TRUE SELF-DENIAL.

ONE Sabbath morning last winter, the wind blew cold and stormy, and the boys and girls, as they hastened into the Ragged School, were right glad that for the next two hours, at least, they would have the comfort of a warm fire. Some held their breakfasts in their hands, and others were crumping up the remaining crust of their share of the bread and dripping. A poor wretched-looking boy, whose filthy rags scarcely covered him, came into the school for the first time. His sleepy looks, and the starts he now and then gave, shivering and pale, caused the master to put a few questions to him before the other boys and girls. He said that he had lain under a butcher's stall all night, but could not sleep for the cold. He had got no breakfast, nor any food for many hours before. The master pitied him very much, but he had no means of getting food for him until the school was closed; so he opened the school by reading a chapter from the Bible. A nice, clean, happy little boy had taken his place in the class next to the stranger; he came away with his breakfast in his hand-a thick slice of bread-and as the wind was so cold out of doors, he resolved to eat it in the school. All he had would have made but a small breakfast for himself, for there was neither butter nor dripping on it. But while the lesson was going on, he looked very pitifully at his naked hungry neighbour, and at last he slipped the whole slice into his hand, thinking that he had more need of it than himself. We need not say how greedily the astonished wanderer devoured the crust, nor how thankful he felt for the kindness of his little friend.

Reader, did you ever share your breakfast with a hungry brother; or, rather, did you ever go without one so that you might be able to give to those who had none? Learn a lesson from the conduct of this kind-hearted boy; it will teach you the meaning of the word "self-denial" better than any dictionary. We do not know what you may think of it, but if you read the first three verses of the forty-first Psalm, you will see how pleasing it is in the sight of God, and how richly he has promised to reward it.

EGYPTIAN RAGGED SCHOOL. YES, dear children, what do you think of that ? The school has been opened only a few months, and when I visited it, there were about twenty boys and girls learning to read, write, and sew. They were dressed in curious red caps, with long blue tassels, and the girls wore pink trowsers and yellow jackets. Some of them were little black children, but Jesus loves every boy and girl of every colour in the whole world, and he is willing to make all their bad hearts clean and white as snow.

The town where I saw this Ragged School is called Sioot, and when Jesus was a little baby he lived there a long time with his mother. The master of the school is a young Egyptian, who was taught by a good missionary to love Jesus and to wish to live in heaven; so now he is teaching others to love God, and to pray to him that he would save them from sin and make their hearts holy. If you know the way to heaven, try to bring other little boys and girls there too, and ask God to bless the Ragged School on the Nile. J. M.

PORTLAND TOWN AND ST. JOHN'S WOOD

RAGGED AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS. THE Annual Meeting of this School was held on Monday, July 21st, 1851, J. Silk Buckingham, Esq., presiding. The meeting having been opened with prayer,

Mr. Buckingham said, he felt proud at having the honour conferred upon him of presiding upon the present occasion. He had but recently become an inhabitant of Portland Town, which must account for the small apparent interest he had taken in the charities of the locality; and of all the institutions needing the support, countenance, and co-operation of the philanthropic, he felt persuaded there were none like that of Ragged Schools. He felt convinced that there was no better means of employing our almsgiving than by devoting it to the object which they had met this night to promote; and what was the object, To train up the lowest of the low, to lead

them into the paths of rectitude. We had children growing up in vice, neglected, forsaken-and God and man complained. They were left, the particulars of how, he need not enter into-suffice it to say they were left, and being so left, became the creatures of circumstances; for if they were not educated, they would educate themselvesand what was the education they educated themselves with? That which made them daring, impudent, and bold. He considered that children were as a plant, the branches of which might be trained into any position its owner desired, and illustrated his point in the case of twin children, one being educated and the other neglected. The responsibility (continued the worthy Chairman) of the training of the children, or rather of the neglect in the training of the children, was not chargeable upon the Almighty. He regarded the duty of rightly training every child as an act of justice, which every child had a right to claim at our hands; he felt convinced that every child

might be made a productive member of society, and become an instrument of good. All children have capacities, and it is our duty to educate them; and if such duties were fully carried out as they ought to be by the State, then should we need no police-for he felt that the enormous rate to maintain a police force was mainly chargeable upon our neglect of children-then followed the prisons, the hulks, and the penal colonies. We taxed ourselves more than we could be aware of, only through our neglect of children. Of the benefit resulting from the education of children he might mention a circumstance of which he was himself acquainted. The city of Aberdeen is well known for the large number of children that are there, and the major part of whom were neglected, in consequence of the parents being compelled to leave home early in the morning to procure the bread which perisheth. Some years ago, Mr. Sheriff Watson conceived a plan of establishing a School, and of providing the children with one meal a day; he submitted his plan, but it met with no approval; every one to whom he communicated his plan, opposed and ridiculed it; but he was not to be daunted; he took upon himself the responsibility of taking a house, had it fitted up, and opened two schools, one for boys and another for girls; and the system has worked so well, that now there is scarcely a ragged or neglected child to be seen about, and the extent of the expense of thus maintaining them in the school, taking into account the amount received for the materials they made, did not amount to £5 per child annually. Now it costs this country upwards of £50 per year to maintain every criminal, that is, taking into account our court expense, etc.; surely it would be better to pay £20 to educate them than £50 to punish them for doing that which, through our neglect of them, they have been driven to. He then urged upon every one to use his utmost endeavours to promote the welfare of the school, and assured the Committee that they might at any and all times rely upon his services, and he would do what he could to promote the circulation of the Magazine, which he had read with deep interest-even with tears in his eyes. Who could read the account from the emigrants in the July Number without feeling that a blessing has descended upon Ragged Schools and upon ragged scholars, which had the children been left to themselves instead of being enabled to do as they have done, they would have become a curse to themselves, to their neighbours, and to the world at large.

The Treasurer then read the Report, which after referring to the establishment of the School to meet one of the most pressing wants of the locality, showed how amidst many discouragements its establishment had been attended with success-that the number of children upon the books was 150, and the average attendance from 40 to 70. That the children were taught as follows:-Boys-reading, writing, arithmetic, etc.; and on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings from half-past seven until nine, and on Monday and Wednesday evenings, shoemaking and tailoring from half-past six until nine. The Girls-reading, writing, arithmetic, and needlework, on Tuesday and Friday evenings from half-past five until half-past seven. That the children had made several useful articles, such as shoes, trousers, frock, pinafore, etc., which had been sold to them at less than the cost price for the materials, and by which means many who before were ragged had apparently become respectable.

CROYDON RAGGED SCHOOL.

FROM the Annual Report of the Committee, lately issued, we extract the following state

ment:

"In the month of October, 1850, a new Schoolroom was opened in Hill Street, Old Town, well

adapted for the purpose, and erected at an expense of more than £200. Ninety-three boys and forty-one girls have been admitted; of these, nineteen, that is, fourteen boys and five girls, had not previously attended any school, although twelve of them were above fifteen years of age. Forty-two boys and twenty-one girls were unable to read; of the remainder the majority could read but little, and only nineteen with any degree of correctness; more than one half of the scholars being above thirteen years of age. The number at present on the school books is about one hundred and twenty; the attendance through the winter months being usually much better than during the summer, from the circumstance that in the latter season many obtain occasional, and some regular employment. Upon the whole, the progress of the schools may be regarded as very gratifying, in respect of both moral and religious considerations. The Committee have felt that they would not be justified in incurring greater expenses in the present straitened condition of their finances, or an effort might have been made to establish an Industrial Section, or Working Classes; but as many friends of the charity have kept up a liberal supply of clothing, etc., this part of the plan has been postponed until the funds will allow it to be carried out in a more extended and efficient manner. The Committee cannot adequately express their gratitude to those real friends of the schools, the thirty voluntary teachers, who have so kindly and perseveringly afforded their assistance. The public generally can be but little aware of the trials and the selfdenial which teachers in such schools must of necessity undergo; theirs, however, is a reward far above the mere thankoffering of mortals; and it is, therefore, in deep humility that this recognition of their services is tendered.

The Report then concluded with a statement of the Accounts, showing that there was a balance against the school of £25. 18. 8d.

The meeting was afterwards addressed by A. F. Ridgway, Esq., Mr. Anderson, of the Ragged School Union, J. Sandell, Esq., Mr. G. Burns, Mr. Swallow, and Mr. W. Blake.

YORK RAGGED SCHOOL.

A SOMEWHAT novel, yet interesting Tea Meeting was held on Wednesday, the 16th of July last, by the teachers engaged in the school on the Sabbath and their friends.

He

After tea, J. W. Nutt, Esq., took the chair, and having opened the meeting with singing and prayer, expressed the gratification he felt in meeting so many friends of the school, who again had come forward to assist their funds. hoped that they would still continue to lend their assistance and use their influence on behalf of the ragged and destitute, until their object was attained by the reformation of this neglected class of the community. The chairman then called upon the Secretary to read the Report which had been prepared, and embraced an history of the rise, progress, and effects of the school. It traced the school from the time it was talked of through all its varied positions to the present time, and concluded by citing cases of benefit, and giving the history of one scholar who is now so far changed, both temporally and spiritually, as to be intrusted with the care of a class.

The meeting was then addressed by Messrs. Snow and Harris, (superintendents,) Messrs. Burdekin, Lyth, and Holroyd, all of whom, with much ability, enforced the claims of this institution upon the public, and the meeting was concluded with the doxology about half-past nine. There is reason to believe much good is following this meeting, which proved also beneficial to the funds of the school.

WM. CAMIDGE, Secretary.