who set his heart on abolishing the slave trade, and after twenty years of rebuffs and revilings, of tantalized hope and disappointed effort, at last succeeded, achieved a greater work than if he had set afloat all possible schemes of philanthropy, and then left them, one after the other, to sink or swim. So short is life, that we can afford to lose none of it in abortive undertakings; and once we are assured that a given work is one which it is worth our while to do, it is true wisdom to set about it instantly, and once we have begun it, it is true economy to finish it.-Life in Earnest. LOYALTY IN EDUCATION. (From the Quarterly Educational Magazine.) IT has ever been the desire of the Home and Colonial School Society to encourage, by all possible means, the feelings of loyalty and nationality. It is not abstract and general ideas that we want; such ideas, in the minds of children, are vague and undefined. Of Royalty in the abstract, they know nothing; they might as soon be expected to take a part in a grave discussion, which history has handed down to us, whether monarchy, oligarchy, or democracy is the best form of government. But children, even little children, can be told that they have a queen, whom they are bound to "honour and obey;" and the character of their sovereign should be placed before them-a kind and gentle lady, the protectress of the poor, and the active promoter of every me■sure which can promote the welfare of the humbler classes. This is the plan which the Home and Colonial Society has ever pursued, and which is deserving of imitation in every school in the united kingdom. There may be a reflex influence on the minds of parents, and the principles inculcated on infant minds may be felt with salutary power, in many a lowly home. In the present day, no means are to be despised; every effort must be made, every endeavour used. While we are not to rest upon second causes, we are not to run into the opposite extreme, and altogether overlook them; and who can calculate how far the present happy state of England, as contrasted with that of continental nations, may be attributed to the efforts of Christian education? Our Queen and our country! Not in the spirit of pride, but in the spirit of thankful and grateful love, should those two words, dear to every English heart, be uttered by every English tongue! Yes, let the spirit be distinctly avowed! Gratitude to God, who gave us our Queen, will be the best ground-work for the earnest and hearty prayer that her throne may be established in righteousness, and her people be subdued under her. Thankfulness for the blessing of being born in the most highly-favoured country in the world, will surely be connected with the desire that "peace and truth may be❞ in our days. And the feelings impressed on the mind in early childhood, will assuredly vibrate until the latest period of life; let a very few years pass away, and the children now in our schools will be men and women engaged in the duties of active life. Is it nothing, especially in these days, that those men and women should be imbued with sound and constitutional principles of loyalty and nationality? God save the Queen! our noble Queen! Dear to our hearts it aye hath been, Yes, peal it forth again. Our fathers sung, 66 God save the King," And we their children stand, To guard in firm, unbroken ring, The Sovereign of our land. The "Marseillaise" let Frenchmen love, It dies upon our shore; Its distant echoes scarcely move The British Lion's roar. No senseless strain republican Amongst us shall be known; But heart to heart, and man to man, We circle round the throne. The torch of loyalty we hold, Kept by our sires, the brave, the bold, We tend the flame our fathers gave; And may our children sing, When we, too, lie within the grave, "God save Old England's King!" NOTICES OF BOOKS. The Voice of Many Waters: a Tale for Young People. By Mrs. DAVID OSBORNE. With Illustrations by A. and A. W. Cooper. London: Effingham Wilson. Pp. 183. The "Voice of Many Waters" is a series of geographical lessons on rivers, strung together by a slight narrative. For our parts, we should have preferred the lessons, which are really useful, without the story at all. The Christian's Mirror of Duty to God and Man; or, The Example of Christ illustrated from the Scriptures. London: Seeleys. Pp. 143. A useful little book, consisting of a selection of texts to illustrate the character of our blessed Lord, as it is depicted in Holy Scripture, for the imitation of his people. A Child's Book of Prayers. Edited by the Rev. E. BICKERSTETH, Rector of Watton, Herts. Seeleys. Pp. 83. An admirable book, which we can cordially recommend. We particularly like the simple but excellent prayers for the use of "very young children." A Manual of Pragers for the Young. By the Rev. E. BICKERSTETH. Seeleys. Pp. 299. This is a sequel to the preceding, and contains appropriate prayers for the use of young persons of both sexes. The name of the author guarantees the worth of any production of his pen. The forms of prayer are chiefly original; but many are selected from good Bishop Kenn, on whom God was pleased to bestow so largely the spirit of prayer. What, for instance, can be more touching than the following form of confession? "O thou great Judge of heaven and earth, before whose glorious majesty even the good angels, who never sinned, fall prostrate and tremble. "With what debasement and dread ought I to appear before thy awful presence, who am but dust and ashes, and, which is infinitely worse, a miserable, wretched sinner! 66 Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil with the least approbation: the way of the wicked, and the sacrifice of the wicked, is an abomination to thee. (Prov. xv. 8.) "Woe is me, then, O Lord, woe is me! for I have inclined unto wickedness with my heart; but for the sake of thy well-beloved Son, cast not out my prayer, nor turn thy mercy from me. (Psalm lxvi. 20.) "Miserable wretch that I am! I have gone astray from the very womb; I was shapen in wickedness, and in sin did my mother conceive me who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? What is man, then, O God, that he should be clean? or he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? "Thou, Lord, puttest no trust in thy saints, and the heavens are not clean in thy sight, and the very angels thou chargest with folly. (Job iv. 18.) "How much more abominable, then, and filthy am I, who daily drink iniquity like water? "Lord, pity, and cleanse, and forgive, and save me, for thy mercy's sake. "I know, O God, that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing! for when I would do good, evil is present with me; for I see a law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin. (Rom. vii. 23.) "Lord, have mercy upon me, and deliver me from this body of death, from this tyranny of sin. "Alas, alas! my whole nature is corrupt, infinitely prone to all evil, and averse to all that is good; my understanding is full of ignorance and error; my will is perverse; my memory tenacious of all things that may pollute me, and forgetful of my duty; my passions are inordinate, my senses the inlets of all impurity; and I have abused all my faculties; I am unclean, unclean! "Lord, pity, and cleanse, and forgive, and save me, for thy mercy's sake. "O Lord God, how have I through my whole life violated the solemn vow I made to thee in my baptism, by eagerly pursuing the vanities of this wicked world, by easily yielding to the temptations of the devil, by greedily indulging my own carnal desires and lusts, by a fruitless and dead faith, and by disobedience to thy holy will and commands! "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. "I have sinned, O Lord God, I have sinned against thee, by[Here confess the sins which you have committed more immediately against God, with the aggravations that accompany them. For instance:] "Lord, I have committed this sin, or these sins, frequently, against checks of conscience, &c., and then add "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: O pity, and cleanse, and forgive, and save me, for thy mercy's sake. "I have sinned, O Lord God, I have sinned against thee, and against my own self, by— [Here confess the sins you have committed more immediately against yourself, with their aggravations, &c., and say as before.] "Father, I have sinned against heaven, &c. "I have sinned, O Lord God, I have sinned against thee, and against my neighbour, by [Here confess the sins you have committed more immediately against your neighbour, with their aggravations, &c. and add as before.] "Father, I have sinned against heaven, &c.. "O Lord God, my wickedness is great, and my iniquities are infinite; they are more in number than the hairs of my head; and my heart would fail me, but that I well know thy mercies are more numberless than my sins. (Psalm xl. 12.) "Have mercy upon me, therefere, O Lord, according to thy great goodness: according to the multitude of thy mercies do away my offences. (Ps. li. 1.) "Who, alas! can tell how oft he offendeth? O cleanse thou me from my secret faults, from all my sins of ignorance, or infirmity, or omission, or which I have not observed, or which I have forgot; Lord, lay none of them to my charge; Father, forgive me; Lord Jesus, have mercy upon me. "O remember not the sins and offences of my youth, but receive me, O heavenly Father, into the arms of thy fatherly compassion, as thou didst the returning prodigal; and forgive me all my transgressions, for the merits of Jesus Christ, thy only well-beloved Son, and my Saviour. Amen, amen." Intermixed with the prayers are some appropriate hymns. The following, taken from the Rugby Hymns, is new to us : ON CONFIRMATION. "LORD, shall thy children come to thee? Brought to thine arms in infancy, Ere heart could feel, or tongue could speak, Thy children pray for grace, that they May come themselves to thee to-day. "Lord, shall we come? and come again? The wine poured out, the broken bread, Throug weal or woe, in gloom or light,— To come, not now alone, but then, When life, and death, and time are o'er, |