brought up by the catechist to the missionary, containing an account of all the members of the congregation, with the number and dates of their attendance at church, and with the progress, if I remember right, which they had made in learning their lessons during the previous month. This was immediately looked over, the names of a few of the delinquents read, and explanations required. You will perhaps be as much surprised as I was at this appearance of discipline; but a second thought, how unfavourable a symptom the neglecting assembling of ourselves together is, will convince you how important it is that the missionary, who can only visit each congregation occasionally, should administer reproof without delay, and have accurate reports on which to ground it. At length service commenced; a Tamul hymn was sung, and all seemed to join heartily in it. Then Hebrews xii. was read, and an exposition given of the former part of it; not such an exposition as you would hear from an English pulpit, but something in character between this and the afternoon catechisings we used to have in New Town. After each few sentences, several questions were rapidly asked in succession, about the purport of them; and all-as many at least as could comprehend the question, and pleased-answered. There was thus the less fear either of their misunderstanding the preacher's meaning, or of their attention flagging.

I have been so long about the description of our meeting at Alankoollam, that I must only say about it more, that we concluded with prayer, and with singing a Tamul stanza, about the same in meaning with our ordinary doxology; and, after a brief silence, the men tied on their turbans, the women arranged their clothes and settled their infants on their hips, the school-children made their salaam-i. e. touched their foreheads and made a bow, saying, "Ay-â salaam," We wish you peace, sir-and so all departed.Rev. T. Ragland.

EDITOR'S PORTFOLIO.

"YOUR FATHERS, WHERE ARE THEY?"
ZECHARIAH i. 5.

THE sun-beams are bright, as in ages of yore;

The forest trees wave, and old ocean rolls on;

The green vallies smile, and the mountain-tops soar;
But the millions that trod them, oh! where are they gone?

"Your fathers—where are they?"

As shadows of night

In the morning's soft light,
They have fled, they have fled,

Their tale has been told,

And who now shall unfold the dark world of the dead?

Oh! where are their cares? they were heartfelt as ours-
The slight and the taunt were as bitter to them-
Sharp thorns were surrounding their loveliest flowers,
And tear-dimmed, alas! was their heart's brightest gem.

Their cares then, where are they?
As light clouds that fly

O'er a summer day's sky,
They are gone, they are gone-

They have faded away,

And have left us, to-day, not a vestige-not one!

Oh! where are their pleasures? so softly they bound them,
For bright were their flowers, though thorny the stem ;
The sweet smiles of love and of friendship were round them,
And all that we value was valued by them.

Their pleasures-where are they?

A bright, sunny beam
O'er a dark, rolling stream,
They smiled, and passed by-

They have vanished away

Like the ocean's light spray, like the summer-wind's sigh.

Oh! where are their hopes and their fears? for they cherished
The same airy phantoms that we do to-day;

Like ours, their fond dreams of happiness perished;
Like ours, the clouds they most feared rolled away.
Do they think of them now?

Oh ! lighter than air
Seems the weightiest care
Of their heart's gloomy night-

And that hope is laid low

Which gladdened their brow with an earth-born delight.

Yet, oh! far away may the Christian discover

The home of the faithful, the land of the blest;
Their warfare accomplished, their trial-time over,
In mansions of light and of glory they rest.
The faithful-there are they-

No sorrow, no care,
May follow them there,
For their home is above-

They have vanished away

To the regions of day, to the heaven of love.

But years will pass o'er us, and ages roll on,
Extending o'er each one oblivion's pall-

When of what we now are every trace will be gone,
And "your fathers, where are they?" be asked of us all-
Our souls will be-where?

Oh! when this life is o'er,

And when time is no more,
May to each soul be given

The glory to share

Of the blissful ones there in the mansions of heaven!

L. N.

SUMMARY OF NEWS.

"There are many devices in a man's heart: nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that shall stand.'

WE could not expect, at present, from the many concurrent causes of the past year tending to produce embarrassment, any other consequence than a deficiency in the revenue of the country in meeting its expenditure. This has been lately published, and amounts to somewhat over two millions. It will require much sagacity and financial skill to dimnish this balance by future economy and prudence.

The Jewish Disabilities Bill has been sanctioned by the Lower House. Those who deny Christianity are to take part in the legis lative deliberations of this country. Those who reject the One Redeemer of our souls are to join company with those whose nightly debates are prefaced with prayers, that they may be guided into all truth, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Those whose very thought repudiates the faith of a Christian as accursed, are to join fellowship with those who are bound by one common oath " on the faith of a Christian."

66

The false liberality of the day has again overstepped the bounds of truth, and sacrificed justice to charity. The latitudinarian spirit of the age has again thrown its web of sophistry round the minds of our legislators, and induced them to defer to expediency that which they could not concede to truth. The bigotry of former ages has been rightly swept away; but it is giving place to a temporizing policy, which places on the same footing creeds of every shade, and, under the pretence of equalizing unlawful differences, destroys the broad distinctions between truth and error. The Jews are, though naturalized by birth in England, aliens, and why should they claim the privileges of English citizens! They are allowed "to commerce and negotiate;" why should they require the right to legislate! Why should a body of aliens, amounting only to 40,000 persons, whose creed is antagonistic to the very basis and foundation of our Constitution, demand the right of deliberating for the good of that Constitution, among the assemblies of twenty millions of free-born Christian citizens! The reasoning appears to us unsound which advocates such a course; the principle sinful which justifies it; the opinion heterodox to the true faith of a Christian which supports it.

The state of trade in the manufacturing districts is improving. The great source of anxiety at the present time seems to be the

continued mortality and sickness which is passing so rapidly through the country.

The Arms Bill for Ireland has lately come into operation; and certain districts in Limerick, Tipperary, Clare, Roscommon, Leitrim, Longford, Waterford, and King's County, were proclaimed as disturbed from the 29th December. An eminent Judge on the Irish bench, Blackburne, in his last address to one of the juries in his circuit, has expressed his confidence in its efficiency, and his belief that it will repress the outrages of that unhappy country.

Matters have become quiet in Switzerland; but she has refused the mediation of the five European powers. It is judged to be not improbable that Austria will interfere, as there has been for some time Jesuit influence in that court exercised both over Prince Metternich and the Empress.

We are glad to see that a society, on the same basis as the London City Mission, is about to be established for the suburbs and town of Madras. Nothing is so likely to penetrate the moral evils which lurk so abundantly in that large seaport town of India, and nothing will be more effectual to expose and remedy them. Labourers it will be the greatest difficulty to obtain.

The Home and Colonial School Committee have just published their proposed plan of enlarging and extending the usefulness of the society. They hope to be able in future to train, for the space of one year each, 150 Church-of-England and 50 Dissenting Teachers, when they look forward to the government premium of £20 for each pupil. They are in want of £4000 from the public, about half of which they have already got, to enlarge their premises; and with an annual grant from the government of as much more, or nearly so, they have the prospect of placing their institution on a firm foundation.

The last statistics from the Roman Catholic Directory give a great increase in the number of chapels and Roman Catholic priests in England and Wales. It appears that there are now 545 Romish chapels, 10 colleges, 38 convents, 4 monasteries, and 707 missionary priests!

NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS.

In consequence of a different arrangement of the Contents of our little Periodical, which we hope will be acceptable to our readers, we are compelled to postpone the letter from "A Bible Reader," and some other Communications which we have received.

J. FOSTER, PRINTER, KIRKBY LONSDALE.

THE

TEACHER'S VISITOR.

No. 47.

MARCH, 1848.

VOL. VIII.

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS.

A LETTER TO THE TEACHERS OF ST. MARY'S, WHITECHAPEL, PAROCHIAL SUNDAY-SCHOOLS.*

BY THE REV. W. W. CHAMPNEYS, M. A., RECTOR.

MY VERY DEAR FRIENDS,

I ALWAYS have felt, (and never more than this year,) that the separation of a minister from his people, while it is every year more painful, is at the same time profitable to both. For himself, it enables him to look at the scene of his work, and at the characters of his people, from a distance-without the dazzle of excitement or feeling. He thus views them as they are he is more likely to see the truth regarding them. The peculiar dangers and difficulties both of his own and their position -the peculiar circumstances from which those dangers and difficulties arise-are seen clearly; and, like the traveller who has got some distance up the hill, the country in the valley lies more plainly under his view than even while he was in the valley. And if he is thus enabled to see things more clearly, the knowledge he thereby gains, he gains for them as well as for himself: for whatever is of service to him in his work of the ministry is of service to those "for whose souls he watches as one that is to give account"—and if he gains a clearer view of the dangers, and a more correct estimate of the characters of his people, he has gained that which will direct him better to apply the word for exhortation, reproof, or instruction in righteousness.

It has struck me, when thinking on the subject of Sunday-schools, that if we could see one of them for the first time, as a foreigner and a stranger might, who * Reprinted by Mr. Champney's kind permission. VOL. VIII.

F