A SABBATH DAY IN AMERICA.

and some of the books are donations from their little earnings."

"Yes," said Bill, "I bought Helon's pilgrimage with my egg money, and Susan bought the Life of David, and Robert is going to buy one too next new year."

"But," said I, "would not the Sunday school library answer all the purposes of this ?"

"The sabbath school library is an admirable thing," said my friend; "but this does more perfectly and fully what that was intended to do. It makes a sort of central attraction at home on the sabbath, and makes the acquisition of religious knowledge and the proper observance of the sabbath a sort of family enterprise. You know," he added, smiling, "that people always feel interested for an object in which they have invested money."

The sound of the first sabbath school bell put an end to this conversation. The children promptly made themselves ready; and as their father was the superintendent of the school, and their mother was one of the teachers, it was quite a family party.

One part of every sabbath at my friend's was spent by one or both parents with the children, in a sort of review of the week. The attention of the little ones was directed to their own characters, the various defects or improvements of the past week were pointed out, and they were stimulated to be on their guard in the time to come, and the whole was closed by earnest prayer for such heavenly aid as the temptations and faults of each particular one might need. After worship in the evening, while the children were thus withdrawn to their mother's apartment, I could not forbear reminding my friend of old times, and of the rather anti-sabbatical turn of his mind in our boyish days.

"Now, William," said I, "do you know that you were the last boy of whom such an enterprise in sab

bath-keeping as this was to have been expected. I suppose you remember Sunday at the old place? e?'" "Nay, now I think I was the very one," said he, smiling, "for I had sense enough to see, as I grew up, that the day must be kept thoroughly or not at all, and I had enough blood and motion in my composition to see that something must be done to enliven and make it interesting-so I set myself about it. It was one of the first of our house-keeping resolutions-that the sabbath should be made a pleasure day, and yet be as inviolably kept as in the strictest times of our good fathers; yet we have brought things to run in that channel so long that it seems to be the natural order."

"But do you never find any out-breakings among your children, like some of those that used to get us into trouble at your good father's ?"

"Never," replied my friend: "on this day in the week they are perhaps more free from what is objectionable than any other. It is because that on this day their mother and myself are able to give them our whole time and attention, and their minds are so constantly and agreeably stimulated and interested, that they have very little temptation to do wrong. Anybody who will really make a primary object of it, will find it far easier to make the sabbath an interesting day for children than they had imagined."

"I have always supposed," said I, "that it required a peculiar talent and more than common information in a parent to accomplish this to any extent."

"It requires nothing," replied my friend, "but common sense, and a strong determination to do it. Parents who make a definite object of the religious instruction of their children, if they have common sense, can very soon see what is necessary in order to interest them, and if they find themselves wanting in the requisite information, they can, in these days, very readily acquire it. The sources of religious know

THE HALLOWED DAY.

ledge are so numerous, and so popular in their form, that they all can avail themselves of them. The only difficulty, after all, is that of keeping the sabbath, and the imparting of religious instruction is not made enough of a home object. Parents pass off the responsibility on to the Sunday school teacher, and suppose, of course, if they send their children to Sunday school they do the best they can for them. Now I am satisfied, from my experience as a sabbath school teacher, that the best religious instruction imparted abroad, still stands in need of the co-operation of a systematic plan of religious discipline and instruction at home; for after all God gives a power to the efforts of a parent that can never be transferred to other hands."

My friend was here interrupted by the entrance of Mrs. Fletcher with the children. Mrs. Fletcher sat down to the piano, and the sabbath was closed with the happy songs of the little ones, nor could I notice a single anxious eye turning to the window to see if the sun was not almost down. The tender and softened expression of each countenance bore witness to the subduing power of those instructions which had hallowed the last hour, and their sweet bird-like voices harmonised well with the beautiful words—

"How sweet the light of sabbath eve,
How soft the sunbeams lingering there;
Those holy hours this low earth leave,
And rise on wings of faith and prayer."

THE HALLOWED DAY.

WHO scorn the hallowed day set heaven at naught. Heaven would wear out whom one short sabbath tires.

Emblem and earnest of eternal rest,

A festival with fruits celestial crowned,
A jubilee releasing him from earth,

The day delights and animates the saint.
It gives new vigour to the languid pulse
Of life divine, restores the wandering feet,
Strengthens the weak, upholds the prone to slip,
Quickens the lingering, and the sinking lifts,
Establishing their feet upon a rock.

Sabbaths, like way-marks, cheer the pilgrim's path,
His progress mark, and keep his rest in view.
In life's bleak winter, they are pleasant days,
Short foretastes of the long, long spring to come.
To every new-born soul, each hallowed morn
Seems like the first, when everything was new.
Time seems an angel come afresh from heaven,
His pinions shedding fragrance as he flies,
And his bright hour-glass running sands of gold.
In everything a smiling God is seen.

On earth, his beauty blooms, and in the sun
His glory shines. In objects overlooked,
On other days, he now arrests the eye.
Not in the deep recesses of his works,

But on their face, he now appears to dwell.
Whilst silence reigns among the works of man,
The works of God have leave to speak his praise
With louder voice, in earth, and air, and sea.
His vital Spirit, like the light, pervades
All nature, breathing round the air of heaven,
And spreading o'er the troubled sea of life
A peaceful calm. Sight were not needed now
To bring him near; for Faith peforms the work;
In solemn thought surrounds herself with God,
With such transparent vividness, she feels,
Struck with admiring awe, as if transform'd
To sudden vision. Such is oft her power
In God's own house, which, in the absorbing act
Of adoration, or inspiring praise,

She with his glory fills, as once a cloud

Of radiance fill'd the temple's inner court.

THE PIOUS SCHOOL-MISTRESS.

HER pale and furrowed countenance told of grief; but the mild expression of her soft blue eye, her meek deportment, her patience, her calm resignation, all told of entire submission to the will of God. She had been called to pass through many trials, but these had been sanctified; she possessed little of this world's goods, but her treasure was in heaven, and there was peace in her soul, that peace which passeth all understanding.

It is evening-the school bell has rung-groups of children are seen hastening, some from their gardens, others from their chambers, to prepare to take their accustomed seats in the school-room. The mistress is already there, waiting to receive them, and, when all are quietly seated, and not even a whisper heard, she looks round affectionately on the interesting circle, endeavouring to fix the attention of all, for it is the hour of prayer. After reading a suitable portion of the word of God, and making a few remarks on what she has read, she leads the youthful voices in a song of praise to Him "who daily loadeth us with benefits," and then devoutly kneeling at the throne of grace, she