exposed to a thousand temptations, -in danger of eternal death. Think of their gain, i saved-heaven, eternal happiness. Think of their loss, if lost -their soul lost beyond recovery! LITTLE GRAVES. SACRED places for pure thoughts and holy meditations are the little graves in the churchyard. They are the depositories of mothers' sweetest joys. Callous indeed must be the heart of him who can stand by a little graveside, and not have the holiest emotions of his soul awakened to the thoughts of that purity and joy which belong alone to God and heaven. If this be vouchsafed to mortality, how much purer and holier must be the spiritual land, enlightened by the Sun of Infinite Goodness, whence emanated the soul, brief, young sojourner among us! How swells the heart of the parent with mournful joy, while standing by the cold earth-bed of lost little ones! Mournful, because a sweet treasure is taken away; joyful, because that pre cious treasure glitters in the diadem of the Redeemer.-Light on "Little Graves," published by the American Sabbath-school Union. THE BIBLE. AT the commencement of the present century, it is computed that there were in the whole world about 4,000,000 copies of the Bible; whereas, there are now more than 30,000,000! Then, the Scriptures were published in less than fifty languages; now, they exist in nearly two hundred languages and dialects! Then, they were accessible in languages spoken by about 2,000,000 men; now, in tongues and dialects spoken by six hundred millions! The Children's Gallery. UNCLE PETER AND THE BOYS. THE tea being over, Uncle Peter drew his chair towards the fire, and the boys gathering around him, proceeded to claim the fulfilment of his promise, when last at the Priory House, to tell them about the sugar. William.-Now, Uncle, tell us about the sugar; where does it grow? Uncle.-It grows in various places. The principal part of the sugar used in this country is obtained from the juice of the sugar-cane, a plant flourishing abundantly in both the East and West Indies. It grows indigenously in Borneo and many parts of Polynesia; but it will not bear a northern climate. Calabria, in Sicily, (where it is cultivated to some extent,) may be considered as its northerly limit. The sugarcane consists of a tall jointed reed, surmounted by a tuft or head of green leaves, the stalk itself generally mea |